RETAIL PANEL

TOPIC: “RETAIL” Industry: Retail Who should attend? All College of Business Majors Session: 10AM, B121 Moderator: Tracy Davis

PANELISTS: Name Title Company Jayson Matos Store Manager Target Paloma Garcia Human Resources Co‐Manager Susan Collins Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition The Talbots, Inc. Beth Allday Talent Acquisition Manager Enterprise Holdings SESSION SUMMARY

Retail Management careers are one of the most lucrative opportunities with some store managers making 6 figure salaries. Some successful retail management executives worked their way up the career ladder; however, it’s easier to enter the industry with a degree. Today, retail management executives have business degrees or even MBAs. Retail managers oversee everything that makes a store work, from behind the scenes functions (such as buying, inventory, and merchandising) to the sales floor (such as sales and customer service). There are many specialties in retail management including buying, pricing, merchandising, marketing, personnel, customer service, training and operations. Success in retail is measured by sales and profit. While there are other considerations, your job will be to improve commercial performance by meeting customer demand, increasing product turnover, and maximizing profitability. Successful retail managers are natural leaders who are results‐oriented, good communicators, strong negotiators and able to motivate, train and develop others.

MODERATOR

TRACY DAVIS Director, Center for Retail Management UHD – College of Business

Tracy Davis, director of the Center for Retail Management at the University of ‐ Downtown since 2011, has a 40‐year long career in retail, specifically in the business.

Davis is a great example of how an exciting and lucrative career in retailing can start with one small step. His career began humbly when he got a job sacking groceries at the age of 15. Thanks to a strong work ethic, positive attitude and a thirst for knowledge about the business, it wasn’t long before he was managing six Safeway stores. Davis moved from store manager to district manager, and soon became Vice President of Grocery Merchandising for Safeway. In 1990, Safeway sold their Houston division and Davis was on the ground floor of development in forming AppleTree Markets. In 1994, he became AppleTree’s Executive Vice President for Marketing and Operations. Davis has served on the board of directors for the Retailers Association since 2000, and has participated in numerous industry committees and discussion panels. In 2006, he was honored by the Better Business Bureau with the Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics.

PANELISTS

JAYSON MATOS Store Manager Target

Education: B.S. Biology, MBA

Family: Married with two beautiful daughters, ages 7 and 4

Job History: I began working for Target in High School at the age of 16 as a team member. I have worked with Target for almost 20 years in various capacities from cart attendant to store manager. Apart from retail, I was employed at a bank for a short time, and worked abroad teaching following university. I have enjoyed my time with Target – a fast paced environment with daily development, and I can’t envision myself happily doing anything else.

Personal History: I am a Brazilian‐American dual citizen. Growing up I lived in Michigan and Colorado before moving to Texas. Each summer I was sent to Northeastern Brazil for the length of the school break.

Hobbies: I enjoy reading nonfiction, playing chess, watching movies, travelling, watching sports (soccer and basketball), and many other things. I’m up for learning anything and I love knew and challenging activities. PALOMA GARCIA Human Resources Co‐Manager Kroger

I graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University with a degree in Business Management . My career in the retail industry began at age 16 when I took a part time job at , a grocery chain based out of East Texas. From there I have worked at several other retail chains including Walgreens, Guitar Center and HEB. A couple of leadership roles I have had at Kroger have included opening the first Marketplace concept store in the Southwest Division District 5 as a member of Management two months after graduating from the management development program, , I was the Subject Matter Expert on a Division wide roll out of new check stand merchandisers, as well as been the champion for several charitable campaigns at the store and district level such as Souper Bowl of Caring, Stuff the Bus/Backpack Boosters and United Way. My current role is that of Human Resources Co‐ Manager which allows me seek out talent to recruit associates for a store that averages 1.2 million dollars in sales per week. I am working towards my goal of running my own store in the role of Store Manager.

SUSAN COLLINS Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition The Talbots, Inc.

Susan Collins is a human resources executive with over 15 years of experience within the retail environment. In her current role, she serves as the Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition for The Talbots, Inc., with direct recruitment oversight for the I.T., retail field, store communications, visual and loss prevention areas. Talbots is a leading women’s clothing retailer that has grown to 560 stores in 47 states and that now includes a chain of upscale outlets. Prior to Talbots, she held recruiting management and leadership positions for Ann Taylor, J. Jill, and Eddie Bauer. She holds a certification as a human resources professional (PHR). She is also a co‐founder of Retail Networking Solutions, a retail networking group that hosted over 2,700 attendees within the retail community during 2015 and almost 14,000 followers on LinkedIn. She is also a member of the Society for Human Resource Management. Susan is best known in the retail community for “getting things done”, her greatest skill of driving for results keeps her at the table with her business partners every day!

BETH ALLDAY Talent Acquisition Manager Enterprise Holdings

She is currently a Talent Acquisition Manager at Enterprise Holdings…She started her career 25 years ago as a Management Trainee and worked her way up to Branch Manager managing three different branch locations in the Houston area until being promoted in to the Talent Acquisition Division. Enterprise Holdings is a privately held company by the Taylor Family that operates a world –class portfolio of brands, which includes Alamo Rent A Car, National Rent A Car and Enterprise Rent A Car. The company has a global subsidiary network of more than 9,000 locations, located in neighborhoods and airports in more than 70 countries around the world. Beth is an alumni from Texas State University with a degree in Business Management and won the Exceptional Achievement Award in Human Resources with her company for the fiscal year of 2014‐2015.