Cindy Newell

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT CINDY NEWELL

Apparel is in my blood, literally! I grew up in the Apparel industry, my Mom on the retail side and my Dad in wholesale. I knew, from an early age, I was destined for this business; however, I wanted to have a back-up plan, just in case. I double majored in Psychology/Elementary Education and while I did not take that career path, both of these fields of study have come in very handy throughout my career, as it taught me the art of training and mentoring people. I began my career working for a large group of department stores, developing and sourcing private label brands, for these stores, all over the United States. This was a great foundation for me, because it gave me an understanding to the whole process of product development; from initial concept, to negotiating costs, and finally ensuring on-time delivery. It also taught me how to work cross-functionally, not only with my internal colleagues, but with partners throughout the US and around the world. As an experienced, collaborative sourcing and product development executive, I have a history of delivering substantial improvements in metrics, for department store, specialty, discount, and catalog companies. I’ve negotiated private label programs with a volume of $500M and was able to reduce Cost of Goods in excess of $20M. This was done through the implementation of fabric consolidation, negotiating down-time production, and shifting production to more cost competitive countries, while closely monitoring commodities and currencies worldwide. My vast experience encompasses Vendor Negotiations, Global Sourcing and Procurement, Strategic Planning, Supply Chain Management, Process Improvement, and Quality Control. For me, communication is the key. It’s imperative to have clear goals, a clear strategy, and to understand people’s challenges. Due to my strong network of contacts throughout Asia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Middle East, Africa, as well as Central and South America, to name a few, I have been able to continually succeed in reducing cost of goods and achieving (or exceeding) margin goals for each and every company.