Ginger van Deventer

About Ginger van Deventer

I have never walked into a broken operation and walked out leaving it the same way.That is the throughline of my career — 25+ years of taking operations that were underperforming, fragmented, or simply built for a different era, and rebuilding them for what the business actually needs to grow.I started in retail as a teenager and climbed every rung of the ladder — which means I understand this industry from both the store floor and the boardroom. That dual perspective is rare, and it is what makes me effective. I don’t just set strategy. I know exactly what it takes to execute it at the unit level, at scale.At Office Depot, I inherited the worst-performing region in the company — dead last nationally. I left it ranked #1. At Michaels, I oversaw store operations across 1,274 locations while driving a staffing model transformation that cut turnover from 60% to 35%. At West Marine, I stepped into the Chief Stores Officer seat and delivered the first back-to-back positive comp quarters in five years — while cutting operating expenses by 40%.These were not incremental improvements. They were full-scale operational transformations — people, process, technology, and culture all moving at once.My sweet spot is multi-unit environments where the complexity of operating at scale meets the urgency of delivering unit-level results. Whether the model is specialty retail, services, or experiential — I know how to build the systems, the teams, and the cadence that makes performance repeatable.AREAS OF EXPERTISE Multi-Unit Operations Leadership Turnaround & Transformation (P&L, People, Process) Field Operations & District/Regional Structure Design Talent Development, Culture Building & Workforce Planning Customer Experience & Service Standards at Scale Omnichannel & Retail Strategy Execution KPI Design, Balanced Scorecard & Operational Cadence New Store Format Development & Prototype RolloutI am always open to conversations with leaders who are building something great or fixing something that matters. g••••••••@gmail.com

Experience

1. Chief Stores Officer

   West Marine

   Jan 2023 — Present · US

   Led all field and store operations for West Marine\'s 235-location national fleet, serving the marine and boating retail market. Full P&L, workforce strategy, customer experience, and operational transformation accountability across an omnichannel retail environment. • Delivered the company\'s first back-to-back positive comparable store sales quarters in five years, reversing a sustained underperformance trend. • Drove 40% reduction in operating expenses through structural redesign of field leadership, labor deployment, and the store operating model. • Directed development and launch of a new store format strategy and retail prototype designed to elevate in-store expertise and customer conversion. • Introduced 7 operational prototypes including a new staffing and training model that elevated associate product knowledge and improved NPS performance. • Deployed omnichannel and e-commerce fulfillment capabilities (BOPIS, ship-from-store) fleet-wide in response to rapidly shifting customer demand. • Implemented balanced scorecard framework and standardized district manager visit cadence to drive consistent performance accountability across all regions.

Education

• Georgia State University

  Criminal Justice/Police Science

Skills

• Sales
• Time Management
• Sales Operations
• Store Operations
• Sales Management
• Customer Service
• Merchandising
• Performance Management
• Associate Development
• Strategic Planning
• Inventory Management
• Inventory Control
• Loss Prevention
• Multi-Unit Retail Management
• Retail
• Management
• Team Building
• P
• Profit
• Store Management
• P&L Management
• Shrinkage
• Multi-Unit Management
• People Development
• P&L
• Retail Sales
• Operations Management
• Big Box
• Customer Satisfaction
• Training
• New Store Openings
• Driving Results
• Recruiting
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Leadership
• Planograms