June 2018 Breakfast Series: Retail Disruption

Hilary Billings is currently a brand strategy consultant specializing in creating lifestyle brands. Her projects have included the development of new brands and brand extensions for large companies, such as Wal-Mart,
Crate & Barrel, Steelcase and Hallmark, as well as defining brand strategies for small and startup companies such as Minted, Hayneedle, Pinkberry, Teleflora, Kravet, Red Clay and Envoy. 

At Wal-Mart she lead the research and strategic plan to reorganize its Home division assortment under five distinct brand umbrellas. Canopy, which was Wal-Mart’s first multi-channel, internally developed brand became the fastest growing and most profitable private label home brand for Wal-Mart reaching $1B in sales in its third year with 3200 stores and expanded assortments online. At Crate & Barrel she lead a brand strategy project to help C&B better position its brand for a younger customer while still giving it a clear identity separate from CB2. Other projects at Crate & Barrel included an extensive website redesign launched in August 2010 as well as a furniture research and strategy project. 

In 1999 Billings co-founded RedEnvelope, Inc., a direct retailer of upscale gifts, and served in a variety of roles including CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors until 2004. RedEnvelope became a public company in 2003. From 1997 until 1999 Billings developed the W Hotel brand for Starwood Hotels & Resorts as SVP of Brand Development and Design. After opening the first W properties in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta and Chicago, Billings also led the brand redefinition of the Westin and Sheraton hotel chains, newly purchased by Starwood during these years. From 1990 until 1997, Billings served in a variety of roles at Pottery Barn, including Vice President of Product Development and Design. She repositioned the business, focused primarily on tabletop products, to create a stylish home furnishings brand with a unique assortment of products for every room in the home.

Billings currently serves on the board of Tea,Inc, Habitat for Humanity SF and Wente Vineyards. She has served on the boards of Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Design Within Reach, Hanna Andersson and Chef’s Catalog.  She holds a BA from Brown University in Art History and English. Billings currently lives in San Francisco with her husband and their four sons.

Mr. Christian is on the executive committee of Cushman & Wakefield’s National Land Advisory Group and is in his 33^rd year  specializing in the sale and leasing of development opportunities and buildings to developers and users in the Bay Area.  He has been a consistent top producer in the San Francisco office and has consistently ranked high company-wide. He has brokered some extremely challenging transactions with many companies including Tishman Speyer, Related Companies, Align, the City of San Francisco, the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Hearst Corporation, and the University of California-San Francisco to name a few. Mr. Christian is well known amongst his peers and his clients for being both tenacious and patient in brokering complex urban development sites.

Sid Gupta is the founder and CEO of Lolli and Pops. The California native’s passion for business and investing, coupled with his “kid-at-heart” personality, led him to purchase a small collection of candy stores in 2007. After turning around the chain’s performance and growing the business, Sid’s entrepreneurial and inventive drive led to the creation of a new confectionary concept, Lolli and Pops.  Lolli and Pops is a high-end purveyor of sweets.  Within each store are unique sweets from all over the world, sourced from famed producers and local artisans, changing daily with batch-size and availability.  Lolli and Pops challenges you to find a finer collection of sweets.
 

Gupta holds an economics degree from the University of Chicago, five years of investment banking and private equity experience on Wall Street, and an MBA from Stanford Business School. He is now focused on the global prospects Lolli and Pops. With a very unique approach to enterprise, immersive design and amazing products, Gupta and his team relish the opportunity to create delight by sharing sweetness all over the world.

Jennifer Hibbitts is devoted exclusively to serving the needs of retail real estate property owners, investors and retailers. Her area of expertise spans the regional retail markets of the Bay Area and urban retail in San Francisco. Ms. Hibbitts leases street front retail, regional and specialty centers, and represents national and regional retailers throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area, including Home Depot, Wells Fargo Bank, AT&T, Pacific Catch Restaurant and Equator Coffee. Ms. Hibbitts has worked in San Francisco in retail commercial real estate since 2003.

Prior to working in retail brokerage, Jennifer spent five years as an Advertising Account Executive with CNN International in Hong Kong. Prior to that, she worked as a ski instructor in Vail, Colorado. Jennifer is an avid mountain bike racer, having completed numerous mid- and ultra-distance events, and is a three – time finisher of the Leadville Trail 100 Mile MTB Race.

Annie Jackson has more than 20 years of experience as a merchant and marketer in cosmetics. Jackson has a successful track record for driving successful specialty retail businesses across multiple brands and channels.  

Prior to Credo, Jackson’s career began at Estee Lauder where she held roles in inventory planning and marketing before being recruited as part of the founding merchant team that started Sephora in the US & Japan. After Sephora, Jackson owned her own retail business, which she later sold, and took a position directing the Global Product Marketing and Product Development team at Benefit Cosmetics.