Susan Kroll, Founder and CEO, is a visionary design and trend forecasting executive with a refined ability to converge fashion and commerce. For over twenty years, her foresight in anticipating trends in design and business has led her to achieve tremendous success. She has developed a wide range of products including apparel and home, in both retail and manufacturing. Susan's intuitive ability has allowed her to launch business and grow them well into the mid-million dollar range. Her vision is to revolutionize the retail industry by providing consumers unique, high quality merchanse, not mass produced and mass marketed product. She also has a deep dedication to providing platflorms for artists and designers to develop their brands and market their products directly to buyers.
Dorothy A. Hemingway, COO, EVP Business Development, has 20 years of experience working as a marketing and business development executive in financial services. Dorothy has worked with Susan to transform RAREculture from vision to reality. She has been instrumental in the formation of the business, development of business plans, identification of financing opportunities, web design, marketing and public relations, and product identification and negotiation.
Mary Cally has been a Fashion and Home Fashions professional for over 30 years. Her experience and knowledge in these industries encompasses design, product development, manufacturing, sourcing and operations. Mary has served as a senior executive of operations at such companies as Eileen Fisher, Li & Fung and LaCoste.
Trevor Cornwell is Founder and President, Embarkons, Inc., a Palo Alto based Social Information Exchange that connects people through their ideas and projects. In 1997 he founded the business jet reservation network Skyjet, after determining that technology solutions for aggregating charter aircraft inventory would create market efficiencies. He secured private financing and developed and launched the first real-time booking engine for the charter jet industry in 1998. In July 2000, Montreal-based Bombardier acquired Skyjet.
Rachelle Epstein graduated from Yale with a Master in Fine Arts. She began her career as a painter showing in New York City and internationally. She eventually became a jewelry designer at Tiffany & Co. and then joined Bergdorf Goodman with her own boutique for 10 years. Rachelle has consulted for Tiffany & Co., Asprey, Coach, Jones Apparel Group, and for leading auction houses where she developed products ranging from $30 to $3,000,000. She is represented in numerous articles and books including “DIAMONDS” published by Abrams. Her jewelry was featured in the “Diamonds” exhibition at the Museum of Natural History and other exhibitions.
Barbara J. Friedman has a 30-plus year career in the fashion industry with expertise in brand management and licensing, merchandising, product development, and marketing for American and international brands. Until recently, Barbara was President of Corporate Licensing for Liz Claiborne, Inc. and has held senior management positions for Anne Klein, Chloe, Christian Dior, Bloomingdale's, Bonwit Teller and JC Penney.
Ursula Ilse- Neuman joined the Museum of Arts & Design (formerly American Craft Museum) in 1992. Among the large number of exhibitions she has curated are Zero Karats: Jewelry from the Donna Schneier Collection,; “Corporal Identity: Body Language” in collaboration with the Museum of Applied Arts in Frankfurt, Germany, GlassWear: Glass in contemporary jewelry; Elegant Armor: The Museum of Arts and Design JewelryCollection; Treasures of the Vault; Radiant Geometries: Fifteen International Jewelers, Elegant Fantasy: The Jewelry of Arline Fisch, Defining Craft: Collecting for the New Millennium, Six Continents of Quilts; The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett: A retrospective, and, Bauhaus Workshops: 1919-1933.
Ms. Ilse-Neuman is the author of numerous publications and has juried many competitions and lectured widely. She is a member of the Board of Directors of MetalSmith magazine and her other professional affiliations include the International Curators Association (ICOM), the Metropolitan Glass Club of New York, the Furniture Society, Art Table, and the American Museum Association (AMA).
Susan Lisbeth Kaufman has been involved in the world of decorative arts and design since earning her Masters Degree in Museum Curatorship/Decorative Arts from The University of Pennsylvania. Upon graduation she held positions the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Design. For the majority of her professional life Susan has worked on feature films and in television in the capacity of set decorator and production designer. Among those directors she admires and for whom she has had the good fortune of decorating are: Woody Allen, David Mamet, Anthony Minghella, Steven Soderbergh and Charles Kaufman. On occasion, Susan decorates and consults for private clients. Currently, she is consulting on an historic building restoration in Hudson, New York. Susan spends much of her free time in search of Rare and unique decorative arts and designs.
Colin Kroll is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Jetsetter, a division of Gilt Groupe. Prior to Colin’s joining the Jetsetter, Gilt Group organization, he was a lead engineer for Yahoo and Right Media.
Laurie Beja Miller is the currently the Senior Vice President and General Manager for Bare Escentuals North America. For over 25 years Laurie has been involved with strong brands with a focus on multi-channel retail. Her knowledge of the industry is focused on general management, merchandising, marketing, sourcing and operations. She has held senior executive positions in several outstanding companies including Nike, Apple, Disney, Pottery Barn and Hallmark
Edie Weiner, President, Weiner, Edrich, Brown Inc., a New York-based consulting firm specializing in futures studies and long-term trend analysis. She has served on numerous corporate, non-profit and government-related boards, written four books, keynoted dozens of conferences and has appeared on both radio and television. Her clients range from Fortune 500 companies to the U.S. Congress. She has also served on the board of the Fashion Group and was the first recipient of their “Entrepreneur of the Year” award.
Jared Weiner has almost ten years of experience in corporate strategy and business development. Most recently, Jared directed the Branded Research business at Zagat Survey. Prior to Zagat Survey, Mr. Weiner served key strategy and research functions at both MeadWestvaco and Greenberg Traurig.
Sheri Wilson-Gray is a marketing leader with an outstanding record of conceptualizing and implementing successful marketing initiatives for world-class brands and services. Her broad range of accomplishments in consumer package goods, manufacturing, and retail includes senior-level positions with Saks Fifth Avenue, Procter & Gamble, Brown Shoe, Chesebrough-Ponds (Unilever), Bijoux Givenchy, and Monet. As Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer of Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises, she strategized marketing operations for the $2.5 billion luxury retailer.
Marci Weisler is an accomplished digital executive with over 15 years of experience in digital businesses, both online and mobile. She works with established companies and startups, focusing on strategy, business development and execution. Clients have included Gilt City (curated local experience), Gigya (leader in onsite social media), CondeNet (acting director of emerging technologies), Kellogg's (launched mobile app for baker of Girl Scout Cookies), Tipping Point Partners (digital business incubator) and babble.com. Prior to consullting, Marci led Time Out North America's digital business initiatives. There, she launched online advertising and ad ops, oversaw partnerships, audience development, new platforms and licensing in the US. At Vindigo, an early leader in mobile applications , she led business development and carrier relations creating extensive distribution partnerships with major media companies and with every major U.S. wireless carrier. Previously, she grew online and mobile business at Flooz.com, spearheaded online development for Muze, and developed partnerships with major media companies at both Air Media, Inc. and at Prodigy Services Company, and began her media career in the cable business. Marci holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Cornell University.
Nicholas Rey is a French-born senior financial executive with extensive corporate and line operating experience in both the domestic U.S. and diverse international markets (Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America) predominantly in the advertising and media industry. Currently, he is the Chief Financial Officer of Dentsu Network West, the western arm of Dentsu Inc. (Japan based) the largest single communication group in the world, orchestrating the expansion of its brand. He has worked in collaboration with some of the largest global brands to help expand their reach. Prior to Dentsu, Nicholas served as Chief Financial Officer for prestigious firms such as Ogilvy New York, Grey Advertising, and FutureBrand-Interpublic (IPG) Group. Nicholas has a Masters Degree in Economics and Taxation, both from the Paris Dauphine University, a law degree from the Assas University and an MBA from the Institute d’ Etudes Politiques, Paris