Presentation Brief & Bio:
Richard Heller
Partner
Corporate Revitalization
Carl Marks
THE STATE OF THE RETAIL ENVIRONMENT: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Bankruptcy. Insolvency. Dark stores. Debtor-in-possession financing. This session brings together a panel of experts from various financial segments of the housewares industry. They will address the current state of the retail environment and offer their opinions about how you can be prepared for what is coming next.
Hear their thoughts about early warning signs of retailer financial problems and ways to protect your company. They will also give guidance about what you can do after your products are on the retail shelves and the invoices are late. Note: The session will NOT offer predictions or forecasts about specific retailers.
Richard Heller has more than 25 years of experience providing financial and operational advisory services with a focus on turnarounds of financially distressed companies and driving top-line growth in consumer product, manufacturing and service businesses.
He is currently responsible for strategic planning and assessments, turnarounds and restructurings, and acts as an interim executive for client firms. He maintains an extensive background in sales and marketing, operational improvement, cost reduction, cash management and financial analysis.
A recent example of Heller's consulting experience includes serving as interim COO of a $220 million home furnishings company where he developed and successfully implemented a comprehensive turnaround plan that included cost reductions, operational restructuring and sales/marketing strategy and execution. In addition, he served as interim COO of a $150 million textile manufacturer selling to the home furnishings market with multiple domestic plants where he took the company into Chapter 11, reinvigorated its salvageable business units, closed unprofitable businesses and monetized all of the company's assets in a 363 sale. He also completed an operational turnaround of an underperforming $450 million company in the consumer products industry by refocusing management on its core business while improving operating performance in three plants.
Prior to joining Carl Marks, Heller was CEO of Steak Umms, vice president-marketing of ConAgra Foods, COO of Lea & Perrins and has held other various senior marketing and sales positions at Frito Lay and Richardson Vicks, a division of Proctor and Gamble.
Heller holds a Bachelor's degree in business from Boston University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
