Valerie is a preeminent merchandising expert with 20+ years of experience and has held leadership roles at globally-recognized brands such as Lululemon, Nike, and Oakley. With a demonstrated track record of growing category businesses, she has taken multiple collections from the idea stage through to successful international launches. Her specialities include merchandising, allocation, planning, buying, strategic growth, and product development. She is passionate about bringing teams together and identifying new opportunities within the market, and colleagues have described her as “the glue that holds the whole thing together”.

In her spare time she enjoys international travel, sailing, and skiing. Valerie lives in La Jolla, CA with her husband and French Bulldogs.

Karen is an international apparel specialist with 30+ years of experience, who has helped to bring tens of thousands of products to market for both startups and multi-billion-dollar brands such as Lululemon and Salomon. With deep industry knowledge and keen organization skills, she navigates complex supply chains and sourcing challenges with ease. Her expertise is in sourcing, planning, and production across North America, Europe, and Asia, with an emphasis on fabric. Over the decades she has built solid, long-standing relationships with mills and suppliers around the globe. Colleagues have described her as “the sort of person that quickly understands an issue and what needs to be done and then gets it done”. 

In addition to geeking out on the complexities of the apparel business Karen enjoys skiing, reading, podcasts, travel and adventure.