(aged 9 and 5) and our sweet 12 year old Shepherd/Collie mix, Knox (named after the legendary Seahawks head coach, Chuck Knox).
How did you come to work at Sur La Table? Tell us a bit about your journey to becoming SLT’s Chief Financial Officer.
My first foray into retail was at a company called Gump’s in San Francisco.
Gump’s is a luxury retailer of fine jewelry, home décor and gifts with strong roots in merchandising unique products from around the world and known for providing unparalleled customer service. I had previously worked in consulting and technology companies, but I wanted to pivot to a more “fun” industry where I could apply my corporate finance experience. At Gump’s, I immersed myself into all things retail and found the combination of finance and retail exhilarating.
A few years later, I moved back to Seattle and after a couple of stints at technology companies, I was craving retail again. That’s when I saw a Sr. Financial Analyst job posting at Sur La Table—a dream company for me. At the time, I had already worked my way up to a Controller role, but I didn’t want that to keep me from getting my foot in the door at my dream company. So I applied and explained that I was interested in learning and growing with the company even if it meant I was taking a role that took me a couple steps back in terms of title and pay. Thankfully, I was hired and from that day forward I committed to learning whatever I could from all the people I worked with at SLT.
Since then I have tried to approach my career journey as a continuous learning experience coupled with opportunities along the way. Luckily, one of the opportunities that opened up about a year after Sur La Table’s transition from bankruptcy was the CFO role.
great