Meet the retailer Speakers
Mike Bloom is Executive Vice President, Merchandising and Supply Chain, for CVS Caremark Corporation. Mr. Bloom is a seasoned retail executive with more than 30 years of retail experience, 19 of those with CVS Caremark.
As the senior CVS/pharmacy executive with direct oversight for merchandising and supply chain activities, Mr. Bloom leads an integrated end-to-end network managing store layout as well as the selection, purchasing, inventory and supply of product to our more than 7,000 retail locations. His responsibilities include a broad range of multi-billion and multi-million dollar businesses, including health care, beauty, store brands, photo, consumables and general merchandise. Mr. Bloom also has responsibility for the company's visual merchandising and pricing departments.
Under Mr. Bloom's direction, CVS/pharmacy transformed its front store into a health care and beauty destination for women. Following this success, Mr. Bloom led the development and launch of Beauty 360â„¢, an innovative store concept designed to change the way women shop for prestige beauty.
Since joining CVS in 1991, Mr. Bloom has held a variety of positions related to merchandising and was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2003. He currently reports to Larry Merlo, President of CVS/pharmacy. Before joining CVS, Mr. Bloom served as a manager/executive with the Virginia-based People's Drug Stores and the Florida division of Toronto-based Shopper's Drug Mart.
Mr. Bloom resides in Sharon, Mass. with his wife Lori and their two grown children.
Edward Frisch
Edward Frisch is President/CEO for Chain Drug Consortium, LLC, (CDC) based in Boca Raton, Fl. Â Mr. Frisch has 30+ years of retailing and wholesaling experience, the last 10 years with CDC.
Chain Drug Consortium, LLC, comprised of 17 regional chain members, aggregates its purchasing and transactional volume into pharmacy and front programs including private label (Premier Value), national brands, general merchandise, seasonal import, pharmacy purchasing and services, logistics, and e-auction services. Members include Bartell Drugs, Discount Drug Mart, Farmacia Carol, Farmacias El Amal, Hartig Drug, Hi-School Pharmacy, Kerr Drug, Kinney Drugs, La Colonia, Lewis, Lifechek Drug, Navarro Discount Pharmacies, Osborn Drug, Pamida, Shopko, Thrifty White Pharmacies, and USA Drug. The Consortium collaborates its 1150 stores, $8 billion retail volume, and 65 million annual prescriptions, creating scale and efficiency for suppliers.
Bryan Pugh
Bryan Pugh is vice president of merchandising for Walgreen Co., based in Deerfield, Ill.
Pugh joined Walgreens in 2009 as vice president of store format development, a role he continues while also having been put in charge of merchandising.
Over the last three years with Tesco USA, Pugh designed the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market store operations model and launched the retail grocery chain on the West Coast, where it grew to 90 locations in less than a year.
Prior to his Tesco experience, Pugh spent six years with CP Group of Asia, opening hypermarkets in China and Thailand and having responsibility for all purchasing, including consumables, over-the-counter health and wellness, electronics, clothing and other categories. From 1985 to 1993, he worked for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., moving up from assistant store manager in the Sam's Club division to vice president of membership marketing.
Pugh was a marketing major at Arkansas State University.
Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2009 sales of $63.3 billion. The company operates 7,042 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens provides the most convenient access to consumer goods and services and cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services in America through its retail drugstores, Walgreens Health Services division and Walgreens Health and Wellness division. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). Walgreens Health and Wellness Division includes Take Care Health Systems, the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
Karen Shadders
Karen Shadders is the Vice-President of Health and Beauty Care for Wegmans Food Markets in Rochester, New York, where she has been employed since 1990. She holds a Masters degree in Strategic Leadership from Roberts Wesleyan College and a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Spring Arbor University. Karen also has received her certification as a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist through the Wharton School.
Karen's career at Wegmans has taken her from the role of Employee Representative through positions in Merchandising and into Operations as a Wegmans Store Manager. Karen's most recent position as Vice President of People involved leading the Staffing, Employee Relations, Leadership, Diversity, Privacy/Compliance, Training and Employee Development functions for Wegmans. Currently, as Vice President of Health and Beauty Care, Karen is responsible for the health, personal care and beauty businesses across Wegmans 75 stores.
Wegmans has been recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America for the past thirteen years. In 2005, the company achieved the #1 ranking as the best place to work in America and was inducted into Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work for Hall of Fame. Since 2005, Wegmans has ranked in the top 5 best places to work every year achieving #2 in 2006, # 3 in both 2007 & 2008, #5 in 2009 and most recently #3 again for 2010.
Bryan Shirtliff
Bryan Shirtliff is the Sr. Vice President, Business Development, of Rite Aid Corporation, and is responsible for developing merchandising initiatives to support the company's store segmentation strategy and developing new business opportunities for the company's non-pharmacy business.
Prior to coming to Rite Aid Bryan started his career with the American Stores Company, where he spent thirteen years advancing through the ranks and gaining an in-depth knowledge of chain store business. He was a Category Manager of both consumables and hair care; Manager of Merchandising Services, and finally Senior Marketing Manager for Health and Beauty Care categories. He also worked for a time at Brunos in Birmingham, Alabama where he was Vice President HBC and General Merchandise.
Bryan came to Rite Aid in 1998 as the Director of Health Care, and was promoted in 2000 to Vice President, Seasonal and Hardlines. In 2003 he was promoted to Sr. Vice President, Category Management.
Bryan earned his Bachelors of Science in Finance from the University of Montana. He and his wife Eve have four children and live in Mechanicsburg, PA.
