Biography

Brandon Rael is a trusted advisor with significant strategy, operational improvement, profit optimization, technology, and organizational change experience across the retail, wholesale, and consumer industries. Brandon has worked for and in partnership with Fortune 100 companies and has a deep understanding of the retail market landscape and the evolving consumer mindset. He is a valued partner for companies to identify and drive key initiatives to enable business growth, define new operating models, enhance capabilities, and shift go-to-market strategies. Brandon has an exceptional track record of successfully leading complex digital business transformations, delivering significant EBITDA improvements, driving meaningful ROI, building high-performing teams, inspiring organizational change, and exceeding expectations. He has authored industry articles, is a regular podcast contributor, and is a Rethink Retail Top 100 Global Influencer and RetailWire Braintrust member. Select prior engagements include: ▪️Led the 5-year transformation and operating model modernization strategy planning activities for a 2,000-store, $54B, nationwide grocery powerhouse with five brands that deliver great food, value, and innovations ▪️ Led the global business transformation for a $10B vertically integrated multi-brand apparel company, with a presence in both retail and wholesale, across all elements of growth, including assortment optimization, omnichannel improvements, product development, and business processes, pricing, e-commerce, digital and customer experience strategies. The operating model transformations resulted in 150 EBITDA basis points improvements alongside a 3% comp sales increase and $100M in cost savings ▪️ Delivered and defined localized micro-merchandising assortment planning methodologies and processes for a $45B national off-price retailer, which optimized inventories and enhanced the customer experience, contributing to 75 EBITDA basis point improvement and a 2% comp sales increases ▪️ Executed and led the business transformation for a $3B teenage apparel company, empowering a fully integrated merchandising assortment planning solution that increased efficiencies, optimized the supply chain, and led to 100 EBITDA basis points improvements ▪️ Directed an IT infrastructure outsourcing global delivery engagement workstream for a $150B pharmaceutical company to restructure, define and operationalize processes across 140 countries and centralized work-groups across four continents, which led to $225M in cost improvements * Opinions are my own