Brad Wolansky

A track record as an Outside Director, Retail Expert and CEO brings private equity ops and sales experience with practical hands-on leadership of $50M-$1.2B multi-channel retail environments. Retailer since birth. Came up through merchandising, operations and marketing.

Specialty retail and e-commerce with B2C, B2B, digital, branding, licensing and multi-unit store experience. Organizational leadership coaching, general management and P&L owner. Strong pedigree in company value creation, integration, brand management, product development, catalog, web.

Deep contacts, tight vendor relationships and access to talented people. Digital market maker ties it together, builds consensus, executes, and delivers. Career progression through organizations of increasing size, scope, and sales.

Expert with both consumers and business in retail, e-commerce, catalog, web expansion, sales, growth, bench and infrastructure development. Bench-building through development and acquisition.

Founder - Flycatisland.com - Cat Island, Bahamas

(2024-10)

Flycatisland.com is a comprehensive digital resource for general aviation pilots flying to Cat Island, Bahamas.

Founder - PA34 Owners Organization - Lakeland, Florida

(2024-09)

General Aviation aircraft digital type group solely dedicated to the Piper PA-34 Seneca twin engine aircraft models I-V. Representing 5,037 Seneca aircraft worldwide. PA34owners.org.

Executive Consultant - Eleven Canterbury - Naples, FL

(2024-02)

Eleven Canterbury represents a global network of vetted C-suite executives who have held senior leadership positions within Fortune 500 companies. The agency matches its executive expert's knowledge and expertise with the specific needs of clients for litigation consulting, c-suite placements, or board positions.

CEO - DOVER SADDLERY - Littleton, MA

(2017-04 - 2023-07)

$110mm, private equity held multichannel specialty retailer. P&L Ownership for 37 stores, e-commerce, catalog and phone. 800 employees nationwide across 23 states. Re-set operational excellence in a recently taken-private company, needing leadership, people, process, and system re-imagination. Brand growth, store growth, and merchandising gross margin enhancement and private label development. Positive comps in all store formats balanced with positive margin enhancement.

Arrival: $95M, $0 EBITDA.

Departure: $135M, $15M EBITDA.

• Took negative EBITDA to positive EBITDA within 24 months.
• Restructured, recruited, and built out team to support a business double current size
• Opened four new stores with pipeline of 10.
• Increased private label product development and penetration from 14% to 25%.
• Led a highly successful and profitable exit for exiting ownership to new PE.

CEO Emeritus - DOVER SADDLERY - Littleton, MA

(2023-07 - 2025-05)

Board Member - XpBrand.AI - San Diego, CA

(2024-02 - 2024-06)

XpBrand.AI's "Surveys-2.0" throws out the static questions, instead taking a user's input via an AI-powered conversational, immersive and experiential survey that aligns seamlessly with company brand.

Senior Consultant - B2C PARTNERS - Boston, MA

(2016-10 - 2017-04)

Niche consulting practice provides transformative leadership and execution to modernize retail. B2C delivers senior talent to C-level executives of Fortune 1000 retailers / consumer brands.

Strategy Design - TSG Enterprises / Pure Hockey / Total Hockey / Hockey Giant - Holliston, MA

(2016-10 - 2017-04)

In 18 months, the parent company of Pure Hockey acquired two (of its three) competitors for a roll up of the fragmented retail hockey business nationwide, creating, now, a retail duopoly. This engagement provided a digital strategy (then execution) combining seven branded websites into two and the institution of a traffic generation strategy web to stores and from their 55 stores to web.

(Interim) Chief Digital Officer - PERFORMANCE SPORTS GROUP - Exeter NH

(2016-11 - 2017-03)

Performance Sports Group's market leading brands include Bauer Hockey, Easton Baseball, and Maverik/Cascade Lacrosse. Worked with PSG to push the envelope of innovation and creativity including how products are delivered to consumers in the omnichannel environment around the world.

• Created digital DTC strategy rolled out with PSG wholesale customers
• Engaged in replatforming with Sales Force Commerce Cloud (aka Demandware)
• Designed and hired for team acquisition

President Consumer Direct, President YCC Fundraising, Chief Marketing Officer - YANKEE CANDLE COMPANY - S. Deerfield, MA

(2012-06 - 2016-09)

$1.2B division of Newell Brands (NYSE: NWL). P&L co-ownership for 600 stores ($425M), full P&L for global e-commerce ($100M) and domestic fundraising ($65M) businesses, plus full global marketing oversight. Re-aligned Consumer Direct from maintenance to growth.

Leveraged brand development and investment to build sales across retail, direct, wholesale, international, and fundraising. Increased new customer acquisition efforts and retention of existing. Delivered functional plan to 4x the size of the business in 4 years.

Rallied the staff and aligned existing resources. Worked with multiple agency groups to supplement resources and move faster. Positive comps in all store formats balanced with positive margin enhancement.

• Took from $38M to $100M in 48 months; +175% growth
• Sold in reinvestment in people, process, platform: $1.6M in people; $4.2M in Oracle/ATG platform
• Restructured, recruited, and built out team to support a business 3-4x current size
• Delineated brand, CRM and database strategy, supported by agency, rolled out to organization
• Twice participated in the sale/exit of the PE owner's investment

Board Member - POLYWOOD FURNITURE - SYRACUSE, IN

(2016-03 - 2024-04)

PE owned made-to-order-in-24-hours, recycled resin outdoor furniture maker.

• Recruited to add retail and ecommerce guidance, expertise and strategy
• One of four outside directors

Advisory Board Member - OWNER IQ - BOSTON, MA

(2013-07 - 2015-06)

OwnerIQ named one of Boston's 13 Hottest Tech Firms to Watch in 2013 by Boston Business Journal. Pioneered the concept of Path to Purchase Media by transforming consumer's interactions with products/brands along the path to purchase into online advertising solutions/ marketing channels.

CEO - tgw.com, baseballsavings.com, softballsavings.com, soccersavings.com, Powered By TGW - PPR (Kering) / REDCATS USA / TGW.com - THE GOLF WAREHOUSE - Wichita, KS

(2009-08 - 2012-06)

Retained to replace the founders with next generational leadership to grow the business for new ownership. P&L Ownership: $130M. Fixed stalled sales, non-existent enterprise-level infrastructure, and created systems and strategic vision for growth while growing the bench.

Launched a new sub-brand every 6 months to expand market share including Soccersavings, Tennisavings, and the Powered By TGW services model. Drew upon never-before-used analytics to find the holes and the opportunities, while increasing capability, preserving profit, and driving record sales. Added additional distribution facilities to handle this high sku (1.5 million items+) business.

Drove branded as well as owned-brand, proprietary product development. Delivered enhanced value to shareholders by increasing sales, conversion and operating results.

• Grew topline +17% for all sports – from $112M to $130M – in a recession oriented environment
• Delivered profitable 11.5% of sales bottom line while reinvesting in infrastructure and people
• Increased Baseball / Softball sales from $14M to $31M
• Tripled flagship store sales to $3M, increasing sales by square foot to $410
• Three new businesses launched including Soccersavings.com delivering strong $2M topline in Year Two
• Created (B2B) Powered By TGW – Customized shopping websites for golf courses and golf retailers

Vice President Global E-Commerce - THE ORVIS COMPANY - Manchester, VT

(2005 - 2009)

Injected brand and product lifestyle into the Orvis web channel to more than double its sales in 3 years. P&L ownership: $120M (1/3 of Orvis business). Captured the Orvis distinctive country living flair and product feel via new engaging content and features & functionality on the Orvis websites.

Deployed merchandising and marketing might to convey the true power of the brand online. Honed the web business into a well-oiled machine that become the core of Orvis' working model, demonstrating its potential in the new, blossoming, online channel. Encompassed all web efforts – direct to consumer, retail BOPIS, international, and wholesale (B2B).

• Grew Orvis.com sales from $52M to $120M in 3 years
• Expanded orvis.com and orvis.co.uk increasing the number of users