Remodista recognized six influential female leaders with its annual Women2Watch Innovation Awards at the 2019 Women2Watch Program. The program has featured more than 400 women speakers in panels and keynotes over the past four years.
This year’s winners were:
Fareena Contractor, Walmart Innovation Community, Walmart Canada: Contractor has been accountable for large-scale projects including online grocery, machine learning forecasting in logistics, next generation WiFi and in-store applications for Walmart’s Canadian operations. She joins the U.S. branch in the fall, where she will become Director of Product Management, International Innovation. Contractor spoke at the 2018 Retail Innovation Conference (RIC), where she offered three pieces of advice for teams seeking to build out their own innovation strategies:
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- Encourage employees to be social;
- Protect them when they make mistakes and reward risk taking; and
- Stay humble.
Julie Mathers, Founder + CEO, Flora & Fauna: Mathers has led Flora & Fauna, an Australia-based vegan beauty and lifestyle brand, to 500% year-over-year growth. The retailer opened its first physical store in July, and fully automated its warehouse processes to boost efficiency by 40%.
Lisa Morales-Hellebo, Co-Founder & GP, REFASHIOND Ventures: Morales-Hellebo is an entrepreneur, product strategist and creative director with 25 years of experience working with both startups and Fortune 500 companies. She is innovating how companies look at the global supply chain through the fashion retail lens, and co-founded The New York Supply Chain Meetup and The Worldwide Supply Chain Federation.
Monika Tockstein, Head of ePMO + Quality Assurance, Retailwinds: Tockstein is a 14-year veteran at Retailwinds. She is currently focused on the changing labor law landscape for retailers, and leads a cross-functional team that is building a platform with a cloud-based SaaS model that provides constant compliance with law and taxation change. She also spoke at RIC19, where she encouraged female retail leaders to “Be the change while we’re waiting for the top to catch up.”
Parinda Muley, VP of Innovation + Business Development, Macy’s: Muley has helped build the Macy’s Style Crew, a group of brand ambassadors that look to unlock new distribution channels and drive greater brand loyalty among employees and customers alike. She also has helped guide the expansion of immersive technology in Macy’s furniture division. Muley shared the strategy the department store has adopted to modernize its offerings at RIC19.
Veronica Katz, VP/GM Large Enterprise, PayPal: Katz oversees a team that helps companies compete by providing thought leadership and commerce solutions, as well as by mentoring women in career development, wellness and leadership. She is an active member of Unity, PayPal’s affinity group for women.
