At age nine I began saving my allowance to buy the oversized GLAMOUR Magazine we women of a certain age remember. I was a trend devotee and enjoyed nothing better than collecting fresh fashion ideas for reinventing my own look. From my flower child days of the floppy hat, jeans and moccasins to the menswear looks of the 80s, I took pieces here and there to create my own style that remains with me today.

As I launched a career in marketing and brand management, I leveraged my passion for defining my "look" as a key component of my personal brand. By the age of 30, I was a Vice President in the technology division of the global marketing firm Fleishman-Hillard where making new business presentations and advising top brass at blue chip companies was the order of the day. Being young and petite, my style persona had to be confident, in charge and perfectly at ease.

Later, after joining Mitsubishi Electric, I was speechwriter and media relations advisor to the Chairman and the nine presidents he guided. Often the only woman among gray-suited men, I knew the importance of a commanding visual presence from board room to press room. Further in my career, as president and chief marketing officer of an Internet company I co-founded, I made chic business suiting part of our corporate image. This dress code helped differentiate our company and management from the khaki-clad uniform of the dot.com era.

When our internet company was purchased, I decided to bring my passion for personal branding and style center stage in my career and earned an AA in fashion merchandising from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. Complementing my University of Chicago BA and University of Southern California MBA, my design, merchandising and manufacturing education gave me the academic foundation to translate my sartorial talents into a fashion-based business.

FIDM Alumni

Fashion Club