Christopher Him Barrett

Accountable for the delivery of a robust, secure and elastic cloud data platform solution, as well as the maturity and exceptional talent of the teams and services that support the platform and products we develop for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. From operational reporting to programmatic insights into investments and their efficacy our data must be trusted, secure and governed to meet all possible user needs and regulatory compliance. My teams, in partnership with core stakeholders and users, have engineered and developed our data platform on the Azure Cloud Platform (ACP). Our service is responsible for the intake, change management and release maturity that supports the Business Intelligence products that we create. From Azure Data Factory through Power BI as our primary BI viz product we are continuously looking for new ways to build and deliver increasing value for our users.

Responsible for defining and establishing a Center of Excellence in Analytics and Data Science at Nordstrom from the ground up. From 4 merchandising analysts in 2013 to a team of 100 Operations Research Scientists, Advanced and BI Analysts and Data Scientists today, this team and its core capabilities have delivered transformational change and bottom-line value to our customers and back to the business. We've continuously focused upon providing the enterprise leadership and business end-users with the analysis, intelligence, data-products and guidance/training that will enable them to understand and take action on behalf of our customers and our employees. We create and capture business and customer value through the implementation of proprietary models and methods around critical issues from our Supply Chain network through Demand Forecasting and Capacity Planning. Accountable for developing the vision, strategy, operational model and the budgets to achieve these goals while continuously raising the bar on both systematic and talent capabilities. I also oversee the negotiations across our analytical tool-sets, the instrumentation and governance around data capture and the leadership around our analytics steerco and working groups which include stakeholders across the company. Responsibilities for up-leveling the analytical ability of our user community as these analytic assets and capabilities are new to the enterprise. My team and I spend a lot of time with the several business units that we currently support on how to think about and interpret behavioral data, how to use to predict/forecast or use forensically, then how to think about these issues at scale and speed. I am incredibly proud of this team of kind, curious and thoughtful analytical minds who continuously deliver stunning products for our customers. In such a competitive environment for this critical talent I am humbled that this team has such a low attrition rate and such a deep camaraderie.

Developed the product selection strategy and plan for the women's accessories division for Nordstrom.com. Owned the merchandising strategy and developed the team of merchandisers who would execute our strategy. Defined the core KPIs that would define success as well as the integration with our marketing partners who would drive online traffic through our most important marketing tactics. Drove the analytics needed to develop insights into the drivers of lift and profitability for our division. Worked with SVPs to highlight the absence of critical capabilities in data science and engineering needed to drive growth as well as creating and capturing value. Given additional responsibility to define and create first data science and analytics org at Nordstrom.

Seattle Serves is a 501c3 dedicated to improving the physical and academic performance of our community's under-served kids through after school tennis instruction and one-on-one academic tutoring customized to each child and their abilities and needs. Together with WA State Representative, Steve Bergquist, developed the strategic plan and mission for Seattle Serves and helped to run our tennis fund-raisers. Recruited and established our board board.

 Developed, trained and led negotiations for the Movies and Music categories delivering an incremental $7M over plan in 2008. Received award from SVP for leading the category relentlessly in this area resulting in top category position across Amazon  Owned vendor management and forecasted demand for Amazon’s single largest vendors significantly improving operational metrics, terms and fully-landed cost  Managed the partner SAP integration with same partner from the Amazon end

Negotiated agreements with several of the largest and best diamond cutters and polishers in the world for Amazon.com.  SME contributor for launch of the Amazon.com Diamond Search Tool enabling the customer to refine search for Diamonds by attribute and price.  Developed strategy and negotiated with the top 50 sight-holders and diamond dealers in the industry circumventing the BlueNile.com competitive advantage.  Project managed the technical integration of all diamond dealers.  Developed and implemented all pricing, promotion and inventory strategies  Drove SEO, shopping portal, comp site and Associates traffic plan  Negotiated a 100% consignment position across 160 styles

Part of initial team that began the very first retail buying organization at Amazon.com; Buying Analytics. Responsible for forecasting, creating purchasing automation software and executing daily orders to maximize instock rates and profitability. From Books to diamonds and power tools to movies I was part of the launch of many of the most critical retail org launches and growth phases at Amazon from 1998 thru the end of 2008.  Developed negotiating strategy for 200 Tier 2 vendors to exceed plan. Delivered 100% of plan resulting in an incremental $4M to bottom line  Created the consignment initiative for smaller suppliers moving over 50K skus to consignment  Hired, lead and developed team of buyers; 2 senior buyers & 6 buyers. 6 associate buyers were promoted from level 4 to level 5 based upon superior performance relative to peers in other buying orgs  Responsible for growing a business worth $200MM (2004 COGS). Largest vendor is $8MM – Smallest $150K  Built first performance metrics deck by vendor / by buyer, shipped direct %, turns / woc, customer ship $, inv. $, dropship %, Instock %, ACU  Focused on Operational wins across this segment. Team began with zero EDI-live vendors to over 65 covering over 60% of total skus, cutting confirmation times in half

As the 26th full time employee at Amazon I was responsible for the development and execution of critical customer problem solving team as well as order picking operations. Began with hiring 4 problem solvers to leading almost 100 employees in operations. In 1997 was presented the Just Do It Award by Jeff Bezos for developing a solution that saved tens of thousands of customer Christmas Holiday orders from missing promised delivery date.

Responsible for the creation of the front and back end ecommerce strategy across the Katarina Jewelry, Inc. enterprise from website rebranding, redesign and relaunch to order and fulfillment pipeline optimization and customer service re-positioning. The mission is to deliver a place where people searching for the perfect jewelry and fashion pieces can discover new and affordable gifts in a manner that elicits a joy of use in a simplicity of design from beginning to end.