June 2023, Columbus Ohio: Columbus Consulting International, a 20+year old retail consulting group known for their work in retail systems, end-to-end integrated planning, IT and digital commerce is expanding their service offerings by rolling out a roadmap for accelerated growth in finance, operations, pricing and unified commerce.
“If you do it, we do it.” According to Columbus Consulting’s CEO, Jon Beck, “Columbus has always been committed to serving our clients and is dedicated to staying relevant and at the forefront of the industry’s needs. With the emergence and complexity of data-driven retail business models and the increasing demands of the customer, our community took a deep look at our organization and decided to supplement our existing expertise with a new layer of industry talent.” Beck further explained, “Columbus introduced a new level of executives with client facing responsibilities who will become Associate Partners. This group of talent ‘from retail, for retail’ will ensure the longevity and scale of our company.”
The new generation of Columbus talent brings additional expertise in catalog/connected commerce, hospitality, c-stores/grocery and master data management.
- Laura Barrett, former CEO/COO of Soft Surroundings, unified commerce veteran
- Roula Heleiwa, global C-suite executive with experience in finance and operations, IT, asset management and store operations across retail, hospitality, real estate and venture capital
- Heather Koerner, former Chief Merchandising Officer with an expansive background in omni-channel retail
- Dave Wargo, master data management expert with a proven record in enabling analytics and operations across retail categories (luxury, restaurant, convenience)
- Krystie Wiese, industry leader in C-stores with a background in pricing/promotion and assortment planning
Columbus has served over 300 clients and is scaling for continued growth. Since its inception in 2001 by founder, Rick Amari, former group CIO of Limited Brands, Columbus has emerged as a source of support for the retail industry, uniquely pairing former retail executives with clients to work alongside them as extensions of their teams. The business model was built on agility, curating teams best suited for brands and their projects.
Over the last few years, Columbus made a commitment to not only reinforce its core disciplines, but to build into industry challenges and opportunities. According to Columbus Consulting’s Sonia Hernandez, “People are and will always be our core focus. Top talent has always been our main asset and is what allows us to work with major global brands both in North America and in Europe. Our community of consultants represent the best talent in the market and they participate in regular training sessions, learning seminars and other enrichment programs that add value to our clients. The new Associate Partners, along with our commitment to customer-focused marketing, DEI philosophy and expansion deeper into data, analytics, connected commerce and source to shelf systems knowledge, all shore up our ability to continue to lead our industry.”
Interested in learning more about Columbus Consulting? Contact Jon Beck directly or reach out to our service team at: https://www.columbusconsulting.com/contact-us/
About Columbus Consulting
Columbus Consulting delivers solutions that drive true value and have been transforming the retail and CPG industries for over two decades. We are a boutique retail consulting company of industry experts. Our approach is simple, if you do it, we do it. We are more than consultants; we are experienced practitioners who actually sat in our clients’ seats. We understand the challenges, know what questions to ask and deliver the right solutions. Columbus offers a unique, consumer-centric approach with an end-to-end perspective that bridges functional & organization silos from strategy to execution. Our specialties include: unified commerce, merchandising & category management, planning & inventory management, data & analytics, sourcing & supply chain, finance & operations, people & organization and information technology.
Let us know how we can help you. To learn more, visit COLUMBUSCONSULTING.COM.
