Kent Anderson

Throughout his career, Kent has demonstrated his expertise in strategic planning, inventory management, trend analysis, merchandising, communication, P&L, M&A, leadership, and team building.

Recently, Kent retired from working with Macy's and founded his own consulting company, Gear Up Consulting. Kent's new consultancy is in the development stage, being created from scratch, but transfers his skills and experience to businesses looking to grow their sales and shareholder value. He's already working with clients in Hong Kong, China and the United States.

Prior to founding his own company, Kent enjoyed a successful 30+ year career with Macy's in the US and Hong Kong. His most recent position was Managing Director of the company's new venture in China. Kent oversaw a global research project to determine potential growth markets as President of Innovation before deciding upon Hong Kong and China. Kent then built a new team of 26 employees, negotiated contracts, designed workflows including a deal with Alibaba to participate in the Tmall Global Platform, a first, for any major US retailer. Within 80 days he made the company viable and operational.

For over a decade previously, Kent had revolutionized e-commerce and online operations for Macy’s, Inc. He'd founded two minor sites for Macy's gift and bridal departments, before being tasked with founding macys.com. He grew the company's first ever website with four handpicked members of staff and turned it into a multi - billion a year enterprise with thousands of staff in the US, Philippines, India, Russia, and South America.

Setting Amazon as the benchmark business to compete with, Kent ensured that macys.com's growth stayed ahead of the Internet behemoth while seeing holiday period sales double the Internet average. He further built the site's operations by negotiating affiliate deals, designing a flexible and agile organization, and securing double digit growth each year during his leadership. Finally, he was instrumental in development of the omni-channel strategy which tied the website to all platforms and channels in which Macy's operated.

""In confusion there is opportunity." – Kent Anderson

Kent's work with Macy's started with management positions within the finance division where he oversaw gross margin planning, purchasing and financial management growing to include special assignments from the CEO with regard to M&A activity. In the 1990s Macy's entered bankruptcy and required restructuring. Kent helped developed a restructuring plan, which turned 3 regional divisions into just two, East and West, which cut $60 million in costs and streamlined the business as a whole. His reward was to oversee the turnaround of the new Macy's West Division as Senior Vice-President, where he helped guide the division into a $7 billion a year enterprise.

Kent Anderson graduated Colorado State University with a BS in Business Administration. Ever active in the community, Kent retained strong links with the Colorado State University School of Business as a leading member of the Global Leadership Council and was a Board Member of the San Francisco branch of the YMCA. During his career Kent was featured in numerous business publications and spoke often at industry conferences and universities. He began his career with Dayton Hudson Corporation, holding a range of management positions and the role of buyer for gourmet housewares.