Hello ladies!

I have some great news to report this week about Chico’s FAS, Inc. The company was recently designated a 2020 Women on Boards Honor Roll company for having 20 percent or more of its board seats held by women. Female directors hold 44 percent of Chico’s board seats. What’s more, 81 percent of Chico’s executive committee is female.

“Chico’s FAS is committed to women’s empowerment and leadership,” said Shelley Broader, president and CEO of Chico’s FAS. “As a company that serves women, we recognize and value the immense contributions that women make every day in our boardroom, on our executive team and throughout our organization.”

2020 Women on Boards is a nonprofit, grassroots campaign committed to increasing the percentage of women who serve on company boards to 20 percent or greater by the year 2020. According to 2020 Women on Boards, the number of women on public company boards sits at just 19.7 percent.

We’re so happy for and proud of the great team at Chico’s FAS. Besides being a great company for women to work for, Chico’s has been a great friend and supporter to the Women in Retail Leadership Circle over the years. Margaret Moraskie, senior vice president of consumer analytics and intelligence for Chico’s FAS, has been a WIRLC board member since its founding. And Kristen Smith, director of digital commerce for the Chico’s FAS brand White House Black Market, is a WIRLC board member as well. Furthermore, Shelley Broader was a keynote speaker at the 2016 Women in Retail Leadership Summit, and will be speaking on a panel at this year’s Summit next month. Margaret will be speaking, too! Lastly, I’ve met many wonderful Chico’s FAS employees at our Summits through the years. Every one of them has been fabulous (and they know how to dress, too!).

We have a great issue for you this week, including a thoughtful article about finding your purpose from Lucille DeHart, a retail marketing veteran who writes regularly for SharpHeels, a fashion, news and lifestyle website for professional women. Lucille will be writing for WIRLC more regularly now, so stay tuned. Also, we have a wonderful video interview with Mindy Grossman, CEO of HSNi. Mindy sat down and spoke with me at Shoptalk last week. We were so fortunate that Mindy gave us quite a bit of her time, so we’ll break out the video into two parts. This week Mindy discusses her hiring philosophy.

Enjoy!
Melissa Campanelli
Co-Founder, Women in Retail Leadership Circle