We are only a few weeks into the new year, and yet there is already so much for me to share with you. I thought I would take a moment to tell you some of our exciting news and preview some of what lies ahead in the coming months.
Last week RILA’s Board of Directors met, as they do each January, to discuss the issues facing the retail industry and to share their thoughts on how RILA can best support their efforts. Our board, which is made up of the chief executives of some of America’s most successful retailers, provides our team with tremendous insight and strategic direction, which is invaluable to our success.
At this year’s meeting we thanked Robert Niblock, chairman & CEO of Lowe’s Companies, for his service as chairman, a position he has held since 2007, and we welcomed Bill Rhodes, chairman, president & CEO of AutoZone, as our new board chairman. The board also selected Gregg Steinhafel, chairman, president & CEO of Target Corporation, as vice chairman, Richard Dreiling, chairman & CEO of Dollar General Corporation, as treasurer, and Eduardo Castro-Wright, vice chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, as secretary.
Additionally, we were happy to have several other retail leaders join our board: Bill Crowley, chairman of Sears Canada; Brian Dunn, president, CEO & COO of Best Buy; Frank Maione, U.S. president and chief customer officer of Johnson & Johnson; and Mike Ullman, chairman & CEO of J.C. Penney Company.
Among the many topics discussed at this week’s board meeting were health care reform legislation, interchange fee reform, the Employee Free Choice Act, the retail industry’s continued focus on environmental sustainability, the soon-to-be-released RILA - British Retail Consortium (BRC) Global Product Safety Standard, and the need for job growth. With their guidance RILA will work to deliver results in these areas and many others this year and beyond.
Following the board meeting, RILA opened its annual Leadership Forum. This gathering of retail’s elite included 76 c-level executives from 52 companies. With presentations from Walgreen’s CEO & President Greg Wasson, GameStop’s COO Paul Raines, and a panel discussion on innovation featuring Eric Wiseman, chairman, president & CEO of VF Corporation, and Dean Erlandson, president of mass customers for Hallmark Cards, the program was as exceptional as the participants.
New Members:
At RILA, we proudly boast that our members are America’s largest and most successful retailers. In 2008 and 2009, our members included eight of the top ten largest retailers in America. Well, today that has changed. We are pleased to announce that with the recent addition of CVS Caremark, RILA now represents nine out of the top ten. This is an exciting addition, but it doesn’t stop there. In recent weeks two other trend-setting retailers have joined our organization, Foot Locker and Staples.
Additionally, as of earlier this month, Sears Holdings, a member since 1995, now participates among our premier members, which include Best Buy, Dollar General, Gap, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. The commitment and investment of this group, which is deeply involved in setting the strategy and direction of the association, are critical to our continued success.
Conferences:
A quick note on conferences, since so many of you will be attending them in the next few months. Our annual Logistics Conference, scheduled for February 21-24 in Orlando, Florida, is proving itself to be the must-attend event for retail supply chain executives. Registrations today already exceed those of 2008, our biggest conference to date. Among those scheduled to present are Rick Dreiling, chairman & CEO of Dollar General, Scott Davis, chairman & CEO of UPS, and Ambassador Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative.
The 2010 Loss Prevention, Auditing and Safety (LPAS) Conference, Dallas, Texas, May 2-5, is also on pace to break records. Touted as the best industry conference for education and networking, RILA’s LPAS draws the most elite group of senior loss prevention and risk management executives in the industry.
Our Environmental Sustainability & Compliance Conference, scheduled for September 22-24 in San Diego, will mark the third year of this topical and focused event.
New events:
We are also excited to announce that this year we will add two new events. The first is a senior executive summit on mobile communication for retailers. This gathering of industry leaders will foster dialogue and networking focused on leading edge practices on all things mobile – mobile communication and marketing, m-commerce shopping and transactions, mobile payments, smart phone applications, social networking, and more. This new event will take place in San Francisco in July – exact dates and location will be announced soon.
Additionally, RILA will launch its first Retail Law Conference November 8-10 in Tampa, Florida. This new event will offer retail-specific legal education to general counsels from retail companies and their in-house legal teams. Continuing Legal Education (CLE) units will be available.
More details on this and other events are forthcoming.
Like most of you, we were glad to say good-bye to 2009. With 2010 off to such a tremendous start, we are looking forward to all that lies ahead this year.
Sincerely,
Sandy KennedyPresident
Brian Dodge SVP, Communications & State Affairs Phone: 703-600-2017 Email: brian.dodge@rila.org