RILA Promotes Chroust to Executive Vice President for Retail Operations 

Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) President Sandy Kennedy announced today that Casey Chroust has been promoted to Executive Vice President for Retail Operations.

“Through his outstanding leadership and exceptional industry expertise, Casey has positioned RILA as the premier resource for retail executives seeking operational excellence and industry education. Casey is well respected throughout the industry and will continue to deliver the high caliber results that our members deserve,” Kennedy concluded.

Chroust leads RILA’s operational excellence and educational efforts within the association’s five key retail disciplines: supply chain, finance, human resources, asset protection, and sustainability. In his role, Chroust works closely with industry executives throughout the retail enterprise and manages RILA’s best practice, networking, benchmarking and research initiatives as well as educational programming.

Since joining RILA in 2007, Chroust forged RILA’s partnership with the British Retail Consortium to create a global product safety standard, launched the innovative RILA Sustainability Initiative to tackle environmental sustainability and compliance, developed successful research partnerships throughout RILA’s core competencies, and formed several new executive committees, such as the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and the Privacy Leaders Council.

Recognized as one of the leading retail experts in the U.S., Chroust has been quoted in numerous newspaper and magazine articles and appeared in several television segments, including media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Women’s Wear Daily, Mass Market Retailers, Fox News, ABC News, and National Public Radio. He has been a featured speaker at numerous retail conferences and events.

Prior to joining RILA in 2007, Chroust spent a decade at BearingPoint, formerly KPMG Consulting, in their retail management consulting practice. Chroust previously served as Senior Vice President for Retail Operations at RILA.

RILA also announced Azure O’Neil as Director of Meetings. O’Neil, who has been with RILA since 2007, will be responsible for planning and executing all RILA events, both locally and out of state. O’Neil was formerly Manager of Meetings.

RILA hosts four annual conferences attended by the retail industry’s top executives. The conferences address key elements of the retail enterprise including logistics, loss prevention and sustainability.

In her time at RILA, O’Neil has contributed to countless successful events and has been a part of streamlining conference expenditures and increasing event attendance.

“Azure’s strong leadership, poise and commitment to excellence are remarkable. Her attention to detail is unparalleled and apparent to the thousands of retail executives that attend our conferences every year,” said Kennedy.

O’Neil is a graduate of the George Washington University, and a native of East Dover, Vermont.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) promotes consumer choice and economic freedom through public policy and industry operational excellence. Its members include retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers--which together provide millions of jobs and operate more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.

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