Brown Shoe Company, Inc. has named Dan Friedman as Senior Vice President-Product and Sourcing. He will combine oversight of the company’s worldwide sourcing operations with responsibility for all branded wholesale product development — including Brown Shoe Wholesale and the Bennett division.
Friedman comes to Brown Shoe from Camuto Group, which he joined in 2002. Most recently, he held the post of President and Managing Director, and was responsible for sales, sourcing and product development for key branded and first cost business. Prior to Camuto, Friedman held various executive positions with U.S. Shoe and Nine West. He also served as President of Stride Rite’s Keds division and President of Aerosoles.
“By joining product development and sourcing under Dan’s direction and leadership, our goal is to further unify these key teams, as we work to fully realize the potential of our product design, brand differentiation and speed- to-market initiatives,” said Brown Shoe President and COO Diane Sullivan. “Combining Dan’s unique experience and entrepreneurial spirit with Brown Shoe’s outstanding sourcing and product development teams increases our ability to provide an even more seamless delivery of fresh, exciting footwear at ever greater velocity to consumers.”
The company also added Margie Connelly as Vice President-Licensing and Mark Matiszik as Vice President-E-Commerce.
Margie Connelly’s role is a new position at Brown Shoe. She will be responsible for building licensing partnerships for Brown Shoe’s leading brand names to create a range of lifestyle products. This will include generating additional opportunities for brands with existing license agreements, such as Via Spiga and Franco Sarto, as well as exploring potential partnerships for Naturalizer and other brands. Before joining Brown Shoe, Connelly was Licensing Director at Liz Claiborne, overseeing well-known brands Juicy Couture, Ellen Tracy, Laundry, Dana Buchman and others. Prior to that, she served in sales and marketing positions with Ralph Lauren Footwear, Tommy Hilfiger and Macy’s.
As Vice President-E-Commerce, Mark Matiszik will supervise a new e-commerce group. Leading a team that includes the company’s Shoes.com organization and interactive/web design group, he is charged with increasing Brown Shoe’s presence in the dot.com world and growing the company’s online business. Matiszik joins Brown Shoe after almost 10 years at Lands End. Most recently, he was Director, Pan-International, responsible for significant growth in catalog and website sales for their export business. Prior to that, he was Director of European Operations for their UK and German subsidiaries.
