In her role as Chief Merchandising Officer, Deborah Rivera leads the development, management and execution of merchandising strategies across all categories of retail business for the PLCB. On a day-to-day basis, Deborah and her merchandising team evaluate and direct product purchasing and inventory; manage innovative campaign strategies to drive traffic and conversion across all sales channels; monitor new and emerging trends to identify opportunities, maximize the brand and deliver strong and relevant product assortments to customers; and concept products, marketing and merchandising to achieve financial goals. Within her role, Deborah also works in cooperation with PLCB executive leadership and field management to support the execution of merchandising plans, store layouts and product placement.
Deborah brings to the PLCB more than 20 years of experience in strategic merchandising, financial and assortment planning, brand building and promotion. Before joining the agency, she served as vice president of Merchandising and Planning, GMM, Direct to Consumer, for the VF Corporation/Kontoor Brands, global apparel companies. Prior to that, she worked as senior vice president, GMM, Ready to Wear, for The Bon-Ton Department Stores, Inc.
Deborah holds a Bachelor of Science degree in merchandising from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a minor equivalent in business administration.
Currently, Deborah lives in Lancaster County.