Paul Raffin

Paul Raffin, is an internationally known C-Suite executive, with over forty years of experience managing consumer goods businesses across a wide spectrum of the Fashion Industry spanning department store retail, wholesale, direct to consumer, vertical specialty retail, luxury, and trading company, men’s, women’s, kids apparel, accessories and footwear. Paul has held CEO, President or Division President roles at The Frye Company, Li & Fung USA- Mens, Kids and Entertainment Licensing Group, Frette, DZ Trading, Express, J. Crew and Gant. He is known first and foremost as a highly experienced Merchant, having worked with industry luminaries from the late Marvin Traub to Les Wexner and Michael Weiss to William and Victor Fung. These opportunities have provided him with invaluable experience in selecting products which resonate with customers and successfully running a variety of business models at different levels of scale. Raffin has led $1Billion+ revenue businesses as well as more entrepreneurial ventures. Raffin has an impressive track record at building, retaining and managing world class talent. He is committed to investing in the culture within an organization and has had deep experience in synthesizing change agendas. Paul is passionate in leading companies which develop their people and evolve their processes in order to unlock both speed to market and innovation necessary in today’s dynamic marketplace. Raffin has founded a consulting firm, The Merchant Matrix, LLC, whose objective is to optimize the symbiotic relationship between a brand’s promise, and the technology that can help deliver that in an exciting way. Paul was recently featured in a major M.I.T. Sloan School publication about Enterprise Leadership and has recently joined the XRC Lab, an accelerator affiliated with The New School and KSA, as a mentor.