“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. ”
Our Team
founder & CEO
Ruth Sommers
Ruth founded NEXTConsulting in 2018 with a focus on operational excellence to advance her clients’ growth, innovation and efficiency while developing world-class customer experiences and unstoppable teams. She has served on six executive and leadership teams across global apparel and luxury retail, achieving a high level of operational success and insight. Ruth has become known in the industry for dynamic transformations through revamping business operations and governance, securing new partnerships and nurturing teams.
As Chief Operating Officer of Blue Nile, Ruth drove top-line growth, achieved millions in operational savings, and inspired an organization-wide culture shift toward customer-centric practices. As the COO of David Yurman, she created the foundation to realize omni-channel strategy that doubled online revenue as well as established a new customer care team and distribution center that allowed for 3X growth while markedly reducing operating expenses. She reset supply chain to improve quality and support innovation, while reducing risk and cost, and conducted a complete overhaul of systems and process.
As CEO & founder of NOI Solutions, Ruth led client projects from concept to market, preparing plans to drive production, distribution, and fulfillment efficiency while controlling costs. There, she developed strong international relations, connecting and mediating specialty retailers with production facilities throughout Asia, primarily Bangladesh, where the company maintained a fully staffed office. As Chief Sourcing and Production Officer of American Eagle Outfitters, Inc., she exceeded quality, production and delivery goals with the launch of a new Hong Kong office.
Ruth developed her expertise in overseas sourcing and supply-chain development from the earliest years of her career. As Managing Director of Ann Inc.’s overseas offices based in Hong Kong, she optimized the human resources, project management, and logistics functions; rationalized the office structure; and instituted a new sourcing and production process while fostering closer collaboration with the corporate office. Prior to that, she spent 15 years at Victoria’s Secret and Mast, the sourcing and production division of parent company Limited Brands (now L Brands). She established Mast's office in Sri Lanka and served as Regional Production Director, eventually rising to the role of Executive Vice President of Production and Sourcing for Victoria’s Secret Direct in New York City, where she served on the executive committee.
Ruth is a member of the board of the MIT Sloan School of Management. She earned an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated with a BA in Business Administration from Lake Forest College.
rsommers@nextconsultingus.com
PARTNER
Jennifer Dorre
Jennifer is an accomplished turnaround specialist known for driving and implementing transformational change at top-tier corporations by reorienting complex product-development projects that have stalled due to inadequate operational planning.
Jennifer’s areas of focus include business-process mapping with an emphasis on product design and development; end-to-end project management, and cross functional communication strategies. She quickly isolates root causes of operational inefficiencies and provides strategic action plans and effective communication channels to resolve them. Her approach involves developing and guiding cross-functional teams to make scalable and sustainable process improvements.
In her 20+ years of experience, Jennifer has managed multi-million-dollar budgets, led process-improvement programs in complex, multi-national environments and served, time and again, as a trusted adviser for C-Suite executives. At Victoria Secrets, Jennifer managed the launch of a new shapewear business. At David Yurman, she spearheaded process, communication and calendar improvements that increased on-time deliveries. And she helped Ovando realize significant increase to gross margin dollars.
Jennifer holds a six-sigma green belt certification from Villanova University, is a licensed Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified ScrumMaster and a graduate of West Virginia University, where she serves on the advisory board for the College of Creative Arts. She is a former president and board member of The Blue Hill Troupe, a non-profit theater organization that raises money for New York City-based charities.
jdorre@nextconsultingus.com
consultant
Saara Hafeez
Saara Hafeez has leveraged her operational, strategic, direct-to-consumer and tech experience to assist companies ranging from startups to internationally recognized brands. Most recently she launched a growing social enterprise that offers e-commerce apparel retailers the ability to provide their customers with alterations while supporting immigrant and refugee women with remote work.
Her career has also included leadership roles at David Yurman, where she worked closely with Ruth on strategic corporate programs spanning e-commerce, digital transformation, customer care, product development and logistics. Saara built her financial acumen and analysis skills during her time in corporate strategy at Neuberger Berman, a $240B asset management firm.
Saara studied Finance and Behavioral Economics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
shafeez@nextconsultingus.com
Consultant
Janet Kim
Janet Kim is an experienced business executive with a keen understanding of consumers and technology, bridging global complex strategy with rigorous operational excellence and execution.
Janet held key leadership roles at David Yurman leading strategy, partnerships, business development and international expansion. As global product manager at Apple Inc., she managed product end-to-end operations lifecycle, conducted sales forecasts and bridged supply allocation by channel and country. In addition, she managed inventory levels to meet Apple’s financial goals and oversaw accountability for factories in China. She received the Excellence of Execution award at Apple for her product launch leadership.
Janet started her career at Goldman Sachs in the Investment Banking Division focusing on healthcare, hospitals and biotech, leveraging the rigorous foundation to private equity business development. She holds a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
jkim@nextconsultingus.com
CONSULTANT
Molly Heglund
Molly is an experienced retail finance and strategy executive with more than 15 years in leadership roles at Fortune 500 retailers including Amazon and L Brands. Molly is known for her deep understanding of business drivers and their connection to financial results. She has managed hundreds of millions of dollars in budgets, delivering positive financial and operational results by implementing long-term strategic plans and optimizing daily workflows.
Molly's specialties include financial and merchandise budgeting and forecasting, process and system optimization, inventory management, promotional calendar design, project management, and e-commerce. She received an MBA with a specialization in Strategy from the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a BBA in Finance and Business Economics from Ohio University.