Lauren Fannon has loved fashion her entire life. It was actually her uncle that took her to boutiques as a little girl on these wild shopping sprees that first got her hooked! She never dreamed that she could take a passion and make it into a career. After news broadcaster and trader on wall street were crossed off her list, and stints in corporate finance and the insurance industry, she was ready to make her leap for a change! At 22, she hopped in her car and made the drive from Boston to Miami Beach, a place she knew no one, but was incredibly charged up by the change. She began her MBA at the University of Miami, still unsure “what she wanted to be when she grew up,” but felt confident she would figure it out. After winning the best project for how to transform Perry Ellis’s new company Original Penguin and interning at a luxury house, Richemont, she started to have some career direction. She realized her finance undergrad degree, her MBA in Marketing and Management, and her passion for fashion and her intuitive creative side morphed to create the perfect skill set for Buying. To top that off with her leadership and teamwork skills, amassed from doing two Division 1 sports, being VP of her graduate class, and other entrepreneurial endeavors, she was ready to enter this new world! TJX, Ladies Shoes Buying Team, gave her the groundwork for how to make decisions on the spot, how to trust her newly founded merchant gut, the art of competitive shopping, how to translate designer looks for value shoppers, and the psychology of pricing. She went on to return to Miami after working in her hometown was becoming a drag, and took a job at Perry Ellis as Merchandising Manager of Men's Bottoms for a few of their brands and private label accounts, where she gained valuable knowledge of the vendor/manufacturing side. Missing women's fashion and meeting the leaders at Boston Proper, she quickly realized she wanted to get back into women’s. During an 8-year tenure, with 8 promotions in 6 years, Lauren bought/managed every apparel and non-apparel category possible, partook in 2 sales of the company, opened stores, and then brought the business back to profitability in one year after the first set of owners sunk the business. She leaped passed her peers, quickly becoming the VP of Merchandising, and eventually taking over a 2nd department, Product Development, Production, Sourcing, and Q&A, doing a job that 4 executives once did. She received awards, piloted new programs and initiatives, and became known as an outside-the-box, approachable, inspirational, and creative leader. She traveled the country and the world, seeking out new resources and inspiration for upcoming collections. After her 8-year tenure at Boston Proper, Lauren had stints as Head of Apparel and Accessories for a multi-billion dollar global performance & sports nutrition company, launched a new team of 25 people during the beginning of the pandemic, and then moved on to a new challenge as VP of Sales and Product Development for a global travel-retail company. Lauren always loved a new challenge, and during this time, she also got her real estate license and launched a successful Women’s Networking business, Boss Babes Miami, and her own Fannon Fashion Consulting Corp. The pandemic changed everyone, including Lauren, and she had a burning desire to be her own boss, make her own rules, and lead in a way that is fulfilling and innovative. With her good friend and former co-worker moving down to Miami and their regular fashion-filled lunch conversations, they realized they should join forces, and L&D Retail Consulting was born. #Passions: Cooking, live music, travel, boating, yoga, pilates, paddleboarding, collecting quotes, photography, and being on or in the ocean.