Shannon Flanagan

I've been in the retail industry my entire career, over 30 years since I was young. I started in stores, then moved into merchandising and buying before joining Accenture for consulting work. I went back into the business side, working for major retailers including Gap Inc, Land's End, and Macy's, always focused on building strategies and pulling them together through people, process, and technology. I tried my hand as a sales executive, but that wasn't my cup of tea, so I went back into consulting as a partner working with clients like The RealReal and Sephora. Then I moved into a fully tech role as general manager of retail and consumer goods, standing up that vertical for a product that had only been horizontal before. I decided to go out on my own in a fractional GM role, building out a retail and consumer goods vertical for one of the top 100 Gen AI companies. About a year ago, my fiance said I should go all in on Retail Women in Tech, which I affectionately call Arwitz. It was risky because I live in the second most expensive area of the country, pay my ex-husband handsomely, and have three teenagers, meaning I'd burn through my retirement to start this nonprofit. But when I was younger, I wanted to run a nonprofit and write a book when I retired, and both opportunities were happening 15 years earlier than planned, so I decided to give up everything and go all in. I've never worked harder, never been more stressed out, never been poorer, and never been happier. I realized at 25 what my why was: to create the conditions for people to love what they do every day, which spawned my career as a change practitioner driving strategic transformations, setting up new organizations, and driving new ways of operating. Starting Retail Women in Tech was a natural extension because I saw a huge opportunity for untapped talent in our industry, where communities were only focused on senior executive women due to a pay-to-play model. I wanted to represent not just those in retail, but also consulting, media, VCs, and technology, and I saw an opportunity that many female organizations miss, which is bringing allies into the fold. The industry does not have anything close to parity, and I'm committed to recognizing diverse perspectives, not just from a gender perspective, but also generation and sector.