Andrea Wasserman

VP, Retail Experience Verizon

Andrea Wasserman is the VP of Retail Experience at Verizon, where she’s focused on reimagining how customers discover and buy technology products and services.  Her team works across operations, design, technology, and marketing to evolve and define everything from merchandising to new store concepts to product launches to customer-centric physical/digital experiences.

Most recently, Andrea served as a consultant to retail tech startups seeking to establish partnerships within the retail industry.  At the same time, she was a Senior External Advisor at McKinsey & Company focused on retail and consumer goods.  Through her website: captaincustomer.com, Andrea continues to write broadly about customer experience. 
During Andrea’s time as SVP and Head of Direct-to-Consumer at Nine West, her team rolled out associate-facing technology in stores, increased the number of product categories sold online, and launched Nine West’s first mobile app.  Andrea also served as SVP/GM of eCommerce for Hudson's Bay and Lord & Taylor, directly and indirectly leading teams and processes across merchandising, marketing, operations, and product/technology. 

Prior to this, Andrea was the CEO of Sole Society, the digitally-born footwear and accessories company that Nordstrom backed until Vince Camuto acquired the brand in 2016.  Earlier in her career, Andrea spent six years at Nordstrom in a number of progressively senior roles across private label and cosmetics strategy, multichannel organizational development, external partnerships, and women’s apparel merchandising.  While at Nordstrom, Andrea and the team she built re-launched and re-branded Nordstrom Weddings with an industry-leading multichannel business model, new approaches to technology and inventory, and partnerships with Etsy and Blue Nile. 

Andrea earned her BS from Cornell University and MBA from Columbia Business School. She and her family reside in downtown Manhattan, where she’s active with UJA Federation of NY’s fashion and technology divisions and mentors start-ups through the New York Fashion Tech Lab and XRC Labs, among others.