. Were you always interested in this industry?   Deena Bahri: I was always interested in retail and shopping, although I didn’t start my career in this space. Graduating from university, I didn’t know this would be the right career path for me, and in fact, it was almost necessary to start in a job that didn’t speak to my heart for me to come back and say, ‘I can take my intellectual skills and combine them with my interests and find a career that really brings it all together.’ So I took a bit of a roundabout tour, but I ended up in the right place. IR: What aspects of retail really speak to you?  DB: I love the customer and the psychology that drives them and their decisions. I love the pace of retail, and the fact that it is influenced by so many different elements of culture, politics, the economy and all of these factors that come together.  And I love that oftentimes, the products we’re selling, especially in the fashion space, mean so much to the consumer. It’s not just a thing that you’re wearing, or that you’re putting on your bookshelf behind you, it has a deeper meaning and it tells your story in a way. I find that really inspiring. IR: What have been the most important stepping stones in your career that have helped you reach the level of CMO?  DB: The first is taking risks in terms of signing yourself up for things that you don’t know how to do, whether that’s a project or a company where you’re in a stretch role, because discomfort usually leads to intense growth.  The second is surrounding yourself with good people who you can learn from both in your domain, but also on the emotional intelligence side. The more you grow up in the ranks, the more important it becomes to have the leadership and soft skills to complement the hard skills. And then, the third is not being afraid to fall on your face. When I look back, it’s actually the hard times, the moments that felt like disasters, that helped me jump to the next level. You can be so focused on how much it hurts, but that failure can transform you, so allow it to happen. Don’t be too hard on yourself. IR: Who are your retail heroes?  DB: There are a few people who are not necessarily famous, but for me, they’re heroes.  One is a woman named Lynn Casey. She’s a dear friend, who I met when I was in my very first marketing job at Reebok. I hired her to do research for our brand. We were trying to reclaim some portion of the young female shopper, and she helped me build a whole youth marketing panel. That was over 20 years ago, and since then, she has been someone I’ve hired and someone I’ve called when I needed advice, whether as a mum or marketer. She’s worked for some of the best brands in the world, and yet she went off to do her own thing and started her own company.  Another hero of mine is a boss I had named Jeff Dunn, who had an amazing career in food. He disrupted the carrot business of all things. He helped to grow a healthy food business within one of the largest CPGs [consumer packaged goods], and then left that comfort zone to start another food business. His journey really inspired me because it combined the best of both worlds – that entrepreneurial disruptive mentality with a very tried-and-true classical CPG marketing background. He led with a lot of heart as well.