Ron Brunette 1133 Ontario Street * Oak Park, IL 60302 * (C) 708-567-8514* (H) 708-613-4030 * rb1212362@westpost.

net With a solid career in retail environments, I am a recognized leader in the crea tion of collaborative, informed and brand-right design, credited with nationally -recognized concepts, shops, and fixtures being used today. I am adept at delive ring focused, strategic retail spaces that work for the customer, product, assoc iates, and the company, with design leadership that delivers brand promise, on t ime, on budget and on strategy. This experience has led to work in department store, mall-based, strip center an d big box formats, creating environments delivering sales results. I have also b een a keynote speaker on visual merchandising, store design and retail industry trends in the United States, Canada and Latin America. My objective is to secure a permanent leadership position in retail environments with a successful branded company, and help that company grow sales and profit through targeted, informed, world-class design. Experience: Kilwin's Quality Confections, Inc. * 355 N. Division Rd. Petoskey, MI 49770 Interim Chief of Design and Brand Transformation 9/10 to present Full time in-house consultant, directing store design, graphics, fixtures, packa ging, web coordination and seasonal promotional calendars for this growing, 150+ store, privately-held, high-end ice cream and chocolates retailer. Sears Holdings * 3330 Beverly Road Hoffman Estates, IL 60176 Vice President of Visual Creative Design 1/08 to 5/10 Design Committee Member. Responsible for design for over 3700 stores including t he creation of fixtures, signage, graphics, concept shops, vendor-supported mark eting, point of purchase collateral, store layouts, visual merchandising and new concept development. Formats include: Sears, Sears Auto, Appliance & Hardware S tores, The Great Indoors and Kmart. Brands include Lands End, Joe Boxer, Craftsm an, Kenmore, Jacqueline Smith, Structure, and Diehard. Designed renovation for 500 Sears & Kmart Stores, new Sears Auto Franchise Cente rs for national roll-out, an overhaul of a sign system based on digital delivery , and new fixture and shop concepts, working in hard and soft lines, health & be auty, and consumables. Led a staff of 50 including: 3 Directors, an interior fix tures & graphics design studio, new concept development, a digital signing team, and an off-campus facility. Collaborated with merchant, marketing and sales de velopment, procurement & finance for cost improvement, construction & store oper ations for implementation of key initiatives, and outside vendors & consultants on new concept development. * Delivered $5M in cuts through digital signing program for 2010. Cut $2.1M in 0 8, an additional $3.2M in 09, by gaining signing efficiencies between brands. Cr eated a corporate signage brand book with signing standards and practices define d by format, for use internally and with vendor partners, working with merchants and marketing to define and align around pricing & promotional activity. Rolled out of multi-year signing initiative with a system that interfaces with product pricing & plan-o-gram systems for automatic promotional printing. * Created, designed, sourced and negotiated funding for a roll-out of permanent directory, departmental and other signing for all Sears and Kmart stores, curren tly in national roll-out. * Created award-winning campaigns aligned with marketing and merchants for point of purchase seasonal collateral, in-store marketing collateral, and vendor coll aborative POP change-out. Circuit City Stores, Inc. * 9950 Mayland Drive, Richmond, VA 23233-1464 Vice President of Store Environments 4/06 to1/08

Supervised staff of 68 including: interior, exterior, fixtures & graphics design ers, procurement, project management, finance & clerical support, store layout & planning. Worked with buying, marketing & sales for revenue improvement, procur ement for cost improvement, and construction & operations for on-time delivery o f new and renovated stores. * Created new concept "The City" stores, and other new concept stores in large & small formats for national roll-out. 47 stores built, 3 weekly throughout '07. Delivered initial concept, interior and exterior design, layout, fixtures, graph ics, signage and displays, budgeting proposals, presentations, and project plann ing. Created in-store "Firedog" services department branding for national roll-o ut * Designed and executed capital projects: "Connect", a joint Comcast/Circuit Cit y store, "Florida Design Studio", an internal design space, "The EA Store", a pa rtnership with Ethan Allen, and "The Verizon Store", a partnership booth with Ve rizon, successfully negotiating a national rollout. * Delivered year-long re-branding national roll-out in conjunction with marketin g, including interior directory signage, in-store marketing collateral, layout a nd plan-o-gram changes, and vendor POP. Projects included store analysis and red eployment of assets, visual merchandising, collateral design, sourcing, point-of -purchase material fabrication, and instruction manuals. * Created a new format graphics manual for use in-house and with vendors to esta blish and maintain standards for point of purchase collateral, signs and graphic s, working with Panasonic, Sony, Verizon, Samsung, Comcast, Mitsubishi. Modell's Sporting Goods * 498 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10018-6701 Vice President of Visual Merchandising & Store Design 8/03 to 4/06 Delivered new concept research and development, layouts, fixtures, graphics, fin ishes, point-of-purchase collateral, in-store marketing, visual merchandising, f loor plans, plan-o-grams and store communications. Successfully managed the desi gn, prototypes, mechanicals, budgets and sourcing for fixtures, graphics and oth er in-store elements. * Led growth for expanding northeast-based family sporting goods retailer with n ew prototype still being used, a fully proprietary branded retail space at $38 p er sq., with a 10-day decrease in construction time. Created imported fixture pr ogram, lowering overall costs by 30%. Designed 13 stores in '05 and 22 new store s in '06. * Rolled-out in-store printing system for rack top signage, for savings of $300K in '06, $500K in '07. The new system made possible sign printing in-store. Wrot e sporting goods industry vendor POP standards, resulting in all in-store market ing elements including banners, wall graphics, fixture signage and posters being standardized to support proprietary store brand. All sporting goods vendor part ners participated. Created successful retail fixtures, POP and environments for Nike, Reebok, Under Armor, adidas, Champion, Russell. * Created two successful private-label in-store marketing strategies (Smith's Wo rkwear & Everlast), with design criteria, POP and shops for rollout to other ret ailers. * Created and negotiated vendor-supported POP and fixture shop program resulting in $1.2M (fixtures) and $800K (POP) a year in partner investment in '05 and $1. 8M & $1.2M in '06. All 11 brand partner programs had sales increases from 3% v/s (-2%), (Penguin) to 56%. (Underarmour). This resulted in a capital budget cut of $600K, while increasing investment in stores.

Musicland / Best Buy * 10400 Yellow Circle Drive, Minnetonka, MN 55343 Vice President of Visual Merchandising and Category & Concept R&D 3/02 to 6/03

Executive Committee Member. Led visual merchandising, store design, store planni ng and research & development for 1400 Musicland stores in Sam Goody, Suncoast a nd Media Play formats, also created R&D opportunities for Best Buy. * Directed store capital programs, working with mall, marketing & vendor partner ships. Designed and completed 49 Sam Goody stores, (Build-out cost under $100 p er sq., decrease of construction time by 21 days). Created a modular store forma t, completing 11 Suncoast stores resulting in a different branded look through t he use of product placement, marketing elements and finish changes only. * R&D directed relationship with vendor community and projected market needs thr ough analysis, developing enterprise-wide categories and concepts to broaden mar ket scope. Created store/shop concepts including: "Atomic Living", "Game Store", & "Rising Sun", "Super Heroes", and "Fast and Furious". * Cut overall printing costs by $2M and created an import program, cutting fixtu re costs by 39%. Kids / Babies / Toys "R" Us * 461 From Road, Paramus, NJ 07652 Corporate Director of Apparel Planning & Presentation 1/96 to 2/02 Executive Committee Member. Store planning and visual merchandising for Kids "R " Us, Babies "R" Us, and Toys "R" Us soft lines. Directed store design, interior layouts and fixtures, signage, display, seasonal shops, decor and new prototype s. Supervised CAD designers, an in-store marketing staff, visual merchandisers, store opening and field instructors. * Designed and executed new concept stores for Babies "R" Us, designed Toys "R" Us Combo and Kids "R" Us new concept, rolling out over 100 stores in each format nationwide per year. Designs were inclusive of fixtures, layout, signage, grap hics, hardware, custom finishes and carpet. * Successfully negotiated liaison with outside vendors including Motherworks, le d vendor-supported program resulting in 3M of funding per year, with Nike, Reebo k, Levi's, Oshkosh, Carters, Disney, Lee. Lady Foot / Kids Foot Locker (Kinney Athletic Corp.) * 233 Broadway, NY, NY 1027 9 Senior Brand Manager of VM/Director of Retail Environments 2/ 91 to 1/96 Created Visual Merchandising for Lady Foot Locker, adding responsibility for the following Kinney companies: Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Going to the Game!, Kinney Shoes, Basics, & Footquarters. * Managed multi-million dollar budget supporting vendor marketing, signage, fixt ures, store design & layout, seasonal merchandising programs, VM philosophy and execution for approximately 2400 stores in 7 formats. * Negotiated multiple vendor-supported monthly programs with major vendors inclu ding Nike, Reebok, Keds, adidas, Puma, Champion, Jogbra, with over 100 programs negotiated. Abraham & Straus (Allied-Federated) * 422 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Director of Visual Presentation 1/89 to 1/91 Executed window and int erior display shops, cosmetic promotions & special events. Managed the restorati on for the flagship location with the Brooklyn Downtown Preservation Committee, receiving "Best in Brooklyn" award. * Supervised renovations, floor plans, fixture design, sourcing, buying, & budge ts. Managed vendor-supported marketing, signage, fixtures, store design & layout , seasonal merchandising programs. Lord and Taylor (May Company) * 424 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10018 Director of Production for Visual Merchandising 1/86 to 1/89 Direc

ted visual displays for the 5th Avenue store, including window and interior disp lay & capital projects. Managed weekly 30 window changes, and seasonal shops thr oughout the store, including Lord & Taylor's famous Holiday windows, including b udgeting, staffing, design and execution, working with in-house, and consultant staff. Won "Best Windows in NYC" 2 years running. * Managed vendor-supported marketing, signage, fixtures, store design and layout , as well as seasonal merchandising programs, VM philosophy and execution. * Created, in partnership with Ralph Lauren Home and DKNY, the first ever shop c oncepts for each. Created additional shops with fashion, home, cosmetic and hous eware vendors throughout the store. * Managed twice-yearly sets of model rooms, working with various designers. Rece ived press coverage: The New York Times, The Daily News & Women's World, and cov erage on NPR and network TV. Planned and executed weekly cosmetic launches, incl uding introductions of "Red", "Elizabeth" and "Obsession". Professional Affiliations: Retail Design Institute (Member), Chain Store Age (Ed itorial Board Member), National Association of Fixture Manufacturers (NASFM) (Ad visor), VM +SD (Editorial Board Member), "Store of the Year" VM/SD (Judge) Personal Affiliations: Chinese Children Adoption International (Member & Fundrai ser), Parents of Chinese Children (Member), Heritage Chorale Oak Park (Choral Me mber), the United Way (Fundraiser) Former Personal Affiliations: Gilda's Club NY (Volunteer '03-'06), Habitat for H umanity NY & VA (Volunteer '03-'08), Stonewall Chorale, NY (Choral Member '86-'0 2), One Voice Chorus Minneapolis (Choral Member '02-'03) Education: Associate Degree (Theater Design) UT Austin, TX. B.A. (English) Mount St. Mary, Manchester, NH. References available upon request.