“A Pioneering Problem-Solver”

Angela Poppe, CFO, Icon Luxury Group, brings a can-do attitude to the business. Rather than being conservative and shutting down during the pandemic, Angela was aggressive about how the company can continue safely doing business, ensuring that they can achieve great heights by striving towards getting the work done. The apparel business has many high-powered women merchants, and the company has benefitted from having Angela represent Icon in negotiations with these organizations. In addition, Angela acts as a role model within the organization for the young female associates showing them how a knowledgeable, level-headed woman can be a “C” suite member in a company with its owners all made up of men.

"Our team is composed of industry experts with over 30 years experience in high end fashion, cross-border logistics and designer wholesale trading. We take pride in building lasting relationships with each of our clients as a trusted supplier for major retailers & e-tailers in the US and around the world. With offices in NY, Canada and Italy we are able to efficiently service customers worldwide"

For Angela, her role model is her female CFO, Carol at the first workplace, who taught by example. Carol was a great mix of being strong while compassionate and taught Angela some valuable lessons about separating work from personal life and prioritizing both. “Under her management I was able to explore various departments within the organization. This role was vital in my understanding of the complete business process from purchase to shipment.”

Angela is always trying to problem solve and make the business better. For a privately owned, medium-sized company, this means one needs to operate outside normal job boundaries. So whether it is finding new financial vehicles, helping explore new software, or help in human resources, Angela is there and never says something can’t be done. Often the CFO is not client interfacing, but at Icon, they have Angela interface with their clients because she is a problem solver and can directly find a mutually beneficial solution with the clients.

“In our arena of business, we make lemonade out of lemons. We satisfy our luxury partners on both ends of our business taking in product in unorganized, bulk shipments then have it leave our warehouse in pristine condition,” says Angela. “The financial acumen to keep track of shortages, improper invoices, and substitutions and the have that all make sense going to our clients is what we make happen every week.” The company is making substantial strides to improve its ERP and WMS systems to help facilitate anticipated growth by moving to Blue Cherry. This new software system should provide added visibility and well as streamlining operational procedures.

Advising the young leaders, Angela says, “If you want to be a traditional CFO those days are over. You need to have a 360-degree understanding of the business & be a problem solver. Protecting your company’s assets, but at the same time “asking the next question.” Be involved with clients and business partners is part of the solution.”

Icon considers themselves fortunate that their business has rebounded quite nicely from Covid and has many new opportunities. They are growing in different segments of the business and need to manage profitability expectations from the different segments. In addition, allocating resources to new or expanding businesses is exciting. With layered in the licensed businesses to their traditional third-party business, they can grow business with their existing client base servicing more of their needs. “With implementation of Blue Cherry, we are able to now understand and track our ownership better allowing quicker, more accurate shipments to go to our clients.”

Angela says that many companies in the wholesale and retail industry will be defined by how they handled themselves during the pandemic. “We financially weathered the storm through quick, nimble, well informed decisions. We limited our inventory quickly, communicated religiously with our accounts, and when the business started to show signs of recovery, drove it quickly,” she elucidates. Unless Angela was an aggressive, business getting CFO this would have been a struggle. However, her strategy of taking calculated risks based on relationships with accounts and their financial partners allowed Icon to be in a market leading position post Covid. IE