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Barb Levy ’77 is featured in USA Today for her contributions to the phenomenal success of the nation’s fastest-growing company.
Barb Levy '74
The newspaper spotlights Levy, a foremost merchandising expert, for her role as senior strategy advisor at the discount fashion website Ideeli, which is ranked No. 1 on the Inc. Magazine list of the nation’s fastest-growing companies this year.
Levy, the former executive vice president of Ross Stores Inc., New York, N.Y., and longtime buyer and executive for Macy’s, advises Ideeli CEO Paul Hurley and the merchandising team on strategies for vendor and brand engagement and leads the company in building relationships across a portfolio of top brands.
USA Today (“Ideeli Flash-Sale Site Sells High Fashion for Less,” Nov. 17) describes some of the designer names that customers will find on the site and explains how Ideeli (pronounced “ideally”) takes the practice of “flash sales” a step further, featuring sales on as many as 40 designers at a time across many categories including men’s and women’s clothing and home goods.
Ideeli was launched in 2007, and Levy joined the team in 2010. In the USA Today article, she describes the differences between being a buyer and executive at a retailer like Macy’s earlier in her career and at Ideeli. She says everything moves much more quickly and that decisions about what to feature for the season are made a few months or even weeks—rather than a year—ahead of time.
Levy was executive vice president for Ross from 1993 to 2007. With Macy’s from 1988 to 1993, she rose from vice president/divisional merchandise manager to senior vice president/general merchandise manager. Levy began her career in the executive trainee program at L. Bamberger, Inc. of Newark, N.J., which was consolidated with Macy’s New York in 1988.
Levy, a Lafayette trustee since 1998, has been chair of the board’s Committee on Student Life and member of the Committee on Audit since 2008. She recently served as chair of the Working Group on Greek Life and Campus Community. Levy has served as president of her class since 2002.
Levy graduated from Lafayette with a B.A. in psychology, magna cum laude. She and her husband, Joseph Hollander, have two daughters, Rachel ’11 and Alyssa ’14.
Levy is a board member of Center for Holocaust, Human Rights, and Genocide Education, Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, N.J., and a student mentor for the Boys and Girls Club, Asbury Park (N.J.) High School. She served from 2003 to 2011 as a member of the board and executive committee of Temple Beth Ahm, Aberdeen, N.J.