CHANDRA SHEKHAR K

Forbes Russia's No.1 Fashion Retailer — US$1 Billion retail across 72 categories in 625 own stores (Fashion Apparel, Underwear, Hosiery, Footwear & Accessories). Gloria Jeans & Gee Jay brands supported by vertical sourcing from 6 Asian countries, importing 220M+ units annually from Uzbekistan, China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan & India.

Provide executive leadership for 48-person PD & Technical Design team & collaborative sourcing teams across multiple sourcing offices — key board member for supply chain strategy formation and business sourcing initiatives.

Creative Direction & Brand Stewardship

Defined seasonal creative direction — themes, colour palettes, and key silhouettes — for the 16–25 target segment across men's and women's categories; translated Moscow leadership's creative vision, designer sketches, and European trend research into commercially viable, market-ready collections

Led a tricultural creative engine of 11 designers (Chinese, Russian, and European) supported by 12 PD specialists, 2 PD costing specialists, 6 fabric & colour experts, and 12 tech designers — orchestrating an 8–10 month creative calendar from concept through to store

Negotiated SKU architecture and assortment strategy with collaboration merchandising and designer leadership, balancing creative ambition with commercial imperatives across 1,500+ RTW and 4,000+ fashion accessory SKUs — contributing 60% of the US$1B retail sales at larger format retail scale

Instituted weekly product innovation meetings and creative checkpoints across the 48-person team, building preventive systems that preserved design integrity from initial concept through factory-floor execution

Oversaw fabric mill partnerships, wash development, and CMF sign-off — approving colour, material, and finish details at the trim level to protect brand consistency at scale

Strategic Material Cost Governance & Pre-Sales Commercial Support

Partnered with merchandising, sourcing and sales leadership to standardise fabric & accessory development evaluation — resolving material specification, cost and lead-time risks during seasonal client price negotiations during product development across 72 categories and 220M+ annual units

Built a group-wide material cost benchmark and full garment costing system spanning 5 sourcing countries — flagging abnormal cost variances early and proposing board-level profit-protection plans before margins eroded

Unified material technical standards and risk-control rules across China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Hong Kong and India — cutting repeated material shortages and supply delays at the fabric and trim level

Optimised product development cost databases and costing standards to protect gross-profit targets, continuously recalibrating benchmarks against market-driven raw-material volatility

Sample Centre Management & Efficiency Improvement

Held full strategic charge of PD & sample development centres across 5 sourcing offices — setting sample SOPs, staffing plans and delivery KPIs aligned to the 8–10 month creative calendar

Analysed recurring sample quality and schedule issues, formulating corrective plans that lifted first-sample approval rate from 58% → 91% and cut internal FIT rejection from 41% → 7%

Controlled sample development costs end-to-end — eliminating redundant work and consolidating sampling spend across 5 sourcing offices to lower indirect operating expenses

Operational Scale & Commercial Leadership

Led 5-country sourcing office build-outs across China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and India — establishing PD services, recruiting local teams, and training supply chain staff in each market

Directed 15,000+ AW per annum garment graphics output with streamlined fashion concept communication between HQ designers and Asian PD teams

Established local design submission and FIT/PP approvals — achieving 66% supply chain lead time reduction, 52% staffing and operational cost reduction, and colour/fabric approvals within 48 hours

Deployed Product Development strategy, governance, and quality systems across all categories — including Innovation Process Management (IPM), crisis management, and PD talent pipeline development throughout the region

Technology & Strategic Initiatives

Strategic team key member to design PLM software workflow (2012–2013) — architected the digital backbone connecting design, development, and production across the enterprise; enabled cross-country collaboration across 5 sourcing offices and streamlined product data management for 72 categories

Pioneered AI-integrated creative workflows (2024–present) — deployed generative AI tools for concept development, trend forecasting, and virtual prototyping; trained cross-functional teams on AI-assisted product creation, accelerating trend-to-market translation while maintaining creative control

Key member in HQ relocation from Moscow to Dubai (2025–2026) — strategised the transition, designed office layout, restructured teams, and established lean communication protocols from HQ to suppliers

Strategic fashion product development partner of New Look UK — a trend-driven trading company with US$350 million annual turnover — collaborating with international fashion brands across the US, UK, South Africa, Australia, and China. Owner of Australian women's fashion label Forever New with 260 retail stores across UAE & Asia. Drove end-to-end product development from concept and design handover through to bulk shipment, working directly with international design teams to translate seasonal fashion trends into commercially viable collections.

Led 26 employees across five fashion product divisions: Formal Wear, Wovens, Outer Wear, Casual Jersey, and Denims — covering Women's, Men's, and Kids categories — for NEWLOOK (UK), Mim's (France), Woolworths & Edcon (South Africa), and Forever New (Australia). Managed the full product development lifecycle — from interpreting designer sketches and trend boards through fabric sourcing, pattern engineering, fit approval, and pre-production sign-off.

Fashion Product Development & Technical Achievements

Established Pattern FIT Blocks for soft lines, reducing internal FIT sample rejection from 36% → 3% — dramatically accelerating speed-to-market for trend-sensitive fashion categories

Redefined grading rules across all departments based on UK body metrics — adopted globally for the Mother Brand New Look, ensuring consistent fit and silhouette across international markets

Built Denim Programme from the ground up — developed and organised product development workflow across China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh with a team of 12 associates, covering washes, finishes, and fit for the fashion denim category

Trained 380+ apparel manufacturing vendors on continuous product development improvement across 4 countries, accelerating PD process FIT approval adoption from 56% → 73%

Collaborated directly with international fashion design teams across UK, France, South Africa, and Australia — translating seasonal creative direction into production-ready tech packs while preserving design intent

Premier manufacturing group — 15 factories, 20,000 employees, US$500 million setup producing full-spectrum fashion garments for European and US labels: Marks & Spencer, Esprit, Calvin Klein, Liz Claiborne, Jones New York, Philip Van Heusen, and Polo, among others. Managed technical operations across multiple factory locations with direct accountability for quality systems, process engineering, and buyer compliance.

Operational & Technical Achievements

Streamlined PD sample output — delivered +38.94% increase through systematic process re-engineering by Dec 2005

Re-engineered the PD workflow achieving a 55% lead time reduction — from 9 days → 5 days from proto pattern development to sample shipment

Implemented SQP (Standard Quality Procedures) across all factories with 2% target defect rate — brought rejection average down from 5.2% → 2.4% for Jan–Dec 2005

Redefined innovative pattern making standards, maintaining an error level of just 0.36% average through Dec 2005

Strategic Material Cost Governance & Sample Centre Management

Standardised fabric & accessory development evaluation used in product development workflow across 15 factories — resolving material specification, cost and lead-time risks during pre-sales price negotiations with Marks & Spencer, Esprit, Calvin Klein and Liz Claiborne

Built a group-wide material cost benchmark and full garment costing system, spotting abnormal costs early and proposing profit-protection plans to group management

Unified material technical standards and risk-control rules across factory locations — cutting recurring material shortages and supply delays at the trim and fabric level

Held full strategic charge of sample development centres across factory locations — establishing sample SOPs, staffing plans and delivery KPIs matched to buyer growth targets

Analysed recurring sample quality and schedule issues, formulating corrective plans that raised first-sample approval rate from 44% → 78% and cut average sample development cost per style by 31%

Controlled sample development costs, eliminating redundant work and lowering indirect operating expenses across the PD function

Set team targets, KPIs and order planning & distribution rules across multi-factory production — establishing unified order-priority, urgent-order and escalation rules that balanced competing buyer demand against factory capacity

Management & Leadership

Led technical teams across 15 factory locations — harmonised quality standards, pattern engineering protocols, and sample approval processes to deliver consistent output regardless of factory maturity level

Championed a data-driven quality culture — introduced statistical defect tracking and root-cause analysis discipline, shifting the organisation from reactive inspection to proactive prevention across all production lines

Managed direct buyer relationships with premium international labels — served as the technical authority during factory audits, quality negotiations, and compliance reviews, building buyer confidence that secured repeat business

Designed and delivered capability-building programmes for factory technical teams — upskilling pattern makers, QC inspectors, and production supervisors in modern quality methodologies, creating a self-sustaining improvement engine

Balanced competing demands of 8+ international buyers simultaneously — each with distinct quality manuals, fit standards, and approval protocols — developing the multi-stakeholder management muscle that later scaled to 72 categories at Gloria Jeans

Gokaldas Images — one of India's largest apparel exporters at the time. Joined as the founding Product Development Head to build a new division from concept to full-scale operations.

Key Achievements

Established a new Product Development department for Men's Suits entirely from the ground up — recruited, trained, and led a team of 10 professionals, architecting all workflows, SOPs, and quality benchmarks from scratch

Expanded scope to direct Men's Formal Wear and subsequently Ladies Formal Wear divisions — managing in-house manufacturing setups alongside an extended network of subcontractors

Launched 2 new product lines within the first year, demonstrating rapid execution capability and entrepreneurial drive

Directed end-to-end product lifecycle — from first prototype through to final shipment — ensuring design integrity, cost targets, and delivery timelines across all divisions

Managed budget planning and fiscal oversight for the PD division, controlling sampling costs while scaling output to meet seasonal demand cycles

Fostered cross-functional collaboration between design, sourcing, production, and quality teams — establishing the PD department as the strategic bridge between creative vision and factory-floor reality

Instituted full garment costing systems and material cost benchmarks for the new division — enabling pre-sales price negotiation and early detection of abnormal material costs to protect margins

Ran the PD sample centre from scratch — defining sampling SOPs, staffing plans and delivery KPIs, and analysing recurring sample quality and schedule issues to raise pass rates and shorten cycles

Held end-to-end accountability for post-confirmation bulk orders — deploying multi-layer risk identification and escalation frameworks from cutting through finishing and packing to assure on-time, on-spec delivery

Promoted from the shop floor into a management role, taking full ownership of the sewing floor operations — the production heart of the factory. This role marked the transition from individual technical contribution to operational leadership.

Key Achievements

Managed complete sewing floor production with direct oversight of line supervisors, operators, and daily output targets — building foundational command of workforce management at scale

Optimised production line balancing and workflow sequencing to minimise bottlenecks — improved daily throughput through systematic observation and tactical reallocation of resources

Enforced quality-at-source discipline on the floor — trained operators on in-line inspection techniques, reducing rework rates and downstream defect capture costs

Managed shift scheduling, attendance, and discipline for the sewing floor workforce — developing foundational people-management and operational leadership skills that became the bedrock of every team I've led since

Collaborated with pattern making, cutting, and finishing departments to synchronise upstream and downstream workflows — gaining holistic understanding of the garment production value chain

Delivered consistent on-time order fulfilment against tight seasonal deadlines — earning the trust to handle increasingly complex production runs for demanding buyers

The formative years — a 6-year deep-dive through four progressive roles that built an irreplaceable foundation of practical mastery. Every leadership decision I make today traces back to trade secrets learned on this floor.

Key Experience & Foundations Built

Designer — Created original garment sketches and technical flat drawings, translating creative concepts into production-ready specifications — developed an eye for proportion, silhouette, and design-to-production feasibility

Sewing Knowledge — Mastered every machine on the floor — single needle, overlock, flatlock, and specialised finishing equipment

Supervisor — Promoted within 3 years to oversee a team of operators — learned to balance production pressure with people, discovering that the best output comes from respected, motivated teams, not pushed ones

Pattern Maker — Mastered the art of translating 2D fabric into 3D garments — studied grain lines, ease allowances, and draping techniques; uncovered the trade secrets of fit that most executives never learn firsthand

Absorbed the unwritten rules of garment manufacturing — fabric behaviour under different needle tensions, how humidity affects stitching, why certain seams fail and others last — knowledge that cannot be taught in a classroom

Built an authentic credibility that no degree can confer — today, when I walk a factory floor or review a tech pack, I see what others miss because I've stood at every station along the production line

Gained first-hand grounding in material costing and fabric consumption at the cutting table — the seed of a life-long discipline in full garment costing and margin protection

Learned the sample-to-production cycle as a pattern maker — cutting, fitting and refining samples — the earliest practice of the pass-rate discipline behind modern sample centre management

Internalised quality-at-source and on-time order fulfilment — the foundational instinct for the bulk-order risk control and delivery assurance I would later formalise at scale

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