The Voice of Retail Strong Roots: Fostering a Foundation of Resilience
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
Roots’ Chief Financial Officer, Mona Kennedy, is coming out of the pandemic with renewed appreciation for the company’s built-in resilience.
From the front lines to the head office, Roots’ company culture champions agility and values their people as their greatest asset. I sit down with Mona in this episode of The Voice of Retail podcast to talk in-depth about how this and other strategies have propelled Roots through the past eighteen months.
Having assumed her position at Roots only a month before the pandemic hit North America, Mona has faced her baptism-by-fire with ingenuity, preparation and determination in uncertain times. Calling on both her personal experience with teamwork and professional experience at other iconic Canadian brands, Mona offers insight on her approach to retail in the pandemic and Roots beyond lockdowns.
Mona is a well-rounded finance executive with significant experience in strategy, sales, marketing & trade spend. She has extensive experience in budgeting, forecasting, M&A, divestitures, restructuring, risk management, investor relations, IT implementation and strategy development & execution. She has a solid track record for delivery and building trust at Board and C-levels by consistently exceeding business goals through strong stakeholder focus, superior team leadership and collaboration, and keen business acumen.
Mona is a CPA who holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen's University.
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I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!
Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!
Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur. He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career.
Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.
Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.
Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer. If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.
Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.