A retail-industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience in corporate executive recruitment, operations, merchandising, marketing, and e-commerce, Judy Neuman is currently a partner at Villeneuve Associates, a boutique, retained executive-search firm with offices in Seattle and New York. The firm’s exclusive focus is on the consumer sector and crosses all disciplines within the retail, restaurant, and e-commerce arenas, specializing in senior management and board placements.



Prior to joining Villeneuve Associates, Judy spent seven years as a partner at Maveron Venture Capital (co-founded by Starbucks’ chairman Howard Schultz and venture capitalist Dan Levitan), a firm with funds exceeding $600 million for investment in consumer companies. While there, she led investments in early-stage companies and through her board work helped to guide business strategy and recruit the talent required to successfully scale these organizations.



From 1990 to 1999, Judy held a variety of executive positions at Eddie Bauer. Among her accomplishments was the creation and management of Eddie Bauer’s online channel as well as leadership of the online strategy for the Spiegel Group, which then included Eddie Bauer, the Spiegel Catalog, and Newport News. (The Spiegel Group was a subsidiary of Otto Versand, the largest catalog company in the world.) Neuman also held an advisory role in the development of the online strategy for Crate and Barrel, then a sister company of the Spiegel Group.



Earlier in her career, Judy co-founded and served on the board of shop.org, a knowledge exchange for e-retailers, which eventually broadened its reach to multi-channel companies when it became a division of the National Retail Federation.



Judy has been a featured speaker at industry conferences and has been quoted in national publications such as Time, Business Week, and the Wall Street Journal. She has served on the board of directors of lucy activewear, Kinetix Living, Auctionpay, Babystyle, and Cranium. A current advisory board member for Phix, she also is a Wexner fellow and holds a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach.