Kurt Staelens

Kurt Staelens focuses on strategic cost transformation, data-driven merchandising and marketing, and digital and omnichannel commerce. Combining his consulting past with Chief Merchandising and CEO roles at major publicly traded retailers, Mr. Staelens has more than 30 years of experience in retail.

Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Staelens was the lead partner of PwC/Strategy&’s Retail and Digital Commerce consulting practice focusing on digital commerce, store-based fulfillment, advanced integrated planning and data-driven merchandising and marketing. Mr. Staelens was honored with the PwC Partner of the Year award for realizing a $1 billion cost-saving project at the U.S. telecommunications market leader.

Before this, Mr. Staelens was Group President for Home, Mattress, Footwear & Jewelry at Sears Holdings Company. Prior to that, he held roles such as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Macintosh Retail Group, VP of Sales & E-business at Belgacom, CEO of Benelux at Neckermann.com and Founder and CEO of Proxis.com, among others.

Relevant Experience:

• Led several retail omnichannel transformations delivering rapid and sustainable profit improvements
• Led a $1.7 billion IPO, closed $160 million in debt and equity refinancing for a publicly traded retailer and closed several M&A transactions, such as the $900 million divestment of the Craftsman brand
• Founder of the Benelux Ecommerce market leader; sold the company to a Fortune 20 company