Kate Buggeln

Biography:

As a Governing Board member, Kate Buggeln helps lead the Business Council for Peace (www.bpeace.org), a U.N. affiliated organization helping women in regions of conflict and post-conflict build businesses to sustain their families and strengthen their abilities to foster peace. Present projects are underway in Afghanistan where Kate has led several missions and Rwanda where she last visited in the Fall of 2005.

Kate is also a retail and consumer-focused industry executive with over 20 years track record of establishing new businesses and growing mature ones, working in large to mid-size corporate, start-up, and more recently, in not-for-profit environments. One of Kate’s recent consulting projects was leadership development the Afghan Women’s Business Federation board in Kabul, Afghanistan. Presently, Kate is a member of the Board of Directors for Circles Inc., Boston based experiential marketing company servicing Fortune 500 companies and Dress Barn Inc. (DBRN), one of the nation's leading value priced women's specialty retailers.

During her tenure as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Coach Inc. (COH), Kate held responsibility for growth and consumer strategies and managed the direct marketing, Internet and licensed businesses. Prior Kate was President of Boo.com, during its U.S. re-launch as a fashion internet site. And earlier, as a consultant with Coopers & Lybrand and the LakeWest Group, Kate worked with industry leading companies such as Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, CVS Pharmacy, Sesame Street, Gucci, J. Crew, L.L. Bean, and Harley Davidson, among other notables. Kate began her career in the Executive Training Program at Bloomingdales Department Stores.

Kate has been featured in a variety of international and industry publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The International Herald Tribune and The London Times. She has appeared on radio and television programs including CNN, CBS Nightly News and the BBC.

Kate has been a guest speaker at MIT and the business schools of Columbia, Fordham and Harvard Universities and holds a B.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

A very special testimonial:

"Karen Humphries Sallick is the best interviewer I've had the pleasure of working with over the past 20 years. Her preparation is impeccable, and her enthusiasm contagious. 'Embracing the Journey' is a fabulous program, so much needed at this time in history."
- Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of
"Inner Peace for Busy People" and "Saying YES to Change"