On the evening of Monday, October 14th, in New York’s elegant Rainbow Room, the air was abuzz with excitement. The luminaries of retail were gathered for a dinner to honor Mary Dillon, the CEO of Foot Locker and the groundbreaking former CEO of Ulta Beauty and other major retailers. The event kicked off the 2024 Baker Retailing Center and RLC Global Forum CEO Summit, where Dillon would receive the Retail Excellence Award.
The Baker Retailing Center has now achieved its 21st year. The event marked the third time the Center has given the Baker Retailing Center and RLC Global Forum Retail Excellence Award. Past recipients were famed fashion designer Tory Burch and former Estee Lauder CEO Leonard Lauder. “You’re in very good company,” Jay Baker (former President and Director of the Kohl’s Corporation and founder of the Baker Retailing Center) said, smiling at Mary Dillon, “and they’re in very good company.”
“I am astounded by what she has accomplished,” Baker went on, “and I wish her the best of luck with Foot Locker.” Baker also noted that Mary is involved with several philanthropic causes, in which he said he and his wife Patty are strong believers.
One Of the Most Powerful Women in Business
RLC Global Forum chair Panos Linardos said that through partnership with the Baker Retailing Center, the RLC Global Forum aims “to honor leaders whose impact extends beyond their companies and leaves a lasting influence on the retail landscape.” He named Mary Dillon as one such leader, saying, “Her legacy is one of transformation, innovation, and purposeful leadership qualities that continue to drive our industry forward.”
Jennifer Davis, Partner at Bain Capital, who has known Mary Dillon for over a decade shared a fun fact: “I remember being absolutely captivated by Mary during a luncheon when she was honored as Mother of the Year in 2014. Back then, among my female Goldman Sachs colleagues, she was our ‘secret girl crush’,” she joked.
Jennifer praised Dillon’s remarkable professional journey, tracing it through pivotal roles at iconic companies including Pepsi, McDonald’s, US Cellular, Ulta Beauty, and today, Foot Locker. “It’s no surprise that Mary has repeatedly been named to Fortune’s list of the most powerful women in business,” she said.
In the eight years that Dillon ran Ulta Beauty, Davis said, she increased revenue from under $3 billion to nearly $9 billion, grew the store base from 1,200 to over 2,220, and boosted the market cap from around $2 billion to over $18 billion. And in 2022 when Dillon took the helm of Foot Locker, she became one of only three female CEOs to lead a Fortune 500 company.
Davis characterized Dillon as “a brand builder with a focus on genuine connection with her customers, employees, and vendors,” and said she fostered a culture of respect and learning at her businesses.
Davis noted that Dillon has achieved all this coming from humble beginnings. She told how the accomplished CEO grew up as one of six children, who opted to commute to the University of Illinois at Chicago and paid her own way by waitressing, cleaning apartments, and tutoring. “Her determination and hard work were instrumental in shaping her educational and her professional journey. Today, creating opportunities remains at the core of her ethos,” Davis said.
A Winning Retail Philosophy
In Dillon’s remarks, she elaborated on the extraordinary self-made career path that Davis had mentioned. Dillon said it was “pretty incredible” to her that having grown up in a blue-collar, immigrant neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side she had become a CEO, “let alone be recognized by the Wharton School.”
Dillon shared insights into her retail philosophy. “Anybody who thinks that brick and mortar is dead is wrong,” she said. “It’s the vast majority of sales still going through. But importantly, you have to be great at it all. You have to have your stores be current and fresh, and you have to be a great omnichannel retailer.”
Foot Locker prioritizes listening to its store teams and learning from them, she said, because that is where the majority of the commerce takes place. “They have the best insights every day about what’s working and what’s not working. Having the humility to listen, learn, and adapt from their perspectives and insights, I think is one of our keys to success.”
Employing as many people as Foot Locker does—nearly 50,000—is a “huge responsibility,” Dillon said. “I believe we play a special role in the creation of jobs, skills, and careers. So to me, the pursuit of being the strongest retailer that we can be… is critically important because it’s going to help us continue to support this job creation industry, and the ecosystem, and keep it thriving.”
Overall, the evening served to paint a portrait of an exceptional American retailing giant. It was an event sure to be remembered for years to come.