How Keds President Gillian Meek Climbed the Corporate Ladder

Keds President Gillian Meek talks at the brand’s headquarters in Waltham, Mass., about how she went from working in the hotel business to the shoe industry. “I learned a tremendous amount about customer service, about serving people’s needs [and] identifying what they needed,” she says in the above clip.

As part of FN’s “In Her Shoes” series, where we chronicle the daily lives and tips to success of the top female leaders in the industry, Meek shares what she has learned every step of the way. “It was in business school that I discovered my love of consumer products, and that’s how I got to footwear,” she says.

After graduate school, she spent 17 years in product creation at a variety of companies. “I also think it’s changing and it’s really innovative, and there are a lot of new players on the scene, which are keeping everybody on their toes,” she says of staying up with the ever-evolving business of shoemaking.

“But at the end of the day, it’s something that everybody needs — everybody needs a pair of shoes, in our case several,” says Meek of working at Keds.

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