Keven C. Wilder Senior Consultant

Keven Wilder specializes in helping retailers, large and small, develop winning marketing and merchandising strategies. Keven’s entrepreneurial background in specialty retail provides the expertise necessary to offer retailers innovative insights to grow their businesses and to help start-ups launch new retail concepts.

Keven was the founder and CEO of Chiasso, an award-winning cataloger and national chain of specialty gift stores which she launched in 1985. While Keven was CEO and chief merchant, Chiasso registered record mall sales per square foot and same store annual sales increases well above national averages. In addition, Keven’s creative flair in merchandise selection, marketing, graphics and store design resulted in numerous awards for the company and generated considerable media attention including an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey TV Show.

Since selling Chiasso in 1997, Keven has been consulting with specialty retailers on brand positioning, merchandising and marketing. Past assignments have included conducting a strategic assessment of a national chain of traditional men’s apparel stores, developing a new hospital gift store prototype for a national roll out and working with numerous start-up clients.

An honors graduate of Harvard University with a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, Keven has served as a Director of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association (IRMA). She was a contributor to Small Store Survival, a book co-authored by Arthur Andersen & Co. and IRMA. She also holds a BFA from Chicago’s School of the Art Institute.

Keven has a passion for working with entrepreneurs to help them realize their dreams. Devising new, creative retail experiences where consumers emotionally connect with the brand and open their wallets to buy is a challenge that continues to fascinate Keven twenty years after her retail debut.