Gems of wisdom

With backgrounds in the arts and sciences, these three industry pros share lessons they’ve learned on their path to success.

By Joyce Kauf

From left: Maren Rosen, Ann Lange, Rebecca Foerster.

Maren Rosen
Vice president of merchandising, bridal, jewelry and findings
Stuller, Inc.

In an industry dominated by bridal jewelry, it’s fitting that Maren Rosen was recruited for her first job at Stuller, Inc. via her wedding announcement.
   “I got a call for an interview when I was on my honeymoon,” says Rosen. A vice president at the Lafayette, Louisiana-based diamond jewelry manufacturer read the announcement in a local paper and was impressed with Rosen’s retail and merchandising experience in New York City. She started in sales, and after six months, she was promoted to bridal merchandising.
   Rosen graduated from Loyola University in New Orleans with a degree in violin performance. The discipline of playing the violin has carried over into her life and career: “When you’re playing in a symphony, you have to trust all of the musicians around you. They all bring different talents to the table,” she points out.
   While in college, she showed a “very different side” than music: an interest in fashion, retail and visual merchandising. After moving to New York, she recalls, “I realized that I had to learn all aspects of retail, especially production, in order to succeed.”
   Rosen worked in production at Club Monaco and Alice + Olivia, then landed a job in merchandising at Ralph Lauren that exposed her to the “technical nuts and bolts of production, manufacturing, sourcing and marketing. I loved it, loved it, loved it.”
   Although she can’t identify any specific mentors, she points to “two of the best bosses in my entire life” as inspirations for her management style. “They valued and respected their employees and encouraged them to excel. Every day, I think of how they would handle something.”
   Rosen can’t think of any advice she’d have given her younger self, admitting, “My ego was so strong that I don’t think I would have listened to anything.” However, a “humiliating” interview was a pivotal moment. “I decided I would never treat people like that. Cultivating relationships is the most rewarding experience for me. I’m beyond ecstatic to be connected to such talented people who make it happen every day.”

Ann Lange
Senior vice president, executive director, jewelry
Doyle

Auctions hold a special attraction for Ann Lange. “I love the rhythm of the auction sale,” says the former dance student. “There is a beginning, middle and end — just like a theatrical production.”
   Lange grew up in the jewelry industry; her great uncle founded a jewelry store in Providence, Rhode Island, and it is still family-run. But Lange had other plans than to join the family business. After graduating from Boston University with a major in French, she moved to New York and studied dance for several years.
When she was 28, though, “I recognized I needed a career and decided to study at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA).” After completing the institute’s Graduate Gemologist (GG) program, she worked for a small family business on the Bowery and then got a job with estate jeweler Fred Leighton, which she describes as a “dream come true.”
   But it was at Sotheby’s that she had her “aha” career moment. “I remember going in one weekend and looking at the jewelry, and I just knew I was in my element,” says Lange, who eventually served as vice president and director of the Arcade Fine Jewelry division at the auction house.
“Auctions are very academically and creatively satisfying. You have to do your homework, collect the pieces and create the catalogue,” she says. One of her favorite parts of the process is establishing close relationships with clients, a trait she learned from her father, Harry Limer, whom she considers her mentor. He also took her to her first auction — at Doyle in New York.
   Lange has become more comfortable trusting her gut when evaluating jewelry, and she points to a guiding principle that has served her well over the years: “Soak up as much knowledge as you can. The learning process never ends.”

Rebecca Foerster
Executive vice president of strategic planning and marketing
Leo Schachter

“I always knew I was going to be a doctor,” explains Rebecca Foerster. She was pre-med at Pace University when reality struck. “I realized if I pursued medicine, it would be at least 10 years before I had a balanced life, which included a family. So I opted for an alternative.” But after six months of studying optometry, she decided she wanted a career in business. Then came another big revelation: “I was summa cum laude and couldn’t understand why no one wanted to hire me. But I had no skills.”
After a series of entry-level jobs, she landed in advertising, eventually managing the Estée Lauder account at AC&R, earning an MBA from the Lubin School of Business at Pace and then going on to hold senior positions in several prestige beauty firms. Working at these companies, she discovered her destiny as a strategic marketer: “I realized I had an intuition about trends and consumer desires, along with the business acumen to identify opportunities in the marketplace.”
Her initial job in the jewelry industry was at Frederick Goldman. She was recruited by Jonathan Goldman, who became her first mentor and adviser in the industry. Foerster stresses the necessity of having a mentor. “It is important to stay connected at a higher level in the organization, because in any specific role, you don’t work in a silo.”
Early in her career, she admits, she didn’t realize that the industry’s concept of marketing tended to focus on the immediate sale, rather than brand-building. As an outsider, she brought in new sensibilities. “I knew all the parts of the marketing mix.... I learned that it is okay to take the best practices from your previous work experience and tweak them to the mind-set of the jewelry industry. If you show return on investment and make people proud of what they are putting into the market, you can make a big impact.”

Image (left to right): Maren Rosen, Stuller Inc.; Ann Lange, Doyle; Rebecca Foerster, Leo Schachter

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2017. To subscribe click here.

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