Maryalyce Saenz

Experienced and goal-oriented leader with a proven track record of successfully leading teams in the largest privately held cannabis MSO and a Fortune 10 company. Skilled in driving profitable growth through innovation and process improvement. Experienced in overseeing omni-channel businesses and strategic initiatives that contribute to overall business unit success, including category management, business performance, vendor management, financial planning, and promotional strategies. Able to strike a balance between innovation, creativity, and fact-based analysis to consistently deliver impactful results.

Results-driven executive with extensive experience in strategic leadership and operational excellence. Proven track record in driving growth, optimizing processes, and fostering team collaboration. Exceptional skills in strategic planning, financial management, and stakeholder engagement. Adaptable and reliable, consistently achieving high-impact results in dynamic environments.

• Achieved [Result] through effectively helping with [Task].
• Supervised team of [Number] staff members.
• Collaborated with team of [Number] in the development of [Project name].

• Maryalyce is a pleasure to work with and exudes positivity and a great attitude with her team, her peers and cross functionally.
• The amount of progress and work she has done with her team is exceptional and has created a solid buying, planning and allocation foundation to build on for the future.
• While retail has fallen well short of both revenue and margin vs. STIP goal for 2023, Maryalyce has mitigated margin loss through thoughtful promotions while “clearing the vaults” on many occasions to keep inventories clean.
• She has been key in working with the analytics team to develop robust reporting in DOMO.
• Maryalyce’s work ethic and pride in all she does is second to none.

• Maryalyce’s biggest opportunity is delegation and accountability with her team. At times she inadvertently becomes the “doer” and not the leader. With the right support, I think her team needs to step up and take a lot of her plate or find the right people who will as her team’s responsibility will only grow.
• While buying, planning and direction has come a long way, visibility into the cultivation facilities and what product is coming down the pipeline and ensuring we have the right strategies in place in partnership with retail and wholesale needs to improve.
• Her team has started to spend more time in the field of late, and that partnership and support needs to continue in 2023 to ensure the stores needs are heard and met, as well as keep a pulse on the competition and market trends.
• High level product roadmap visibility has improved, but still opportunity to tie in training/pk, marketing and samples for all key launches. This needs to be non-negotiable.
• There are still many promo issues and item setup issues, largely due to the complexity of NAV processes. That said we need to work within the system we have to alleviate store stress.
• Apparel and accessory business has been a challenge and at times has been a complex problem for stores.

• Strengths
• Positivity & energy
• Building more cross functional relationships (Brett, Taylor, Mackie, Erika, Nate, Kara, Blevins)
• Stood up a “real” demand plan handover process, moving the ball forward on making financials (even though we didn’t make our sales / ebitda goals)
• GM rate expansion
• 1P penetration expansion
• Pivoted and revamped the team a few times based on needs of the business – and helped to further educate on what the team does
• Started standardizing key processes – demand plan handover, revamped business review templates, new product development, pricing file, delivery calendars / scheduling, new item setup, content management
• Supported launch of Magento
• Expanded all of our “greatest hits” across all markets – by and large with a few hiccups, went well in 2023
• Moved on under performers – and have seen the team
• Come up with creative solutions for headcount challenges – split apparel & accessories with Mike & Ro, improved profitability of that business with LDC RIF; secured alignment on temps for Steph’s team, moved on help for Ashley, moved Dee to Andre which kept him on the bus while also helping to unleash Dee – just wish I would have made those moves faster!
• Opportunities
• Delegation and accountability – although I really feel like this has improved in the last 90 days; direct reports have commented on it, I’m feeling it too; are you seeing the same?

• The VP of Merchandising Retail will plan, direct, coordinate and strongly influence the development and execution of sales, marketing and merchandising programs to lead creation of global merchandising strategies and align plans to create strategic long-range plan for products that deliver on financial targets and uphold brand positioning. This position ensures the successful implementation of merchandising strategies through strong collaboration with the Cultivation, Production, Retail and Marketing business partners. The incumbent collaborates with design and product development partners to meet costing targets on all products without compromising quality and is ultimately responsible for all merchandise selection to achieve Verilife retail sales and margin goals.
• Work with finance and head of retail to support all Verilife retail P&L budget and forecasting efforts.
• Lead the creation and successful implementation of all buying, demand planning, and allocation tools for the merchandising team to influence product POV during the development process
• Create by state-by-state strategies to maximize sales and margin with a heavy focus on Verilife house brands, such as “matter.”.
• Collaborate with cultivation and manufacturing partners to meet costing targets on all developed products without compromising quality.
• Work with the marketing team to inform, lead and launch new products, sales and events.
• Analyze vendor base to identify and execute 3rd party vendor partnerships to further maximize sales and gross margin while augmenting our house brand assortment.
• Create an “open to buy” strategy to ensure Verilife stores consistently stay on or ahead of trend with product innovation and newness.
• Analyze P&L reports for all Verilife retail and implement action plans for improvement as needed.
• Manage cross-functional team relationships on an on-going basis by providing direction on vision, strategy, and alignments to unify the team toward a common goal for Verilife.
• Provide leadership within the merchandising team through consistent training, development, and recognition.
• Partner with wholesale to create synergies within the market, understand business trends and ensure a consistent brand message is being portrayed by Verilife in product, pricing and promotions.
• Promote an environment that fosters respect for the ideas of others and supports ongoing collaboration to execute business strategies, and measures own success by the team’s success.

• Continue to build my knowledge of the category and business – spend more time in the market, in our stores, in our competition, identifying business and partnership (MSO) opportunities.
• Build a cohesive go to market strategy that maximizes sales and margin for both retail and wholesale. This includes product, price and (customer) promotional strategies along with quarterly reviews.
• Hire a strong leadership team, integrated across the VL and LW brands, with clear development and succession plans for key leaders. Delegate and hold the team accountable.

• Retail revenue and profitability was challenged in the year of 2024.
• 2024 Results
• Revenue $312M (-$36.6M to plan, -$13.8M to LY)
• Margin $169.1M (-$28.7M to plan, -$13M to LY)
• Operating Income $58.8M (-$16.9M to plan, -$13.1M to LY)
• Maryalyce needs to assert herself more with her findings from her analysis, learnings from store visits and cross functional partnerships to impact results in 2025.
• Maryalyce is a solid leader and a pleasure to work with and she has overall managed her team well, balancing development and delegation.
• Despite very tough revenue performance in retail, the performance from a 1st party sales perspective surpassed goals and expectations which helped reduce the need for 3rd party products yielding significant cash flow benefits. Related to this, I appreciate her rising to the challenge in 2024 managing 3rd party vendor payments, as this was not an easy task and proved to be a significant distraction and investment of her time.

• This includes merch assortment & brand rationalization, along with identifying new own brand opportunities.
• Optimize Verilife performance through vendor & assortment reviews and execution of 3P vendor agreements. Vendor agreements will target improving initial margin to 60% with key 3P partners. Execute agreements with 3-5 partners per market.
• Maximize 1P business through pricing and promotional review, partnering with cultivation & MIP as more of a “vendor”, providing them with product cost we need to see to be market competitive.
• Improve weekly / monthly P&L management. Launch product scorecard, vendor scorecard and sell through reporting
• Finalize “last mile” for new store concept - merchandising, including product displays, vendor samples / packaging, apparel & accessories.and underlying item setup projects (PIM / DAM, Content Cleanup)
• Continue to refine team structure and prioritization of 2023 hires. Begin the integration of LW markets into existing VL sales, pricing, promo, inventory management processes. Clarify ownership on 1P price & promo decisions and planning, and impact on margin management.
• Achieve Q4 YTG gap closure
• Visit each market 1x / quarter, with local market visited at least 1x / month to get closer to the customer, the stores, and competitive landscape.
• Revamp monthly deep dive meetings to focus on actionable, sales driving initiatives, including comp shop sharing between wholesale & retail.
• Finalize 2023 bottoms up, by market budget for wholesale & retail, facilitating decision on % utilization of cultivation facilities, including the development of a pricing & promotional strategy that will maximize sell through and margin.
• Revamp and simplify the merchandising operations processes in preparation for the Magento website launch. Remove duplicative steps and re-allocate work based on new team structure. Standardize menu merchandising across states.

• Delegate effectively to the team to eliminate bottlenecks and develop the team. Plan review time to ensure delegated tasks are clearly communicated, understood, and completed accurately and on time.
• Price: Develop Wholesale Sales and Pricing Strategy across all states (NY focus first)
• Product: Launch 1st Party house of brands in IL, and establish a roadmap for other states. Launch partnerships with OOS Caliva, CO brands
• Promotion: Revamp promotional strategy to reduce colleague and customer friction, supported with creative marketing
• Best in class OMNI channel shopping experience - Launch MAGENTO in IL: order online, kiosk & QR code self service, 1:1 with budtender
• Establish 3rd party vendors agreements to curate best in class assortment and increase margins - Cresco, Verano, Curaleaf, GTI, Ascend.
• Identify and hire talent to build a world class Merchandising Planning & Allocation team (Fill all open roles).
• Maximize and “ring the bell” for all new product and brand launches across all states (P3, CAM, HH, Blunts, Fusion, Verilife flower, etc.)
• Revamp CO pricing and promotional strategy to maximize sales and margin. Simplify the customer experience where possible by removing legacy pricing groups and pricing rules.
• Optimize the Maryland and New York AU opportunities and realize first sales in MD beginning in June. Build 1P and 3P product availability. Solidify partnerships in MD. Review & revise price / promo strategy.
• Ensure continued successful rollout of Magento across states and interim enhancements on livwell.com.
• Deliver on $10M in sales of apparel & accessories in 2023, while optimizing cost structure.

• Identify and hire talent to build a world class Merchandising Planning & Allocation team (Fill all open roles).
• Delegate effectively to the team to eliminate bottlenecks and develop the team. Plan review time to ensure delegated tasks are clearly communicated, understood, and completed accurately and on time. Keep the team focused on our “non negotiables”. Clarify roles & responsibilities between merchants and planners.
• Maximize and “ring the bell” for all new product and brand launches across all states (P3, CAM, HH, Blunts, Fusion, Verilife flower, etc.) Improve new product launch process through a series of in person sessions. Socialize launch process with executive team to increase the understanding of the “lift” to launch a new product correctly. Finalize 2024 roadmap execute q3 product launches.
• Institute pricing pulse check between retail & wholesale to maintain market-right retail & wholesale prices.
• Solidify Magento content update & maintenance process for existing and new states.
• Strengthen cross-functional partnerships with the CO & MI retail teams, as well as with marketing, IT and compliance teams through more in person, face to face interactions. (1 week / month in Chicago, 1 week / month in market visits).
• Implement an enterprise “OR” strategy that simplifies meetings with the goal of having 3 dedicated days of “working” time with the teams.
• Deliver on $10M in sales of apparel & accessories in 2023, while optimizing cost structure
• Optimize new product development process; clarify between true innovation and brand extensions. Build the 2024 new product roadmap along with a flavor rotation calendar for edibles and vapes. Launch HH in CO and MD prior to the end of year. and “ring the bell” for all new product and brand launches across all states (P3, CAM, HH, Blunts, Fusion, Verilife flower, etc.) This includes finalizing assortment by state to align with current and future retail and wholesale demand plans.
• Institute 3P tool for the pricing pulse check between retail & wholesale to maintain market-right retail & wholesale prices.
• Commercial team to achieve minimum $42M in revenue per month Retail ($30M)/Wholesale($12M). Wholesale strategic path to $40M/month in 2024. (specifically size NY opportunity for 2024)
• Reduce 3P purchases by ~$1M/month to improve cash flow and increase 1P penetration
• Build a new, refreshed plan for sales of apparel & accessories, including store sales goals by day / week to ladder up to a $10M business in 2024.

• AU launch in July for OH retail. Execute (and then refine) inventory, delivery, pricing and promotional strategies to maximize revenue and margin. Exceed 50% 1P penetration at retail consistently.
• Business realignment - Wholesale / Retail inventory splits with “retail first” plans in OH in July (AU launch), MA &PA by August, and define the strategy for IL and MD by end of q3. State specific goals for q3 are as follows: OH - 40.0%; MA - 45.0%; PA - 45.1%; IL - 44.6%; MD - 40.1%.
• Assortment planning and 3P inventory optimization - Review 1P assortments, identify q3 / q4 rationalizations and build initial 2025 roadmap. Implement aggressive retail promotional strategies that prioritize cash generation (at expense of margin rate) to catch up payments with the 20% of 3P vendors that generate 80% of sales. Prioritize efforts in CO, IL, and PA markets.
• Work with Marketing and IT/SteerCo. to fully implement Magento (images, content, promotional functionality) in IL and MD, in preparation for rollouts to future states.

• Develop and execute the plan to stabilize our technology systems and align the entire organization to one ERP and Ecommerce platform heading into 2025.
• Position the Company to achieve our retail revenue and first party penetration targets and wholesale sales objectives for Q4 and the 2025 plan. 1. Focus on improving standard costs and margin specifically in CO, MI and NY. 2. Deliver consistently on new 1P product launch goals. 3. Reduce 3P sku’s to align with 1P goals.
• Business realignment - Continue refining the wholesale/retail inventory splits and implement the “standard menu” (100% wholesale in stock on their menu to start the week) approach in “retail first” states (IL, OH, MA, PA) and “hybrid” states (MD). Specific state goals for q4 are as follows: OH - 56.0%; MA - 50.4%; PA - 45.1%; IL - 58.2%; MD - 50.0%.
• IL Retail action plans to hit Revenue and 1st Party targets with a heightened focus on Ottawa, North Aurora and Romeoville. Develop and execute improve new store relocation plans including a more accurate NSO ramp, a targeted 6 month marketing and promotional plan that leverages the GTM playbooks. Execute Romeoville, Newton and Buffalo new store openings.

• Implement end of year pricing tactics to achieve $75 AT. Deliver March AT of $75 ($74.71 rounded up) by driving Focus Store AT to $85 ($85.11 rounded) and balance of chain AT to $68 ($67.66 rounded)
• Simplify product allocations, finalizing direction on outside tool or continued use of current tools. Implement standard menu process that’s used in IL and MD in NY. All merchants allocating outside of LeafTrade (use automated inventory splits) in all states by the end of March.
• Negotiate favorable terms with top 3rd party product suppliers to achieve “out the door” GM of ~60%. Have initial JBP meetings / negotiations with at least 3 of the top 10 vendors by the end of March.
• Further develop and align on promo / traffic driving KPIs while continuing to simplify promos. Balance sales, margin, traffic to maximize margin $.
• Negotiate favorable terms with top 3rd party product suppliers to achieve “out the door” GM of ~60%. Have second JBP meetings with top 10 vendors including review of payment progress.
• Build out and implement a detailed open to buy tool that ties into the merchandising dashboard, cash flow forecast, and 3P vendor JBPs. Output is a google sheet that ties together 1) spend, 2) forecasted spend by vendor 3) actual spend, 4) tracking to cash flow, 5) timeliness of payments for top 20 priority vendors (those we met with on 3/27 - 4/1)
• Retail doors AT $75. (Increase in focus doors by 25%, balance of chain 10%)
• Define strategy and process for double / triple points offers, any other marketing promos (NSOs) - frequency, who owns comms, setup, etc
• New stores Newton, Buffalo and Solon all open and tracking to sales plan.

• Establish and grow strong relationships with LW and VL cross functional teams (retail, marketing, cultivation, MIP)
• Integrate and simplify LW and VL merchandising, planning, and allocation, and operations teams
• Hire merchandising and planning leadership positions, and further clarify roles and responsibilities as the team expands
• Build out career ladder / lattice framework for merchandising and planning which clearly articulates expectations and skills needed
• Launch quarterly development sessions, requiring personal / professional development goals from all direct reports

• Execute the 2023 merchandising, planning and allocation strategy in service of stability & simplification for our retail stores
• - Product: Establish assortment strategy and guardrails for 1P and 3P sku count and inventory investments
• This include simplifying the ordering and allocation processes by building out & enhancing allocation tools and demand hand overs
• - Price: Build a pricing strategy based on demand and the value of a product, reducing the use of the “keystone” pricing strategy
• This includes integration of wholesale pricing and demand planning into weekly, monthly, quarterly planning processes
• - Promotion: Revamp promotional strategy to reduce colleague and customer friction, supported with creative marketing
• Support retail expansion and store refreshes with localized assortment, vendor support, promotions and new product highlights

• Best in class OMNI channel shopping experience - Launch MAGENTO: order online, kiosk & QR code self service, 1:1 with budtender
• Build data driven site merchandising & in store visual merchandising processes to highlight key products & promotions
• Support IT with POS selection process targeting a 2024 launch

• Innovate/maximize Verilife and LivWell house brands sales and margins in both retail and wholesale channels with compelling marketing
• Establish 3rd party vendors agreements to curate best in class assortment and increase margins
• Partner with OOS brands in California, Colorado etc. to co-cultivate and co-manufacture with co-marketing in all states
• Maximize apparel and accessories business targeting $10M
• Support retail expansion and store refreshes with localized assortment, vendor support, promotions and new product highlights

• Achieve revenue STIP targets in retail and wholesale
• Acheive EBITDA STIP targets in retail and wholesale

• Develop direct reports and continue to refine the merch & planning org structure to provide clear career paths.
• Improve communication and cross functional partnerships.
• Partner with IT and analytics to align on one product hierarchy across states, and to simplify the buying and inventory allocation processes.
• Work with IT and consolidate both POS systems to 1 platform.

• Exceed Retail and Wholesale STIP Targets (Revenue and EBITDA).
• Achieve penetration/# of doors goal in Wholesale. (by state).

• Work closely with Merchandising, Cultivation, Manufacturing and Analytics on demand planning, product visibility, customer facing menus and proper allocation for retail and wholesale.
• Standardize demand planning and allocation tools & processes across all states, including the creation of an SOP library for all product, price and promotion activities.
• Execute HH, CAM and Binske partnerships.

• Work with Marketing and IT/SteerCo. to complete Magento roll out, ensuring all promotional functionality is consistent and available across all platforms (Magento, Jane, NAV).
• Refine pricing and promotional strategies to support traffic and loyalty goals for all retail doors.
• Develop and execute specific plans to drive additional revenue and profit in NY, MD, CO and IL Wholesale - # of Doors, AOS, Penetration and Deliveries.
• Retail AT to $75.

• Work with direct reports on 2024 MIT's setting and achieving clear "SMART" goals for the entire Merchandising & Planning Team
• Goal: Attain of 90% MIT completion rate to fully satisfy Accountability objective rating

• Work with Nate and Blevins to better understand cultivation best practices and their impact on assortment planning.
• Work with Kara & Chris D to learn and better influence R&D processes and build an innovation pipeline.

• Exceed 2025 Retail and Wholesale Targets (Revenue and EBITDA).
• Develop and execute specific plans to drive additional revenue and profit in CO and IL Retail as well as key "Must Win "stores. Top volume store, new AU stores in NY and OH etc.

• Objective #3 - Product Quality and Consistency
• Work closely with Cultivation, Manufacturing and Analytics on demand planning, product visibility, customer facing menus and proper allocation for retail and wholesale (with standard menu's).
• Negotiate favorable terms with all 3rd party product suppliers to acheive "out the door" GM of ~60%
• Build joint business planning framework and reporting to support 3rd party sales and GM objectives.
• Further capitalize on CAM and Binske partnerships.
• Objective #4 - Drive Traffic to Retail and Wholesale Doors
• Define 2025 traffic goals .
• Set clear KPIs to define successful traffic driving initiatives. Consider not only traffic but sales, margin $ and new customer targets.
• Work with Marketing to further clarify DORs and processes for a true site merchandising function.