Margaret McDonald of Athy, Co. Kildare has been appointed as the president of Victoria’s Secret, the lingerie mogul famous for its runway ‘Angels’. The billion-dollar business is now in the capable hands of McDonald, who started her career as a trainee buyer in Penneys.
McDonald is moving with her husband Mark Kelly and their two young daughters to Columbus, Ohio to take up the running of the company, the Irish Independent reports.
From her small-time origins, McDonald gained career steam working first while as a student at Saks Fifth Avenue and Brown Thomas, touted as Ireland’s Premier fashion and lifestyle store, in Dublin. From there she moved on to be the European vice-president of Banana Republic, vice-president at Gap Inc. and the head of buying at Marks and Spencer.
What truly put McDonald on the fashion map was her eye for the fashionable wearers. As CEO of LK Bennett, McDonald hastened new and trendy designs and products out to Kate Middleton, the then-royal girlfriend. With Kate and her sister Pippa rocking the LK Bennett designs, even a slight spotting of either of them in something new would create a sell-out.
After establishing LK Bennett as the Middleton sisters’ favorite brand, McDonald moved to the position of Managing Director at women's wear retailer Coast. In her three years as MD there, the company expanded its customer base in Australia and the Middle East.
Now, Victoria’s Secret has set their eyes on McDonald for her ability to not only anticipate what women want and will pay for, but also her ability to create the want initially. She brings with her the knowledge of a foreign customer profile to a company that had been exclusively home-based in its retailing until it launched in the UK last year.
With McDonald at the lead, the company, which already records astronomically high profits, is on the path to even greater success.
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