Technology Trailblazer and Santa Clara University Alum Kris Bazán Joins the Retail Management Institute (RMI) Advisory Board of Directors

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#Retail–Santa Clara University’s Retail Management Institute (RMI) announces the first appointment in 2021 to its advisory board. Apple Senior Director, Customer Marketing-Global Retail Kris Bazán ’92, ’99 MBA, joins an impressive group of select CEOs, presidents, EVPs, CMOs, CTOs and directors from influential Silicon Valley, San Francisco Bay Area and leading brand companies. The Advisory Board provides insight and perspective to ensure RMI remains a top destination for retail business education.

“This is a thrilling time for RMI. We are delighted to have Kris contribute to our vision to establish RMI as the destination for knowledge through retail innovation in this time of significant industry shifts and bold actions creating a new retail landscape,” says Kirthi Kalyanam, L.J. Skaggs Distinguished Professor and executive director, Retail Management Institute. “Kris brings trailblazing expertise as well as a passion for hands-on engagement and support to future proof the next generation of our retail studies students. She is a great strategic match for the RMI Advisory Board.”

Bazán joined Apple in 2002 and has managed global marketing teams across the enterprise, education, government and retail business. In her current retail role, she and her team are responsible for global marketing across product launches, store openings, and seasonal initiatives.

She has held global management positions at Hewlett Packard, bringing high availability products to market, and at Blue Pumpkin Software, where she led corporate communications and sales operations for the early-stage start-up.

“RMI is at the cutting edge of educating and preparing Santa Clara students for jobs in the constantly evolving and exciting field of retail. As a hiring manager, I look for employees who can contribute immediately and know that RMI’s focus on real world, innovative curriculum provides students the skills necessary to be competitive,” says Bazán. “I am delighted to join my alma mater and push retail marketing to the forefront as a sector of growth and opportunity for future graduates.”

Bazán holds both a BS in Commerce and an MBA from Santa Clara University. She has been a competitive runner since high school and ran cross country for Santa Clara. She now hits the trail or the track a few times a week. Bazán lives with her husband and two children, ages 14 and 10, in Los Gatos.

About the Retail Management Institute (RMI)

The Silicon Valley based Retail Management Institute (RMI) provides a platform for deep collaboration between leading academics and industry luminaries into the emerging and evolving concepts impacting retail today. The knowledge generated from this innovative collaboration, forms the basis of distinct retail studies curriculum and experiences that prepare Retail Studies students and industry executives for success in the new world of technology infused retail. The Retail Management Institute (RMI) is a recognized academic partner of the retail industry with a 40-year history.

About Santa Clara University

Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valley—the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The University’s stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís. SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1% of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education.

Contacts

Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Communications | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121