Rising Stars of the Profession 2021: Amanda Lai

Amanda Lai has worked with leading retailers across the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, and South Korea. In the span of four years, she has earned three promotions and now leads McMillanDoolittle's food retail practice.

She manages the day-to-day relationship with McMillanDoolittle's largest client, a leading South Korean retailer with $35B in revenue. She supported her client's market entry into the US, growing their US business from effectively $0 to $1.5B in 3 years. Amanda was involved in shaping the overall US business strategy as well as the tactical execution of the strategy. This included scouting out real estate, negotiating lease terms, supporting two acquisition deals, and hiring construction, architectural, and public relations firms. Amanda reports directly to the US CEO who has described her as a key contributor to help him implement his vision of creating the next leading grocery company in the US.

At the onset of the pandemic, Amanda was integral in quickly pivoting the company over to creating virtual content, leveraging personal camera equipment and self-taught video editing skills to develop McMillanDoolittle's digital presence, which includes online retail conferences, webinars, and virtual store tours. She then transitioned from operating behind the camera to moving in front of the camera, speaking as a retail industry subject matter expert at conferences, speaking engagements, and interviews.

She continues to represent McMillanDoolittle as a weekly contributor to leading news outlets and industry publications including TD Ameritrade Network, CBS News, Crain's, and The Chicago Tribune. Amanda aspires to shape the retail industry through her contributions to her clients and her continued retail thought leadership.

Amanda attributes commitment to self-reflection as a key factor in her success so far, "I began journaling in grade school at the age of 10, switched to blogging in college, and I picked up meditation after graduating. Over the course of over 15 years, this has enabled me to have thousands of daily check-ins where I can unpack and understand my thoughts about myself, my place in the world, and the woman I seek to become both personally and professionally."

She considers her nomination by McMillanDoolittle as an honor because it affirms the impact she is making for clients and for the food retail industry at large. She goes on to say.  "As a female minority with a non-traditional background, this recognition affirms that you do not necessarily need to come from a big-name company, a prestigious feeder school, or fit the typical profile of a consultant to make significant contributions to the industry and profession."

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

'Stop trying to fit in. If you're different, then be different.' "I felt completely out of place in my first job out of school as a petite Asian American woman among a team of all-male, mostly Caucasian colleagues. On multiple occasions, employees would come up to me saying that they recognized me from around the office, and, after flipping through my mental Rolodex and confirming that we had not in fact met before, I realized that standing out was, perhaps, a good thing."

"All the diverse aspects of my identity that I originally thought made me not fit in have become reasons that I now stand out as a professional. I do not necessarily fit the bill of someone serving the grocery industry, an industry historically represented by family-owned and operated businesses with predominately Caucasian men at the helm in most of the leadership roles. However, I feel empowered to break the mold of what is typical in the industry and to set an example of leadership that is more representative of what America looks like today, not what it looked like when many of these companies were first founded decades ago."