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February 18, 2026 | S2 EP 11
The 3 Questions That Define Great Retail Leadership
Corinne Suarez | VP and Head of Retail | Marine Layer
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SHOW NOTES

Leadership doesn’t break down because leaders lack ambition. It breaks down when trust, clarity, and care disappear at scale.

Retail is full of frameworks, playbooks, and well-intentioned initiatives. But sustained performance comes down to how leaders show up for their teams, how they navigate tension, and how clearly strategy translates to the end user on the floor.

In this episode of FRONTLINE FRIDAYS, host Ron Thurston sits down with Corinne Suarez, VP and Head of Retail at Marine Layer, to explore the leadership principles that have shaped her career across some of retail’s largest and fastest-growing brands.

Drawing on decades of experience leading field teams at Old Navy, American Eagle, and now Marine Layer, Corinne shares why great leadership starts with four non-negotiables: respect, care, fairness, and dignity. She introduces a simple but powerful leadership lens built around three questions every team member is asking, whether they say it out loud or not: Do you care about me? Can I trust you? Are you committed?

Ron and Corinne unpack what it really takes to lead at scale without losing humanity, how to translate strategy so it lands in a single store, and why investing in people consistently delivers better outcomes than process alone. They also explore the future of retail, where technology should eliminate friction, not add to it, and where physical stores remain essential for connection, emotion, and trust.

If you’re leading teams through growth, change, or complexity, this episode offers perspective on how leadership actually works on the frontline.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • (01:23) How Corinne fell in love with retail, and why her career has always stayed close to the frontline
  • (03:24) Why legacy, not title, is the measure of great leadership
  • (06:31) The four leadership pillars that guide Corinne’s decisions: respect, care, fairness, and dignity
  • (08:07) How to pause conflict before it damages trust, and why stopping is sometimes the strongest move
  • (09:12) The three questions every leader must answer for their teams, and why one “no” signals work to be done
  • (11:17) How Corinne uses these questions to diagnose leadership gaps and coach at scale
  • (13:18) What changes when you lead hundreds of stores versus dozens, and how to keep the end user in focus(15:07) Why scaling leadership is about systems, discipline, and simplicity, not control
  • (16:00) The difference between leading a large fleet and a high-touch, growing brand like Marine Layer
  • (18:29) How people, technology, and physical space must work together to create real retail impact
  • (19:06) Why technology should eliminate friction for teams, not create more work
  • (22:29) What owning Drybar franchises taught Corinne about human-centered experiences
  • (26:56) Why the future of retail depends on purpose-driven teams and leaders who listen
  • (30:44) Why leading people, not tasks, creates a virtuous cycle of performance
  • (31:57) Corinne’s advice for young leaders on openness, mobility, and building a career that lasts

GUEST BIO

Corinne Suarez is a senior retail executive with more than two decades of experience leading large-scale store operations, growth, and transformation across North America. She currently serves as VP and Head of Retail at Marine Layer, where she focuses on building scalable retail strategies that strengthen both performance and culture.

Previously, Corinne held executive leadership roles at Old Navy, including VP of Stores for the Central Territory and Head of Stores for Canada, where she led multi-layered leadership teams, drove record-setting sales performance, and supported major omnichannel initiatives like BOPIS. Earlier in her career, she spent nearly a decade at American Eagle Outfitters, overseeing hundreds of stores and more than $1B in annual revenue, while playing a key role in the relaunch and expansion of Aerie.

Known for her people-first leadership style, Corinne has led through periods of rapid growth, operational disruption, and change, including large-scale expansion, organizational resets, and crisis response. She is also a franchise owner, consultant, and active mentor, with a long-standing commitment to developing leaders and creating environments where teams can perform at their best.

ABOUT FRONTLINE FRIDAYS

Your store teams feel it: more pressure, more change, less time to get it right. FRONTLINE FRIDAYS helps you turn that pressure into impact.

Built for senior retail + hospitality field leaders, each episode features candid conversations with execs from iconic brands, sharing tactics you can use today.

HOSTED BY RON THURSTON. Ron is a global retail leadership expert and two-time bestselling author of RETAIL PRIDE (2020) and HUMAN PRIDE (2025).