Elaine Strawbridge

Elaine Strawbridge is a passionate creative and leader with a 20+ year career in retail.

Growing up in the greater Chicagoland area, she was immersed in sports and her emerging love for the arts. At Columbia College, Elaine earned a Liberal Arts Degree with focus on sculpture – working primarily with metal & wood. After graduation, she learned to weld and continued to dig deeper into her passion for working with mixed materials.

During college, Elaine worked for The Gap and found the retail environment exciting, ever-changing and always challenging. This was the start of her journey into visual merchandising and window display, allowing her to apply her creative passion in a career.

In 1999, Elaine was hired at Anthropologie/URBN Inc, where she would advance over the next 17 years. During her time with Anthro, she moved to California and built her life in LA. In 2010 Elaine started B.E. Woodcraft, a small jewelry line, creating handmade wooden heart necklaces and sold them at Anthro and BHLDN.

In 2016 she left URBN to pursue a new challenge as a consultant in the marketing world. Once out of visual merchandising/display, her passion shifted focus onto team leadership and development – and her creative mind took on challenges that are “people” focused. From 2016-2021 Elaine co-created and built a global brand advocacy and training program – spanning 11 countries with over 450 staff.

Currently, Elaine is freelance consulting and developing a few new businesses which will launch in 2022 (ssshh, they are not ready to formally announce yet).