In late February, Megan Escamilla stepped into her new role as vice president, general manager of Neiman Marcus Ala Moana, exactly a month before stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19 went into effect for Hawai‘i.

“It was just a whirlwind,” Escamilla recalls of those first few months on the job. “As I reflect, coming in to a new team and a new environment, this was under the umbrella of change, stress, uncertainty—you get to know people really fast.

“You see people’s true selves, they come out in these highly ambiguous and stressful situations. So, I felt I got to know the team—albeit remotely—pretty quickly ... and I feel like that very quickly brought us together tightly as a team, having gone through something so significant in our lives together.”

Escamilla brings more than 15 years of retail management experience to the position, including many lessons from abroad. Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, she went to University of Florida with thoughts of becoming an architect, but ended up majoring in finance and was hired as a consultant for Ernst & Young, working in Latin America for five years.

She then earned her MBA at Duke University, and kicked off her retail career with Limited Brands prior to joining travel luxury retailer DFS.

“I completely fell in love with retail and knew that I wanted to be in retail for the rest of my career,” she says. “It was really this concept of taking my skill set and matching it with an industry that I loved. I’m a shopper. I love fashion. So it was just a great match of the two.”

Escamilla worked at DFS in San Francisco and Hong Kong, serving as director of planning in the fashion division and then in an international marketing role before making her way to managing director of DFS Hawai‘i. She’s lived in six countries (Hong Kong, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala and the U.S.) and traveled to countless destinations around the world. It’s that first-hand global perspective that gives her an edge to leading Neiman Marcus through the current pandemic and beyond.

“Early on in my career, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to learn to work with people from different backgrounds, whether from different countries or different ethnicities,” says Escamilla. “I feel like the more of those types of experiences you have, the more well-rounded you are as a leader.”

After two weeks at Neiman Marcus’ corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas, Escamilla set foot in her new office at the Ala Moana store on March 2, ready to hit the ground running. But, like many other businesses across the state, the luxury department store was forced to temporarily close its doors March 18. However, despite the shutdown, the company was prepared for the unprecedented challenges.

According to Escamilla, Neiman Marcus had been undergoing a transformation in the last two years, including plans for a new digital platform called Connect that provides associates remote selling capabilities, and customers a store-like experience virtually.

“The first week that we closed, they rolled out this new technology to 5,000 sellers across the company,” notes Escamilla. “Believe it or not, we ended up spending the next 11 weeks or so continuing to stay in close contact with our customers and building our business.”

In June, the store reopened with several precautionary safety measures in place, including face masks, social distancing, repeated disinfecting of high use and frequently touched areas, as well as quarantining and sanitizing clothes that have been tried on.

“I’m really excited about the future of Neiman Marcus because I feel like we have the right strategy in place to be successful for the next 100 years,” says Escamilla. “It’s about taking the wherever and whenever the customer needs us—whether that is the store, online or our digitally assisted channel.”

A mother of three boys (ages 5, 8 and 10), Escamilla says she’s driven by leadership and the ability to impact others, including supporting local brands and women’s groups like Ho‘ōla Nā Pua, YWCA and Aloha United Way’s Women United. Among her goals at Neiman Marcus is to build upon partnerships she’s made, such as with Hawai‘i business accelerator Mana Up, and continuing to find ways to share authentic local products with both a local and global audience.

“There are two reasons I joined Neiman Marcus,” adds Escamilla. “One is I wanted to be part of the transformation ... the other was around leadership.

“What I saw from the leadership team in Dallas just really blew me away—how they were able to lead this large company through a Chapter 11 filing, the COVID-19 crisis and everything else that’s been happening on the mainland. It’s just a very inspirational group of leaders and I feel very blessed to be a part of that group.

“Then, being able to come to this store that has so much history and so many incredible relationships throughout the community. Slowly but surely, I’m getting to know people. It’s been such a pleasure and I love seeing everyone’s passion for our brand.”