episode 061: Raymond Shoolman

Raymond Shoolman is a gentle, intuitive, and wise elder statesman of fashion and retail. A veteran executive and consultant in those industries, he helped grow upscale multi-brand menswear retailer Boys'Co to major success alongside the Goldman family for over a decade, before taking an offer at Hugo Boss, where he was a vice president in the Canadian division for 14 years. He’s now a sought-after consultant alongside the team at DIG360, as well as a longtime mentor at Futurpreneur. He was born and raised in South Africa to hardworking parents—his father was an immigrant from Belgium who found a career in sales and his mother worked retail at a department store. It was a tenuous time during the apartheid movement of the 1950s, but Raymond and his family managed to live a loving, peaceful life. In the late 1970s, he was offered a job with Sealy and relocated his family to Canada, living in Edmonton before settling in Vancouver. After his chapter in Toronto with Hugo Boss came to a close, he returned to the west coast. In this conversation, we explore the values he learned from his parents that are still very much with him today; what is was like working for a family business versus a major global brand; his people-first approach as a business leader and people manager; if entrepreneurs are born or made; the things he’s witnessing in the fashion & retail landscapes right now; the importance of truth when mentoring and consulting; his advice to all entrepreneurs on their journey; what he’s most proud of in his decades of living; and much more.