Our Team
Heather Wiseman
Heather is a versatile and highly effective leader with nearly twenty years of experience on both the buying and selling sides.
She began her career at Walmart, buying paper goods, video games, toys, and more. Before leaving Walmart after nearly a decade of growth, Heather ran a consumables category worth over five billion dollars in annual sales. She’s been at the forefront of a number of big hits at retail, including Ryan’s World, Bratz and many more.
Melissa Stafford
Melissa is a effective and impactful team player with almost 20 years experience working with the largest retailer on both sides of the business internally and the supplier community.
Melissa has gained much retail experience from her start at the Walmart Home Office, working with several suppliers, and most recently with a Toy Supplier for 16 years. Over the years Melissa has had several roles and was instrumental in the growth of the companies she worked for. Melissa has created product hand and hand with Walmart and grew a Private Label Brand to over $20 Million Annual Sales along with managing big brands such as Tonka, CAT, Gazillion Bubbles etc. Melissa’s knowledge of replenishment, item setup, and sales, gives her a solid foundation to excel your business.
In 2022, Melissa joined the team at Lean In, putting her vast experience and knowledge to work to lead clients to growth at Walmart, Walmart.com and Sam’s Club.
Seth Cordry
Seth is an experienced omni-channel, multi-category merchant with nearly 15 years of experience with a record of delivering results, developing market-leading category strategies, and developing industry leading innovation and value.
Seth began his career as a summer intern and grew through the merchant organization at Walmart with buying experiences in toys, dry grocery, lawn & garden, back to school, and most recently, serving in strategy for the Walmart US Merchandising leadership team. Seth has managed multi-billion-dollar omni-P&Ls as well as led teams to deliver market share growing department level strategies. He is a customer-obsessed, item merchant that has delivered big brand and item launches across multiple categories by listening to his customers and partnering with his suppliers. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from his time at Walmart where he was recognized with the Mad Merchant award for his work in transforming categories, the Dr. Martin Luther King Visionary Leader award for small and diverse supplier development, and the Merchandising Excellence award for Social Responsibility.
Kathy Noblin
Kathy tackles incredibly complex retail supply chain and logistic work, and simplifies and manages it from source to shelf.
She spent six years in consumables at Walmart, working in supply chain, analytical and replenishment roles. Kathy collaborated to drive sales and in-stocks with numerous suppliers, from fortune 500 companies, to entrepreneurial trendsetters, niche suppliers and more. Kathy spent the next four years at J&J, and has been at Lean In since its inception.
Ben Do
Ben manages the ever-changing business of e-commerce, developing and executing winning online merchandising strategies across numerous categories.
Ben spent 10 years with Lowe’s, learning the real world ins-and-outs of brick and mortar retail, where he began to incorporate the motto “never stop learning” into his everyday lifestyle. Ben’s degree in organizational management and his continued studies in retail, coupled with practical hands on experience help him deliver meaningful success to clients’ programs at online retailers.
Andy Wiseman
Andy is an entrepreneurial builder of businesses and brands with two decades of selling, marketing and operations experience.
Andy began his career in sporting goods, ultimately being recruited to join a sales team in Bentonville in the early 2000’s, where he delivered unprecedented growth across multiple categories, along with Category Advisorships. In 2005 he joined MGA Entertainment ultimately moving to Cepia, where took on increased sales and operational duties. After playing a central role in launching the hit Zhu Zhu Pets brand, Andy founded RedwoodVentures, a business he built into a global innovator that does business in 65 countries.
Dennis Whitfield
Dennis is an experienced supply chain and replenishment professional. He began his career at P&G and has been at the center of supply chain, analytics, replenishment, and operations roles across the last 35 years. He moved to NWA in 2008 and has spent his time since then directly interfacing with Walmart, as a supplier, broker, and entrepreneur.
Driven by recognized industry practices, he takes pride in providing the best analytics possible. His goal is to provide insights that develop and drive your business to help you meet your goals.
Dennis joined Lean In in 2023.
Jeff Smolinski
Jeff is an experienced sales professional with 17 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry, spanning shelf stable and frozen foods, fresh produce and personal care.
Jeff began his career with Kraft Foods in DSD retail management in Florida before spending most of his career in Bentonville calling on Walmart, Walmart.com and Sam’s Club with Campbell’s, Henkel and Wells Enterprises.
A well-rounded sales leader and team player, Jeff has managed growth platforms, large established brand desks, Foodservice customers, regional sales and category insights. Jeff enjoys being able to quickly identify changing consumer preferences and knowing how to best adapt and align to the customer’s category strategy and consumer needs.
Jeff joins Lean In in 2024, excited and ready to leverage his experience to lead clients to growth.
Kristin Murphy
Kristin is a seasoned retail professional with over 25 years of experience in category management, analytics, and sales, specializing in driving business growth and optimizing retail operations.
She began her career at Henkel Consumer Adhesives, rapidly progressing from an analyst to managing their Walmart Category Management team. She played a pivotal role in that team earning multiple Vendor of the Year awards and provided extensive training on Retail Link Best Practices to leading Walmart suppliers.
She then spent nearly two decades with IdeaStream Consumer Products, excelling in roles from National Account Manager to Director of Analytics and Insights.
In the fall of 2024, Kristin joined Lean In where she leverages her deep retail knowledge and analytics skills to guide clients toward success with Walmart and Sam’s Club.