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A little more about me...

My Start

I had my start in computer science in high school where I learned Java, JavaScript, HTML, and Python. After a quick stint in some baking and pastry arts, I ended up landing at entrepreneurship for my career passions. Those passions empowered me to finish my degree and land in my current career.

Chris Protano Headshot

My Education

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Entrepreneurship

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4 Year University Dean's List Recipient

Summa Cum Laude

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Business Courses

Marketing

Megaphone

Accounting

Accounting

Business Law

Law and Legal

 Management

Briefcase

Finance

Finance

Business Ethics

Handshake

Economics

Ecibinucs

Operations & Supply Chain

Operations & Supply Chain

Innovation

Innovation

Technical Courses

C & Python

C
Python

Statistics

Statistics

Business Analytics

Analaytics

Excel

Excel

Quantitative Analysis

More Analytics

Project Management

Project Management

My Career

My first internship was at MegaFood, a vitamins and supplement company based out of New Hampshire. At MegaFood, I was a Marketing and Innovation Intern tasked with understanding the competitive landscape of the supplement industry. Specifically, I built out an understanding of the the Vitamin Survey service, a system that many supplement companies use to understand a customer's deficiencies and assign them specific products based on their lifestyle.

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After my experience at MegaFood, Covid throttled some of my career development options so I ended up working the summer as a Retail Sales Associate a Lowe's. It was close to home and provided a lot of flexibility in a post-isolation world. It was also a great summer job being in the garden center and working outside (even on those hot summer days). At this job, I was able to experience the frontline of the retail industry and learn so much about interacting with customers, daily store operations, and the strategy behind assortment.

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My last position prior to my current job was an internship at the online furniture e-commerce site Wayfair. While on the Wayfair team, I worked as a commercial associate directly helping drive retail strategy for the physical retail stores. On top of this, I learned the some of the core principles of the marketing mix as well as operations strategy. I loved the opportunity here and have since returned full time.

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My Current Role

I currently work as a Merchant/Merchandising Associate at Wayfair in Boston, MA. Some of the things I've been executing on recently are driving merchandising assortment, strategizing around the physical retail stores, and building out print/catalog marketing. Merchant is my second full-time role at Wayfair as I joined on as a Commercial Associate in June of 2023 right after graduating college. In this first full-time position, I worked within catalog management and operations while also ensuring the health of products and SKUs on site.

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At Wayfair, I've been responsible for some amazing initiatives and I've had the opportunity to learn so much in my short year here. From starting in an analytical role working and building datasets to now doing much more creative and design work, I've had an amazing opportunity to expand my skill set in all areas.

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Other Work

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JWU Esports

During my Sophomore and Junior years of college, I was President of the Johnson & Wales University Esports Club. This was a student run organization that supported over 70 students competing in online games. During my presidency, I developed merchandising, coordinated club events, marketed internally at JWU and externally through local businesses, and more.

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JWU Published Work

While at Johnson & Wales University, I was able to publish a piece on the mental health crisis in university and more specifically at my college. This published piece is on the Johnson & Wales University Scholars Archive, a collection of past student work which is available for download. Our published work was one of three since 2021 and the only piece of 2022.

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