Career Highlights

Currently,  Steven (Steve) Williams serves as the Chief Technology Officer for Buff City Soap Franchising, based in Dallas, Texas. Steve also sits on the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Council for the National Retail Federation (NRF). 

Buff City Soap is a both a franchised multi-unit retailer, as well as a consumer products (CPG) brand, specializing in artisanal, hand-made (in-store), plant-based beauty and personal care products. Buff has experienced explosive growth since Mr. Williams joined the company in 2021. As a member of the executive leadership team, Steve has helped orchestrate 5x store growth for the company, and they continue to open a new retail location every 3 weeks on average. The e-commerce business has also experienced a doubling in sales from 2022 to 2023. His achievements in fortifying their technology framework, using a matrixed, entirely cloud-based architecture,  has resulted in a right-sized, scalable, agile and secure foundation and established Buff as a dominant, and the fastest growing, player in the beauty and CPG space.

Before Mr. Williams helped springboard the growth for Buff City Soap, Steve was the EVP, Chief Information Officer and Chief Supply Chain Officer for Specialty Retailers, Inc., a public-company, US$1.7B department store and off-price retailer operating nearly 800 stores under the banners of Bealls, Goody's, Palais Royal, Peebles, Stage and Gordmans. Mr. Williams joined the company in 2017 to modernize its technology footprint, drive more efficient and aligned supply-chain operations, fortify the company’s cyber-security and governance backbone, improve its e-commerce prowess, and most importantly facilitate industry-best customer engagement. Steve achieved several major milestones at Specialty Retailers, including retooling its supply chain and technology operations in preparation to support the company’s transition to an off-price retail business model. Unfortunately, the company was forced to close business operations at the end of 2020 due to Covid-related and other industry headwinds.

Prior to Mr. Williams’ time at Specialty Retailers, he was the Chief Information Officer and Head of Supply Chain for California-based Boot Barn, Inc. Boot Barn is the nation’s leading lifestyle retailer of western and work-related footwear and apparel. Steve joined the company in 2012 to establish the foundation that would facilitate their aggressive growth initiatives. Consequently, during his tenure at Boot Barn he helped lead the company through three brick-and-mortar acquisitions, one pure-play e-commerce acquisition, and took the company public to the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. During those 5 years, Boot Barn grew from 80 stores, with limited distribution scale, one e-commerce website and $140MM in sales, to 220+ stores, a nimble supply chain footprint, three e-commerce websites and $650MM+ in sales. Mr. Williams not only led the Technology, Supply Chain and DTC operations for Boot Barn, but also oversaw the company’s Merchandise Planning discipline. As such, Steve ensured there was exceptional alignment with his respective teams and the merchandising and business objectives for the company. Steve's technology and operational infrastructure remains today, and fuels Boot Barn with a market capitalization in excess of US $2.5 Billion.  

Previous to Boot Barn, Mr. Williams was Senior Vice President and CIO for Mattress Giant Corporation, based in Addison, Texas, one of the premier U.S. retailers within the home furnishing category. After joining the company in 2000, Steve charted the retailer through several major acquisitions, 3 private-equity changes, doubled their store base and operated 10 distribution centers throughout the U.S. He eventually co-led the sale of the company to Mattress Firm in 2012. Subsequently, Mr. Williams stayed with Mattress Firm to help the company integrate the acquisition into the 1,000+ store chain.

Additionally, Steve is a member of the Artificial Intelligence in Retail Council for the National Retail Federation (NRF). He has been a published, contributing writer for CIO Magazine / CIO.com as well as a member of their Editorial Advisory Board. He has participated as a panelist and lecturer at numerous events, conferences and forums. Steve has won the Retail Innovator Award by Retail Touchpoints Publishing Group; the CIO Leadership & Innovation Award by Executive Technology Magazine and was named the Dallas/Ft. Worth Information Technology Executive of the Year by the Society for Information Management.

Steve holds both a B.B.A. in Information Systems and a B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Texas, San Antonio. 

Mr. Williams' unique and diverse career history distinguishes him from his peers. His expansive experience in a wide-array of companies of varied sizes, world-geographies, and stages of maturity, provides businesses an experienced, resourceful, innovative and results-oriented executive with a steady hand to lead and transform their technology and supply chain organizations.

Please email inquiries to:  steven-williams@msn.com