Dan Rao

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Dan Rao currently serves as a business advisor and mentor to entrepreneurs. He lectures on leadership and management. Dan is a mentor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Venture Mentoring Service. He is also a Board Member at the Economic Development Industrial Corp., an entity for the City of Framingham, Massachusetts.

 

Dan graduated from Oklahoma State University in January ’73 with a MS degree in Industrial Engineering & Management. After his first semester, he was admitted to Alpha Pi Mu, the IE honors society. Dan has a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India.

 

Dan was part of the founding team of TJ Maxx. He started at TJ Maxx when it had zero stores and no revenue, and left after it had grown to over $3B in revenue and store count of about 500. By that time Dan had become Senior VP for Merchandise Planning, Logistics and Distribution. During his tenure at TJ Maxx, Dan was part of the senior team that established a TJ Maxx type of business in the United Kingdom (eventually called TK Maxx). He was also part of the senior team that acquired a small business in Canada, Winners Apparel, and helped it become the TJ Maxx of Canada with many stores across Canada.

 

After TJ Maxx, Dan became President of Chadwick's of Boston, the nation's largest off-price catalog retailer of women's apparel. Chadwick’s was in need of a turnaround with about $400M revenues and almost no profits. The business was turned around in about 2 years with record

profits. It was then subsequently sold to a larger entity and Dan continued to manage Chadwick’s.

 

After about 5 years with Chadwick’s, Dan left to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. During this phase, Dan successfully raised venture capital, was hired to turnaround a B2B catalog/ internet business for Office Supplies and started mentoring young executives.

 

Dan’s family includes wife Kathleen, two adult children and three grandchildren. He has travelled widely across the globe and enjoys playing golf.