For women who want to succeed in business, Wolverine Worldwide‘s Active Group president Susie Kuhn said they should never stop learning — and she also underscored the significance of adding value to every job role.

Kuhn spoke on “Leading Across Cultures, Channel & Change” at the fifth annual WWD x FN x Beauty Inc. Women in Power event Sept. 8.

Kuhn’s career in retail includes seven corporations, four countries, six job functions and 21 different managers over the course of 28 years. “I would write my résumé every single year, not because I’m looking for a job…but because it helps me remember that every year is just another year of learning,” she said.

She began her fashion career as a buyer at Lucy.com, Adidas America and the May Co. It was at the department store retailer where Kuhn said she learned the most about retail concepts and its divisions. Her move to Target was where she was exposed to analytics and systems within merchandising. Kuhn then went to Nike, where she picked up different skills from multiple job functions, including marketplace merchandising, direct-to-consumer, and running her first P&L statement, all of which met the “goals” she set for herself. Her last stint was as a vice president of Converse China in Shanghai.

“I made the hard choice to leave and it was very deliberate,” she said of ending her 15-year stint at Nike. Kuhn explained that she couldn’t get close to the capital-decision-making jobs, and that it would take too many years to get there in what was a “male-dominated environment.”

Next was Urban Outfitters, where she got exposure to the board of directors and top-level strategy. “The one North Star I always have in my career that I tell all of you to do is every role you take, make sure you add value at the same level that you’re getting value,” she advised. While at Urban, Kuhn explored different business models, including working on the subscription-based model Nuuly.

Kuhn landed at Foot Locker in February 2020 when she became president Europe, Middle East and Africa and general manager of Foot Locker Europe. During that chapter, she managed a $2 billion business with over 10,000 employees and 700 stores in 21 countries. Unaware that the COVID-19 pandemic was just around the corner, Kuhn said that experience taught her how to cope with crisis management at a high, complex level. She also found herself unexpectedly out of a job in 2023, and took time off to evaluate her next step before joining Wolverine in October 2024.

In her self-evaluation, Kuhn said she has three core strengths: curiosity, self-awareness and boldness. “I’ve never been afraid to say, ‘Yes, I’d like to be a CEO one day.’ That’s kind of served me well in some places; in other cases, not so much,” she said.

And she’s developed some critical skills along the way. “I really learned about career management and how to build an incredible network of people around me, especially my peer group,” she said.

Kuhn added that she’s also learned how to not take feedback too personally, and strives to turn it into action. “I have never changed who I am, but I’ve always done behavior modification to make sure that I’m the most effective I can be anywhere,” she told the audience.

She was drawn to her role at Wolverine for a number of reasons. The company, which owns Merrell, Saucony, Chaco and Wolverine, among other brands, has an extensive portfolio that “[speaks] to what consumers are doing today,” she said. “I can see growth behind every one of our brands.”

A big plus for Kuhn is that Chris Hufnagel, the company’s CEO, has a strong vision. And for the first time in her career, she’s not in a “role as an anchor of tokenism,” the executive said, adding that the board is 45 percent female, and the leadership team is 65 percent women.

Kuhn said she tells her story to younger women, and hopes that they have a slightly easier path to success. But even if they don’t, she reminded the crowd that the “one thing women all have in common is resiliency.”