Spartan Profiles: Stephen Dull
You might know such brand names as The North Face, Wrangler, Nautica, JanSport and Lee. They are part of some 30 brands owned by VF Corporation, the world’s largest apparel company with more than $7 billion in annual revenues. Based in Greensboro, NC, VF sells its brands through 47,000 retailers in more than 150 countries.
VF’s Vice President for Strategy & Innovation is Stephen Dull (pronounced dool), ’80, who helped build brands for Fortune 500 companies while he held senior positions at both Accenture and McKinsey & Company. “I love it,” says Dull of his job. “This is a nice place to work and a good place to work, and you get to work with great talent. Part of the excitement is that I can touch almost everything across the corporation and look beyond into the future.”
Born in Buffalo, NY, and raised in Cleveland, OH, Stephen chose MSU because of James Madison College. “I wanted to be in foreign service,” he says. But he changed his mind after an internship at the U.S. embassy in Bonn, Germany, where he found the work too bureaucratic. “My education at MSU was phenomenal,” he says. “Michael Schecter, my advisor, and many others, were terrific. My MSU degree did not go to waste. I learned how to write, how to speak, and how to think critically.” He is also putting his MSU education to good use as VF is focusing on international growth.
Looking into the future, Stephen believes the apparel business is on the cusp of a technological revolution. “There are some absolutely unbelievable things out there,” he says. “As William Gibson said, the future is here, it just isn’t distributed evenly.” Stephen notes there are stretchable computer chips that can be woven into fabrics. “You will have clothes that can hear and even see,” he says. Other fabrics will be more sustainable and not require heated water for care. “We will also have clothes that will not only create the illusion that you’re thinner, but actually tone your legs and improve you,” he says. “We have temperature-regulating fabrics. We have jackets that are a lot thinner and will keep you as warm as a down jacket. All these things are coming down the pike.”