A Day In The Life

Victoria Boutan

Posted 01 September 2016

London Program

August 2012 Intake

Victoria Boutan (London, August 2012), a graduate of Trinity University, College of Business Administration San Antonio, TX, just celebrated her 1 year anniversary with Nike in the role of Global Process Manager for the Direct-to-Consumer Supply Chain in Portland, Oregon. Victoria manages a variety of globally run supply chain programs for Nike.com & Niketown stores across Europe, North America, Japan, China, and the Emerging Markets. Examples include end-to-end product fulfillment of the new Nike+ App which launched in August, high price point product launches such as Jordan shoes, and all Cart2Home initiatives such as enabling consumer pick up points in China & Japan or next day delivery in Europe. In her free time Victoria enjoys hiking, travelling, yoga, and trips to the Oregon coast and Cascade mountains with her boyfriend (a London March 2012 Mountbatten alumni) of 4 years.

How did you get into this line of business?
After Mountbatten I spent 2 years in Boston working as a researcher/consultant for a market research/consulting firm (Forrester Research) – Forrester actually did sponsor Mountbatten interns in London my year but I did not work there, I worked for M&G Investments (a UK asset management company). At Forrester I worked with a wide range of clients, many of which were in the retail/ecommerce space where several of my projects focused on building digital capability road maps leveraging consumer analytics and market research. After 2 years in consulting I was ready to focus solely on one industry (retail/ecommerce being a natural fit and area I was drawn to) and trade in the harsh New England winters for the relaxed atmosphere of the West Coast. After a few months of searching for a new challenge I was lucky enough to find the perfect role with Nike. It's funny to think a few years ago I could never have imagined I'd one day be working for Nike but now I would definitely call this a 'dream job' – I couldn't be happier!

Let's talk about a typical day. What time do you get up?
Most mornings I have a 7am call with Europe – the time difference between the West Coast and Amsterdam (Nike's EU HQ) is 9 hours which is pretty unfortunate for me since I've never been much of a morning person. I usually wake up around 6/615 and I drive to work which takes around 25-30 minutes.

Where do you have your lunch?
Nike definitely spoils me when it comes to lunch – we have a 'smart campus' (similar to Apple and Google) with 5+ food halls, 3 restaurants, and several coffee stands; the food is excellent. In terms of when I actually get to eat – it really depends on my schedule; Nike loves to have meetings so if I have a full day then I have to grab and go.

What time do you normally leave your workplace at the end of the working day?
Again this really depends on my schedule – if I have a 7am with Europe and no meetings in the afternoon I'll leave around 4; if I have calls with China and Japan in the evening I'll try to leave by 330 so I can take the calls from home (usually these go from 5-7 or 6-8, sometimes later). If I'm lucky enough to not have early/late meetings then a standard working day is from 8-5. I'll try to fit in a workout sometime before 8pm.

How often do you travel for work?
Since I'm in a 'Global' role which requires me to oversee projects across the world, I travel quite a lot – by the end of this year I'll have been to Amsterdam 3 times, Belgium (European distribution center) 3 times, Shanghai (China HQ) once and Memphis (North America distribution center) once.

For friends who have never been to Portland Oregon, what would you suggest they see and do?
Portland (or 'hippie-land' as my mother calls it) is a mecca for breweries (Deschutes, Rogue, and 10 Barrel are all from Oregon), vineyards (Napa is famous for Cabs and Chardonnay the Willamette Valley is famous for Pinot Noir), fancy coffee shops (seriously my local coffee shop was featured on a Buzzfeed quiz titled 'how hipster are you'), organic/vegan/gluten free food (you can order a vegan hot dog at a Trailblazer's game lol), and incredible hiking – there are trails for every level-hiker in the Colombia River Gorge. So basically you can't go wrong depending on what you're into but one word of advice - definitely try and visit in the Summer when it's not rainy season (unless of course you like nonstop rain)!