Faculty

José P. Chan is a Senior Global Retail Executive, Entrepreneur and PT Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design. He has been on the Parsons faculty for 15+ years. He helped create the Parsons MPS Fashion Management Curriculum and teaches in the program. He has written many university courses, including the Technology & Innovation Course he currently teaches. Concurrently, he has worked in the retail and apparel sector over 25+ years with LVMH, Richemont and other international groups.   

He is a Founding Member and Chief Operating Officer for iCustomer, a start-up leveraging AI for Marketing growth. He was the VP of Planning & Outlet Division and a member of the senior leadership team for LVMH brand Loro Piana in North America. He was part of the team that turned around and grew Loro Piana +72%, the fastest growing brand at LVMH worldwide. Additionally, he is a Founding Team Member, VP Business Development and Advisory Board Member of Celect, acquired by Nike, Inc. in July 2019 with 90+ employees and $1B+ revenue retail clients. He created a new market and commercialized groundbreaking MIT academic research by building a cutting-edge, award-winning artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data analytics Software as a Service (SaaS) inventory optimization firm. Celect increased margin, turn and revenue by helping retailers understand (i) what products to buy, (ii) how much to buy, (iii) where to allocate and (iv) what store to fulfill online sales from. The firm was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when he was a graduate student there and worked with large, well-known brands/retailers. It raised series A, B and C funding rounds in Silicon Valley and New York.   

José has held senior management positions reporting to 6 CEOs and has extensive international management experience in buying, marketing, merchandising, planning, predictive analytics, AI and has run retail store networks with P&L responsibility. He is an MIT Sloan Fellow. Also, he is on the advisory team of Netvirta and formerly with Recurate – MIT founded retail tech start-ups.

Also, he has been invited to lecture on Retailing and Technology at various industry conferences and numerous universities including: Columbia University (CBS), Cornell University (Cornell Tech/FSAD), ESSEC Business School, Fashion Institute of Technology (GFM), Harvard University (HBS), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan), New York University (Stern), The University of Chicago (Booth), The University of Navarra (IESE), Parsons School of Design, The University of Rochester (Simon), XRC Labs and Fashion Group International (FGI).   

A native New Yorker, Chan is fluent in Spanish, Italian, French and has studied German and Chinese. He is an avid swimmer, Opera & Classical Music aficionado and plays Classical Guitar in his spare time. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology | SM (MSc) Management of Technology   

Sloan Fellow in Innovation and Global Leadership  

Thesis: The Promise of Digital Technology in Brick and Mortar Retail

University of Rochester | MBA Finance   

Cornell University | BS Management   

Fashion Institute of Technology | AAS Design  

Additional Studies

Harvard Business School | Graduate Coursework (Cross-Registered MIT)

Hong Kong University of Science & Technology | Graduate Coursework (MBA Exchange Student)

Chan, J.P. (June 2017). PP 12-15. Using Predictive Analytics to Meet Customer Expectations. Retrieved from Journal of Corporate Renewal http://www.tmajcr.org/journalofcorporaterenewal/june_2017/?pg=1&pm=2&u1=friend

Chan, J.P. (May 2017). Overcoming Inventory Allocation Obstacles in an Omnichannel World. Retrieved from Sourcing Journal https://sourcingjournalonline.com/overcoming-inventory-allocation-obstacles-omnichannel-world-cc/