During her professional career, Anna Martini, now with Psycho Bunny, has always been involved with iconic and interesting brands.
Today, she is President and Chief Executive Officer of men’s apparel brand Psycho Bunny, joining the retailer in January 2023.
Before that, from 2017 until January 2023, she was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Groupe CH, a company in the sports and entertainment industries which operates Club de hockey Canadien, Bell Centre, Place Bell, Spectra and evenko.
From 2004 until 2017, she was President of Groupe Dynamite Inc., a specialty apparel global retailer.
And, from 1985 until 2004, she worked at Deloitte & Touche LLP, a professional services firm, including as audit and advisory services partner since 1996. She was also the retail industry leader from 1996 to 2004.
Martini was appointed in November 2021 as a director of Ivanhoé Cambridge, a company developing and investing in real estate properties, projects and companies. She has also been associated on boards with the Retail Council of Canada, the John Molson School of Business, the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group, TC Transcontinental and CT REIT.
A little bit of edge is always good in life
Martini says “a little bit of edge is always good in life.”
She was born and raised in Montreal. Martini went to the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University.
“I am a CPA, and graduated from this amazing business school, and it was a great contributor to the success of my career,” adds Martini.
“I ended up going through postgraduate studies and doing my CPA. But originally, when I first went to business school, I actually thought I was going to end up in marketing. So it’s kind of a bit ironic because you’ve got, the financial side kind of mixed with the random marketing side, which is always something that I was quite passionate about and I’ve spent most of my career in retail.”
Prior to Psycho Bunny, Martini says she worked with “one of the best brands in the world” in the Montreal Canadiens and “that was like an amazing experience.”
“And now I’m living the dream here at Psycho Bunny, because I’m very passionate about retail, that’s for sure.”
“They’re all what attracted me the most to Psycho Bunny is like this is going to be the next biggest global brand. You’ll remember that when you see it as it’s going to continue to grow and expand, and all over the world. It’s a great story.”
She says customer experience is really important.
“Yes people want to buy beautiful products and feel good about it. But it’s all also about all it’s everything about the customer experiences. It’s how we make people feel. That’s probably one of the most important things,” says Martini.
“I think we need to understand the consumer. Everybody gets, as I would say, a little bit bombarded. You know we’ve got so many channels coming our way all day long because we’re on these devices and iPads and iPhones and all that stuff. And it’s always tough to personalize things when you just have so much of it coming your way, and I think that’s the one thing in retail. I think we’ve got to do a little bit better. How do we create a bit more of an intimate relationship when you know, in reality, you’re not that intimate?
“It’s about what we’re offering our guests and our consumers. I think we need to listen to them a lot more. And you know, today, for example, we get a lot of feedback from our from our guests and our customers, telling us everything from how was their experience, whether it was in a store or online, and I think listening to what they have to say is really, really important. And reacting to it, making changes if we have to. And I think that’s really, really important.”
Passions include climbing mountains and cooking
Martini likes to climb some mountains every once in a while on weekends to relax – mostly in the Eastern Townships. She also loves to cook.
“Cooking is a passion,” she explains.
“I think my motto is, whatever I’m going to do it’s gotta be fun. Even if I’m working really hard, working hard doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. So that’s, for me, a very important ingredient. I’ll give you an example if I’m doing store tours with a team, we make sure that we eat in great restaurants and we have a chance to laugh together and have fun together. So I think there’s a good way of combining that. You know, work hard, play hard has always kind of been my motto. So I keep on doing that. It energizes me. Well, people energize me in general, but having fun with the people is important.
“Psycho Bunny has resounded quite well with Canada, and I find it personally, pretty exciting. I know this market really, really well, and I think it’s been a great addition to the retail landscape, bringing in a brand that’s a bit edgier, a little bit bolder. It’s a little breath of fresh air. So we’re looking forward to continue to expand here.”
She says the potential of Canadian-based Psycho Bunny is “humungous.”
“And for me, that was really, really an interesting opportunity that combined with putting teams together is something I love to do, and I think that was an important, I would say, ingredient in this opportunity, like being able to bring people together to help build this brand.”
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