Competing in a Digital World

How Retailers Can Compete with Amazon
Kyle Richardson/Kirk Gillepsie/Jeff Olson

How retailers can compete with Amazon and others through our partnerships directly or through or distribution partners like SLS and MacPhersons.

Kyle Richarson, Vice President, Royal Talens North America – Kyle has been working in management, product development, marketing and sales for the past 8 years in the artist materials industry, most recently leading the founding of Royal Talens North America in Northampton, Massachusetts. Before this industry he worked in consumer data insights and business analysis in the Office Products and Mass Market Retail channels. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Kirk Gillepsie, Sales Account Manager, Royal Talens North America – Kirk has worked in the artist materials industry now for 28 years in retail, manufacturing, distributor sales and product management. He is a graduate of the Academy of Art in San Francisco. When not thinking about art supplies he’s using them on weekends painting outdoors in the the studio shared with his artist wife, Ashlee.

Jeff Olson, Art Education Director, Royal Talens North America – Jeff received his MFA in Painting and Drawing in 1992 and has over eight years of college and university teaching experience in studio art, four as Fine Art Department Chair. He began his career in the art materials industry with Utrecht Art Supplies as a store manager in 1998, rising to the positions of Regional Manager and ultimately Vice President of Retail Operations. After the acquisition of Utrecht by Blick Art Materials in 2013, he served as District Manager supervising stores in Washington State, Oregon and Northern California. In 2015 he resigned his position to pursue his art fulltime participating in several exhibitions, artist residencies, and visiting artist programs until coming on board with RTNA in January of 2017 to lead the Art Education program.