“Being at Oak Knoll,” said Anu Narayanan '93, “there was no question that I couldn’t achieve anything that I thought possible, because that was the foundation I was given.” This foundation has steadied Anu throughout her life and career, most recently in late September when she received the Women of Color (WOC) Retail Alliance GROW Award, which honors recipients for industry expertise and achievements in leadership.

Anu has been President of Women’s and Home at Anthropologie for nearly three years, and even as she had no idea while she was in school that she would “fall in love with retail,” she credits her time at Oak Knoll, and her family, for helping her cultivate the skills and mindset of a leader.

A Tale of Two Families

In Anu’s words, she was one year shy of being a “lifer,” having attended Oak Knoll from first grade through high school graduation. And hearing her tell the story makes you (almost) want to attend high school all over again. “It was my happy place, so I loved it,” she recalled. “I made amazing friendships there and felt like I was surrounded by interesting people. I felt at home.”

Anu explained that she had meaningful relationships with Oak Knoll faculty, too — including retired Upper School Music Director Ruby Robertson-Knox, with whom Anu often worked because of her involvement in musical theater. “It was like family. I felt very connected to all the teachers and, in general, had a great experience.”

Anu was also president of her class every year, an astounding accomplishment, and points to both Oak Knoll and her parents with the development of leadership skills that would come in handy so many years later. She credits her father with her entrepreneurial spirit. But it was her mother who taught her a lesson she would not only rely on later for career decisions but also pass on to her team at Anthropologie.

“I was not the best at science,” she explained, recalling the summer she attended Newark Academy. “‘So, this isn’t your thing,’ my mother told me. ‘Why are you focused on something you’re not great at? Focus on your strengths.’ These life lessons really set me up for success.”

But focusing on her strengths didn’t mean she couldn’t take risks and try new things — another benefit of having an all-girls middle and high school experience. “It was definitely a safe place to try something new and get involved.”

Falling in Love With Retail

After high school at Boston College, Anu began a major in finance and later added marketing, which she found to be more consumer-centric. Armed with a double-major and a minor in French — a nod to her language studies at Oak Knoll — after graduation, she joined a low-paying merchandising training program at Talbots, even though she had better-paying offers. “My father asked me what I was doing and why I wasn’t going down the finance path. I couldn’t explain it except to say that it just felt right. There was something that made sense to me.”

After Talbots, Anu was recruited to work for Gap in San Francisco — another move to a place she had never been for something completely new. “Being creative is really important,” she said. “I often talk to my own team from a perspective of taking calculated risks. You don’t know unless you try. You think the worst thing is failure. But as long as it’s not an epic failure, you might still become the president of a company,” she says, laughing.

Early in her tenure at Gap, and just before Black Friday, Anu misallocated jackets to several stores and sent them so many that the fire marshal had to intervene. She thought she was going to be fired. Instead, her mistake revealed problems with the system. The incident also nudged her away from the operations side of the business toward buying. “These things happen. And that’s just part of the growth. It’s not something to be afraid of.”

At Anthropologie, Anu leads the Women’s and Home divisions. Active listening and giving her team autonomy are key to her philosophy. It’s why she hosts a forum where junior members of the team can ask questions or share ideas about the business.

It’s also why Anu is humbled to have received the GROW Award from WOC Retail Alliance.

“It’s amazing to be part of an organization that celebrates women of color and gives them space to be able to network and share ideas and move the needle,” she explained. She adds that women in general are the decision-makers for most U.S. households and are the majority of consumers, but they’re not the majority of leaders. And women of color have even less visibility.

“How do we not give them the opportunities to make progress? I’m always seeking a growth mindset. I want to constantly think about evolving and creating opportunities. The more the business grows, the more opportunities there are for people on my team to move forward in their careers or for us to hire more people and create more jobs.”