Ms. Sheri Flies began her career with Costco Wholesale Corporation over 19 years ago as Corporate Counsel, where she was responsible for Costco’s legal issues related to merchandising, its vendor code of conduct, intellectual property, pharmacy, export, e-commerce and privacy policies. In 2007, Sheri transitioned from legal into the buying side of the business in order to learn how to integrate sustainability practices into everyday buying decisions and her teams supported the development of Costco's private label “Kirkland Signature” products in numerous categories including nuts, snacks, confectionary, chocolate, and eggs. In January 2013 she joined the newly formed Global Sourcing department at Costco and currently holds the position of Assistant General Merchandising Manager.
She is involved with various sustainability projects, both domestically and internationally, that explore public/private market based solutions to address poverty, malnutrition and illegal trafficking, with an emphasis on value chain analysis to source. Sheri is a frequent guest lecturer at various universities discussing topics related to business, ethics and sustainability and recently has been invited to share the results of her work with governmental Institutions, such as The World Bank, The World Food Programme, USDA/FAS, and US Department of State.
She is a 2011 recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award, is currently on the Advisory Board for the Center for Business Ethics at the Albers School of Business of Seattle University and a Trustee of The Bainbridge Graduate Institute. Sheri also managed Costco's participation in a private/public collaboration to develop and build a replicable, affordable and high quality early learning center for children and families. She is a past Board Member of the Foundation for Early Learning and served on the Governor's Commission on Early Learning for Washington State. Prior to joining Costco, Sheri was a partner in a Seattle law firm.