Rick Helfenbein is a leading expert on international trade, retail and manufacturing. Prior to Sorini, Samet & Associates, he was Chairman, President & CEO of the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) in Washington, DC. He served on the AAFA Board for 10 years and was a two-term Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prior, he was President of all USA operations for Luen Thai Holdings Limited (Hong Kong), Managing Director at Burlington Industries and President at Lacoste, and is credited with splitting Izod from Lacoste and creating the original Le Tigre brand. He holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton Business School, contributes to Forbes.com and has lectured at Wharton, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell and provides retail, trade and industry commentary on CNBC, CNN, FOX, BBC, Newsy, Yahoo Finance and more.