Our HQ Team

Get to Know the Apricot Lane Franchise Team

The Apricot Lane franchise family is made up of several key players, all of whom work together to create an amazing franchise opportunity! Each of the members of our franchise leadership team offers their skills and expertise to everything we do.

Chris Lanning

President & CEO

Chris is highly accomplished in creating consumer winning experiences, immersing consumers in the brand, ensuring loyalty. Ultimately focused on building Franchise capabilities through best-in-class Merchandising, Retail Operations, Real Estate and Franchisees relations. He has held General Manager and senior leadership roles within multiple world class retail and consumer product brands. He also founded CTL Retail Partners LLC, a retail and consumer products consulting practice, providing expertise and thought leadership for retail clients.

Darcie Reeping

Vice President of Merchandising & Brand Operations

Darcie has a robust retail background that includes department stores, discounters, and specialty retail. Her insights provide an understanding for how the customer shops and builds her wardrobe. Her passion is for the product and architecting the right balance of fashionable merchandise layered with new trends for the season. Meeting Brands and Owners from all over the country is one of her favorite things about this business.

Lauren Schmeid

Manager of Business Analytics

Serving as a key liaison between our Owner/Operators and the Apricot Lane Boutique HQ team; Lauren is primarily responsible for building relationships with franchisees; educating mentoring and providing support in the area of assortment planning and product productivity. Influencing owners through a disciplined OTB process that leads to sales and margin growth.

Rosemarie Ursua

Merchandise Manager

Rosemarie has years of retail and buying experience both in stores and on the vendor side. She will assist you in putting together a great assortment for you store that will delight you and your customers!

Rachel Kirgesner

Merchandise Operations and Franchisee Relations

Linking Seasonal Planning, merchandising strategies and in-boutique experiences to tools and best practices. Work closely with franchisees to identify business opportunities and ensure connection with the right HQ team member or resources. Rachel is a new boutique opener and floor set coordinator for new locations.

Shari Papadopoulos

Marketing Manager

When you have a promotional idea and want it to come to life, Shari can help. As our graphic designer, she is adept at creating every type of marketing element for our store owners to use in promoting their business to their customers.

Ellen Odren

Director of Retail Operations & Boutique Design

With a degree in Fashion Merchandising and years of retail experience, Ellen uses her passion to help franchisees develop their store from a blank slate to their Boutique vision. She sets the scene from opening day and helps keep store owners on track to reach their goals of operating a successful business.

Mackenzie Steele

Operations Coordinator and Franchisee Relations

Mackenzie is a key franchisee point of contact for retail operations such as system support, 4-wall productivity, sales expansion opportunities, inventory management and new boutique openings.

Stephanie Downes

Merchandising and Relations Coordinator

After earning her degree in Fashion Merchandising and gaining years of corporate retail experience with companies spanning from California to New York, and focusing on Merchandise sales trend analysis, inventory cost, margin and profit management, buying, and visual presentation, Stephanie joined our HQ team in 2023 and uses her many skills in areas that are key to franchisee success, including merchandising, tech integration, operations support, in-store training, and opening new boutiques. Stephanie’s life revolves around fashion!

Morgan Tierney

Instructional Designer

Morgan caters to the Franchise's Learning and Development initiatives involving educational content creation and design.
She creates engaging educational tools and online courses for onboarding and continuing education as resources for new and existing owners. Morgan comes to the Franchise with her Master of Arts in New Media & Global Education with a focus on Instructional Design. She has nearly a decade of course design and experience in education and instruction. Morgan loves being able to provide a path for owners to obtain helpful information and training throughout their journey as an Apricot Lane Boutique owner.

Scott Jacobs

VP of Tech & Business Admin

As one of our founding partners with more than 25 years of franchise experience, Scott makes sure we are on the right course providing franchisees with the latest technology and tools in marketing, communications, technical support, and e-commerce.

Judy Lanning

Franchise Development Specialist

Judy is the first point of contact for people that are interested in learning how to become an owner of an Apricot Lane Boutique. She helps them understand our unique business, the many advantages of being part of our franchise, what costs to expect, how to obtain a business loan and more. Speaking with Judy is the first step on an amazing journey to owning a successful business!

Terry Odneal

VP of Franchise Development

Terry manages our development department looking for new franchisees, helping us gain the strengths that scale offers. His 20+ years of experience and knowledge about franchising will be comforting to answer all your questions.

Gretchen Dennis

Office Manager

As Office Manager, Gretchen keeps the office running smoothly with shipping, supplies, calendar maintenance, and facilities. She assists the Operations Department with monthly reports and gentle reminders to all. She is also the Distribution Manager for Noble Ventures and as such handles customer service and order fulfillment.

Traci Bleedorn

Franchise Development Specialist

Traci is our newest Franchise Development Specialist at Apricot Lane Boutique. She is the first point of contact for people who are interested in learning how to become an owner of an Apricot Lane Boutique. She shares the unique franchise business opportunity that ALB offers and the many advantages of being a part of our franchise.

Ken Petersen

Founder

Ken is our dreamer of great dreams and continual cheerleader as he understands the strength that comes in numbers, drawing us together to make positive distinctions in our lives. He is also the founder of 3 Strands, dedicated to the fight againt human trafficking and providing employment for at-risk individuals.

Crystal Baker

Accounting

Crystal keeps count of everything in our business. Her attention to detail and payment deadlines are her specialty, you could say she is the ultimate bean counter.

MEET OUR SERVICE PROVIDERS

Joachim Jacobs

Lightspeed

For a high-performance POS system, there is no better company to provide software & tech support. Easy to use with powerful and custom online reporting, Lightspeed helps provide our franchisees with the reliable tools and support that we expect for our system and team.

Dan Fronk

Dancor Solutions, Inc.

In order for our franchise system to have direct access to the latest Apricot Lane resources 24/7, we turned to Dancor Solutions, Inc. to create a custom “intranet” website. This secure website enables our franchisees, managers & staff to easily access the latest programs, information, training, resources and materials from each department at headquarters. This includes seasonal marketing campaigns, workshops, webinars, training videos, info links and even the latest lifestyle photos from our vendors to use for social postings.
With clients such as Macy’s, Express and Ann Taylor, Dancor plays an important role in making sure the latest tools and information are available to assist with the success of Apricot Lane Boutique's retail business.

Cory Boatman

Ace Sign Company

For superior exterior branding, Apricot Lane Boutiques count on Cory and his team of signage production professionals. They provide the precise requirements demanded by the developers of each franchise location.

Providing service since 2011

Ellen Carrillo

Stored Value Solutions

For Gift Cards and the technology that powers them to be redeemable like cash at any of our locations around the country, count on Ellen and her team of client relations professionals at SVS to have cards in stock and available for immediate delivery to all of our franchisees.

Providing service since 2009

Cassidy Crail

C Squared Social

Targeted digital advertising and Paid Search are cost-effective ways to drive traffic to your boutique. To help our owners create eye-catching ads and have them display at the right time to the right people, digital advertising experts are absolutely vital to have, and the team at C Squared are always ready to help our franchisees grow their business. Providing service since 2018