Executive edge: Robert Mettler; The CEO of Macy's West has a long relationship with Colorado.

• Author: Bronikowski, Lynn
• Position: Macy's West Inc. - Biography

Over 44 years in the retail industry, Robert Mettler has befriended Elizabeth Taylor, chatted with Princess Di during a holiday reception in Chicago, visited President Clinton's Oval Office and considers lunching with fashion designer Eileen Fisher all in a day's work.

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Yet on a fall day in Denver when the chairman and CEO of San Francisco-based Macy's West walks the floor of Macy's sparkling new department store at Stapleton's Northfield shopping center, he is simply, "Bob."

Really--that's all it says on his Macy's nametag.

"When you've been in the business as long as I have, people on my staff will jokingly use the term FOB--Friend of Bob," said Mettler, who joined Macy's West in 2000 after seven years at Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Today the affable Mettler oversees more than $4 billion in annual sales at nearly 200 stores operating in six states, including Colorado. "I mostly like to see the interaction between customers and the store. But I have this expression: 'The customer loves us but doesn't want to spend her life with us.' She wants to be able to come into our company, have a great transaction and experience and then get on with her life."

But for 66-year-old Mettler, retail is his life--a passion he honed after graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Virginia and taking a summer job at Jordan-Marsh in Boston. He planned to go to Harvard to earn an MBA and law degree.

"Instead, I decided to take some time off before graduate school so now I jokingly like to say that I'm on my 44th year of sabbatical from Harvard.

"I found that I enjoyed retail enormously and I think whatever career you decide to do, you better like it a lot and bring passion to the...