2020 Airport Business Top 40 Under 40: Isabella Rhawie
Isabella Rhawie grew up in the retail world and in some ways, it’s a part of her DNA.
“I come from a pretty robust retail background. My parents own a retail business and there are a lot of entrepreneurs in my family,” Rhawie said. “Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, I’ve been raised in that environment. I grew up spending a lot of time at my parent’s jewelry store, so I was exposed to that industry pretty early on.”
Before joining the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), Rhawie worked at the Mall of America in the tourism department. She celebrated her sixth anniversary with the MAC in October and was recently promoted to Interim-Assistant Director, Concessions & Business Development.
When Rhawie joined MAC, they were right at the beginning phase of redeveloping 80 percent of their concessions program. Rhawie, who said exercising her creativity is one of the favorite aspects of her work, brought a new sense of design and direction to the program. She played a pivotal role in the concession design meetings that helped to push the boundaries of how the new stores and restaurants were going to look.
“I really enjoy the creative process of designing and curating a concessions program from start to finish. Seeing that concept start off on a piece of paper, to working through the design process, to watching that construction wall come down and admiring the final product is the most gratifying feeling and that’s what keeps me going,” Rhawie said.
Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) has won several awards recently for store designs, such as the Minnesota Real Estate Journal 2018 – Best Retail Redevelopment.
Rhawie’s knowledge of passenger demographics help store operators fine tune their offerings to develop eye-catching window displays.
“I’m really involved in what the windows displays look like —how to draw people in — really looking at those demographics and figuring out what’s selling, what’s not, what’s trending, how do we get people into your store or your restaurant? That’s really interesting to me,” she said.
Rhawie’s leadership and skills has helped MSP win the Concessions Team of the Year two years in a row (2017, 2018).
Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Rhawie has been working to maintain an open line of communication with all of MAC’s tenants to provide operational updates and respond to any questions business partners might have. She has worked to facilitate a new concession consortium to coordinate the reopening process as the passenger levels slowly start to come back and is helping to develop a plan that will provide the best opening strategy without putting operators at risk.
