D'Ambrosio earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University (summa cum laude and Valedictorian) in 1986[1] and received his MBA from Harvard Business School.
[7] When he left the company in August 2002, he was responsible for worldwide sales and marketing for IBM's $12 billion software group.
[12] D'Ambrosio was brought to Sears with the hope that he would be able to reverse the company's declining public image and sales, restoring the store to prior relevance which had faded since the adoption of online shopping.
Prior to his hire, the company suffered from consistent declines in both sales and its stock valuation, mostly due to the ongoing macroeconomic environment, as well as delays with the new Kenmore product line.
[1] In February 2010, D'Ambrosio was elected to the board of trustees of the Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit biomedical research institution in Bar Harbor, Maine.