BOUTIQUE MERCHANT BANK - Jan 2002 to Present
Managing Director - San Francisco, CA
- Co-founded a boutique merchant bank that provides strategic advisory, private debt and equity financing, and M&A services to early stage and middle-market companies.
- Authored a wireless telecommunication sector report as part of strategic advisory engagement with a wireless telecommunications infrastructure provider.
- Developed a comprehensive market and competitive analysis for the executive management of an in-flight wireless telecommunications company. Subsequently developed and documented a business strategy that helped secure over $15m of venture funding.
- Created a geospatial plant and financial model for an out-of-home advertising company with 2,000+ billboard and bus shelter locations. Rolled out impression-based pricing to equalize plant occupancy and enhance business value.
- Advised an Anglo-Ukrainian management team on the structuring and financing of a variety of ventures in Ukraine, including an urban renewal project and a $43m cement packaging and ocean terminal project at the Port of Yuzhniy , near Odessa.
- Developed US market entry strategy for the executive team of an established French decision-support software company.
- Worked with a private equity firm and the former CEO of a television network to refine and document a go to market strategy and financial model for a cross-media publishing venture.
- Enabled a startup with patented real-time 3D video rendering technology to focus on viable markets. Guided the company to close ASIC licenses with with two graphics hardware vendors and military contracts potentially worth $28m.
- Advised a large Chinese state owned enterprise on the privatization of a bulk-shipping terminal and the redevelopment of a state-owned hotel in a prime Shanghai location.
- Extensively researched issues related to foreign investment in China, and the rapidly growing luxury hotel market. Established two wholly foreign-owned enterprises in China. Conducted extensive due diligence on multiple China hotel projects before negotiating the acquisition and financing of two 5-star hotels.
INTERNET SOFTWARE COMPANY - Jan 1999 to Dec 2001
Executive Vice President - San Francisco Bay Area, CA
- The Company pioneered the web-based management of digital media assets (photographs, illustrations, audio and video). Worked with the Company at my previous employeer and was recruited by the founder as Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing. Was charged with transforming the company from a custom development shop into a scalable Internet software company.
- Increased sales by 3,200% from under $250k in 1998 to an $8m run rate in 2001. Mentored and led the sales team to close business at at numerous global 5,000 clients.
- Instrumental in raising $3m Series A financing and $10m Series B financing at a $75m pre-money valuation from venture and strategic investors.
- Built and managed the business development, product marketing, marketing, sales, professional services, technical support, and hosted service groups.
- Defined and launched a branded product in 1999, supported by a reasonable rational pricing model, and convinced all existing customers to migrate to the standard code base.
- In 2000 launched a hosted digital asset management service, recruited top talent from Sun Microsystems to manage it. This service was later copied by competitors, but less successfully.
- Designed a revolutionary automated digital video transcoding, classification and management system. Formed strategic partnerships with three industry leaders to develop the solution. Presented the solution at industry conferences in North America and Europe, and led the sales team to close two multi-million dollar video solutions within six months and built a pipeline of five additional deals.
- Raised market awareness by cultivating relationships with industry press and analysts, speaking at numerous trade shows, events and panel discussions, and twice winning the prestigious industry awards.
- Identified and signed a Japanese distributor that co-funded the multi-lingual version of the product.
PUBLIC INTERNET PROFESSIONAL SERVICES COMPANY - May 1997 to Jan 1999
Vice President & General Manager - New York, NY
- Recruited to a pure-play Internet consulting firm that was listed on Nasdaq in December 1997, before being sold to Whitman-Hart in 1999 for $5.9 billion.
- Built a sales team focused on selling extranets and transactional Internet systems to the global 2,000 when most web sites were being developed in garages and bedrooms. Guided the team to close multiple $1m+ engagements, one of which won Microsoft's 1998 eCommerce award.
- Following the IPO was responsible for consolidating seven regional offices into one, and grew revenue 400% year-on-year.
- Formed a national Digital Asset Management practice to deliver custom solutions working with industry leaders. The $500k+ system deployed at a large pharmaceutical company delivered payback in under 3 months during the rollout of a high profile new drug.
PUBLIC DATA AND BUSINESS PROCESS SOFTWARE COMPANY - Jul 1995 to Apr 1997
Executive Vice President, Professional Services - New York Metro Area
- Recruited to a business process and data modeling software company, by a venture investor who was an executive at my former employer. The Company grew from under $4m revenue in 1993 to $50.5m and over 50,000 users worldwide in 1997.
- Part of the five person executive team that took the Company public underwritten by Morgan Stanley, H&Q, and Robertson Stevens. The Company was subsequently acquired for $175 million.
- In one year executed a turnaround from an operating loss to a 28% operating profit, while increasing revenue by 143% to $3.4m Q4 96.
- Built a world class business process re-engineering, data warehousing and data modeling services organization focused on driving product adoption. Regionalized consulting delivery under newly recruited managing principals, aligned sales and services territories and cross-compensated the sales and services managers.
- Instrumental in closing $1m+ sales at several Fortune 1000 companies.
- Awarded a special bonus in 1996 for implementing a professional services intranet that provided consultants in the field with access to the latest methodology, product and education materials.
- Created a dedicated curriculum development function and implemented an instructor certification and hybrid direct/channel delivery model that enabled the Company to provide national coverage and consistent quality, while withdrawing from running unprofitable public classes. Extended the program to both Europe and Japan.
LEADING DATABASE VENDOR - Mar 1991 to Jul 1995
Group Manager Worldwide Services Marketing and Channels - Boston, MA
- During my tenure at the Company revenue grew from under $100m to $1bn. Based upon the sales and marketing success of the New York district I was charged with building and managing a worldwide marketing and channels group for the $140m professional services business.
- Primary press and analyst spokesman for the division. Worked closely with senior management to develop strategy. Achieved the objective of bringing a services and solutions orientation to the Company's corporate marketing programs.
- Defined and launched a integrated set of branded services built on a proprietary methodoloat spanning business strategy through client/server application development to production support. This enabled the Company to present consistent branded services worldwide, maintain premium pricing in the face of increasing competition, and support 40% annual organic growth.
- Developed and implemented a consulting and education channels strategy. Created over twenty authorized education partners in North America and Europe within a year, and built an education telesales organization to help ensure continued revenue growth.
District Manager - New York, NY
- Recruited to Sybase by my former manager.
- The two employees in the New York office waited for my first day to tender their resignations. Notwithstanding the pre-existing adversarial relationship with the product sales team, in one year built a 40 consultant practice and achieved the highest revenue and profit contribution of any district.
- Closed $500k+ engagements with five bulge bracket investment banks and several Fortune 1,000 companies; each pulling though $1-5m of product sales.
PRESTIGEOUS MERCHANT BANK - Oct 1989 to Feb 1991
Manager, Investment Research - London, UK
- Joined a long-established British merchant bank to manage finance, technology and administration for the 130-person investment research department.
- Instituted a series of cost saving programs that reduced expenses by 15% from $20m while substantially improving the quality of the department's 250,000 page per month research output. These included bringing analytic and logistics systems in-house, and replacing the typesetting processes with an all digital workflow.
- Developed innovative research products including the definitive study of the UK small cap market, and an aggregate model of the UK economy working with the sector research directors.
LEADING MANAGEMENT CONSULTING FIRM - Aug 1986 to Sep 1989
Senior Consultant, Financial Services Practice - New York, NY
- Developed a systems strategy for a wall street bank that enabled client trades to be matched against a multi-billion dollar passively managed pension fund.
- Developed a multi-currency P&L and risk management system for a large Japanese investment bank on the company's first $100m engagement. Piloted an object-oriented client/server architecture, and authored the company's first white paper on object-oriented development methodology.
- Conducted a strategic review of several fund management operations, and co-authored a published paper on the future of the fund management industry.
Consultant, Financial Services Practice - London, UK
- Designed and implemented securities trading and settlement systems for two investment banks, and a lease administration system for a division of a large retail bank.
EDUCATION
Top Tier Univertity in England - Sep 1983 to Jun 1986
- Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Graduated with honors.
- Bachelor of Science in Business and Accounting, Graduated with honors.
