Dear Recruiters,
Is one of your clients seeking a proven senior marketing executive ? I have authored and launched multiple businesses from the ground up which grew to over $50MM annual revenue and became cornerstones of their parent company. I have also driven the repositioning of companies both solely and jointly which ranged from $700MM revenue going concerns to startups, and in the process, helped the $700MM firm grow to over $2B and helped multiple startups obtain critical growth funding between $2.5MM and $25MM in very challenging financial climates. One of these is now funded by two multi-billion dollar revenue firms and will deliver a revolutionary new e-commerce enabling service this year despite the Internet's economic recession. Further, I have experience growing effective marketing organizations in multiple category-leading technology companies, and also helped one successfully go public. I've guided companies and product lines through hyper-growth in the 20% to 300% range while preserving profitability. My industry leadership experiences span data communications, voice communications, e-Commerce infrastructure and transactions, personal computers and peripherals. As my current company has almost exhausted its funding in a very tough climate for technology financing, I am seeking another challenging leadership role. Please see my paperwork below.
PROFILE:
· Deep expertise in marketing/selling technology based products and services to a broad range of customers, including Enterprise, SME, SOHO, and Home, addressing decision makers from C-level to consumer. Industry experience in network security, e-Commerce ASP, data networking, voice communications, PC and peripherals.
· Repeated strong Profit/Loss results, substantially exceeding plan. Results were achieved in diverse businesses, ranging from enterprise data communication systems to branded consumer products amidst extreme competition.
· Comprehensive senior level marketing expertise: both inbound and outbound, across numerous lifecycles with highly tangible accomplishments in strategic business planning, tactical product management, channel development, demand generation, marketing communications, customer needs assessment, major account acquisition, competitive response, partnership development, marketing and sales team building.
· Unusual depth in both marketing and engineering. Complete technologist with in-depth software and hardware development expertise and training. Many foundational years as a software engineering manager, designing/building complex enterprise systems.
· Highly effective partner with the product development organization. Understand technical architectures, achievable capabilities and required tradeoffs as a seasoned engineer, while driving requirements from customer needs, core competencies, and competitive knowledge. Particularly adept at posing the best developmental/time-to-market tradeoffs.
· Highly effective partner with the sales organization. Passionate and effective with training and empowering corporate sales teams as well as assisting the field to acquire and retain key customers. Equally strong channel development expertise with acquiring, training, and growing resellers, distributors, and major accounts. An accomplished relationship builder with customers, partners, and investors.
· Mentor of top-notch marketing organizations, which created entirely new thriving businesses, strong brands, exceptional performances in highly competitive market sectors, and earned numerous employee promotions.
· Significant success with building marketing alliances, technology/development alliances, and fundraising with major global companies: e.g. SBC Communications, Science Applications, Inc., Kodak, Konica, AOL, Network Solutions, Cable & Wireless, Qwest, Earthlink, Adobe, CompUSA, Fry’s, various Venture Capitalists, and others.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
, San Jose, Ca. (Enterprise Network Security platform: Firewall/Intrusion Detection/VPN/Anti-DoS)
Vice President, Sales and Marketing; 2/01-Present
Recruited to Silicon Valley to build the marketing team and steer the business for this startup. Report to the CEO and work closely with the Board. Rewrote and gained executive consensus on the new business plan, sales plan, and product roadmap. Astutely repositioned the company as a focused network security provider. Instrumental to raising $2.5MM in additional funding and leading it through a critical survival period. Secured the company’s first seven customers, some of which are household names and/or have multi-billion dollar revenues.
Promoted to VP of Sales and Marketing.
> Proposed, gained approval, and rapidly refocused company on Network Security at a critical juncture for success.
> Rewrote the company’s business and market entry plans after exhaustively gathering customer needs.
> Sourced, opened, and sustained dialogues with appropriate VC’s and Investment Bankers.
> Helped secure an additional $2.5MM of financing, pitching Tier One VC’s, institutional and angel investors.
> Constructed the company’s financial projections.
> Successfully spearheaded a shift in operating dynamic from an engineering driven to a market driven company.
> Acquired the company’s first seven major customers providing interim sales leadership in advance of a VP Sales.
> Obtained these clients, including a few with multi-billion dollar sales, even without final product.
> Consequently was promoted from VP Marketing to VP Sales and Marketing.
> Instilled much needed customer-focused Market Research practices and made them instrumental in product definition.
> Established processes to formalize product requirements into documents and established update procedures.
> Dramatically reshaped the product roadmap collaboratively with the CEO, Engineering and Marketing teams.
NextEngine, Inc., Santa Monica, Ca. (Revolutionary e-Commerce enabling service provider. Funded by Kodak, SAIC, VC’s)
Vice President, Product Marketing and Management; 4/00-1/01
Directly responsible for securing VC funding at a critical juncture for the company’s survival in a very tough funding environment. Identified new, large and accessible market segments. Secured the company’s first customers and channel partners. Astutely re-focused product development based on insightful customer research. Critically refined the channel and segment penetration plans. Co-built and led the marketing organization. Also, led the development organization of 16 engineers while the CEO was fundraising.
Assisted the CEO and President in obtaining major financing, distribution and technology partners:
> Identified, contacted and guided closure of the lead Series-B investor: $5MM of the $25MM round. By convincing this corporate VC of the value we added to a division, I secured both a key customer and investment.
> Obtained L.O.I.’s with key distribution partners – one having a customer base amongst the top 3 on the Internet.
> Identified, contacted and consummated partnership with a Red Herring best-of-breed technology company.
Drove the product marketing and management organization, with following results:
> Expanded and refined the existing business plan:
- Surfaced entirely new market segments and corresponding services: several were pivotal to securing our lead investor, and were elevated to our first launch markets.
- Surfaced significant gaps in channel strategy. Proposed insightful solutions, and gained executive consensus.
- Identified competitive threats, their implications, and recommended specific responses.
> Determined customer needs first-hand by approaching major account prospects and executing diverse end user focus groups.
> Meticulously steered ongoing secondary research on all markets, applications, and potential competitive threats.
> Translated market needs into requirements and specifications for a family of e-commerce enabling services.
Led the development organization of 16 people while CEO was preoccupied with funding efforts:
> Built consensus around the product roadmap.
> Managed conversion of specifications into the system architecture.
> Directed development of a large-scale enterprise e-commerce ASP delivery platform based on Weblogic, Oracle, Siebel and custom developed Java/J2EE based software.
AST Computers, Century City, Ca., (ASP delivering I.T. services to businesses via Internet, born from top 5 PC maker.)
Director, Product Marketing & Business Development; 4/99-4/00
Led the creation of an elaborate e-Commerce based business, which delivered a full suite of products and services to SME companies letting them outsource their I.T. function. Defined and launched the company’s first revenue generating ASP services. Also defined and launched the company’s product based e-Commerce site, similar to Dell’s. Structured numerous on and offline partnerships, providing essential co-marketing, technology and operational support. Built an innovative online reseller channel. Drove marketing team with the following results:
> Defined and implemented AST’s initial ASP service offerings (e.g. ISP, Hosting, VPN, Subscription computing).
> Co-defined and guided creation of AST’s elaborate I.T. solutions web site (similar to Dell’s), serving SME businesses.
> Architected and managed development of AST's Peripherals/Accessories web site, counterpart to Gigabuys and SpotShop, reproducing an extensive e-commerce environment in several months.
> Identified and negotiated cornerstone marketing and sourcing relationships with major on and offline companies, including SBC Communications, Cable & Wireless, Qwest, Ingram Micro, Canon, Webhosting.com and others.
> Systematized key aspects of e-commerce site management, reducing effort and boosting competitiveness.
> Rapidly grew a large and effective reseller channel through innovative online recruiting methods.
> Fortified channel commitment and effectiveness with customized online training and support programs.
> Executed on and offline demand generation programs with solid ROI’s, such as direct mail with 5-10% responses.
> Initiated and drove a major business steering initiative yielding critical actions that were embraced by the Board.
Epson America, Inc., Torrance, Ca.; 4/94-4/99 (Market leader in business and consumer digital imaging solutions.)
Group Product Manager; 1997 – 1999;
Grew a portion of the color printer business from $80MM to over $100MM, achieving record profitability. Grew the scanner business from $30MM to over $40MM, achieving record volume and profitability. Authored Epson’s Digital Camera and Multifunction printer businesses, each which grew to over $50MM revenue and became ongoing company cornerstones. Initiated Epson’s first Internet involvements, and negotiated key partnerships with major brands: AOL, Earthlink, Kodak, and others.
> Grew a branded color printer business from $80MM to $100MM, exceeding plan volume by 20%, profit by 10%.
> Grew a branded scanner business from $30MM to $40MM exceeding plan volume by 30%, profit by 12%.
> Managed corporate, SOHO, and Home targeted products through multiple lifecycles in varied competitive environments, controlling price, positioning, advertising, merchandising, channel strategy, product roadmap.
> Managed groups between two and five direct reports, of which several were promoted.
> Wrote the annual business plan for my assigned product lines. Iteratively gained senior executive buy-in.
> Led demand forecast discussions with the C.O.O., VP of Marketing, VP of Sales, and VP of Operations on a monthly basis.
> Substantially improved accuracy and timeliness of inventory control systems, reducing necessary levels by $2 to $3MM on average and price protection allowances by $0.5MM to $1.2MM.
> Defined product roadmaps, gaining consensus from engineering and sales teams. Wrote MRDs, PRDs and Specs.
> Assembled and drove organization-wide, cross-functional product launch teams of 25-35 people.
> Created product documentation, sales and service collateral and trainings.
> Developed analyst and press relationships.
> Established marketing and technology partnerships yielding significant competitive advantage.
Senior Business Planning and Development Manager; 1994 - 1997
> Authored Epson’s Digital Camera business which grew to over a $50MM and initially captured top market share.
> Authored Epson’s Multifunction product line, which also grow to over $50MM and became a cornerstone of the printer business.
> Helped plan and gain approval to launch the LCD projector business, which was funded and grew to over $250MM revenue in several years and became Epson’s most profitable product line other than printer consumables.
> Advised the executive team on how to steer Epson's PCMCIA card business, and profitably extended its life for several years.
> Structured co-marketing programs with AOL, making Epson the first printer vendor in AOL’s online store.
> Devised and negotiated a revolutionary online digital imaging co-marketing partnership with Kodak.
> Obtained landmark inclusion of a customized CRM client application into parent company’s core products,
resulting in over $7.5MM savings within 3 years.
> Convinced management to bundle 3rd party software with peripherals, which initially garnered 4% increased share in a highly mature market. The practice eventually became industry convention.
Retix Internetworking, Santa Monica (Early Cisco competitor, Menlo Ventures public portfolio company.)
Senior Product Line Manager; Routers; 6/92-4/94
Grew Retix’s core router business (comprising over 70% of sales), increasing sales by 30% and profit by 10%, despite brutal competition from Cisco, Wellfleet, 3COM and others. Precipitated a new product category (remote access routing), and in doing so, changed the basis for competition in our favor.
> Managed P&L of $70MM Router business, increasing revenues 30% and profits 10% despite intense competition.
> Devised and implemented Retix's Remote Access Routing framework and used it to effectively thwart Cisco’s advance into our market space. Extended the life of our core product line over 8 months.
> Helped acquire and maintain relationships with key OEMs, including AT&T, Chipcom, N.E.T., Synoptics and others.
> Rationalized the product line within distribution, yielding 10-20% increased quarterly sales and reduced support.
> Defined product roadmaps building consensus from engineering, sales, marketing and manufacturing teams.
> Assembled and drove organization-wide, cross-functional product launch teams.
> Created product documentation, sales and service collateral and trainings.
> Managed product lifecycles controlling: positioning, price, demand generation, and driving proactive cost reductions.
IBM/ROLM Corporation, Santa Clara, Ca.; 12/83-10/90 (Market leader in business telecommunications systems.)
Product Manager, PhoneMailä Division; 1988-1990; Manager, System Design & Performance, PBX Division; 1983-1988
Managed a portion of the industry leading voicemail system to increased market share and dominance. Formed an essential liason between Marketing and Engineering organizations. Revamped the company’s core product configuration and sales system, saving over $10MM in under 2 years.
> Managed a line of digital voicemail systems.
> Managed launch process, release testing and rollout.
> Trained and assisted sales force, customer service and support.
> Engaged customers and helped close sales with major accounts.
> Tracked competition, wrote MRDs, PRDs and defined development priorities.
> Proactively resolved specifications, implementation alternatives and schedules with Engineering.
> Identified emerging product segments and led rapid response development teams.
Manager, System/Software Design & Performance, PBX Division; 1983 - 1988
> Directed small teams of software, hardware, systems and manufacturing engineers to measure, model, and improve the design/performance of existing PBX, ACD, VoiceMail, Call Center systems, and architect next generation products.
> Provided expert architectural guidance for hardware/software development pertaining to operating systems, applications software, power systems, and card design.
> Produced huge gains in system capacity and reductions in cost per subscriber, greatly extending ROLM’s competitive lead.
> Managed creation of a comprehensive MIS/CRM system enabling salesmen and marketers to automatically configure complex customer specific solutions. This system became the company’s indispensable backbone sales tool, enabling deals that would have been lost and saving the company over $10MM in 2 years.
GTE Systems Inc., Mountain View, Ca. 6/82 - 12/83 (Multi-national conglomerate.)
Software Engineer, Team Leader
Managed teams of 5 to 10 software engineers designing, coding and testing enterprise realtime transaction processing systems.
Delivered complex, mission critical systems to key commercial accounts and the Department of Defense on time and within budget.
Built easily maintainable and extensible solutions based on best of breed structured programming practices.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:
M.B.A. Anderson School at UCLA, Dean’s List, 1992
M.S. Industrial Engineering and Operations Research. Top 5% of class. Stanford University, 1982
B.S. Computer Science with Honors, Stanford University, 1982
SELECTED SKILLS SUMMARY:
The following is a sample of the skills that I have cultivated and exercised in a broad range of industries and competitive climates. Company specific accomplishments are stated in the Professional Experience section.
P&L Management
> Managed profit/loss fully for multiple businesses, ranging from Enterprise data communication systems to consumer PC products, with annual revenues between $30MM and $100MM. See specifics below.
> Judiciously controlled budgets in the $5MM to $10MM range, as well as highly restricted ones.
> Managed full product lifecycles in various competitive environments controlling positioning, pricing, advertising, merchandising, channel strategy, product roadmap, cost reductions.
> Drove the demand forecast and product allocation process in different corporate environments, expertly controlling inventory, reducing shortages, and reducing channel exposure/obsolescence, routinely by 20% to 50%.
Channel Development
> Determined the channel plan for each new and existing product/service with excellent P&L results.> Worked side by side with sales teams to build new channels, acquire new accounts in existing channels, and extend relationships across a broad range of direct to customer, reseller and distribution selling arrangements.
> Structured innovative reseller and co-marketing relationships with conventional and online partners.
> Regularly created/drove tactical marketing programs which effectively boosted sales and share, cleared inventory, etc.
Sales & Demand Generation
> Spearheaded acquiring the first, critical reference customers at multiple start-up companies, as well as with the launch of new product lines at established companies.
> Prepared and executed complete demand generation budgets involving advertising, merchandising, promotions, PR, etc., producing strong ROIs.
> Established practices and mechanisms for lead generation, promotion fulfillment, database marketing and analysis.
> Built and leveraged strong trade relationships with analysts, editors, industry organizations, etc. – directly and via PR agencies.
> Controlled pricing, channel/end-user promotions and inventory allocation throughout a multitude of product lifecycles.
> Introduced innovative merchandising aids used within various Comdex and Consumer Electronics reseller channels.
Corporate Marketing/Marketing Communications
> Instrumental in building the following successful brands: ROLM CBXÔ and PhoneMailÔ voice communication
systems, Retix RouterExchangeÔ data communication systems, Epson Stylus ColorÔ printers, ExpressionÔ
and PerfectionÔ scanners, PhotoPCÔ digital cameras, and StylusScanÔ multifunction printers.
> Skillfully developed and communicated both company and product/service positionings.
> Guided creation of all marketing and sales collateral, training material, customer/investor presentations, etc.
> Directed both internal departments and external agencies in the execution of advertising, merchandising, PR duties.
> Spearheaded tradeshow planning and execution in a variety of industries – e.g. networking, peripherals, security.
> Steered the construction and updating of websites/e-commerce sites as the companies and their offerings evolved.
> Developed influential analyst/press relationships across diverse industries, winning numerous product awards.
Product Management (customer needs assessment, product definition, positioning, pricing)
> Spearheaded shifts in operating dynamics from engineer-driven to market-driven companies.
> Instilled much needed Market Research practices and made them prerequisite to product definition.
> Led customer needs acquisition by soliciting/engaging large and small accounts and feeding back learning to the organizations.
> Exhaustively leveraged all forms of secondary research (free and paid), channel intelligence, and primary research.
> Led the design and execution of a multitude of focus groups and surveys on business and consumer audiences for various technology products and services. Even recruited for and moderated some groups myself.
> Formalized product requirements into authoritative documents (e.g. MRDs, PRDs) and established update procedures.
> Jointly defined and revamped product/service roadmaps collaboratively with engineering, marketing, planning, and sales teams.
> Steered competitive tracking and analysis to provide continuous, actionable updates to engineering, planning and sales teams.
> Identified new opportunities, justified their development priority and secured necessary resources.
> Assembled and drove company-wide, cross-functional teams of 5 to 35 people – Marketing, Finance, Advert./PR, Engr., Ops, etc.
> Established and managed core relationships with suppliers, co-marketing partners, technology partners, etc.
> Trained sales forces, resellers, support groups and major customers on our products, sales programs and support offerings.
> Directed creation of all product/service collateral for pre and post sales, setup/usage, and customer/technical support.
> Proposed and achieved dramatic improvements to customer/technical support systems, greatly improving customer satisfaction.
> Led creation of effective online corporate presences, ranging from full-fledged e-commerce sites to updated corporate images.
Strategic Business Planning, Development and Execution
> Authored and guided the launch of entirely new product categories which grew into large, cornerstone businesses.
> Astutely repositioned companies to survive harsh conditions, and also positioned entirely new product lines for success.
> Assisted multiple CEOs instrumentally with obtaining company funding at critical times and in extremely difficult financing climates.
> Source, opened, sustained and closed dialogues with appropriate VC’s, Investment Bankers, and Angel investors.
> Restructured the business plans and “go to market” plans of multiple startups resulting in additional funding and customer traction.
> Led complete annual business planning activities and market entry/expansion initiatives at large, established companies.
> Structured and negotiated impactful strategic and tactical partnerships with senior executives of F-500 companies as well as startups. Partnerships involved key marketing, distribution and technology initiatives, and were effected in diverse environments.
> Initiated and structured deals with leading conventional companies and internet companies in widely varying market spaces.
> Devised and imposed clever corporate messaging programs which effectively defended against and penetrated major competitors.
> Envisioned, sold to management, and implemented creative customer support/satisfaction initiatives producing large tangible gains.
Enterprise Software Marketing
- Identified and acquired large enterprise accounts for current Confidential company, NextEngine, Retix, and IBM/ROLM.
- At NextEngine, led user needs research and the creation of MRDs and PRDs for an Enterprise ASP platform, which integrated an Oracle database, Siebel CRM and a custom Java/J2EE application. This platform will enable e-commerce based websites with a revolutionary, patented multimedia service.
- At Confidential company, determined user needs and led the creation of the MRD and PRD for the following software cornerstones of our enterprise platform: Firewall, Intrusion Detection, VPN anti-Denial of Service, and GUI based management.
- Also determined the positioning, sales training materials, marketing collateral, etc. for our security platform to compete with Enterprise software providers like Check Point Software, Internet Security Systems, and others.
- At Retix, determined the product and marketing requirements for multiple Enterprise routers, ATM platforms, and GUI based management systems to compete with Cisco, Wellfleet, etc. Grew this $70MM business despite intense competition.
- At AST Computer, defined, guided creation, and launched several of our ASP services (Internet access, Web hosting/e-Commerce, and subscription computing).
- At IBM/ROLM, determined the software feature sets and release contents for our enterprise call processing platforms, including Voicemail, PBX, ACD, and integrated CRM systems. Was instrumental to growing our #1 position in the Voicemail market.
- At IBM/ROLM, managed the design and implementation of a comprehensive enterprise M.I.S. system enabling the entire sales force and sales engineers to automatically determine and configure customer specific solutions.
Organization and Team Building
- Managed the entire marketing organization current Confidential network security company, and at NextEngine.
- Built marketing teams of 5-6 people at Epson America, AST Computer, and NextEngine including marketing managers, product managers, marketing analysts, and business development analysts.
- Managed a product development team of 16 people with several direct reports at NextEngine, and 5-10 people earlier in my career.
- Groomed several employees for promotions to mid-level marketers in multiple companies.
- Assembled and led cross-functional product launch and maintenance teams of 5-30 people routinely, including all major disciplines: finance/accounting, operations, marketing, advertising, merchandising, customer support, sales.
- See P&L section for business management accomplishments. |
