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BIO I'm addicted to process. Crave analytics. And thirst for the creative side that brings it all together. Customer loyalty makes me shiver. And thinking about Brand Portfolio Strategy keeps me up at night. I can quote Marketing Theory ad nauseum if required, but I'd rather focus our energies on getting things done and delivering results that speak for themselves. When I was a consultant, people would introduce me as “Our Marketing Guru,” which is quite an honor, because once you're recognized as a guru, you can charge guru-level fees. On the other hand, you can't really refer to yourself as a guru without people rolling their eyes — it's tough enough creating your own website for people to come learn about you. Recent Adventures Currently, I am the Chief Marketing Officer for TeliaSonera Eurasia, consisting of nine mobile operators in eight countries in Eurasia, including Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Nepal and Cambodia. Previously, I was the Chief Marketing Officer, Deputy General Director for MagtiCom Ltd., the largest mobile operator in the Republic of Georgia — no, not the American state of Georgia, but the former Soviet Republic of Georgia in the Caucasus. More important than titles is what we were able to accomplish during my two-year tenure:
Working for the largest company in a post-Soviet country certainly has its perks, but none of them are as rewarding as the experience of having to explain, justify and defend the basic tenants of Marketing and free-market capitalism practices on a daily (and sometimes, hourly) basis.
But, I didn't find it frustrating. I loved it. And, I fell in love with mobile telecom. I told you, I am a Marketing Junkie. It was my job to instill the same passion for Marketing as I had among those around me. For more on my experience in the mobile telecom
industry in Georgia, click here
Life as a Consultant Prior to heading off to the Caucasus, I spent six years as a Marketing Consultant with Revenue Storm working with some of the very best and most recognizable organizations in the world, as well as companies you may not have heard of, but who do great things with their customers. I traveled the globe helping to solve hundreds of thorny Marketing and Sales problems and improving the performance of literally tens of thousands of people. Client projects included extended engagements in Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Argentina, Lithuania, Republic of Georgia, Netherlands, United Kingdom and France, as well as Silicone Valley, U.S.A — a world of its own.
As the Marketing Practice Leader, I worked with clients from a variety of industries who all had one thing in common: a strong need to accelerate revenue, align critical resources and generate demand in the marketplace. My primary role was to help clients develop a Go to Market Strategy and align their Sales and Marketing Teams around executing the strategy. For more on the Revenue Storm Story, click
here
Consulting led me to Boston and Boston is where I met my wife, Patty. Meeting Patty was clearly serendipitous, because she introduced me to the wonders of Georgia which opened up a whole new world for me. The Suburbs Begin to Call Prior to Revenue Storm, I was the Director of Marketing for Holden Corporation, an international global sales effectiveness firm. Working with LaVon Koerner, one of the original co-founders of Revenue Storm, and who had been the President of Holden during this period, I installed a Marketing infrastructure that improved market penetration and built a more consistent and dependable sales pipeline. Also worked with clients in the areas of Sales and Marketing Alignment, Competency Mapping, Selection and Recruiting Systems, Competitive Positioning and Product Life Cycle Management. The Siren of the Agency Side Having been on the "Client Side" while working with cutting edge advertising and public relations agencies, I had a bird's eye view of how to maximize the effectiveness of the agency/client relationship. As the senior Group Account Director in Chicago for the 10th largest advertising agency in the world, I led the account teams responsible for $25 million in agency business. Clients included Monsanto/Searle, OfficeMax, Ameritech, Navistar International, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Target and Bahama Breeze.
Corporate Marketing I started out learning Direct Marketing at the rate of 150,000 consumer mailings per month as a Marketing Coordinator with a leading affinity-based travel subsidiary of Cendant while working my way through a BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. With a Minor in Graphic Communications, I quickly delved into the land of traffic, production and art direction. I went on to work for the premier Marketing association for the financial services industry, FIMA (Financial Institutions Marketing Association), where I eventually took over Business Development and was responsible for developing publishing distribution channels, conference development, author/publisher relationships, and cooperative syndicated research projects.
After FIMA, I went on to take over Corporate Marketing responsibilities for Reid Psychological Systems, a Human Resources consulting firm. Reid was the place where I would hone and polish my skills as a marketer, eventually creating an award-winning MarCom program which built Reid into “One of the Ten Most Recognized Brands in HR."
Reid provided a Tabula Rasa, allowing me to build a world-class brand, while launching more than 20 new products and entering new, previously untapped markets (healthcare and hospitality). Advertising, PR, Web Marketing, Telemarketing, Lead Generation, Mega-Deal RFP's, Direct Mail, Trade Shows — you name it. We used the whole Marketing Toolkit and we built an incredible Revenue Generating Engine! An American in Paris From 1989-1990, I worked as a photojournalist based out of Paris, France, and was an eyewitness to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the demise of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. This experience provided me with a lifelong obsession for exploring and understanding new cultures — something that's helped me immensely in working with so many international clients.
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