MIT Sloan School of Management

Pace University - Lubin School of Business

Business leader focused on enabling global brands achieve extraordinary business results with advanced technologies

Austin, Texas, United States

As a leader in the Customer Transformation Team, I advise industry-leading brands on digital transformation,  investment in the Sitecore product suite and optimization of digital and omnichannel experiences.

My work focuses on pre-sales, value engineering as well as projects addressing strategic, marketing, financial, organizational, process and technology aspects of digital transformation and omnichannel customer experience management for mid-market to global organizations.

I guide Sitecore customers and partners in justifying, planning, designing and optimizing digital marketing, customer experience and business performance programs using big/smart data, advanced online analytics, online profiling, personas, rules-based and predictive personalization, engagement automation; as well as Commerce, social media, CDP, CRM integration, and machine learning.

At Sitecore I advise on a range of B2C (e.g., travel/tourism, entertainment, health & beauty, automotive, home furnishings, education, retail, CPG, restaurant chains and home building, financial services); B2B (e.g., cloud software, IT consulting and services, medical publishing, medical services, healthcare delivery, pharma, financial services and insurance, distribution, manufacturing, recruitment, and fossil & alternative energy); as well as government enterprises committed to taking their multi-channel customer engagement to the next level of customer experience.

Sitecore

Principal Value Consultant, Customer Transformation

As contract executive and advisor, provided focused product, business & market development, venture planning/funding, online channel development & marketing services for cloud software, media, B2C deal based eCommerce, investment management, mobile payment systems, for-profit education, non-profit, reverse mortgages, food ingredients, sporting goods and home care providers.
- As acting VP of Business Development at Advance Digital, a national online publisher with over 40mm readers, drove the development of strategic, business and financial plans for the employment classifieds, shopping/deals, extended reach & media buying services, private exchange, 1st/3rd party data-driven targeting and geographic expansion in the context of transforming the company into a "digital first" online/offline publisher.
- For Patch, a division of AOL, which managed close to 1000 hyper-local online communities, participated in selecting, defining and planning MVPs for two new services including competitive and consumer research and initial roadmap prioritization.
- For a leading high availability cloud computing infrastructure solutions provider, conducted ecosystem and competitive assessments, and evaluated the opportunity for a new high availability product offering (market size, customer requirements, competitive positioning).
- Consulted AARP about business, financial and operating models for implementing a new digital offering aimed at helping older Americans re-imagine their lives.
- Assisted two deal-based eCommerce companies with business model and plan formulation, financial modeling, and fundraising.
- As Sr. Managing Director of Corporate Development at Market Shield Capital partnered w/ the CEO on product & business development. Focused on inflation based high Sortino products and innovative residential/multifamily financing products.
- Assisted CHS with the integration of a foreign acquisition, transition from IFRS to GAAP and design of a new commodities hedging system.

Bair & Associates

Managing Director

As a leader in the strategy practice, led teams that helped clients in diverse industries to develop research-driven, actionable, business-case based digital strategies and detailed digital product and experience roadmaps, personas and interaction designs which leverage omnichannel capabilities, particularly eBusiness, eCommerce and eMarketing to improve leads, sales, service, loyalty, operations and cross-channel performance.
- Developed the online product roadmap for <a href="http://Monster.com">Monster.com</a> including behavioral segmentation, personas, prioritized seeker and employer segments, features, functionalities, content, and Web 2.0 enhancements.
- Developed performance management frameworks and implementation roadmaps for new product introduction, content marketing, eCommerce and customer engagement for global high-tech, financial services, consumer marketing and B2B service firms.
- For UPS, developed data-driven behavioral segmentation & personas adopted across the company for development of B2C, professional and B2B websites.
- Led the online strategy development for the B2B and B2C web programs of PC Connection, including roadmap, business case, and personas.  The resulting website won several awards,.
- Drove the development of the online roadmap and personas for Liberty Medical (Medco), the leading direct-to-consumer provider of diabetes supplies and prescription drugs. Conducted extensive customer, caregiver, and provider research, a/b testing, and determined multichannel implications. Collaborated with iProspect to create an integrated SEO/SEM and design methodology.
- For RHD (Dex Media), conducted advertiser and consumer primary and secondary research to develop product roadmap for its online Yellow Pages business.

Clients included HP, JPMC, Federated Investors, Liberty Mutual, Intersections, UPS, <a href="http://Monster.com">Monster.com</a>, Analog Devices (ADI), MC Communications, PriMed, Medco/Polymedica, Talbots, PC Connection, H&M, Harvard Business School, DEX Media and Yankee Candle.

Isobar (Dentsu Aegis Network)

Director of Strategy

For this leading vendor of enterprise SaaS sourcing and purchasing software & data provider, I was responsible for developing channel strategy and early relationships with “big 5” management consulting and system integration firms, as well as complementary software and content vendors. Developed joint value propositions and go to market programs in the missionary, early stage of company development.

Emptoris (IBM)

Senior Director - Alliances

Brought in to restructure and position the company for sale.  Developed overall and financial strategy, M&A, marketing, and eBusiness initiatives (online electronics components exchange).  Pivotal in doubling the company size to $700mm, and realizing a 200% valuation increase within one year.

As acting CMO launched and built a 15 person marketing team which rolled out two global branding initiatives and led online and offline marketing, advertising, PR, IR and sales enablement activities.

Built the corporate development team and drove a global acquisition search and the $150mm purchase of two competitors.  Initiated and managed the $125mm sale of NECX to VerticalNet in 1999, and the spin-out of NECX to Converge, an HP-led consortium of a dozen industry leaders, for $215mm, which realized a 70% gain within 13 months to VerticalNet, the operator of 40 vertical B2B web channels.

Led all partnering activities including JV with Sumitomo, partnering discussions with e2open, eHitex and several global electronics product and supply chain information exchanges. Conducted study to introduce derivatives into the electronics open market.

Converge (Arrow Electronics)

VP Corporate Development and Marketing

Deep experience in developing strategies that determine the overall scope and direction of Fortune 100 organizations and designing business operations to achieve corporate goals. As a leader in the High Tech practice sold and delivered strategy, CRM, digital, and business development programs.

- Led the development of the CRM and eCommerce strategies for two global automotive OEMs (Ford, Chrysler).  The 20 person team developed consumer and dealer strategies and identified over $100M in CRM implementation initiatives.
- Co-led the development of Accenture’s e-Commerce market offerings.  Evaluated related investments and JVs, as well as advised over 20 client teams on building their online operations.
- For Simon & Schuster (the largest global consumer and educational publisher) performed EVA analysis and identified attendant operational improvement programs (on demand publishing, supply chain improvements).
- Assisted in the negotiations of a co-manufacturing joint venture between two North American beverage manufacturers, including manufacturing and distribution network modeling.
- For Xerox, led the definition of integrated software, internet and services offerings. Worked with senior management to restructure the service organization, carve out the relevant business units and integrate them into a new P&L with pricing and staffing structures optimized to leverage the company’s unique capabilities.
- For a global pharmaceutical company, determined restructuring options for its sub-scale OTC business.
- Led the team that re-engineered the service activation process for a leading global telco firm.
- For ITT's CFO, developed the global vision for finance function of the future.
- Ran a corporate visioning and strategy retreat for the top management team of Coach.

Clients included Chase, Simon & Schuster, Xerox, Ford, Chrysler, Reuters, NEC, AT&T, Cable & Wireless, ITT, Coach, Kmart, HP, and Converge; as well as the executive offices of Andersen Consulting

Accenture

Associate Partner

Prior management consulting positions at Bain & Company (focus on corporate strategy for automotive, manufacturing and data services companies), CSC/Index (part of CSC Consulting focused on strategy and process re-engineering, the precursor to Six-Sigma) and Marketing leadership at Rosh Intelligent Systems (technology for troubleshooting complex systems such as MRI and clean room machines), one of the early-stage artificial intelligence startups out o the Israeli VC community.

Elan Bair