Southern Oregon University

Columbia College Chicago

Vice President / Principal Analyst, Digital Business Strategy at Forrester

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

Forrester provides proprietary research, consumer and business data, custom consulting, industry events, online communities, and peer-to-peer executive programs.• Strategic advisor for 8 of the Top 10 and 57 of the Fortune 100 companies.• Marketing, commerce, and strategy professional serving clients responsible for digital business strategy.• Noted authority and leading expert on digital engagement, technology solutions, consumer behavior, and market trends in B2C and B2B. • Industry expert on technology developments that affect the online commerce industry and vendors that facilitate digital engagement including eCommerce, omnichannel, personalization, conversational commerce, mobile, digital business, AI, customer insight, and retail store solutions.• Utilized for media publications, corporate advisories and conference speaking engagements that cover such consumer-oriented topics as forecasting and trends, best practices in strategic application of technologies, conversion optimization, and executing revenue-driving initiatives in retail markets. • Author on 100+ industry reports available at <a href="http://Forrester.com">Forrester.com</a>

Forrester

Vice President / Principal Analyst, Digital Business Strategy

Largest U.S. music retailer with over $2B in sales and 33% market share across four brands including Guitar Center, Musician’s Friend, Woodwind/Brasswind and Music123. All brands operate direct segments; Guitar Center also has a core retail component. Owned by Bain Capital.•	Developed and executed new online partnership program with 135 vendors & Capital One to generate 43% lift in sales ($13M) and maintained margin through specializing consumer financing options supported by vendor coop advertising.•	Led total cost of ownership eCommerce analysis and program recommendations for ATG/Oracle Platform against DemandWare SAAS model; largest Enterprise project in 2013. •	Launched strategic e-commerce and contact center strategies to lift warranty sales without additional discounting; web increased 69% ($1.3M) and contact center increased 27% ($800k).•	Led development of logistics/strategic positioning on direct channel shipping policies and returns; new program generated $600k in EBITDA contribution through cost saving initiatives and attributed sales lift. •	Oversaw financial/operational aspects of contact center management system upgrade including scoping of project, ROI pro forma, vendor selection and implementation planning.•	Led strategic analysis of merchandise assortment/logistics project resulting in 7% warehouse space clearance and freeing $9M of invested capital with <1% decline in assortment offering.

Guitar Center / Musician's Friend

Director, Strategy & Digitial Business Operations

Director, CRM & Marketing Analytics – All Enterprise•	Responsible for planning, executing and measuring all marketing activities including email, catalog, outbound calling promotions and eCommerce marketing offers.•	Created standardized analysis methodologies and Enterprise reporting of key eCommerce performance metrics through use of database analysis (SQL), Test & Target and Omniture.  •	Launched over 300 direct mail campaigns (46M circ.) and over 3,400 email campaigns (1.7B circ.) across four brands with multiple cadence and segmentation strategies.Director, Strategic Planning – eCommerce/Direct•	Led development of customer segmentation and profile models for use in brand/marketing engagement planning and response analysis •	Developed strategy and recommendations for 3rd party engagements towards site improvements and programs. •	Led development of customer experience management program including strategic implementation of Opinion Lab online customer feedback system and a contact center service call resolution system. •	Led International sales improvement project that reversed business contribution from negative to positive EBITDA within 3 months.

Director, CRM / Strategic Planning & Analytics

Gourmet food and fruit gift retailer with over $300M in sales. Brands include Harry & David, Wolferman’s and Cushman’s. Direct segments drive core business. Harry & David and Cushman’s operate retail locations.Senior Manager, eCommerce/Direct Marketing – All Brands•	Planned and executed over 80 direct mail campaigns (92M circ.) and over 2,100 email campaigns (228M circ.) across three brands with multiple cadence and segmentation strategies.•	Oversaw online marketing programs for all brands including paid search, affiliates, SEO, comparison shopping, display advertising and social media.•	Developed standards and key performance indicators for planning, execution and reporting of online A/B testing, web analytics and online market research.•	Initiated targeted offers and messaging based on traffic source; attributed results showed 11% lift in marketing program conversion rates.•	Realigned vendor relationships to reduce costs and improve online performance across affiliates, SEO, display advertising and social media. •	Executed “post-mortem” analysis after each core campaign to determine $/BK and ROI performance and disseminated to executive management.•	Most significant deliverables were measuring incremental effects of adding new brands (Wolferman’s, Cushman’s).•	Worked closely with Creative Services department to ensure development and production of catalog/email versions, bind-ins, cover messaging and tests.•	Maintained integrity of the marketing database.

Harry & David

Senior Manager, Marketing

Outsourced management training organization used by many of the Fortune 500 companies to administer training and skill improvement workshops for executives, managers and small business entrepreneurs. •	Oversaw one, three, and five-year marketing budgets, sales plans and return on invested capital.•	Administered comprehensive contact strategy for direct marketing activities, including direct mail, email and outbound loyalty communications.•	Led integration of SAP Enterprise System and opened 18 new facilities with 2 new concepts. •	Determined CLV and applied results to direct reactivation and prospecting, increasing new customer acquisition by 6%.•	Coordinated with Internet vendors on SEO, SEM and web development. New initiatives and program changes increased orders 29% and increased sales 22%; Internet sales increased from $2.8 million in 2002 to $4.9 million in 2005.

You-World Executive Training Services

Director, Marketing Operations

Restaurant/nightclub/live music club owner.•	Negotiated all aspects of acquiring businesses including purchase of stock/license, investor relations and lender funding.•	Created reporting system of financial results for investors/debtors including P/L and cash flow analysis of the business. •	Performed all management functions including marketing, menu planning, accounting, HR and inventory. •	Increased gross revenues 32% and net profits 47% by end of 1995.•	Gross revenues were 185% greater in final year of ownership over acquisition year.

Brendan Witcher

Brendan Witcher