Harvard Business School Executive Education

New York University

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Purdue University

Strategic General Manager  -  Growth Leader  -  Expertise in Transportation Tech

Hands-on advisory role for private equity sponsored (Kayne Anderson) last mile delivery software for couriers and businesses with delivery fleets. Advising the CEO, COO, management team and Board around growth and general management practices for maximizing value.

Onfleet

Senior Advisor

Hands-on advisory role for private equity sponsored (Kayne Anderson) heavy- and medium-duty commercial vehicle maintenance software platform used by OEMs, tier-1 system providers, fleet managers, dealers, independent service providers and more.  Advising the CEO, CFO, management team and Board around strategic growth topics and maximizing value along with implementation of a new management operating system and playbook.

Decisiv, Inc.

Supporting my wife, who founded the boutique executive search firm in 2019.

Epitome Executive Search

Chief Operating Officer

Hands-on advisory role for a middle-market private equity firm investing out of a $1.2B fund and seeking control investments in U.S. companies with $100-500M enterprise values.  Retained by the Business Services deal team to explore new investment themes for the firm around supply chain data and information services with a focus on commercial transportation.  The firm ultimately elected not to pursue tech deals following a leadership restructuring.  Key accomplishments include:

• Developed 12 investment theme options across multiple transportation market segments, including: fleet, transportation and yard management systems, freight matching, last mile delivery, supply chain visibility and market intelligence data services.  

• Profiled case studies of peer investors within the top prioritized investment themes, including original investment thesis and platform entry, value creation blueprint and completed add-ons, along with overall investment performance.

• Identified 40+ potential targets within the top prioritized investment themes, prepared value creation blueprints and conducted preliminary diligence.

MidOcean Partners

Operating Partner

Led strategy with a focus on growth as part of Sensata's overall ~$100M revenue run-rate and 350+ person transformational IoT initiative across transportation and logistics markets following the acquisition of Xirgo.  Member of the Office of the CTO during the first 100 days of integrating the Smart & Connected IoT corporate venture start-up with Xirgo to form a new business unit called Sensata Insights.  

• Developed the overall integration framework and served as an executive steering committee member responsible for governing the post-closing activities to bring together both organizations from 100-day milestone setting, operating model design and cultural change management to communication, value capture and risk management.

• Spearheaded strategy alignment and integration of combined playbooks while also mobilizing focus of combined teams around capturing revenue synergy value.  Key customers included Amazon (cargo monitoring and cart tracking), FedEx (cargo capacity + TPMS), Linxup (video dashcams), Maersk (intermodal reefer container monitoring), Progressive Insurance (UBI telematics), Verizon (OBD telematics) and Walmart (trailer yard tracking).

Sensata Technologies

VP, Strategy & Growth (Sensata Insights)

Led Sensata's 200+ person transformational global IoT corporate venture start-up with full P&L responsibility targeting OEMs and commercial fleets spanning light-duty and heavy-duty commercial vehicles (i.e. cars, trucks and trailers). Direct report to SVP, Chief Technology Officer. 

• Launched Sensata's first full-stack IoT solution into production on commercial vehicles and also captured Sensata's first dollar of SaaS revenue in its 105-year history from a top U.S. fleet manager for a TPMS application with a truck-to-trailer wireless data communication link. 

• Executed on an M&A growth strategy by serving as the thought leader and business sponsor for the $400M acquisition of Xirgo from its private equity sponsor (HKW) to accelerate the growth initiative and bring immediate scale around a telematics and cloud platform to underpin our value proposition as a data insight provider.  

• Achieved an internal exit milestone whereby the corporate venture start-up graduated to become 1 of 2 transformational growth initiatives for all of Sensata resulting in the formation of a new business unit called 'Sensata Insights'.

VP & GM (Smart & Connected) => Corporate Venture Exit

Founder and general manager of a global IoT start-up within Sensata's newly established corporate venture group with full P&L responsibility charged with leading the incubation and commercialization of wireless smart and connected technologies for heavy-duty commercial vehicles (i.e. trucks and trailers).  Direct report to Chief Technology Officer and SVP, Sensata Ventures.

• Led the overall strategy, development, and commercialization of a full-stack IoT solution that combined a connected gateway device with a portfolio of sensors (TPMS, weight, temperature, etc.) that generated data to deliver actionable insight for commercial fleet managers to help them reduce maintenance and operational costs while enhancing safety.  

• Built from scratch a 150-person cross-functional team (sales & market development, product, engineering, operations) across NA/EU with complex matrixed interfaces into the HVOR business unit, global manufacturing and corporate functions. 

• Developed and executed on a venture playbook resulting in $20M of global truck/trailer OEM wins at accretive margins, a $110M retrofit sales pipeline from top U.S. fleet managers and a vehicle area network platform and channel partnership with a tier-1 system provider of wheel ends.  

• Created a 5-year strategic blueprint and M&A growth strategy to build a $1B data insight business unit that solidified the venture as the foundation for a key corporate growth vector for all of Sensata. 

• Received the Leadership Excellence Award given by the Sensata CEO to one person every two years out of 20K global employees in recognition of the transformational impact on the company.

Founder / Sr. Director & GM (Smart & Connected)

Led strategy and growth for the ~$400M heavy vehicle and off-road business unit that provides sensors for commercial trucks and trailers, agriculture and construction equipment, as well as motorcycles. Direct report to Business Unit VP/GM.  

• Responsibility for three key areas: strategy (trends, where to play, M&A), product management (VOC, product roadmap) and commercial marketing (pricing, promotion, contracts).  

• Redesigned the functional org and developed a 5-yr strategic plan that positioned the business unit to outpace end-market growth by +6pts and deliver a sensor product portfolio with accretive gross margins. 

• Activated a growth initiative to serve an emerging global tire pressure monitoring system market for commercial trucks/trailers and won Sensata's first ever trailer OEM contract.  

• Uncovered needs in a $1B+ commercial fleet management TAM in NA/EU for IoT-based data insight that led to the founding of the ‘Smart & Connected’ IoT corporate venture start-up.

Director, Global Marketing (Heavy Vehicle & Off-Road)

Responsibility for corporate and business unit strategic planning, executing M&A transactions and leading post-merger integration activities across transportation and industrial sensor markets.  Direct report to SVP, Strategy and M&A.

• Selected by the Sensata CEO and CFO to develop a view of the 5-yr organic growth entitlement outlook for the $3.3B companywide portfolio of business units to assist strategic planning.  

• Served as a thought partner to the executive team within the ~$900M diversified Sensing Solutions segment (e.g. aerospace, buildings, energy, industrial) with respect to shaping organic and M&A growth strategy; screened 100+ M&A targets and initiated numerous strategic dialogues.  

• Served as a key member of the corporate deal team and integration project office across transportation and industrial sensor business units for the following announced transactions: acquisition of Schrader Electronics (#1 leader in tire pressure monitoring systems) from its private equity sponsor, Madison Dearborn ($1B); acquisition of the transportation and industrial sensor portfolio of Custom Sensors & Technologies from its private equity sponsors, Carlyle Group and PAI Partners ($1B); and a Series B equity investment / strategic partnership with Quanergy Systems for LiDAR sensors critical for autonomous driving.

Director, Corporate Development

Managed the global M&A deal process and worked closely with business unit leadership teams and Sensata's private equity sponsor, Bain Capital, to evaluate strategic opportunities.  Direct report to SVP, Corporate Development.

• Participated in several buy-side M&A transactions and screened numerous inorganic opportunities within transportation and industrial sensor markets.  

• Key member of the corporate deal team for a $15M carve-out transaction for high temperature sensor assets from a large European industrial parent.

Associate, Corporate Development

Advised the CEO, CFO, and Chairman of the Board on growth opportunities for a ~$300M global leader that provides machine vision systems and sensors used in automated manufacturing as well as barcode and ID scanners used in logistics applications such as distribution centers.  

• Evaluated numerous adjacent markets and identified potential organic and M&A entry points (e.g. intelligent transportation, warehouse and logistics, package & label inspection, pharma track & trace).  

• Developed financial & valuation models, conducted diligence and negotiated agreements for multiple M&A deals ($7-65M).  

• Conducted competitive analyses for each business unit, including market share, positioning, go-to-market, product comparison evaluations and 'why they win' assessments with potential strategic countermeasures for each of the key competitors.

Cognex Corporation

Manager, Corporate Development

Strategy and business development role reporting to the CEO of a late-stage venture.  Served as a principal leader on cross-functional strategic initiatives to reposition the company from a retail call center-based video communications and language services provider to a diversified telecom platform for delivery of communication services via voice, video and text.  Grew the business to $10M in revenue and a 150+ person team while exploring transformational partnership and M&A opportunities.  The business was exited via a sale to a competitor.

Aequus Technologies => VC-Backed Start-Up Exit

Director of Strategy & Business Development

Marketing and customer operations role reporting to CEO charged with transitioning the venture to a new call center-based video communications and language services business model. Developed and implemented marketing plans and built an end-to-end customer operations function to support the new product launch for consumers.  Grew the business from pre-revenue to $8M.  Business secured Series A and B rounds of venture capital financing from Softbank Capital and Wheatley Partners.

Director of Marketing

Retained by CEO of start-up venture to help commercialize new text-to-speech software for improved multi-sensory learning for struggling students and workers that lost all or some of their vision. Friends & family capital used to develop initial product release and proof of concept pilot with early adopter K-12 educational publisher.  Ultimately transitioned the venture to a new business model.

Marketing Consultant

Early employee reporting to founder & CEO of start-up venture incubated by the Purdue Gateways Program and financed with seed capital by angel investors.  Charged with commercializing text-to-speech software and secured wins with U.S. federal government agencies (e.g. IRS and SSA) while exploring integration partnerships with tech companies (e.g. Microsoft, AOL);  Grew the business to $3M in revenue.

gh, LLC

Assisted the Director of the Purdue University technology incubator program (Purdue Gateways Program) in a strategic marketing role designed to aid new start-up ventures with rapid growth potential based on a stage-gate process. Advised founders/CEOs on market opportunities and served as a liaison to venture capital firms considering investing in the start-up incubator portfolio.

Technology Incubator Intern

Chemical lab assistant for Bisphenol-A pilot plant at a GE Plastics manufacturing site.  Conducted Ion-Exchange Resin catalyst studies to determine most effective steady-state performance of the production process.

Andrew Forti