Resume Body | Seasoned business leader with experience in start-ups, large-companies and turnarounds; strong functional expertise with senior leadership posts in marketing, finance and business development; Successful business strategist with software, telecommunications service and infrastructure experience.
Broad General Management Skills: board experience on development stage and public companies; leadership of an 800-person business unit, selected for GE Executive Leadership Development Program, leadership of numerous 6-sigma process improvement teams. Strategic and operations reviews with GE CEO and staff.
Functional Expertise in Marketing, Finance and BD: 11 years of senior marketing and BD experience with responsibility for market strategy, new services, M&A, new ventures and marketing communications; 8 years in finance with merchant banking experience in financings, acquisitions and deal negotiation - transaction experience on 40 deals ($6 billion);
Strong Business Strategist & Executive Communicator: Initiated and led successful strategic redirections of businesses, product lines and market approaches including divestiture of GE Spacenet, redirection of $400 million in next generation satellite spending, and a software-to-services business model conversion. Formulated and led successful 12-month telecom services turnaround.
1997 - Present General Electric
$5 billion Americom Global Satellite Communications Business
Senior Vice President, Business Development (1999 - Present)
New Ventures. Responsible for execution of an Internet broadcast media market entry. The risk/return trade-offs and GE earnings impact made it unattractive for GE to fund this strategic initiative. I lead the management and GE corporate leadership to a decision to create a separate, externally funded business. After obtaining GE corporate approvals, my achievements on this project were: recruiting key members of the management, operating agreements; strategic alliances and service agreements with partners in caching/stream serving, broadband last-mile service, enhanced viewing, digital rights management and encoding and receiving equipment. The venture was shelved with the broadband funding squeeze, however use of the external funding strategy put Americom in a better position then our two competitors - Loral and Hughes. Each made investments 10 times as large and have earnings exposures 4 times Americom’s.
Globalization. With 11 of 14 satellites and over 80% of Americom’s revenue from the US market, a second key area of responsibility is accelerating Americom’s globalization. A significant accomplishment here was a strategic initiative to expand global presence through linking Americom’s European, and Asian systems to the US through connecting satellites. Result: $100 million acquisition of Columbia Communications, and $400 million satellite contract. Other projects, including joint venture with a leading Canadian telecom, acquisition of an Asian satellite and joint development of a slot with a leading Japanese telecom were interrupted by the sale of Americom or were terminated based on valuations. Initiated CCC joint venture discussions, with SES, which ultimately resulted in a merger.
Senior Vice President, Marketing - Americom (1997 - 1999)
Recruited to GE to build a marketing group and lead entry into data and Internet markets from a strong TV/Cable business base.
Built Marketing, Technical and Regulatory Group. In the first year built a 14-person group with technical, regulatory coordination, product marketing/management professionals, to support new service introduction, product management, marketing communications, satellite design and global frequency coordination.
New Service Introduction. The department developed a six-sigma new service introduction process, which was cited by GE as a best practice and resulted in three Internet/data offerings within the first 12 months. We also created a cross-functional 6-sigma process for specifying new satellites. Seven satellites worth $1.5 billion have been designed under the process and are in construction. Particular accomplishments were:
· Grew data/Internet market revenue from under $ 5 million per year to over half of all new revenues, through sales force realignment and refocused and expanded awareness/lead generation effort. Data sales were a key contributor to Americom’s 30+ % NI growth in 1998 and 1999.
· Succeeded in coordinating slot for GE Americom’s first Asian satellite and cleared a slot for follow-on European satellite.
Business Line Rationalization. In 1998 initiated a review of our Spacenet VSAT subsidiary and concluded that it had serious equipment supply problems, a disadvantaged business model, and ongoing management issues. I led the management team to a consensus to divest the business, with a resulting sale for a substantial book gain in an earnings accretive transaction.
Next Generation Systems. In 1999 initiated and led a review of our next generation satellite program. The finance, marketing and technical team I led analyzed the customer economics of next generation satellite solutions for a broad range of applications in each of the major global market regions with benchmarks against alternatives - fiber, DSL, Cable, terrestrial wireless, and LEOs. The cross-functional team convinced the management team that the program, which was already under contract, could not provide competitive service with acceptable returns. The result was the cancellation of a $400 million procurement contract. The industry has followed with terminations of programs - most recently one in which Lockheed, Liberty, TRW and other investors have sunk $1.2 billion.
Created Marketing Communications Function. Built a 3-person group, and led an overhaul of Americom’s marketing message and image to project global presence and broad service offerings. Orchestrated marketing campaign to win CEO Industry Executive of Year Award.
Strategy & Operations Reviews. One of 3 business unit executives to present to Jack Welch and his corporate staff on growth strategy and operations. Responsible for presenting services, growth and e-business strategies and programs. The sessions are the key management forum used by GE to assess executive leadership, operating commitments and performance.
GE Leadership Programs. Completed six-sigma process design and improvement, financial controllership and change acceleration leadership programs. In 1998, selected for the GE Executive Leadership Program.
(1995 - 1997) Racotek, Inc.
Start-up provider of wireless communications software and services.
VP Marketing & Business Development
I joined this $8 million revenue, venture-backed company to gain an understanding of a key industry (software) and to obtain a substantial equity participation. The immediate assignment was to form alliances with major telco’s and to bring a strong market orientation to new product/feature introductions. Racotek’s focus on the field sales and service verticals brought it 11 Fortune 500 customers including Coca-Cola, Deere, and Honeywell, and Xerox.
After the first year, initiated and led a transition to a business plan focused on integration services after coming to the conclusion that customer needs and procurement patterns made a software-only business model unattractive. The plan involved licensing and supporting a product which competed with Racotek’s core middleware offering.
In 1995-97 we launched 5 new products. In addition to consulting services, we introduced
· SNMP network management,
· An application-scripting tool,
· Managed network services
· Database agents.
Strategic agreements were concluded with AT&T, IBM, Lockheed Martin and Motorola. In 1997, elected to the board of the Personal Communications and Computing Association, which represented the industry.
1994 - 1995 Skytel - Microsoft - Kleiner, Perkins PCS Venture
VP Marketing & Business Development
SVP Marketing and Business Development of this SkyTel formed venture, which created the first nationwide two-way wireless e-mail messaging network - sold to MCI WorldComm in 1999 for $1.2 billion. Responsibilities included the overall business plan, product marketing, distribution, corporate identity, and PR efforts from start-up stage (pre-license acquisition) through beta. Accomplishments include:
· Product/Market and Overall Business plan - resulted in first Pioneer’s Preference PCS spectrum grant
· With Kleiner Perkins, raised $50 million in strategic equity from Microsoft
· Marketing/Technology Agreement with Microsoft that provided a 24-month service exclusivity for the new venture
· Lead branding/corporate identity initiative
· Built 12-person marketing department
SkyTel
Director of Business Development (1993)
Led Successful Turnaround. In 1993 I assumed leadership of a $15 million 850-person operator services subsidiary of SkyTel, which was bleeding, with negative 10% operating margins. Devised and executed a 6-point program to lead the unit back to profitability, achieving 6% favorable margins within 12 months. The turnaround was achieved through:
Increased Prices. The prior management had misperceived a shift in a particular market segment toward voice-mail as an intensification of price competition. In most of the 23 served geographic markets we were leaders, often with 30-40% shares. It appeared that with rising industry costs and low industry profitability, competitors would follow a price increase. We raised prices with minimal customer loss and initiated higher industry pricing.
Reduced Corporate Overhead. A corporate marketing bloated overhead. Achieved a 40% reduction through headcount cuts and reliance on advertising directed by local office managers.
Implementation of Objective Compensation. Implemented the first objective compensation program in the company’s history, with cash flow participations for local managers. This energized line management, improved margins and generated a series of management improvements we replicated across offices. It also enabled us to eliminate region managers.
Consolidation. Initiated and led the consolidation of 23 offices to 8 through divestitures and trunking of subscale operations into other locations.
Account Profitability Systems. Launched systems to track account profitability on a monthly basis, which resulted in identification of approximately 950 unprofitable accounts, 80% of which were upgraded to profitable plans.
New Service Introduction. Drove the introduction of a price-premium fax-product, which reduced our unit service costs by 45% through automated message delivery. The service was taken by 30% of customers in the first year.
SkyTel
Director of Business Development (1990 - 1992)
I joined Jackson, Mississippi based SkyTel, after being recruited by its founder who was an investment-banking client. My objective was to gain experience in an operating business. Accomplishments include:
· Led the divestiture of the company’s non-core microwave and mobile radio businesses
· Valued PCS bands for a profitable, winning bid in FCC spectrum auctions
· Led SkyTel mobile satellite initiatives. Board member of AMSC, a $600 million company formed with Hughes Communications and AT&T Wireless.
1984 - 1990
Prudential - New York Merchant Banking Unit
Corporate Finance Division of Securities Firm
Vice President, Interfunding Merchant Banking Unit (1988-1990)
In 1988, I was selected from a pool of 25 associates to join the InterFunding Unit and promoted to Vice President. InterFunding was responsible for controlling equity investments in leveraged transactions. By joining this group I sought to extend mergers/acquisitions advisory assignments to principal experience.
In this new position I had responsibility for all deal facets - from due diligence to financial analysis, negotiation of purchase and sale, financing, shareholders and employment agreements, as well as stock incentive plans. Deal contributions ranged in scope from financial analysis and due diligence to overall lead. Closed transactions:
· $1.1 billion acquisition and mezzanine funding of Dr Pepper/7-Up
· $800 million recapitalization of York Air Conditioning
· $3 billion buyout of Elders IXL, a diversified food, processing and financial services company
· Purchase of $50 million controlling interest in Dunham’s, a sporting goods retailer
Associate
Mergers, Acquisitions & Financial Restructuring (1984 - 1988)
I joined this investment bank to achieve expertise in the financial drivers of successful businesses. The first three years were dedicated to performing deal pro formas and valuations, due diligence and strategic analyses. From 1984 - 1987 I had worked on approximately $6 billion in completed transactions in the following industries:
Financial Services Retailing Telecommunications
Natural Resources Food Processing Printing & Publishing
Beverage
Through the 40+ deals I developed financial/accounting, valuation, and negotiation skills on joint ventures, management buyouts mergers, minority investments and divestitures. Example assignments and transactions include:
· $600 million restructuring of Savin Corporation debt completed through a 1989 exchange offer
· Mezzanine placement for $50 million buyout from unit of Cooper Industries by Hicks & Haas.
· $300 million Phelps Dodge/Sumitomo copper mining joint venture
· $1 billion sale of MCCA to BellSouth
1979 - 1984
Predex Corporation
Foreign exchange and treasury management consulting services
Associate & Vice President
At Predex, my principal accomplishments were developing quantitative foreign-currency and fixed income hedging and arbitrage strategies for multi-national financial service and industrial firms, such as Hong Kong Shanghai, Security Pacific, Bank of America, Du Pont and Xerox. Promoted to Vice President, Research and Development in 1983.
EDUCATION
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