Christophe Gerbelot

Pioneer and manage the product and marketing life cycles for 50+ technical, mission-critical accessory lines specifically engineered for high-risk industries and dangerous, austere environmental conditions. Provide skillful, cross-functional leadership for R&D (long development cycles), overseas supply chain operations and logistics, as well as strategic brand-building, marketing and product launch in 30+ countries.

Strategic Initiatives and Results:

** Completely transformed the accessory business from an afterthought into a large portfolio of products and a current driver of phone sales, and grew the business from $200K to $4M in 24 months with 65% average gross margin through well-calculated product management and marketing programs (such as phone-application-service-accessory bundles or "complete solutions").
** Provided end-to-end product management for Land Rover-licensed rugged mobile phone, including gathering licensor requirements, working with engineering, outlining go-to-market strategy and coordinating market release.
** Guided product lines from concept through launch, including XP1300 CORE, XP3300 Force, XP2 SPIRIT, Quest XP3 / XP3 Pro and XP3 Enduro. Developed lines that penetrated untapped markets and propelled phone revenue from $30M to $114M (total over five years).
** Managed the supply chain in China; created schedules, priorities and goals, directed operations and coordinated teams through all phases of product development and management.
** Developed a person-to-person partnership between engineering and marketing that allows marketing teams to influence engineering through customer requirements and feedback, resulting in leading-edge products and features that are actively promoted for maximum visibility and profitability.

Hand-selected for additional role (concurrent with Marketing Director) to achieve the single-most essential goal of understanding client behaviors and capitalizing on opportunities to improve products, service and marketing programs. Led all operations of 13 phone/email support centers serving customers in 30 countries. Created and reviewed customer registration surveys and conducted focus groups. Tracked analytics and translated customer data into meaningful insights for engineering and marketing teams.

Strategic Initiatives and Results:

** Developed and managed service center operations in Europe, Australia and North America to provide global customers with same-country, same-language and same-time zone assistance.
** Reduced defect and return rates from 20% to 2% by analyzing data, identifying abuse of unconditional product warranties and overseeing the overhaul of warranty policy, processes and communications to prevent misuse while providing the same level of customer support. Also resolved quality issues to further minimize defect/return rates.
** Revitalized and restructured the customer service organization by working with consultant in transitioning call center operations from the UK to the USA, and regionalizing services across North America. Subsequently facilitated onboarding of new senior-level position, VP of After Sales.

Planned and executed compelling, cross-platform marketing programs (web/digital marketing, social media, PR, marketing communications and direct marketing) that ignited brand awareness and delivered powerful revenue performance in 30+ countries. Drove marketing impact and sales velocity by defining brand value proposition, directing creative design, optimizing campaigns and analyzing outcomes for highly technical, life-critical phones and accessories.

Strategic Initiatives and Results:

** Provided leadership in overhauling the company's marketing and sales strategy from selling phones through dealers and VARS to targeting tier-one operators (such as AT&T and Sprint) to reach more consumers with a smaller variation of products.
** Built ground-up marketing and branding solutions (product naming, packaging, positioning, segmentation, brand management, targeted messaging, retail/web, direct marketing programs) that clearly articulated value and competitive advantage, and precisely aligned core messaging across internal/external marketing communications.
** Led marketing functions to enable and facilitate the transition from 80% of total products sold in Europe to 80% sold in North America, a major change that stabilized the company during the economic downturn and targeted high-value markets for future growth.
** Successfully conceived and launched brand-building CRM program for the retail channel that seized targeted markets through newly established Partner Extranet site, loyalty programs, webinars, online surveys, dedicated point-of-service (POS) and customer service.

Increased profitability and market share for world-leading manufacturer of action sports footwear and apparel by creating and executing innovative branding, marketing, retail and event programs.

Strategized and led marketing, branding and product launch strategies to improve brand recognition and profits for six major snowboard and skateboard brands in 70+ countries. Produced integrated, cross-platform programs that reached targeted audiences through print, PR, B2C/B2B events, web and retail channels. Created marketing plans, online/print catalogs, ads and point-of-sale (POS) programs. Controlled $9M marketing and $1.5M event budget. Managed P&L and analytics for all brands. Supervised six direct reports.

Strategic Initiatives and Results:

** Launched up to 12 new products across all six brands each season, and captured the attention of targeted consumers through striking technology, art, lifestyle and athlete-driven marketing and branding solutions.
** Initiated new production partners and developed logistics strategies in France, Spain, Germany, Turkey and mainland China, which cut costs by over 60%.
** Adopted an entrepreneurial approach by managing POS as an independent product line or business entity. Performed international market research (retail tours, trade show analysis, competitive assessments and surveys) and created influential solutions for each brand that reached 3,500+ consumers worldwide. Measured ROI for each program.
** Co-designed and implemented retail concepts for 10 image-driven outlet stores (broke all previous records by opening locations within six weeks) and three corporate retail showrooms (California, New York and Amsterdam).
** Planned 14+ international trade shows, corporate events, media conferences, brand campaigns and collection launches each year. Envisioned and managed the creative strategy, oversaw teams, directed logistics and tracked the success for all programs and projects.

Established, developed and managed business and marketing operations in the United States for European streetwear and snow sports manufacturer.

Developed and directed the strategy and plan to build the infrastructure and establish a stable and fast-growing market in the US. Led business development, grassroots marketing, branding and event marketing programs. Crafted and rolled out retail marketing, POP and advertising programs in multiple languages.

Strategic Initiatives and Results:

** Defined the market entry strategy and swiftly penetrated the US market by targeting and securing 100+ distribution contracts (worth over $50K) in the first season.
** Managed trade shows in Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), which significantly increased European exposure while concurrently expanding operations in the US.