Executive Summary
Product strategy and operations leader who builds the planning architecture, governance, and executive narratives that make product organizations execute. 25+ years leading senior teams, translating complex portfolios into clear product choices and accountable plans across businesses spanning $17B–$40B. Proven at both altitude and ground level: shapes multi-year portfolio strategy while designing the cadences, decision frameworks, and metrics that embed decisions into daily operations. Builder-operator who identifies systemic execution gaps and drives lasting fixes. Distinctive strength in executive storytelling: architects board- and executive leadership team-ready narratives (context → insight → implication → decision) that move forums from status reporting to decision closure. Applies modern AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) alongside a foundation in advanced analytics (Python/R, AWS, simulation, scenario modeling) to accelerate time to outcomes. Category-agnostic capabilities transferable to product-led organizations navigating growth, transformation, or strategic inflection.
Professional Experience
Senior Director, Product Strategy & Operations — Personal Systems (2013–2016, 2019–Present)
- Led senior strategy team (including director-level managers with consulting backgrounds) applying where-to-play/how-to-win frameworks to drive portfolio investment decisions across a $40B business. Created a multi-workstream sustainable differentiation program spanning performance, security, software ecosystem, and experience innovation—aligning division presidents around strategic choices and execution tradeoffs.
- Drove acquisition strategy across multiple transactions spanning cloud computing, gaming, collaboration, IoT, market consolidation, and adjacent software categories—owning theses, value creation frameworks, market sizing, and synergy logic; interpreted valuation outputs to inform strategic recommendations. Recent focus includes AI-enabled device categories with significant software and platform scope.
- Shaped AI strategy at board and executive level—adoption market analysis with segment and GTM implications, differentiation decision-prep across software/ISV ecosystem, and a board-facing monetization framework linking product mix to value capture and software/ISV revenue pathways.
- Applied AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot) broadly to accelerate time to outcomes—pressure-testing strategy narratives, building team AI fluency, and prototyping AI-driven product concepts including designing experiments to validate how AI enriches user workflows; grounded in Python/R and AWS analytics.
- Built repeatable competitor profitability methodology—teardown-derived cost analysis combined with market pricing to infer margin structures—operationalized via a governed action funnel that converts competitive insights into platform and cost priorities.
- Architected decision-ready narratives and pre-reads for board and executive leadership team forums; served as strategic communication partner to senior product leaders in high-stakes stakeholder communications; maintained KPI governance ensuring consistent leadership visibility.
Senior Director, Product Strategy & Operations — Print (2016 – 2019)
- Built long-range portfolio plans feeding multi-year financials for a $17B business spanning hardware and supplies; developed managed print services strategy for contractual printing solutions; created metrics and governance to maximize profitable printer placements based on supplies-attach economics driving lifetime value.
- Led portfolio integration workstream for Samsung Printing acquisition (2017): applied NLP/sentiment analysis and advanced analytics via Python/R and AWS to rationalize the combined product portfolio across profitability, market coverage, and technology differentiators; navigated cross-cultural organizational change across Korean and U.S. teams; managed onboarding of the division’s largest OEM customer through the transition.
- Evaluated adjacent solution spaces—including digital marking IP use cases and workflow solutions with inorganic acceleration options. Built cross-functional alignment mechanisms—checkpoint reviews, owner maps, follow-up governance—that converted high-level strategy into embedded operational decisions.
- Developed new-category business case (Stanford, 2017) applying core microfluidics IP to healthcare diagnostics—a blank-sheet strategic recommendation built around a supplies-model revenue architecture; co-inventor on resulting patent.
Senior Director, Product Strategy & Operations — Personal Systems / Commercial (2013 – 2016)
- Drove long-range planning for the commercial segment; shaped multi-year investment strategy; designed planning cadences with explicit decision rights, pre-reads, dashboards, and checkpoint reviews across Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Finance.
- Built reusable executive narrative structures that shifted senior forums from context re-litigation to decision closure; established KPI governance ensuring consistent leadership visibility.
Senior Director, Customer & Market Insights — Asia Pacific (Singapore) (2012 – 2013)
- Expanded and transformed a multi-country insights organization serving all product lines across Asia Pacific; accelerated emerging-market research coverage and the speed from insight to business action.
- Launched China digital qualitative research platform, materially increasing customer interaction frequency for consumer and SMB segments and elevating insight impact on go-to-market and portfolio decisions.
- Extended demand modeling to quantify product attribute influence on consumer choice dynamics; expanded application scope for analytics-driven category and portfolio management.
Senior Director, Category Operations — Asia Pacific (Singapore) (2010 – 2012)
- Founded and scaled 25-person operations team (Singapore + India) to manage NPI, forecasting governance, and regional portfolio planning.
- Led a team including Lean Six Sigma-trained specialists, directing their expertise across five process transformation domains—NPI, pricing/contra management, forecasting, business monitoring, and portfolio management; drove cultural adoption of new operating norms.
- Delivered measurable portfolio discipline outcomes: ~3× increase in product configuration reuse across countries and ~40% reduction in new SKU proliferation while maintaining complete market coverage.
- Standardized pricing process and competitive-tracking analytics across countries; reduced legacy discounting variance and tightened alignment between pricing tactics and portfolio strategy.
Senior Director, Strategy & Planning — Notebook GBU (2007 – 2010)
- Developed business and technology strategies for global commercial and consumer notebook portfolios; evaluated investment opportunities across emerging markets, open-source, virtualization, and adjacent device categories. Promoted to Senior Director in 2008.
- Championed quantitative approaches to risk and uncertainty—introducing Monte Carlo simulation for scenario planning, acquisition valuation, globalization risk assessment, and market share modeling to give leadership a clearer view of probable outcomes before committing.
- Served as primary strategic advisor to SVP/GM; translated complex market and technology dynamics into clear investment choices and executive-ready decision artifacts.
Senior Manager, Strategic Marketing — Mobile Computing GBU (2000 – 2007)
- Led two industry-first product launches—notebooks with integrated wireless WAN and PCs with integrated Trusted Platform Modules (TPM)—defining early use cases and requirements that drove firmware development; established the hardware security foundation now standard worldwide.
- Led strategic technology planning; defined wireless WAN strategy and co-architected HP ProtectTools security framework; promoted to team manager. Co-inventor on hardware security and wireless connectivity patents.
Earlier Career: Senior Product Marketing Manager, AltaVista/Compaq • Product Marketing Manager, Compaq • Software Marketing Manager, Compaq (1997–2000) • Regional Sales Manager, EnerSoft Corp. • Deputy Executive Officer, USAID, Budapest, Hungary (1994–1996)