Chris Laurence Email & Phone Number

Minneapolis, Minnesota, Us

Renters Warehouse is a tech-enabled Single Family Rental (“SFR”) services platform providing end-to-end solutions for approximately 15,000 retail and institutional investors in 40+ markets nationwide. The company simplifies SFR investing with a proprietary online marketplace and a full-service property management platform that addresses all needs from tenant placement to property management to analytics and reporting.I was recruited by the company’s private equity owner to revitalize growth and attract capital to a well-regarded services platform whose momentum had stalled in recent years. Within two years, we completely transformed the business, leading to a successful public offering and subsequent strategic sale of the company.▪ Restructured business to integrate the company's previously separate property management and brokerage offerings, creating the first seamless end-to-end solution tailored for both institutional and retail SFR investors and building a significant competitive advantage.▪ Reversed a prolonged decline in active customer accounts by significantly improving operational effectiveness, optimizing process, and carefully adhering to crucial operational metrics.▪ Guided the company through an initial public offering on NASDAQ via a $400+ million SPAC transaction, accomplished despite challenging market conditions.▪ Led the organization through six months of negotiations among multiple creditors and key stakeholders, culminating in the successful sale of the company to an international strategic buyer.

Agoura Hills, Ca, Us

Privately-owned outsourced sales company specializing in B2B and B2C customer acquisition for Fortune 500 brands and high-profile growth companies in channels including telecom, energy and business services. The company is the largest in the field with a network of more than 4,000 sales professionals and 400 offices.As COO, oversaw all operational functions including finance, technology, legal, customer service, sales quality and sales territory management through direct reports that included the CFO, CIO and General Counsel. Opened up new tech company client segment and won multiple client awards by transforming company infrastructure and execution.• Drove operational and financial results by focusing on productivity and eliminating unprofitable initiatives, helping to grow revenue and EBITDA 40% and 80%, respectively, from 2015 to 2018.• Designed the business process and systems to support the company’s key growth initiative, an omnichannel customer acquisition program for a large online retailer.• Conceived and executed a comprehensive business systems transformation, replacing outdated systems with a novel, scalable solution built on the Salesforce platform. Equipped 4,000 field and inside sales representatives with Salesforce-enabled tablets, capturing more than 30 million geocoded lead dispositions annually and creating double-digit productivity gains for the company’s largest clients.• Charged with identifying, developing and mentoring the company’s high potential/high performing team members, ensuring retention of top talent. Eliminated and combined roles, creating annual savings exceeding $2 million while providing growth opportunities to next-generation leaders.• Partnered with Chief Revenue Officer and division GMs to set go-to-market strategy in areas including negotiation, pricing and margins.

Commerce, Ca, Us

99 Cents Only Stores (until its recent bankruptcy, a portfolio company of Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board) was a leading operator of extreme value retail stores in the southwestern United States. The company had 384 locations in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada, annual sales approaching $2 billion at the time, and an attractive store footprint yielding sales per store and per square foot that were the highest among U.S. publicly reporting dollar store chains.I was recruited by Ares for an interim role upon repatriating from Hong Kong. I worked with the company's new CEO to re-energize the finance department and drive implementation of a delayed SAP project. I took on an operations/strategy role after successfully transitioning my CFO responsibilities.• Led company’s $50 million wholesale division, reorienting strategy and priorities to leverage company’s differentiated global sourcing capability. Recruited new sales leadership, raised visibility to operating performance metrics, and implemented incentive compensation program to drive sales and margin.• Rebuilt underperforming finance, business analysis, and internal audit teams. Eliminated unproductive management layer, recruited investment banking talent to build FP&A team, and co-sourced Sarbanes-Oxley compliance function, establishing credibility and restoring morale.• Coordinated SAP implementation. Re-engineered business and financial processes in advance of conversion, added critical elements to project scope, and focused attention and resources on issues with potential to create gaps in process and reporting. Designed global sourcing workflows and interface with SAP.• Reoriented global sourcing program and created global sourcing roadmap. Established wholly-owned foreign entity in Shenzhen and recruited team to cost-effectively scale capabilities to handle expected doubling of import volume.

Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, Hk

ThreeSixty Group Ltd. is a leading product development and sourcing company working with top brands and retailers in the North American market. ThreeSixty has approximately $500MM in annual revenue and 500 employees in China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and the US. I helped form the company and initiated Brentwood Associates’ investment.I was a hands-on CEO active in all areas of the business. Key contributions while CEO included:• I actively pitched and negotiated contracts with new clients, resulting in an aggregate annual revenue contribution of more than $100MM. As CEO, I helped double gross profit and grew EBITDA 500%.• I acted as a strategic business partner advising on China and global sourcing opportunities to senior management teams across a wide range of consumer product categories, including office, home, kitchen, appliances, toys, outdoor, sporting goods, power tools, and direct response.• I conceived, developed and executed a strategy to expand the business through direct-to-retailer sales, building our Cohesion Products division from zero to $50MM within three years while establishing capabilities in sales, category management, product development, design, and customer service. I helped win placement of significant product lines in category-leading U.S. retailers including Costco, The Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, Michaels, Dollar General, Dick’s Sporting Goods and others.• I restructured the business to reflect our direct-to-retail focus, eliminating more than 20% of total company payroll.• I structured, negotiated, and completed a strategic merger with a U.S. sales and marketing company to expand our network of retailer relationships and capabilities.• I recruited a prominent executive with a track record of achievement in the sourcing industry to join company as Chairman and also contribute over $10MM in a personal investment.

Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, Hk

As President and COO, I aggressively developed our China operations into a cost-effective service for increasingly sophisticated customer requirements, and propelled the business to a new level by converting new customers with attractive scale and product lines. The China offices were restructured from geographic to customer-centric reporting, driving operational and financial accountability, and establishing a platform for rapid expansion.• I captured $8MM in annual savings and reduced our Hong Kong headcount from 70% to 25% in 18 months by relocating positions to China offices, realizing savings from lower salary and operating costs.• I achieved EBITDA growth of 75% and 160% respectively (2007 vs. 2003) by developing nine significant customers who sourced product exclusively through ThreeSixty.• I also managed the design and deployment of an Oracle-based supplier database and real-time quotation analysis platform for negotiation during Shop-Around® sourcing events.

Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, Hk

I relocated to Hong Kong to drive operational changes for ThreeSixty. I was accountable for line management of the entire Asia organization, including our Hong Kong and China operations, sourcing, quality, finance, and IT. I drove significant improvements in many areas including quality, sourcing and execution, and created a solid foundation for future growth.• I slashed quality claim expenses to 0.02% of revenue by restructuring quality control efforts as an independently reporting group with written inspection criteria and statistical sampling.• I achieved an increased conversion rate to greater than 90% for customers reaching quoting stage by establishing a dedicated business development sourcing team.• I conceived and refined a business model combining gain-sharing with mutual exclusivity to immediately capture 100% of customers’ sourcing volume. I also authored a contractual framework which greatly limited exposure to credit, quality, and delivery issues.

Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong, Hk

As Chief Financial Officer and co-founder of ThreeSixty, I developed the vision and strategy for the creation of ThreeSixty as a global sourcing company. I transformed operations by re-engineering workflows, upgrading our team and implementing an Oracle ERP system, while directly managing finance, IT, and quality.• I structured and raised financing for a spin-off and recapitalization of in-house buying office to create a third-party sourcing company and recruited a CEO and management team to professionalize the operation.• I instituted monthly reporting and a bottom-up budget process, moving from a quarterly close to a monthly close within six business days of month-end.• I reduced investment in working capital by $20MM and transformed the working capital model by extending supplier payment terms from 12 days to 44 days while dramatically decreasing collection exposure via a shift to direct purchase and documents against payment models. • I reduced U.S. customer support headcount by 55% and Asia support headcount by 27% by re-engineering the entire PO-to-invoice workflow.

Los Angeles, Ca, Us

Brentwood is a consumer-focused private equity firm with an extensive history of investing in middle-market growth companies. Initially hired as a Financial Analyst, I was progressively promoted to Associate, Principal, and General Partner. • I generated investment opportunities, prepared investment analyses, monitored portfolio company performance, and led acquisitions, financings, and exits. I assessed markets, developed investment theses, and generated investment opportunities in diverse industries including equipment rental, heavy-duty truck parts distribution, promotional marketing, trade magazine publishing, and theatrical exhibition.• I closely monitored portfolio company operations, and served on boards of directors with companies ranging from start-up to a publicly traded NYSE firm with a market capitalization exceeding $1.5B.• I recruited portfolio company senior executives and negotiated compensation and equity incentive programs, including the performance budgets on which stock vesting and incentive compensations were based.• I negotiated and managed financings to facilitate our portfolio companies’ growth, including equity, bank debt, and public high-yield bonds, and assisted portfolio companies with exit strategies that realized liquidity via initial public offerings and/or sales to strategic buyers.• I authored placement memoranda that helped raise over $750MM in investment partnerships.• I created spreadsheet analyses that addressed an extensive range of operational and financial issues, including investment returns, financial performance, customer and segment profitability, product pricing, and KPI achievement.• I delivered more than $50MM in cost savings for four portfolio companies by outsourcing their product supply chains.• I developed an investment thesis leading to the firm’s investment in ThreeSixty Group, Ltd., and joined the management team.

New York, Ny, Us

I was recruited to join a highly selective two-year financial analyst program and was assigned to the high-profile M&A department where I consistently achieved top performance ratings and bonuses. My responsibilities as a team member included formulation of strategic analyses for valuation of domestic and international businesses and discounted cash flow and leveraged buyout analyses.• I developed industry expertise as member of M&A specialty groups in technology and media / communications working directly for Paul Taubman, later President of Institutional Securities and Global Head of Investment Banking.• I contributed to all transaction development and execution assignments in the cellular industry, including McCaw Cellular Communications’ unsolicited acquisition of LIN Broadcasting and AT&T Corporation’s acquisition of McCaw Cellular Communications.