Gert Christen 🚀 Email & Phone Number

Helping foreign companies accelerate and de-risk their US expansion and build the foundation for sales in the USA. A methodical program to adapt to the needs of US customers to make foreign companies more successful, more quickly in the USA.Deep customer discovery at scale to shorten time to revenue. A methodical program to replace trial-and-error. With a team of experienced US business builders to accelerate the expansion.

Berkeley, Ca, Us

Developing and teaching innovative entrepreneurship courses, achieving top placings in university-wide start-up competitions. Received teaching award for "Connected Life" startup class.►Projects from developed courses won top 3 places in university-wide start-up competition.►"Connected Life" course creating startups for today's always-on lifestyle. "WerkerBee" and "TensorZipper" were founded in the class.►"Amazoogle” course creating data-driven sustainability startups. ►"Deplastifying the Planet” course against plastic pollution, sponsored by Samsung, Whole Foods, Danone, Faurecia, and Method.►“Smart Villages” course for Chief Minister of the State of Meghalaya in India.

Us

Innovation strategy consulting.

Redwood City, California, Us

Corporate innovation consulting company advising Global 1000 corporations on creating new businesses and establishing corporate venture funds. Led part of team to launch a new business for Schneider Electric, receiving funding from corporate VC fund.Contributed to European expansion by developing new business, leveraging personal industry contacts.Key Contributions:►Secured pilot in client incubation project and helped Schneider Electric launch a new business venture by using my start-up incubation and team leadership experience to propose improvements to the methodology and win new partners.►Created sales opportunities with dozens of large corporations to establish executive relationships and promoting the company’s novel and sustainable approach to innovation.

San Francisco, California, Us

City Innovate's "SuperPublic" smart city innovation center was initiated by the City of San Francisco with University of California, Berkeley, to spearhead new public sector innovations. Raised in excess of 50% of funding, recruited team of 15, created design-thinking methodology and business operations.• Created design-thinking incubation methodology, trained project managers in methodology, and headed up operations. • Created a strategic framework to increase focus of the business, • Participated in fundraising pitches and government workshops in Washington, D.C. as part of the Mayor of San Francisco's delegation and spoke at conferences nationwide. • Directed projects in mobility, data science, and sensors with more than 20 local governments, created a California alliance for electric and autonomous vehicle piloting, and explored partnerships with more than 100 technology companies.Key Contributions:►Closed the majority of contracts to secure the funding, developed strategic partnerships, negotiated and supported deals with Siemens, MasterCard, Zipcar, Cubic, SAP, Microsoft, and Lyft by creating win-win partnerships, pitching proposals and diligent follow thru.►Acquired several large cities and counties as customers, including Los Angeles and Miami-Dade by creating detailed project plans, white papers, and presentations and participating in meetings and by using my executive experience.►Helped San Francisco reach the finals for USDOT’s “Smart City Challenge” (out of 78 applicant cities) by leading parts of the initiative and especially the team creating all of the use cases and user personas that the city's proposal was based on.► Met client expectations by creating the design-thinking “Collider” methodology suitable to run projects with private industry and public agencies, while avoiding lobbying concerns and respecting public procurement regulations, a first in the industry and successfully scaled to governments representing more than 30 m people.

Zürich, Zürich, Ch

High-tech start-up incubator created by the City of Zurich and ETH University with major Swiss corporations, established among the most successful Swiss innovation programs. Founding CEO, raised half the private industry funding, led team and created agile start-up incubation methodology.• Influenced for a favorable environment and pipeline of startups by creating an effective ecosystem, and serving on boards and working groups.• Selected 80 start-ups out of 200 applicants, developed agile incubation methodology based on Lean Startup. Key Contributions:► Secured the largest bank (UBS), insurance company (Swiss Life), and retailer (Migros) as clients to launch the country’s first corporate innovation programs.►Funded cleantech start-ups by negotiating membership with the European Union’s Climate-KIC program.►Achieved funding for 75% of start-ups within 6 months of demo day and exits to major Silicon Valley and European technology leaders, such as GoPro and T-Mobile.►Increased financial transparency by reorganizing the company into 3 strategic profit centers, increased contacts 300% through new communication campaigns, CRM, and social media.►Named as 1 of 100 Digital Shapers of Switzerland for contribution to the start-up and innovation industry.►Won the Swiss Marketing Trophy for founding the first national start-up convention Startupfair and pitching competition Startup Battle.

Social media start-up company that created personalized event calendars and brought social media functionalities to the event industry. Wrote business plan, raised capital, recruited and led a core team of 5, won key strategic partners, representing 50 event locations and 200,000 visitors.• Selected software suppliers, oversaw the prototype development, secured the initial customers, planned and led the launch event. • Disbanded the company due to the 2008-2009 financial crisis.Key Contribution:►Won country’s largest theatre festival, the national theatre association, and 50 event locations as pilot customers.►High potential recognized with selection for Swiss national start-up coaching program.

200 person start-up company with $5m revenue, backed by VC Funds Partner Group, Sofinnova, and Early Bird, acquired by Myriad Group. Developing a Linux operating system for mobile devices. Led the company's first-ever sales team to secure enough business to open permanent China office to serve Asian device manufacturers.• Participated in presentations to VCs and negotiations with strategic partners.Key Contributions:►Secured sufficient partnership deals to open a permanent office in China by negotiating licensing agreements with leading ODM device manufacturers in China, South Korea, and Taiwan.►Transformed the culture from an engineering-and-technology to a customer-and-benefit focus by lobbying, attending engineering meetings to provide customer input, and bringing engineers and product managers into customer meetings.

Espoo, Southern Finland, Fi

$25B Fortune 500 technology company. Multiple promotions and postings to offices in the USA, Brazil & Switzerland. Managed $300m P/L and 200+ member teams. Created Nokia's Apps business. Turned around loss-making cellphone network construction project.Director, Preminet Content Business Americas 2004 - 2006,Senior Manager 2002 - 2004:• Created App store offering and marketed to telecom operators.• Recruited team of 30 in sales, content sourcing, and technology with offices in San Diego, Dallas, Seattle, and Sao Paulo, Brazil. Managed strategic alliance with SUN Microsystems• Held businesses second-largest P&L, was promoted to Director.►Achieved Best Performing Region 2005 with 75% of global deals and 80%+ of revenue, securing access to 200 million mobile phones in the Americas region.►Established global legal framework for digital rights management and revenue sharing across multiple countries.►Created revenue stream connecting 9 Brazilian operators in 3 months to cover the annual Nokia-sponsored music event.Head of Operations, Mobile Software Integration 2001 – 2002,Head of Project Management 2000 - 2001:Oversaw 50+ systems integration team in departments for project management, engineering, technical architecture, and tech support with offices in Seattle, Dallas, and Atlanta.►Delivered first-of-kind projects including AT&T’s first mobile internet portal and T-Mobile’s first billing for packet data.►Established interfaces with consulting, sales and account teams for efficient support with engineering resources.National Rollout Manager, Switzerland 1999 - 2000:Oversaw buildout of 2 nationwide cell phone networks, managed $330M P&L and a 200-member team in site acquisition, civil engineering, and telecom implementation.►Returned loss-making project to profitability thru cost savings, consolidating subcontractors, high-margin new services, and by renegotiating prices with customer

Master Of Business Administration - Mba

Start-Up Board Members Academy

Zurich University Of Teacher Education, Certificate Of Advanced Studies, University Level Didactics

Bachelor Of Business Administration - Bba, Marketing