James Connell Email & Phone Number

Toronto, On, Ca

Canada, United States & Singapore

Guide brands, businesses of all sizes, charitable organizations, & high-net-worth individuals to maximize revenue, value & efficiency from owned digital platforms & consumer data. Clients have added followers, lifted conversion rates, and raised over $1M while becoming more globally competitive.• Guide and assist businesses in developing customer experience strategies to direct development, business segment targeting, brand positioning, and future solution enhancements in the sustainable travel, charity, and logistics industries.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Responsible for helping define and articulate the company’s vision, increase revenues, strategic marketing direction, and product development while developing operational excellence and optimization to support long-term growth and global market expansion in a sustainable manner.

Singapore

Responsible for developing strategy, marketing, branding, product direction & revenue growth headquartered in Singapore in the sustainable start-up tech sector, concentrating initially on ASEAN / APAC markets in the B2C e-commerce sector ($1M current valuation) and raising over $100k USD so far.

Toronto, Canada Area

Roots is a publicly listed iconic premium Canadian lifestyle apparel and accessories brand with stores in Canada, the United States, Taiwan, and China with a well-established market-leading, omnichannel eCommerce presence that serves over 70 countries around the world. Additionally, it has operated stores on Zalora, Tmall, and Amazon. The brand is best known globally as an outfitter to the Canadian, U.S., and British Olympic Teams for many years. The company focuses on direct-to-consumer, B2B Wholesale, and licensing with a combined revenue of ~$330M CAD and approx. 2,200 annual employees. Reported to the CEO, with eleven direct reports, 50+ associates and 30+ vendors in eCommerce, Marketing, Creative Services, Operations, Visual Merchandising, and Customer Experience globally. Directed various marketing programs, celebrity/KOL partnerships and campaigns, PR, social media, in-store consumer communications, creative content development, ecommerce solutions, CRM and customer research initiatives, and partnerships. Oversaw P&L, growth, strategy, KPIs & forecasting for company departments. Grew eCommerce business to $100M+ (~50% of direct-to-consumer sales generated through eCommerce), with a CAGR often exceeding 30%-50% & administered significant budgets for Marketing, Distribution & Contact Centers.Held responsibility for the concept, design, and execution of marketing campaigns, concept store development, AI and CRM implementation. Additionally, drove partnerships with external parties (governments, tourism, sports & entertainment, technology, and landlords) that allowed the customer to transact through additional new channels while positioning Roots as an innovator and consumer-focused industry leader and delivering greater efficiency.

Toronto, Canada Area

Reported to the CEO & Company Founders and held full P&L ownership for the eCommerce, Marketing & Creative Services departments that supported the business globally. Drove results for execution of the digital vision along with strategic creative marketing and identified opportunities to improve the customer experience. Frequently advised local Roots operators in Asia on ecommerce, digital marketplace, marketing, and brand strategy initiatives. Oversaw and challenged 34 team members to optimize the use of a $10M+ marketing budget in developing and launching brand strategy, from product design to customer experience. Increased profits and achieved alignment across functional areas, focusing on driving customer acquisition and sales, leading to increasing the bottom line. Utilized consumer data/analytics, execution strategies, and innovation management techniques to scale organization, optimize efficiency, and decrease go-to-market timeline. Led mobile-first initiatives, expanded marketing, ecommerce, and omnichannel customer experience across new in-store design concepts, and led the training of associates, artificial intelligence programs, customer support, and website design. Developed and implemented campaigns for collection launches, store openings, and partnership events designed to improve public perception of the Roots brand, communicate brand values, and market products.

Greater Toronto Area, Canada

Held full P&L ownership responsibilities for eCommerce, Digital Marketing & CRM focus areas, with eight direct reports that assisted the business in Canada, the U.S., & Asia. Drove retail and e-commerce channel integration across all customer-facing aspects of Roots and balanced between financial performance and brand health and equity. Created fresh promotional concepts & executed marketing and merchandising initiatives, utilizing customer profiles, priority customer segments, & purchasing behaviours to understand the voice of the customer & drivers to market expansion.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Led development and execution of online infrastructure and fulfillment on a tight deadline of five weeks to deliver on a contract as the official outfitter of the US Olympic Team for the Salt Lake City Winter Games. Played a pivotal role in establishing European-based logistics, website, and contact center business supporting the British Olympic team while leading all digital marketing across online and retail locations. Held full responsibility for all operational and marketing ecommerce budgeting, sales, and demand forecasting, along with deploying consumer technology in stores like video display panels or kiosks.

Greater Toronto Area, Canada

- Reporting to the Vice President, Corporate Operations and Technology, I was responsible for sales forecasting, trend watching, and digital marketing. I also managed relationships with third-party logistics, technology, marketplaces (Amazon & Sears.ca) and contact centre providers. - Self-taught in HTML and collaborated directly with internal teams to steer online brand development and content strategy, overseeing Photographers, Copywriters, and Designers to enable faster marketing content updates and maintenance.- Roots, as a result, gained agility, knowledge and experience to cope with ongoing operational change due to digital transformation while also operating a self-sustaining, profitable sales channel.

Toronto, Ontario And New York, Ny

Played a key role in the opening of flagship stores across North America, elevating the brand through placement of products in the entertainment industry through establishing relationships with key stylists and PR people, and brought a greater discipline to inventory control.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Created new inventory management procedures and led a POS implementation project from the retail side of the business that was adopted nationally.

Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Responsible for increasing enrolment, diversifying the program offering to increase revenues and establishing processes that increased efficiency.