William Raveis is a luxury $21 billion real estate, mortgage, and insurance company. I lead the marketing for the #1 independent, family-owned real estate company in the Northeast and Florida. Creativity is key to our success, and we empower our agents to excel, providing an entrepreneurial environment in which they can truly express themselves. Likewise, Marketing is dedicated to equipping our team members with state-of-the-art tools, including mortgage and insurance, to make selling effortless so that our clients experience exceptional customer service. Growth is our mindset within a culture of inclusion and treating each other like family. Happy to chat if you're interested in joining an unbelievable company.

Worldwide Marketing Manager—Responsible for supporting a $12 billion plus Global Business Services group Global Business Services marketing manager driving three related service lines, focusing on cloud migration services and alliance partnerships. Responsible for end-to-end pipeline generation and lead creation, including managing extended teams to drive revenue growth in today’s highly dynamic and intensely competitive technology marketplace and fulfilling increasingly demanding customer experience expectations. Co-reated worldwide and geo-level marketing plans to leverage robust digital campaigns, amplify thorough social media, capitalize on key event presence, build IBM’s reputation with influential analyst firms, and respond to net promoter scores.

I was promoted to Cognitive Solutions Manager, within IBM's internal Market Development & Insights consulting practice, supporting 12 worldwide general managers across hardware, software, and services offerings. My global team, US-based and international, assists Industry General Managers in growing his/her traditional business, identifying attractive adjacent white space opportunities, and capturing first-mover advantage with emerging industry trends. Additionally, we evaluate the impact of selling shifts, such as the purchasing power swing from IT-leaders to non-IT C-suite executives (e.g., CMO, CFO, and CHRO) and devising the associated optimal campaign and communication strategies. My focus is on conveying a strong--at times provocative--point of view regarding how IBM can dominate, taking into account the advent of digital disruption occurring throughout every industry, the growing impact of the Internet of Things, the potential of monetizing data, and the importance of security across all data platforms, devices, and users. Last, my team highlights competitors' points of differentiation as well as expansion of their ecosystems via acquisition, alliances, and business partners.

In my role as Team Lead (promotion), I manage a cross-brand team to develop a comprehensive market development strategy for IBM's transformational Big Data & Analytics (BD&A) group that positions IBM as the undisputed leader within this fast-paced category. My mission is to develop a compelling point of view (POV) which highlights IBM's expertise and experience to address the full range of client pain points, thereby making IBM an essential partner and industry standard. This POV incorporates capabilities across IBM's brand portfolio: hardware, software, and services. Key metrics include securing critical new customers as well as reaching additional C-suite roles to widen IBM's existing footprint and to broaden its sales reach beyond traditional enterprise clients. Likewise, I identify high-growth areas--in terms of industry and geography--to accelerate IBM's revenues within both mature and emerging markets. Last, I focus on spotting and championing emerging trends in technology, business processes, and consumer behavior to create long-term growth. My projects span a variety of marketing activities including customer profiling, social media analytics, product cross-sell and up-sell, analyst relations, seller assets and enablement material, and digital and web site strategy. I joined IBM as the Principal Advisor for Business Analytics and Risk management with primary responsibility for thought leadership and market development within this expanding software segment. After two years, I was promoted to Category Lead for the larger Big Data & Analytics group and then again to Team Lead.

After two years of consumer marketing consulting at Marakon, I decided to make a career shift and become a brand manager. Pepsi was the perfect fit with my desire to work in an ever-changing, fast-paced category amongst incredibly creative and personable team members. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to learn both sides of the beverage business--carbonated and non-carbonated--as well as experience the divestiture of its bottling group. As a Senior Brand Manager, my roles included creating a new brand and enhancing of thriving brand. • NEW BRAND--SIERRA MIST. Launched as a strong, viable entry into the fast-growing lemon-lime category to directly compete against entrenched Sprite and 7-Up. My core responsibilities included crafting brand image, leading outside agencies to invent appealing brand name, managing Pepsi R&D in developing distinct flavor profile, supervising product artwork design, engaging promotion firms, and overseeing expedited roll-out strategy. • ENHANCING A THRIVING BRAND--FRUITWORKS. As a newly recognizable brand within its beverage segment, Fruitworks needed a strong long-term strategy to win against better known competitors Fruitopia and Snapple. I attacked this by optimizing FruitWork's flavor portfolio (namely identifying promising new flavors, eliminating unpopular flavors, determining best core mix), enhancing brand image, and setting channel pricing. Additionally while at Pepsi, I worked on several projects to shape Pepsi’s go-to-market direction across multiple retail channels. One engagement involved devising promotional timeline by channel to leverage consumer holiday purchasing behavior into incremental profitability; I championed a portfolio approach to merchandising flavors brands to secure incremental retail displays and greater product inventory; for sales, I created a segmentation scheme to skew national account funding towards target customers and into high-return initiatives, both volume and profit.

Intrigued with the innovative aspects of financial-oriented consulting, I joined Marakon (now part of Charles River Associates), an international management consulting firm dedicated to identifying and delivering step-change improvements in shareholder value. Because I found a passion for consumer marketing in business school, I concentrated my tenure at Marakon in strategic marketing engagements, spanning an array of global and domestic clients, within four industries: cosmetics, beverages, pharmaceuticals, and cereals. Descriptions of the two more intense assignments are below:• COSMETICS--Analyzed the structure and segment attractiveness of mass-brand cosmetics for a dominant prestige cosmetic firm. Developed optimal “gift-with-purchase” strategy, accounting for consumer trial behavior and repeat purchase patterns. • BEVERAGES--Evaluated the participation and offering strategy for a major international beverage company to increase business unit profitability and to improve its competitive position. Initiated the repositioning of a key brand and recommended reducing investment in a fast-growing but unsustainable category.

After graduating with my Masters from University, I happily joined Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), a strategy consulting firm renowned for its expertise in strategic decision-making and risk management. SDG focuses not only on helping clients find innovative, creative strategies by utilizing analytical decision consulting, but does so in a very collaborative, team-based approach between the client team and SDG team members. My tenure at SDG was broad and experience building--18 projects within 13 industries. Three of my most favorite engagements include: • Risk-based pricing structure for a large financial services division to increase performance of its automotive loan portfolio.• Assessed value of forthcoming agricultural bioengineering products for a leading chemical company, including FDA approval risk. Investigated joint venture opportunities with competing firms.• Identified customer-service needs and solved work flow issues to improve claims handling effectiveness for a leading multi-line insurance company.I decided at this point in my consulting career that an MBA would be worthwhile and (sadly) left SDG for Harvard Business School.

I spent two years as a Research and Development Engineer for HP focusing on two industries. The first was automotive, designing a prototype LED dashboard for futurist American automobiles that provided increased luminosity and clarity for the driver. Second, I advanced HP's plotter technology by developing state-of-the-art motion control components. My increasing interest in the marketing/economic angle of what I was creating as an engineer propelled me to pursue a master's degree at Stanford University in Engineering: Economic Systems.