Bolster Advisors provides fractional CXO services to help leaders of start-ups and professional service firms looking to grow. We bring a sense of calm and direction to owners who are mired in the chaos of the day-to-day. We begin by focusing on optimizing your financial performance, ensuring a quick ROI on our fees. But we don't stop there - we also help scale your business by improving all aspects, including business strategy and planning to systems and tools, team acquisition and retention (HR), finance, client management, and legal. We make sure that organizational processes and systems are effective, efficient and reinforce a strong and inclusive culture. Let us help you take your business to the next level.

Skoll Global Threats Fund was a limited-life non-profit focused on making significant strides in the areas of Pandemics, Climate Change, Nuclear Proliferation, Water Scarcity, and the Middle East. Per plan, the organization sunsetted in 2018. • Led all business operations including Business Planning, Finance, HR, Legal, IT, and Grant Management. Improved numerous business processes and systems. • Involved in the planning and successful launch of two new non-profit organizations, Ending Pandemics (https://endingpandemics.org/) and The Climate Advocacy Lab (https://climateadvocacylab.org/). • Planned and implemented the successful sunsetting of the Skoll Global Threats Fund.

Led this 150-person digital design consultancy with offices in San Francisco, New York, and London. Brought in following a recent acquisition by Global Logic to stabilize revenue, grow margins and scale the company. Increased revenue by 85% and margin percentage by 80%.• Developed an integration strategy for Method's three global locations and optimized our ability to share clients and staff globally. Streamlined business processes and expenses, resulting in $1M in annual savings.• Worked with Global Logic to improve the integrations of the two companies' offerings (digital design and software engineering) and our ability to deliver them. • Shifted organizational focus from project success to client business success and fostered long-term client relationships. As a result, multi-year retainer relationships grew from 0% to 40% of revenue.

Brought in during the 2008 recession to revitalize an underperforming product development firm. In four years, increased revenue by 100% and margins by 80%.• Overhauled company offering to provide end-to-end turnkey services, stabilizing revenue and growing margins.• Developed unique market positioning and brand story that differentiated the firm from competitors• Coached team to cultivate “trusted advisor” client relationships resulting in multi-year engagements with companies as diverse as Qualcomm, Genentech, Audi, and Polaroid.• Advisor to multiple start-ups on business strategy, product definition, and bringing products to market

Led IDEO's 170-person Palo Alto studio during significant growth and transformation. Fostered business improvements across the nine global locations, replacing "homegrown" practices with more effective approaches that contributed to IDEO's scaling into the firm it is today. • Used IDEO's design thinking approach to involve team members and develop innovative ways to manage our business. Improvements include business development, organizational structure, staffing and utilization, career planning, and office space design. • Led the turnaround of a struggling London office. Guided the team through rethinking key business elements, including marketing, business development, team restructuring, overhead reduction, and team culture. Efforts resulted in achieving sustained target revenue and margins.

Created IDEO’s Manufacturing service offering, providing clients with end-to-end product realization services. Results included increased client satisfaction and improved revenue. Personally involved in bringing 20+ new products successfully to market for clients such as HP, Nike, AT&T, Palm, and Microsoft.Prior product development and engineering management experience at GM, Toyota, and Siemens Medical.