CRO

John Freshwater

Email: ***************@*****.*** +44-792*-***-*** (UK)

http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwfreshwater +1-303-***-**** (USA) +44-792*-***-*** (UK)

Executive Summary

Commercially focused international leader working with early-stage and high-growth companies that are scaling up or going through transformational restructuring. A focus on identifying, quantifying, and executing drivers for growth, scale readiness, and profitability with proven approaches to change, leadership, commercial structure, operational excellence, commercial modeling, marketing strategy, productization, positioning, customer success, and go-to-market. Experience in UK, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, China, and North America supporting B2B companies to deliver their plans for growth faster or with less risk, sitting on the executive team and reporting directly to the board. Legally authorized to work in the USA and UK.

Work Experience

Chief Revenue Officer - Global Head of Sales and Solutions – London – Insights 2017 – 2018

Classroom and cloud-based learning products built on the foundation of an industry leading psychometric tool

Executive Team Member

Company is in a restructure phase; rebuilding company operations to enable a sustainable, scalable foundation for growth. As executive member, set 5-year vision and implemented first year plan to integrate fourteen separate Joint Ventures into one operating company and single global go to market. Installing new operating model, ERP, commercial model for future product set, and market proposition; linking all functional components. Leading and building the Sales Transformation plan to support the next 5 years of growth.

Sales

oP&L of £75M ($100M) in a composite business model and matrix structure for 500 person company

oDirect Sales: team of ~85 in North America, APAC, EMEA. 4 sales teams: Enterprise, Global, Regional, Inside Sales

oGlobal Distribution Partner Channel: team of 17 managing ~300 global strategic partners and distributors

Product and Solutions Development

oSaaS offering launched in 2017 and currently building second iteration of product and product roadmap

oCross-functional team of program and instructional designers, and technical SMEs to build productized solution

oOptimized for each channel and specific for mobile, web browser, and face-to-face delivery methods

oCommercial and Pricing model build to optimize current and new proposition in all channels and product sets

Product and Solutions Delivery

oTeam of 10 managing direct delivery facilitators and c. 5,000 licensed client based and independent practitioners in a Global Facilitation Network

EVP Global Head of Sales - London and New York – HCI 2014 – 2017

Private Equity backed company serving the Human Capital Management (HCM) sector through a digital learning platform, media content, certification, and event/online sponsorship

Executive Team Member

Lead the commercial function for core revenue streams while building and readying for scale a new B2B digital learning platform, operating structure, and commercial model

Business Strategy

oCreated new B2B subscription model and the associated recurring revenue, operating, finance, and go-to-market models

oCreated channel partnership sales and operating model (Regions: UK, EMEA, Asia Pacific, South Africa, Australia)

Business Transformation

oDeveloped and launched go-to-market, from B2C content platform and events company, to B2B SaaS

o3-year plan aligning operations and revenue initiatives to balance current needs with future business direction

oChanged team structure, identified select processes and capabilities, eliminated internal silos, set and executed direction

oIdentified user experience and technology components to serve B2B strategy

Execution

oBuilt and led USA, UK and UAE teams for online & event sponsorship, membership, training, and channel partnerships

oJoint team with sales and marketing to move from outbound to inbound / ecommerce

oFrom 2014-2017 led company sales growth of c. 15% y/y and >100% y/y new product growth

oOperations and personnel planning for global production, client success, and distribution

SVP Global Head of Sales - London and Dubai - Mind Gym 2011 – 2014

Revolutionizing learning through behavioral psychology and consumer marketing

Executive Team Member

oResponsibility for top line company revenue, go-to-market, gross margins, pricing, strategy in a high-growth environment

oExecutive Sponsor for the build of next generation SaaS LMS focused on gamification – Cloud and Enterprise versions

oLed team of 23 direct reports in North America, EMEA, APAC

oTop Line Sales – built consistent, predictable sales system - increase 44% y/y from $17M in 2012 to $25M in 2013

o110% of consolidated company goal: 93% of EMEA target, 135% of Americas target

oCustomer Profitability – cross functional leadership team of Service, Ops, Finance to construct measures

oBuild for scale - Developed economic model to scale company value proposition

oInfrastructure and growth plan for 150% growth target of $60M in 2016

oDefined core markets, ramp, cost of sales, targets, people, and infrastructure

oDefined USP and offering with Head of Solutions (Product)

oOpened UAE (Dubai) sales and delivery office

oBuilt process and KPIs to measure return on marketing investment

oCollaborated to develop road map for developing next generation talent in the business to devolve power to new leaders

Senior Director, Sales, EMEA – London - CEB/Gartner 2009 – 2011

Research and Advisory Company serving Global 2000, specializing in Human Capital, Finance, Strategy Functions

Sales and General Management:

o2010 - South Africa territory focus and achieved 103% of annual goal

o2010 - EMEA team of direct report sales representatives, achieved 92% of goal

o2009 - EMEA territory, achieved 164% of goal with clients in nine countries

oMatrix organization and company involved in two-year process to change offering, client facing approach, solutions

oWorked with leadership teams on communication, continuous improvement, engagement of commercial team

SVP Sales - Denver – People Element 2007-2009

Human Capital intelligence and consulting firm

Executive Team Member

oFocused on Sales, Delivery, Account Management

oPerformance Culture - Led change management process to reorganize company for performance

oBuilt commercial strategy, marketing strategy, competitive analysis, and go-to-market

oNew Solutions: Launched two new services and new product line extension for growing market segments

oDistribution: Started alliance program with regional distributors to generate channel revenue streams

Co-Founder - Denver - Extended Presence 2002-2006

Lead Generation firm providing professional sales process, management, strategy, go-to-market, demand generation

oExit Strategy: Internal partner buy-out

Venture Capital Start-up Sales Executive - USA 1999-2002

Led the commercial function to position early stage technology companies for growth/acquisition/funding

Intelisys - Managed Service Provider: Internet, Data, VoIP, Business Applications, and Help Desk

oExit Strategy: Company reorganized and rebranded to take on new funding

iContact.com - Application Service Provider: Web, Live Chat, Conferencing, Speech-Enabled Voice

oExit Strategy: Company successfully purchased by !hey Software

epidemic.com - Application Service Provider: Viral Marketing E-mail Software for B2B

oExit Strategy: Company successfully sold to venture capital backed entity

Education

MBA, Entrepreneurship

Bard Center for Entrepreneurship

University of Colorado

EDHEC School of Management, Nice, France

B.S., Life Sciences

Graduation Commencement Speaker

Colorado State University

Advisory

B2B and B2C SaaS Advisory Portfolio – Fuelsy.com, TalentFUNL.com, Precursive.co.uk, Intuo.io, Competehub.com

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