Business Development Growth

Thomas P. Nye

Wisconsin, USA 920-***-**** *******@*****.*** LinkedIn

Seasoned management leader and executive with 20+ years of diversified experience in areas of business development, general management, hospitality and technical direction across various industries. Track record of success in launching businesses, supporting startups, and leading global corporations. Highly skilled in developing a network of contacts to attract prospective clients, identify new markets and customer needs, and achieve business growth. Adept at making sales projections and forecasting revenue, in line with projected income. Committed to developing and executing a growth strategy focused both on financial gain and customer satisfaction.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Winemaking and Hospitality

Client Acquisition and Retention

Information Technology Strategies

Product Innovation & Management

Strategic Planning and Execution

Procurement and Supply Chain

Cloud Services

Blockchain technology

SaaS

Customer Success Manager

Customer Retention

Consultative Approach

Business Growth and Development

Project Management

B2B SaaS Products

Inventory Control & Management

Contract Negotiation

Vendor and Supplier Relations

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

The Blind Horse Restaurant and Winery Kohler, WI

General Manager Winemaker Minority Owner November 2014 – January 2024

Launched & managed a sprawling business encompassing a full-production winery and two restaurant venues on the same property.

Increased business growth from $750K to $2.6 million over nine years, successfully building a reputation as the best winery in the state and one of the most sought-after hospitality destinations in Wisconsin.

Administered day-to-day winemaking operations, aging process, blending, bottling, and organizational procedures.

Created and executed progressive menus for the restaurants, and organizing culinary-based team-building events.

Oversaw all aspects of the business for absentee owners while hiring, training, and managing over 70 employees.

Devised winery construction and design, and handcrafting 17 wine varietals every season, and 5,000 cases a year.

Handle all IT infrastructure and implement state-of-the-art POS systems for the winery, restaurants, and property.

Lead the process of designing, planning, creating, and innovating various events, festivals, and culinary options.

The Grape Escape Winery Princeton, NJ

Founder Owner Winemaker May 2009 - October 2014

Established a unique and successful winery in NJ growing it to 4,000 case production within 5 years.

Launched one of the first custom crush pad wineries on the east coast, incorporating grapes from prominent west coast vineyards and regions like Napa Valley and Sonoma, and procuring grapes from Colchagua Valley, Chile.

Formed and implemented marketing and production strategies thus growing sales from $0 to $800K in four years.

Procured grapes, bottles, corks, shrink seals, barrels and winemaking equipment by negotiating supplier contracts.

Facilitated culinary events, including teambuilding exercises, marketing events, and wine dinners.

Partnered with Californian and Chilean vineyards, building and sustaining long-lasting stakeholder relationships.

Directed the conceptualization, development and implementation of the winery’s construction and design process.

Manipulated grapevine clone, yeast variety fermentation protocol, blending and barrel selections while fashioning vintage wines, blending non-vintage proprietary wines, and leading grape purchase, delivery and quality control.

Drove online marketing strategies through Google AdWords while blending with traditional marketing methods.

Redirected winery program, estimating production needs, enhancing winemaking techniques, lowering costs by 45%, reducing inventory, growing winery profits and selling the business to lead the Blind Horse project in 2014.

WineLabelsDirect.com Princeton, NJ

Founder Owner May 2009 - October 2014

Built the first small-lot custom wine label SaaS for small wineries around the country to submit custom labels.

Pioneered groundbreaking technological trend in the industry by introducing a custom label website that allowed customers to instantly see the mockup of the custom label they created online - a more commonplace tool now.

Funneled traffic and supported small wineries before selling the business to lead the Blind Horse project in 2014.

Tata Communications Matawan, NJ

Senior IT Director September 2000 - April 2009

Led North American data center operations while managing the Operations, Development, and MIS departments, reporting directly to the CTO, and receiving 50 direct reports from teams located in NJ, Montreal, and Mumbai.

Provided constant coverage for all back-office systems, directly supporting and augmenting Tata’s VoIP network.

Managed carrier-grade mediation devices of call detail records, network routing systems, analytical reporting applications, service management solutions, and customer billing systems for complete revenue and transaction.

Directed 50-person IT employees to provide world-class 24/7 coverage in diverse Tier-1 technical environment.

Utilized emerging technologies to support rapid growth, building a technical environment with carrier grade mediation products from Intec, and a diverse customer billing, revenue, and transaction-oriented Oracle database.

Gained 99.997% uptime on critical systems, allowing Tata to monitor and react to network’s phone quality issues.

Applied strong requirements gathering and rapid development techniques, supporting the company in delivering useful and timely products under budget, as well as attaining and maintaining Tier1 status in the telephony market.

Directed a team to support back-office applications through web technologies and analytical reporting packages.

Directed entire move for organization to new office space while helping Tata in managing its organizational assets from purchase to depreciation, making business case, and purchasing and deploying asset and inventory software.

Served as the architect and designer of call routing applications, and directly impacting profit and loss statements.

Rebuilt the internal infrastructure to support growth in personnel and applications, building a world-class support organization, and directing MIS staff to support massive growth in personnel, external offices or internal systems.

Established an internal development team, delivering accurate, useful products, and supporting the business.

Overhauled MS Exchange, firewalls & intrusion detection systems to drive organizational stability, experiencing exponential growth, and developing a company model for standard of excellence centered on daily office support.

PREVIOUS WORK EXPERIENCE

IT Director, Medsite/Sapient Health Network Inc. 1998 - 2000

IT Director, Voxware 1995 - 1998

CERTIFICATIONS

Certified Novell CAN, MicroAge Learning Center

EDUCATION

Ocean County College Toms River, NJ

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Incomplete)

SKILLS AND INTERESTS

Technical skills: Microsoft Office suite, Google Workspace, LAN, Wi-Fi, Crypto Technologies, and POS.

Interests: Technology, Boating, Skiing, Softball, and Basketball.

Language: English (Native).

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