Michel Kattan

Marketing and business strategy – Leader – Consumer focused

Summary

Marketing Executive with 22+ years of experience leading brand development and P&L growth for global companies such as PayPal, Xoom, Clorox and Reckitt Benckiser. Self-made immigrant-entrepreneur, by co-founding and growing Papatel, a patented one-to-one research and media network in the United States.

Potent, agile marketer: Deeply numbers driven and detailed management of KPI. Set aggressive forecasts and commitment to delivery. Relentless seeker of business efficiency through scrappy-but-neat executions. Live and breathe on hourly results, while keeping in sight long term delivery.

Customer wellness first: Passionate about discovering customer insights and becoming intimately familiar with habits and practices. Well-developed skills to continuously build the perfect content strategy based on real insights. Strong voice of the customer inside the organization. Proven ability to define, build and own unique Brand equities. Lead internally with a holistic end-to-end view of the customer journey.

People oriented: Success comes from healthy, highly motivated teams. I lead with compassion, and generosity, dedicating as much time as necessary to develop competencies. Excited to learn new skills and abilities from my team. I thrive in environments with A+ teams, aligned behind common objectives eliminating silos and territories. Optimist at heart.

Specialties

Business and Marketing Strategy, Growth Marketer, Team Leadership, Brand Management, Brand Positioning, Brand Identity and Equity, New Product Development and Launch, Consumer Insight Identification, Business Development, Entrepreneur.

Contact Information

Address: 956 Arlene Way

Novato, CA 94947

Email: adiqui@r.postjobfree.com

Mobile: 305-***-****

Experience and Selected Achievements

PayPal Jan 2016 – present

Marketing Director San Francisco, CA, USA

Xoom (acquired by PayPal) September 2012 – Jan 2016

Marketing Director San Francisco, CA, USA

Joined Xoom in 2012 as a private company, collaborated in the journey to a public listed company in 2013 and then being acquired by PayPal in 2015.

Dedicated to providing best-in class digital remittance services to the millions of immigrants who send money abroad.

Since joining Xoom in 2012, I have significantly grown the Xoom business on a global scale, with the goal of helping to improve the financial health of millions of people worldwide.

Grew into the Xoom Marketing and Business Development team leader in 2014, and since then have more than doubled Revenue and Activations, while reducing CPA in more than half while maintaining CLV.

From 2016 to 2020 I've led my team to improve the company's profitability via reducing CPA by -69%, without eroding CLV in a value reducing industry. We achieved this relentlessly focusing on the corridor level: finding media efficiencies, innovating on media buys and placements, and building winning creative based on deep customer insights.

Reorganized my team and redefined roles to strategically position us with our customers, serving as their voice inside the company. PayPal looks at Xoom marketing and business development team as exemplary, and continues adopting behaviors and processes we created.

Launched ancillary products Reload and Bill Pay under Xoom brand, following Xoom’s international acquisition of BlueKite in Guatemala.

Led and collaborated with my team through our largest rebranding move, a multi-year, cross-company effort. Xoom transformed from a stand-alone brand, to a PayPal service in 2018.

Made the case, led the strategy and worked on the execution of strengthening Xoom's brand equity behind the single-minded proposition of speed. Today, Xoom leverages its fundamental speed and PayPal's organic trust equities.

Secured Usain Bolt, eight-time Olympic Gold Medalist and the world’s fastest man, as Xoom’s global brand ambassador during 2019 and 2020.

Discovered core customer insights which led to the creation of Xoom’s Testimonial global campaign, supported on mobile solution benefit, delivering +10% incremental growth in Activations.

Secured multi-million dollar deals with the largest Spanish language broadcaster, at the lowest costs and maximum placements recorded. Quantitatively proved incrementality from broadcast media investments, continually supporting 3 consecutive years of similar deals.

Created a media planning, negotiating and buying strategy, which delivered measurable incremental results with Spanish language broadcasters and extended into other ethnic buys.

Led integration into Oxxo, one of Mexico’s largest retailers, and designed a multi-year deal materially benefiting Xoom customers.

In 2019, successfully launched a multi-country expansion to introduce Canada, the U.K., and 37 countries across Europe as new send markets, quickly growing up to 1/3 of Activations vs the established US market. Developed launch plans for origination in Australia.

Simultaneously,

Championed and launched Xoom’s first ever instant US Domestic bank-to-bank money transfer service, delivering the fastest growing activation product in the company’s history. Service being complementary to PayPal P2P services, brought in the fastest ramp up in true incrementality of Activations.

Under my lead, Xoom’s marketing and business development team is constantly innovating and introducing new products for its customers to continue making the movement and management of money more convenient, accessible, secure and affordable.

Championed cross-department leadership with FP&A, Risk, Product, Engineering and CS to introduce new features into the roadmap, drive their implementation and measure success.

Alma DDB November 2010 – September 2012

Clorox Account Manager San Francisco, CA, USA

Managed advertising initiatives targeting US Hispanics for brands including Clorox, Clorox Clean Up and Kingsford Charcoal.

Coordinated brand with consumer insights, creative development, TV and Digital asset production and budget management with Alma and Clorox.

Marketing Consultant February 2010 – November 2010

Owner Miami, Florida, USA

Niche consultancy focusing on the use of Social Networks, developing online communities and general media planning and buying.

Develop e-commerce and distribution strategy for high end, eco-friendly jewelry brand “Mishky”.

Built brand equity book for Artist “Isa Zapata”

Vice President, Co-founder January 2007 – February 2010

Papatel Miami, Florida, USA

I actively participated in the creative and inventive process to develop and patent the business model; a one-to-one media and distribution network, based on giving away free long distance calls in exchange for advertising.

Built presentations and scheduled appointments to visit the top 50 Hispanic Media Agencies in the USA, located in Miami, NY and LA, where we met owners, top executives and decision makers.

Launched Papatel locally in South Florida, achieving growth of registered users at a highly exponential rate. The campaign and service was so successful, that word of mouth spread all over the USA and the service became nationwide in less than six months.

I hired, assembled and trained the sales team targeted at local, neighborhood-area advertisers. The sales team and I managed to sell this highly targeted advertising service directly to small, local advertisers, reaching sales above target.

Launched PapatelPlus (massive prepaid calling service) as a brand extension of Papatel targeted at consumers and grew sales exponentially in the first six months.

Managed all financial statements, accounting, built financial models, projections, and managed all expenditure.

I led Sales Teams to achieve sales objectives and Engineering Teams to develop new services, improve existing services and deliver on-time customer service, supported by our own Call Center based overseas.

Senior Brand Manager January, 2006 – January 2007

J.G.B. Cali, Colombia

Grew household cleaning “Yes” brand doubling monthly sales during one year by increasing weighted distribution, shelf space and expanding the product line.

Product line expansion included introduction of new Surface Cleaners, color safe bleaches, and innovations such as specialty products like baby clothes cleaners.

Successfully launched a new condom brand and its full product line.

Strategized media plans directly with media outlets and through agencies. Led creative work with in-house agency and external boutiques.

Detected cost reduction opportunities and implemented them successfully.

Senior Category Manager October, 2002 – December, 2005

Reckitt Benckiser Cali, Colombia

Responsibility over businesses in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru, with annual revenue of $90M.

Maximized Cross-country Profits for Reckitt Benckiser’s Liquid Cleaners in Andean Pact (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru). Grew the region’s top line results 13% ahead of plan.

Launched 2 innovations for PowerBrand Veet, increasing total brand sales by 9%. I supported this launch with a strategized media plan and CRM program which gave back special rewards to consumers. This increased the brand's Share of Market by 2 full points strengthening its leadership position over female razors (Gillette). Created and carried out specific activities for supermarkets and drugstore wholesalers channels which increased market share by 2 and 10 points respectively. During the following summer I increased the overall brand’s market share by 2 additional points by creating special activities at the beaches.

Successfully launched the new fragrance Sanpic Orange in the Floor Cleaner category, increasing overall brand sales by 4%.

Increased insecticide brand’s market share by over 50% (from 9% to 14%) in two Nielsen’s periods. The strategy consisted in increasing weighted distribution in strategic areas, challenged with a shortage of resources.

Designed and implemented a new sales forecasting method (Demand Planning), as a result of which, the deviation in demand forecast for Venezuela was improved from 95% to 20% and in Colombia, went from 41% to 19%, placing both countries in Reckitt Benckiser’s top worldwide list. The Demand Planning culture became an integral part of the Reckitt Benckiser Andean Pact, where the process that I designed was still in a few years after my departure.

Redesigned the labels and packaging for the floor wax brand and successfully executed its market relaunch.

Bottom line responsibility, brand performance, total sales level, maintaining an efficient and profitable portfolio and new product development and launch. This includes teaming work with creative and media agencies, market research agencies, in-house product development teams and high level presentations.

Brand Manager July, 2001 – September, 2002

Tecnoquímicas Cali, Colombia

Launched nationwide 10+ OTC products in Colombia, which helped the brand increase its shelf space and POS sales.

Designed the OTC brand’s strategic plan for the following 1, 3 and 5 years.

Improved in 10 days the Accounts Receivables of Drugstore Key Accounts in certain regions of Colombia, by helping them control their inventory, reducing the restocking period with smaller, more frequent, orders. This also impacted positively the Company's sales on the majority of the selected accounts.

Assisted Regional Managers or Vice Presidency in all Key Account negotiations by providing all necessary marketing intelligence to create specific support plans for each OTC brand.

Designed and helped implement an ideal Merchandising Layout for the OTC category on Key Accounts (main supermarket chains in Colombia), by following the consumer’s decision making process and matching it to each product’s profitability.

Brand Manager June, 1999 – July, 2001

Clorox Company Cali, Colombia

Achieved brand leadership for PineSol in the Efficient Cleaners segment by executing the right communication strategies aimed at educating consumers in the category. I turned the functional benefits of the product into emotional values. Leadership was obtained by stealing share from other brands.

Reduced Clorox Company total operation cost (TDC and WC) in Colombia by US $5.5 million. Designed and led a cross-departmental team to redesign the plant's layout, maximize production processes and improve KPIs with the main distributor.

Increased in 3 full points the Stick Goods brand’s Market Share by innovating in the merchandising strategy and taking leadership of Category Management in some supermarkets.

National Merchandising Coordinator October, 1997 – May, 1999

Grupo Editorial Norma Cali, Colombia

Developed and implemented the Serving Cost Analysis for all clients which redesigned the company’s client service process and increased profitability.

Teacher – Marketing Seminar

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Colombia

Education

MBA 2000-2001

Tulane University and Universidad ICESI Cali, Colombia and New Orleans, LA, USA

Thesis: Methodology for the application of a statistical method to forecast the demand of a mass consumed product

Graduate Degree in Marketing 1999-2000

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Colombia

B.S. Industrial Engineering 1993-1998

Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali, Colombia

Brand Sense Symposium 2006

Martin Lindstrom Bogotá, Colombia

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