Customer Success Senior Director
Resume:
Michael Ward
Senior Director of Customer Success
Los Angeles, CA
**********@*****.***
linkedin.com/in/michaelgward
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Data-driven Customer Success executive with over 15 years of experience scaling and transforming enterprise B2B organizations through periods of rapid growth. Consistently delivers significant improvements, including 30-90% increases in Net Revenue Retention, 40% improvements in SLA compliance, and $35M+ in upsell revenue generation.
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
● Increased Net Revenue Retention (NRR) from ~60% to 90% by developing a personalized onboarding process tailored to each customer segment's unique needs.
● Generated $35M in upsell revenue by translating customer needs analyses into targeted technology recommendations.
● Improved SLA compliance by 40% by optimizing change management processes within Incident Management.
● Achieved 84% improvement in time-to-deliver by streamlining implementation and improving the scoping and prioritization of program initiatives. SKILLS
Customer Success Tools: Salesforce, Asana, Jira, Confluence, Zapier, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 Data Analysis: Gainsight, Tableau, Generative AI Engineering Professional: Customer Advocacy, Cross-functional Leadership, Contract Negotiation/Renewals, Escalation Management, C-Suite Relationship Management
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Head of Enterprise Customer Success ARMIS New York, NY 2/2022 - 4/2023 Armis is a leading cybersecurity platform that provides unified asset visibility and security for all devices. Armis experienced rapid growth during my tenure, scaling from 300 to 600 employees and $20M to $100M in ARR. Hired by the executive team as the startup entered a period of hyper-growth to build, streamline and optimize the Enterprise Customer Success organization, ensuring seamless onboarding, engagement, and value realization for high-value accounts.
Key Achievements:
● Reduced Time-to-Value (TTV) 30% and increased customer upsell opportunities 25% by leveraging analytics and performance metrics.
● Drove a 35% Net Revenue Retention (NRR) improvement by engineering an automated forecasting model using historical customer data and engagement metrics, enabling proactive intervention in tactical actions, product issues, and renewals.
● Managed a portfolio of 15 enterprise accounts personally while building a team of 10, representing the highest value customers at Armis, generating $25M in annual recurring revenue. Key accounts include Intel, Tyson Foods, Abbott Labs, Verizon, FedEx, New York City agencies (FDNY, NYPD, DEP), HCL, and CDW.
VERIZON ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS New York, NY 2008 - 2021 Senior Director, Customer Success (9/2017 - 10/2021) Held two concurrent leadership roles:
● Principal Onshore Customer Success Group – Led a 100-person team managing 200+ customers and $565M in revenue.
● Strategic Account Management Group Johnson & Johnson - Led a 200-person global team supporting a $30M strategic account across NA, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. Principal Onshore Customer Success Group
● Created, structured and led a 100-person team from the ground up to support 200+ existing Verizon customers ($565M revenue) who were previously self-serve only.
● Functional areas led: Customer Success, Technical Account Management, Financial Management Key Achievements:
● Increased Net Revenue Retention (NRR) from ~60% to 90% by developing a personalized onboarding process tailored to each customer segment's unique needs, leading to faster time-to-value and stronger initial relationships, preserving ~$170M in revenue.
● A 25% increase in targeted communication efficiency and a 30% boost in engagement rates were achieved through the development and implementation of a greenfield customer segmentation strategy.
● Drove a 50% reduction in customer churn through enhanced engagement and support protocols.
● Achieved a 45% increase in Net Promoter Score (NPS) within two years by implementing a proactive customer success program focused on identifying and resolving issues before they affected the customer experience.
● Generated $35M in upsell revenue by translating customer needs analyses into targeted technology recommendations and working closely with sales, product, and marketing teams to develop tailored upsell packages aligned with customer objectives.
Strategic Account Management Group for Johnson & Johnson
● Built and led a dedicated 200-person team across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC to support a $30M contract with Johnson & Johnson.
● Functional areas led: Customer Success, Technical Account Management, Solution Architecture, Lifecycle Engineering, Project Management, Financial Management, Change Management, Incident Management, Problem Management, Release Management Key Achievements:
● Improved SLA compliance by 40% by optimizing change management processes within Incident Management, enhancing overall operational efficiency.
● Achieved an 84% improvement in time-to-deliver by streamlining implementation through enhanced scoping and prioritization of program initiatives, resulting in clearer requirements and a better understanding of customer needs upfront.
● Oversaw the development and implementation of a proprietary software solution that enabled Johnson
& Johnson to efficiently manage health protocols and regulations across its global operations and pop-up manufacturing sites during the COVID-19 pandemic. Group Senior Manager, Customer Success (6/2010 – 9/2017) Technical Services Manager (4/2009 – 6/2010)
Strategic Sales Executive (4/2008 – 6/2009)
CERTIFICATIONS
Chief Customer Officer School PAVILION New York, NY
● Chief Customer Officer certification
Data Analysis & Visualization ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Rochester, NY
● Data Representation and Visualization in Tableau
● Data Analysis for Decision-Making
Certified Customer Success Manager Level 5 SuccessCOACHING New York, NY
● Certified Customer Success Manager certifications (Levels 1-5) Revenue Architecture Winning by Design New York, NY
● Revenue Architecture Masters Certification
Data Science and Product Management UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND College Park, MD
● Agile Systems Engineering
● Product Management Professional
Digital Asset Management ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Rochester, NY
● Digital Asset Management Professional
IBM Generative AI Engineering Professional Certification IBM Armonk, NY
● Data Analysis with Python
● Deep Learning & Neural Networks with Keras
● Generative AI and LLMs: Architecture and Data Preparation
● AI Agents Using RAG and LangChain
● Developing AI Applications with Python and Flask
● Building Generative AI-Powered Applications with Python
● Machine Learning with Python
● Generative AI Advance Fine-Tuning for LLMs
● Generative AI Applications with RAG and LangChain
● Generative AI Engineering and Fine-Tuning Transformers
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