Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
C-suite Executive with expertise in Franchising, Home Shopping, e-Commerce and Omni-Channel Retail in general. Seasoned Business Leader having extensive hands-on experience in mergers and acquisitions, strategic business planning, formulating innovative solutions and directing tactical execution. Proven performance in delivering results through development and integration of people, process and technology. Committed to the highest standards of professional and personal integrity with a clear focus on operational excellence and the bottom line. Specialties: M&A, Franchising, e-Commerce, Web Analytics and Enterprise BI, Finance, Strategic Planning, Technology Acquisition and Implementation, Business Process Transformation, New Business Development, Operations and Logistics, Licensing, Affiliate Relations (television broadcast distribution)
Completed exchange of $8 million secured term loan for common shares, resulting in reduced annual expenses of $1 million and significantly strengthened capital structure. Completed $10 million “bought deal” offering by way of a short form prospectus, further strengthening the balance sheet. Completed acquisition of Ottawa-based Bridgehead Coffee. Successfully navigated the company through the unprecedented crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. Completed negotiation and closing of a revolving credit facility with CWB Franchise Finance, division of Canadian Western Bank Financial Group. Completed divestiture of substantially all of the assets comprising specialty coffee brand Second Cup Coffee Co.
Actively managed the yearend close process and the annual audit and prepared the annual disclosures and filings and all materials for the Annual General Meeting, while being new to the business on a short-term assignment.
Overall responsibility for all e-Commerce properties. Successfully developed and delivered Five-Year Strategic Roadmap for The Shopping Channel and e-commerce growth strategy
Overall responsibility for e-Commerce, Finance, IT, and other operational functions. As part of New Business Development, responsible for evaluating, identifying, planning, building and launching new businesses in specific categories of the online vertical. Successfully relaunched theShoppingChannel.com on a new e-commerce platform, integrating front-end best-of-breed technology partners and back-end enterprise application, enabling seamless customer experience across channels and providing a roadmap for future development and business growth. Developed and launched eBeauty.ca, Canada's new shopping destination for the beauty product category, as well as several DRTV online properties.
Overall responsibility for IT and New Business Development and re-assumed Finance and other administrative functions including legal and affiliate relations in July 2009. Successfully led the company in the migration of enterprise application Ecometry Commerce Suite to a new open-architecture platform. As one of the most successful migrations among the several hundred clients of the software vendor, the project significantly reduced the number of surround and customized codes from over 300 down to twenty and rationalized business operational processes across the organization. Relaunched the private label credit card program and restructured management of the business group in order to achieve performance goals.