Bogdan Constantinescu

Fractional COO | Executive Advisor | IBM · Siemens · Amber | EU · US

Netherlands

About

Something in your business is dragging and you can feel it. I come in, look at everything without an agenda and with fresh eyes. Then I stay and fix it with you. No consultancy report dropped on your desk and a goodbye. Just a senior sparring partner who owns it alongside you. About me: I've spent twenty years running businesses across IBM, Siemens, and scaling Amber Labs, leading enterprise sales organisations, development teams, large-scale implementations, board negotiations and investment rounds. From early-stage commercial builds to mature corporate transformations, across multiple industries and three continents. In practice this range helps me see what's slowing a business down across sales, product, culture, executive dynamics, process and politics simultaneously. I'm Co-Active certified, and have spent years mentoring teams and executives, which means when the work touches the people side, and it always does, I have the tools to go there properly.

Experience

  • Executive Advisor at TechAngels Romania
    Jun 2019 - Present · 7 yrs 1 mo

    - Advising founders on enterprise sales motion, operating cadence, and scaling delivery.

  • General Manager - Amber Labs at Amber
    Jun 2018 - Jun 2024 · 6 yrs 1 mo

    Founded and scaled Amber Labs - Amber Studio’s enterprise technology business line - with full P&L ownership, end-to-end commercial responsibility and a seat on the Amber Studio executive team. • Took the business from concept to first signed client within 2 months; operating model, go-to-market, commercial strategy, team architecture and delivery culture designed and implemented. • Designed Labs’ strategic architecture - 3 Lines of Business, commercial model and operating framework - while contributing to Amber Studio group strategy as executive team member during 4x growth phase (300 to 1,300 people, €50M revenue); active in M&A and the €20M investment round closed with a London-based fund in 2022. • Built and led the commercial function personally in the early stage; transitioned to a hybrid model at scale - external referral network, California-based internal commercial leads and direct presence at industry events. • Pioneered and scaled consultancy retainer services within Amber Studio, establishing a premium pricing model and delivering strong margin contribution to Labs’ P&L. • Crossed $1M revenue milestone by 2019; clients at scale include Amazon, Netflix and Skydance. • Scaled to 13 parallel projects at peak over 3 continents; led a dedicated team of 10+ leaders with access to the broader shared resource pool managed at executive level. • Implemented Agile delivery and used SaaS and mobile metrics (ARR/MRR, DAU/MAU, NRR) to drive executive trade-offs on roadmap, resourcing and delivery across AI, AR/VR, SaaS, fintech, real estate and entertainment verticals. • Delivered top profitability margins in Amber Studio across Labs’ full operating period. • Built distributed teams across EU, US and APAC on a flat, lean operating model - full delegation, radical transparency and agile at philosophy level - resulting in measurable retention pull from other units.

  • IBM (6 yrs 1 mo)
    • Commercial Director - Software Group
      2012 - 2014 · 2 yrs

      Led regional strategic and go-to-market initiatives for IBM Software Group (including Data, Analytics, BI) across top enterprise, driving commercial performance and customer transformation. • Built and scaled the direct Sales Executives team to drive new business sales growth. • Led regional commercial strategy and execution, influencing over 20% pipeline growth and 15% revenue growth. Overachieving targets. • Collaborated with the regional partner organisation by enabling partners on solution value, ensuring customers benefit from a cohesive experience. • Aligned commercial, stakeholder and delivery functions to improve conversion and predictability by more than 10%. • Supported C-level client engagements across the region, translating regional strategy into actionable execution. • Managed accurate forecasts and pipeline management while defining quotas and effectively communicating performance expectations. • Coached the regional team to lead the sales process from prospecting and pipeline generation to opportunity management, negotiation, and closure.

    • COO
      2010 - 2012 · 2 yrs

      Member of the board, partnering with the country CEO to drive operational excellence across the entire IBM Romania organisation. • Actively influenced internal execution to achieve revenue growth of more than 35% YoY across all lines of business. • Drove operational rhythm across all divisions - strategy, planning, staffing and performance management. • Partnered with the CEO on strategy-to-execution translation and resource allocation across a large organisation. • Removed silos while standardising governance, prioritisation and performance monitoring across functions.

    • Technology Group Director
      2008 - 2010 · 2 yrs

      Member of the board, leading IBM Romania’s hardware and technology division through growth and the 2008 market downturn. • Ran a USD 60M+ technology business with full P&L accountability, including through the 2008 financial crisis. • Drove more than 20% YoY revenue growth and led market share gains over competition during the downturn. • Led C-level negotiations across banking, telco, oil & gas and other industries. • Drove high-value, strategic opportunities both for new business and long-term market expansion. • Translated complex technology propositions into commercial and strategic decisions at board level.

  • CEO at Siemens
    2006 - 2008 · 2 yrs

    Led the expansion and transformation of the newly acquired Romanian entity - Forte a Siemens Company - on behalf of the regional Siemens board, aligning it to Siemens group standards. • Designed and executed the operating and growth strategy, achieving €50M turnover and 100%+ YoY revenue growth. • Scaled the organisation from 250 to more than 500 employees. • Led C-level negotiations across top industry sectors and represented Siemens in high-level strategic meetings. • Drove the corporate business transformation program from acquisition to full operational integration.

  • Financial Sector Sales Manager at IBM
    2002 - 2006 · 4 yrs

    - Led the overall IBM business in the banking and fintech sector in Romania. - Orchestrated sales and delivery of all IBM hardware, software, services and consultancy solutions across major banks in Romania. - Major achievement - the end-to-end modernization of Raiffeisen Bank and Erste Bank datacenters in Romania.