Jan 2023 – Dec 2024 · 1 yr 11 mos

Oct 2022 – Apr 2024 · 1 yr 6 mos

• Global P&L Ownership and Commercial & Operational Leadership of:
• Digital & eCommerce (shopDisney / Disneystore.com)
• Brick & Mortar Retail (Disney Stores, NatGeo Stores)
• Shop-in-Shop and Partner Retail (Target in North America, Bestseller Group in China, Liverpool in Mexico, Alshaya in the Middle-East, Hyundai in South Korea)
• DisneyWorld Retail
• Disneyland Retail
• Disney Signature Experiences
• Disney Cruise Line Retail
• Leadership and Ownership of critical Retail functions:
• Merchandising & Retail Operations (Buying, Inventory Planning, Forecasting and Merch Ops)
• Supply Chain Operations (Inbound Logistics, Warehousing, Last-mile)
• Product Management, UX, UI
• Omni Full Funnel Marketing (Brand + Performance + CRM)
• Analytics
• Customer Service & Contact Center Operations

Jan 2022 – Oct 2022 · 9 mos

• Naveen leads the Global Digital and Retail Commerce businesses for Consumer Products, Games & Publishing at The Walt Disney Company. He leads all key functions across Brick & Mortar Retail, and Digital Commerce including Store Operations, Supply Chain & Logistics, Product Management, UX & UI Design, Merchandising & Digital Operations, Marketing (across Brand, Paid, Owned and Earned), Guest Services, Customer Contact Centers and Customer-Facing Experiences, Channels and Automation.

Jan 2018 – Jan 2022 · 4 yrs · New York, New York, United States

• Leadership of the Global Omni-Channel and CX Innovation, Digital and Omni Product Management, Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy, Operations and eCommerce P&L across four continents.
• ◾️ Global Leadership of Digital Marketing across all paid and managed channels:
• > SEM / SEO
• > Affiliate Marketing and Partners
• > Display Advertising & Retargeting
• > Social Media Marketing (Paid & Owned)
• > Video Promotion Strategy and Execution
• > CRM (Customer Relationship Management) - Email, Push Notifications, Mobile Marketing
• ◾️ Lead the entire Global Digital Product Roadmap and Innovation eco-system inclusive of:
• > eCommerce Product Management
• > Omni-channel Roadmap & Execution
• > Mobile Innovation and Product Roadmap
• > User Experience Architecture & Design
• > User Interface Design
• > User Research, Prototyping & Testing
• > Visual QA and ROI Modeling
• > Session Management Assessment
• ◾️ Ownership of Digital Experience & Operations comprising of:
• > Search Relevancy and Management
• > Site Operations and Taxonomy
• > Site Merchandising
• > Creative & Campaign Execution
• > Creative Innovation and Photo Studio
• > Process Optimization
• ◾️ Drive the entire Customer Lifecycle Roadmap and Customer Analytics & Insights team as well as Customer Acquisition and Customer Identification inclusive of:
• > Data Driven Marketing Optimization
• > Customer Segmentation
• > Behavioral Preferences & Actions
• > Guided and Personalized Shopping
• > A/B & Multi-variant Testing
• > Customer Attributes Modeling
• > Customer Analytics and Shopper Insights
• ◾️ Global Leader for Membership, Loyalty and Market Research:
• > MembershipProgram (FLX) Budget Owner
• > Points Economics
• > Redemptions, Sweepstakes and Rewards
• > New to File Enrollments
• > Market and Competitive Research
• > Launch Reservation for Hot Product Releases
• > Customer Development & Retention Strategy and Management

Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 · 0 mo · Greater Boston Area

• Leadership of the Digital Commerce and Experience teams and functions, and ownership of BJs.com
• ◾️ Digital Commerce ownership leading E-Commerce Merchants and Marketplace Contracts that will drive our Dropship (Fulfilled by Vendor) Business.
• ◾️ Digital Merchandising ownership of BJs.com including Content & Image Management, Search Tuning & Relevancy, Taxonomy Optimization and Product Reviews to drive up Conversion across all eCommerce and Omnichannel initiatives and drive the Digital Transformation.
• ◾️ Digital Marketing Leadership: SEO/SEM, Email, Affiliate Marketing, Personalization, Partner Monetization & Social Commerce.
• ◾️ Strategy, Analytics and Financial Management for the CDO Organization.

Jan 2015 – Jan 2018 · 3 yrs · Greater Nashville Area, TN

• ◾️ Lead the company’s global strategy and digital operations by focusing on key growth and development initiatives, reporting in to the CEO; and Chairman of the Board - Brad Kelley.
• ◾️ Leadership of all Digital P&Ls including:
• > Unlocking new opportunities through effective Ad Operations (building more inventory
• across digital channels).
• > Delivering campaigns & bespoke products via a digital product team and an in-house
• creative services studio.
• > Recognizing revenue opportunities for B2B growth across web, mobile, print and video.
• > Devising and rolling out an entirely new E-Commerce experience for our customers, which
• spans four continents and involves solving multiple product, currency & logistical challenges.
• ◾️ Drive and lead multiple Margin Maximization initiatives:
• > Controlling legacy costs by evaluating every cost center and dividing expenses into critical,
• non-critical and trim.
• > Renegotiated multiple legacy contracts by focusing on consolidation, saving up to 90% of legacy auto-pilot contracts.
• > Created financial reviews for SG&A, FP&A and Procurement for the divisions I oversee.
• ◾️ Identifying and Leading revenue opportunities in South & South-East Asia and Africa – all of which are double digit growth markets for LP’s digital and print businesses.
• ◾️ Lead the Consumer Products business working with key customers across the globe to grow Lonely Planet’s forays into retail & licensed merchandise and evaluate innovative business models (e.g. Box-based subscriptions).
• ◾️ Driving the performance management and goal attainment processes by implementing OKRs at every level of the company. This has created seamless alignment and exponentially increased productivity across departments.
• ◾️ Ownership of the HR function in the absence of a CHRO with all global HR teams reporting into me.
• ◾️ Solving major HR challenges around Talent Management, Retention and Acquisition, Global HR Policy, Performance Management, HRIS & Software and Rewards & Incentives.

Jan 2013 – Jan 2015 · 2 yrs

• Responsible for leading a team of leaders and individual contributors in the development and implementation of performance management capabilities.
• Manage cross-functional and cross-divisional collaboration on Product Management, Business Intelligence, Technology Innovation and Design & Development of the GameOn initiative. This position plays a key role in innovating, evaluating, and improving business operations and driving the performance management process for all associates across the company through results and metric and KPI-based scorecards across SHC's multiple Business Units. Some of these BUs include:
• Sears Retail Stores and sears.com
• Kmart Retail Stores and kmart.com
• Integrated Retail Labs (Omni-Channel)
• Member Services Organization (Global Call Center Operations)
• Talent & Human Capital Services
• Merchant Operations and Buying
• Toys and Sporting Goods
• Targeted Interactions (Customized Member Offers & Coupons)
• Provide thought leadership for performance management analytics and gamification, translate that strategy into capabilities, and drive weekly conversations and recommendations with C-Level leaders.
• Present to the Chairman / CEO on a monthly basis on progress, performance and future innovation.
• Responsible for planning, forecasting and management of a 8-digit annual budget as well as a positive profit/loss statement.
• Managing remote teams across different locations (across countries and continents) with the ability to rally team members towards attaining common goals.
• Recruit, hire, develop, appraise, coach and retain a group of high-performing leaders and individual contributors with skill-sets that are in alignment with the product roadmap.

Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 · 1 yr

• Define and Drive the Product Roadmap and daily operations of the GameOn initiative. GameOn is an innovative, highly analytic and technologically driven Business Transformation initiative involving Gamification, Game Elements & Mechanics, Performance Improvement and Employee Engagement. This initiative is heavily data-driven and subject to significant exposure at all levels of the organization.
• Managing this initiative includes operation and governance of the GameOn Product Roadmap which includes but is not limited to:
• Gamification of Performance and Employee Engagement (Competitions, Contests etc.)
• Creation of Dynamic, Customizable Metric Dashboards for multiple product groups and BUs
• Member / Customer Feedback (NPS) for 2000 stores
• Mood Capture and its correlation to performance
• Post - Analytics on Rewards vs. Performance Improvement
• Supporting all Integrated Retail and Omni-channel initiatives with data & insights
• Developing and relaying all Change Management and Communication with GameOn participants
• Manage the operation and support functions which include: Product Management, Business Intelligence, User Experience, Technology & Development and Communications and Project Management teams.
• Defining the GameOn org structure, roles & responsibilities definition, monitoring and planning financial activity.
• Ownership of communications with GameOn participants, including production of training materials, newsletter content, winning profiles, and other documentation as required.
• Project management - work with other GameOn teams to ensure consistent delivery of GameOn platform updates and communication of issues across functions. Responsible for implementing project standards, processes, and controls.
• Maintain the overall project roadmap as the business leader to ensure the list of milestones and dates accurately reflects the status of the overall project and that deadlines are being met on a week to week basis.

Jan 2010 – Jan 2012 · 2 yrs

• Analyzing the International Market opportunity for the Iconic Brands in the SHC portfolio; identifying and prioritizing target markets for brand externalization based on macro and micro-economic factors.
• Worked on onboarding a Global Licensing Agent for to externalize our Brands.
• Category and Inventory Management, Supply Chain Ownership and P&L Responsibility for Non-Home Appliances Categories in the Sears Outlet Stores Business (Multi-million Dollar P&L)
• Initiated and operated a revenue opportunity with B2B Selling in the Foreclosures & Short Sales Housing market
• Negotiated with multiple Fortune 1000 Corporations like Whirlpool, EMA, Coleman, Sealy and Samsung on deals for our business

Jan 2010 – Jan 2010 · 0 mo

• Analyzed the New York City market for Large-Screen Televisions to understand reasons for underage and overage of inventory and forecasting future demand based on existing data and Nielsen Demand Analytics.
• Created a system to manage and execute inventory efficiently and recommended changes in merchandising for Consumer Electronics to protect the business against lost sales and overstocks. $1.5m impact in potential claw-backs on TVs.
• Created metrics to measure social media impact on sales at Sears and Kmart stores.

Jan 2009 – Jan 2010 · 1 yr · Dangriga, Belize

• Created a strategy for developing an uninhabited, barren island on the Atlantic Coast to attract International tourists.
• Negotiated with local retail businesses to set up partner establishments on the island to facilitate economic rent.

Jan 2005 – Jan 2009 · 4 yrs · Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom

• Identified product categories that drove high revenue growth using a quick turnaround – market research process.
• Drove an aggressive customer acquisition model by bringing on board key partners and representatives in local markets. This is turn meant that the investment from the company in sales infrastructure was minimal.
• Established a new line of derivative, customized products by setting up a federated team in collaboration with the product development group, specifically for the SAARC market. Negotiated multiple supplier deals including paper, technology support, printing services, outsourcing & offshoring.
• Created multiple professional development programs for school teachers across the region in areas like progressive pedagogy, curriculum development and technology implementation to increase the rate of adoption for our products.
• Set aggressive revenue targets and grew the market for Nelson Thornes in the SAARC region by 30x.

Jan 2003 – Jan 2009 · 6 yrs · New Delhi Area, India

• Co-Founded Overleaf Books LLP which provided end-to-end learning resource solutions to the K-12 International School market (IB Charter and IGCSE schools) in the Asian Region.
• Created business opportunities for companies like Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt and Chrysalis International by Identifying and entering new markets.
• Presenting strategic growth ideas to the Board of Directors of my clients and implementing the ratified ideas in the South Asian market.
• Led Overleaf in a $15m market to becoming the market leader in the International School Publishing segment in India by changing the way customers were serviced.
• Spearheaded Overleaf’s Business Development and Marketing Departments and developed business with various B2B and B2C customers.
• Took critical decisions in the business and worked on many cross-functional teams including market feasibility projects, competitor price analysis, annual audits, and marketing strategy.
• Pivotal in growing clients’ businesses in South Asia with the same publishing business strategy of targeting a specific market segments and soon forayed into the Sri Lankan market in 2004 and rose to become the market leader in 3 years.

Jan 2001 – Jan 2003 · 2 yrs · Chennai Area, India

Jan 2000 – Jan 2001 · 1 yr · New Delhi Area, India

• Member of the Brand Planning and Client Servicing teams for three major accounts at JWT - Pepsi, Nestle and Hero Honda.
• Performed market research analysis using a combination of qualitative and quantitative metrics (statistical data methods & anecdotal research - vox populis, dip-sticks etc.)
• Supported in pitching our services to a number of different clients including The Ford Motor Company and Samsung.

Jan 1998 – Jan 2001 · 3 yrs