Bill Topf

HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, Boston, MA
Master of Business Administration (MBA), with Honors. Focus on marketing, strategy and general management.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Palo Alto, CA
Master of Arts (MA), Sociology (Organization Studies), with Distinction. Coterminal Master’s Degree Program focusing on organizational behavior, group dynamics, and interpersonal relations.
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Quantitative Economics, with Distinction. Year abroad enrolled in UC London Economics Department.

Established first end-to-end Global D&A function. Built and led 400+ person team across D&A transformation / strategy, data services and governance, analytics technology & development, advanced analytics / data science, and business insights and analytics services with a significant low-cost, high capability, off-shore presence in India and Hungary.
• Established Global AA Function: Recruited, on-boarded and ran 24-person global data science team.
- Developed AA strategic roadmap, delivered POCs / pilots / scaled-up models for wide range of use cases (across sales, marketing, customer marketing, innovation, category development, NRM, cash cycle, supply, R&D, etc.), acquired a range of new data sets, and implemented solutions via new and evolving methods and technology stack
- Enrolled leaders across all global functions and markets behind agenda, priority use cases, and organizational model for ongoing use of data science within the business. Established company-wide AA capability model and training curriculum.
- Fueled US analytics-led commercial transformation, covering 250K+ outlets, enabling outlet and activation prioritization, micro-targeted assortment recommendations and 10% annual lift opportunity without SKU count increase.
• Built a Hybrid Cloud/Data Lake Environment: Moved over 200 TB of data into Azure (internal and external sources), primarily transformed and business ready (vs. raw and unstructured). Enabled users ranging from business analysts to technical developers to data scientists to access data and leverage environment through a range of applications.
• Embedded Data Services Model and Offerings: Delivered 97%+ accuracy and right first-time metrics at a lower cost by transitioning MDM and DQ services from markets and external partners into a 100+ person internal team in Bangalore.
• Developed Centers of Excellence for Business Insights & Analysis: Drove evolution from report creators into high value-added insights delivery teams across multiple functions, while establishing organization model for leveraging remote experts.
• Drove Delivery of Core D&A Projects: Directed team that built core data products and BI / analytics visualization tools as part of Digital Transformation, contributing to delivery of £700M in productivity savings, across finance, supply, marketing, and sales.

Led team of 39 in strategy, commercial planning, NRM, M&E, performance reporting, and commercial insights. Reported to CCO.
▪ Provided “one source of the truth” for all non-financial data, bridging divide between Sales and Marketing, enabling faster decision making and consolidating purchasing of commercial data (e.g., Nielsen). Promoted from VP after 1 year.

Drove strategy and execution of RTM 2.0, a transformational route to market initiative and driving factor behind new company operating model, including new RTM model for Canada, national Control State brokerage, and Customer Based approach.
▪ Enabled step-change in sales execution, value chain financial rebalancing, at-scale marketing program execution, and a more aligned way of working, resulting in 10%+ OH cost reduction and 5%+ operating profit improvement.

Vice President of U.S. Marketing, Gin and Liqueurs 2009 - 2010
Led 8-person team in transforming brands that represented over $400MM Sales and $60MM A&P annually.
▪ Reversed negative growth trends through the development of new participation platforms on Baileys and Tanqueray.
▪ Managed external stakeholder engagement on key luxury / multicultural brands of Godiva and Nuvo, delivering 20%+ growth.
▪ Chaired Early Career Recruitment Program (2007-2010).

Vice President of U.S. Marketing, Scotch and Irish Whiskey 2006 - 2009
Guided 7-person team in above-plan annual P&L delivery on brands representing over $350MM Sales and $50MM A&P. Promoted from JW Brand Director after 1 year. Head of people / culture committee of Marketing Action Council (LT).
▪ Portfolio Highlights: Launched first-ever JW US “Keep Walking” TV campaign, expanded JW mentor program (30K+ consumers), delivered TTL Bushmills 400th anniversary campaign, realized 25%+ annual growth on Buchanan’s, activated sports sponsorships, grew CRM program to 600K+ and re-established marketing on Classic Malts.
▪ Blue Label: Proved JW Blue Label to be a key growth driver (10%+ annually). Developed and launched highly differentiated, luxury communications platform, “For those who know what to look for,” and established national gifting and custom bottle engraving program. Named to 2007 Ad Age Marketing 50 based on work.

Member of NA Innovation Leadership team. End-to-end innovation / marketing project lead with additional responsibility for developing NA Innovation Strategy (overall and at brand level).
▪ Created 2 new Smirnoff Vodka flavors, best testing and performing to date, each delivering $10+M incremental annual NSV.
▪ Developed new beer concepts, liquids and packs, forming basis for “Guinness as Brewer” positioning and post-2010 launches.

Vice President, North American Strategy 2003 - 2004
Head of 6-person team responsible for delivering traditional corporate strategy elements (e.g., M&A, business development, strategic planning, projects) plus customer / channel strategy activities such as consumer-based channel segmentation, channel and customer-specific sales strategies, consumer-driven key account strategies and sponsorship opportunities.
Vice President, Commercial Strategy 2002 - 2003
Led roll-out of industry transforming Next Gen Growth initiative, restructuring the industry RTM and Diageo’s GTM approach.
▪ Negotiated distributor agreements, designed sales forces, managed JV relationship, and created sales capability framework, resulting in $100M+ increased annual profit and incremental 2%+ annual NSV growth.

Principal, Consumer Products and Retail Strategy Consulting Practice. Received 4 early promotions pre- and post-MBA. Office and Practice lead for undergraduate and MBA recruiting. Co-authored strategic growth framework for CPG clients.
▪ Growth (Sales and Marketing) Strategy: Numerous projects across range of CPG clients, including creation of a Next Generation Growth Business Strategy, development of new brand strategies and related customer assortment recommendations (turnaround from prior year declines), re-staging a brand using price-based costing (5%+ sales increase at improved margins), and launching a new TPP process and effectiveness measurement tool (double-digit profit increase opportunity).
▪ Value Chain / Distribution Strategy: Multiple projects across Media, Retail, CPG, P/L and Grocery, such as developing direct-to-retail-service capabilities, designing POS-driven rapid replenishment system (increased sales with largest retailer by 10%+), designing menu pricing program (negotiated with 3 national chains), structuring least cost distribution model factoring total supply chain and inventory analysis, including forward buy, demand variation, lead time, and service levels.
▪ Organization Restructuring: Various projects across CPG, Pharma, Foodservice and Retail, including overall and key functional organization design, creation of global category structures, leading of PM office, design of strategic operating imperatives, redesign of key processes, institution of change management approach, and adoption of leadership framework.