Merlin Jacob
Vaughan,Ontario
Summary
Award winning senior strategy executive with a proven record of delivering exceptional customer success, marketing execution, channel strategy, and cross functional collaboration, while driving best-in-class customer experiences and optimizing value delivery across global markets.
Overview
22
22
years of professional experience
Work History
Director, Go-to-Market Strategy & Planning - Revenue Operations
Equinix Inc.
09.2023 - 12.2024
- Primary business partner for GTM initiatives, revenue growth and strategic objectives of Global Customer Care and Experience (GCCX) functions, key stakeholder management across senior leadership (CxO, SVP, VP), aligning with CRO, revenue operations, marketing, commercial, and sales priorities to operationalize revenues of $120-130M per quarter
- Partnered with senior functional & transformation teams, revenue operations, and other business units to support GCCX and GTM initiatives, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives and effective decision-making
- Provided expert insights, thought leadership, and governance to integrate and optimize GCCX priorities within broader enterprise and digital transformation efforts
- Drove prioritization, impact assessment, process optimization and project resource mapping for stakeholder initiatives aligned to GCCX & Revenue Operations priorities
- Led the efforts to shift to a growth mindset and guide stakeholders by collaborating with digital transformation workstream owners, promoting best practices and innovative solutions to drive revenue success
- Engaged with data insights teams to support creative use of analytics, metrics, and reporting, to facilitate informed decision-making
- Drove collaboration with enablement teams to address knowledge and process gaps, enhancing functional team success
- Supported the channel solutions ecosystem with effective GCCX execution and strategy, ensuring optimal customer experiences
- Thrived as voice of the business between Revenue Operations and GCCX, ensuring clear communication, resourcing and collaboration
- Promoted and modelled Equinix's culture and values, by fostering a nurturing environment through positive peer engagement, mentorship, and effective communication
- Demonstrated the ability to translate high-level strategic goals into actionable plans for all levels of contributors
- Achieved consistent performance in complex environments, stabilizing uncertainties, and calibrated to constant change, while collaborating with and influencing stakeholders across all levels
Director, Customer & Partner Success - Global
Upstream Works Software Canada
04.2022 - 07.2023
- Established the overall vision and strategic plans for the UWS Customer & Partner Success functions, focusing on revenue deals over $1M, product evangelism, customer onboarding, and growth in collaboration with product, engineering, professional services and support teams
- Oversaw and charted the customer journey to facilitate seamless transitions during UWS platform upgrades and the launch of new features
- Led and developed experiential and customer-centric onboarding programs and monetized partner training engagements with content development through my direct team
- Managed annual and periodic customer renewals for perpetual, SaaS, and subscription-based customers end-to-end, locking in retention
- Fostered strong relationships by conducting quarterly business reviews for both customers and partners and identified opportunities to increase mindshare and delivered outstanding customer experiences
- Collaborated with the product and sales teams to facilitate customer adoption of new functionalities and use-cases
- Liaised on escalation issues around support, project delivery, marketing resources and technical assistance and managing expectations
- Built the UWS Partner Program to create partner tiering, benefits and profiling to help grow, support and mobilize the channel capabilities
- Implemented partner excellence mechanisms to help grow pipeline and provided frameworks to the sales organization for building opportunities together
- Participated in product roadmap presentations, feature requests and future requirement planning for both customers & partners
- Led the CS enablement team with enablement manager and trainers to build and deliver tailored content and training for new and existing customers
- Established processes to enhance internal team communication and collaboration, resulting in improved customer effort scores < 2 points
- Promoted and communicated key messaging on all social media platforms to bring focus to latest UWS events, developments, and collaborations
- Developed a retention strategy by working closely with at-risk customers resulting on a positive 75% retention improvement
Head of Customer Success & Support - Global
Magentrix Corporation Canada
04.2019 - 03.2022
- Senior leadership leader responsible for end-to-end customer success strategy along with direct reports and sales, product, services, and support teams; to drive revenue growth, expansion, great customer stories and positive CSAT/NPS
- Achieved retention, growth, maintenance, and delivery of celebrated customer experiences with direct team of CSM's & CSA's
- Strategized product roadmap, feature requests, and enhancement initiatives and liaise the collaboration of the sales and support team with product development and professional services teams
- Drove platform implementation, adaptations and use case scenarios by re-imagining and translating customer needs to reality through the platform and capture positive reviews, testimonials, and customer feedback
- Managed client expectations, efficient project engagement & delivery, reduced scope creep and escalations, and effective resource management
- Ensured MRR and ARR top line growth through customer engaged conversations that drove retention, adoption and incremental revenue
- Built relationships, connect with key customers, and deliver extra-ordinary customer engagement
- Subject matter expert (SME); and provided business advisory, technical, process and design consulting services to customers and partners
- Identified the knowledge gaps and develop high impact training content for customers & partners
- Provided product training remotely, assist with portal configurations to Salesforce and other CRM integrations
- Demonstrated the best-practice use of the technology, functionality, and administration of the Magentrix product & application
- Magentrix Inc.: Employee of the month - July 2019
Integrated Channel Marketing Manager - Europe, Middle East & Africa
Belkin International
04.2016 - 04.2018
- Company Overview: Netherlands & Middle East
- Successfully led and delivered best-in-class integrated marketing strategies, partnering with product management and marketing teams globally to ensure success and managing direct reporting teams of graphic designers and coordinators across EMEA
- Owned close relationships with key retail and partners across the EMEA region to execute the sales and business goals successfully
- Developed message strategy, product roadmaps, manage NPIs, manage production of creative and deploy materials to internal and external customers; includes retail packaging, in-store merchandising, advertising, web content, launch kits and more
- Executed strategy through to completion; make sure creative briefs and all marketing communication tools get created on-message, on-time, and on-brand
- Drove consumer insights studies and applied findings - position and grow the Belkin brand in conjunction with product messaging and influence decision making
- Worked with cross-functional teams and processes to meet communication objectives: marketing, product management, graphic design, consumer insights, sales, business development, trade shows and PR
- Demonstrated increased effectiveness and efficiencies throughout the system and became the internal process champion
- Worked cross-functionally to train and develop new team members as needed to ensure branding guidelines, legal requirements, process, and quality standards are met
- Establish and maintain training materials and documentation to facilitate region & language specific tools
- Netherlands & Middle East
Country Leader - Upper Gulf & Lebanon
Swarovski Middle East
10.2013 - 12.2015
- Thrived as country P&L lead and brand management for Kuwait, Lebanon and Bahrain and secondary coverage on Jordan for the Swarovski Professional B2B business on Swarovski Elements, Corporate Gift Solutions and Jewellery Solution GTM's with top line achievement of €3 million per annum over the assigned Official Distribution Partners (ODP) and the Ingredient Brand Partners (IB) across the region
- Part of the Middle East Leadership Team driving P&L mix, business, brand, product & pricing strategy, country campaigns and sales planning processes
- Led partners across all aspects of engagement, development and growth, brand campaign adaptations, event marketing, local media planning, online content management, in-store & site trade marketing, market ownership, stock & price management and fulfilment models
- Trained and mobilized the distribution in-store team on products, brand marketing, sales skills, channel structuring, order management and marketing mix
- Mapped the channel market for distribution partner to cover Haute Couture, Pret, Bridal and Mass market designers, Traditional wear segment manufacturers, Jewellery & Accessory manufacturers, and corporate verticals
- Engaged the design team to create and drive season launches, new design solutions and product introductions (NPI's) to the market and harness maximum support from internal creative & designer's in-house team
- Optimized partner retail showrooms for plan-o-grams, visual merchandising, branding, consumer behaviour analysis and product placements
- Swarovski Middle East: Asia-South Star of the Week December - 2013 & Swarovski Spirit Ambassador - 2014
Commercial Partner Marketing Manager - Middle East
Hewlett Packard
05.2008 - 08.2013
- Company Overview: Middle East
- Optimized utilization of total marketing budgets in commercial to meet target in line with product and channel priorities across the portfolio of Printing & Personal Systems (PPS) across Middle East and drove investment of 1% - 2% to support incremental revenue targets per quarter
- Planned & implemented strategies to support regions and GTM's like corporate, SMB, etc., while driving the central strategy and KPIs
- Supported partner led co-marketing activities through brand assets and HP campaign executions, ensuring that brand guidelines are maintained; and resources are channelled through customized ATL/BTL channels (Print, radio, OOH, In-Store Advertising, POS, Online & social media)
- Developed and implemented demand generation initiatives across the sub-region to increase marketing funnel contribution, especially focusing on the SBSO, Mid-market and Corporate, Enterprise and Public space go-to-markets
- Designed key campaign events across Middle East to promote brand & channel messaging through HP's partner channel including contact meetings, trainings, campaign / product launches, interactive and incentive events, including GITEX, DSF, DSS & in-country
- Led & managed channel & in-store sales teams of 40-45 people to deliver on sales targets
- Collaborated with central and local alliance teams like Intel, Microsoft, AMD, Autodesk, Adobe, etc
- To negotiate budgets for collaborative investments and programs region-wide - pulling in more than 50% collaborative investments
- Drove seamless executions in liaison with sales, category, finance, and management teams internally and through channel
- Responsible for financial tracking on HP marketing investments, in channel and across the region
- Ensure marketing communications are compliant to corporate standards and brand messaging guidelines and sharing best practices on marketing programs with the team members and MEMA/EMEA regions
- Middle East
- HP Middle East: Champion of the Quarter - Q3, 2012
Technology Sales - Financial Services Industry
Oracle Systems
02.2007 - 04.2008
- Technology licensing and related services for the financial sector vertical (Banks, Brokerages, Trading Houses, Bourses, SEC) in UAE & Oman
- Identified, qualified, and closed new opportunities within regional banks like AL-MASRAF, EIB, NBF, RAKBANK, etc
- And in collaboration with the SEC, Abu Dhabi for Brokerages and Financial Trading houses
- Managed accounts; including the entire sales process from business development prospecting and specifications through contract negotiations, signing, and post-sales support
- Over-achieved annual target of $1 million in database license + support sales within the first 10 months
Product Manager - HP Printer Group
Tech Data Middle East (TD Synnex)
11.2006 - 02.2007
- HP product management for all printing category for ordering, forecasting, replenishment, pricing, channel sales, vendor relations and all communications
- Plan, implement and manage effective sales and marketing programs to maximize business in a profitable manner while mitigating risk within Tech Data partner channel and drive market demand
- Responsible for planning and achieved optimal stock ordering and product profiling; best record stock levels; best record margins, best record Days of Stock (DOS) and achieved target provision levels (114%) by reducing aging stock levels and improving quality of saleable stocks
- Implemented various Sales Incentive Programs and channel programs in line with the plans based on Market Development Funds (MDF)
Distribution Channel Sales - GTA Retail
Tomauri Inc.
06.2005 - 08.2006
- Company Overview: Canada
- Complete account management of the independent retail store channel and Radio Shack / Source by Circuit City franchises, VAR's, System Integrators, SMB resellers and Sub Distributors
- Achieved and exceeded margin target of $500,000 gross margin set as a half yearly target on computer peripherals, networking, and accessories for the GTA regions
- Canada
Channel Sales Middle East - HP Printer Group
Tech Data Middle East (TD Synnex)
12.2002 - 04.2005
- Achieved and exceeded revenue and margin targets over US$2 million per month on assigned customer accounts across Middle East: pipeline, opportunity management & forecasting, focusing on 4 vendor lines: HP IPG commercial, IPG consumer, HP Supplies and HP PSG products
- Awarded Employee of the month for June 2004 for outstanding consistent performance and teamwork
Education
Master's in Business Administration (MBA) - International Business
University of Wollongong in Dubai
Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com) -
Bangalore University
Advanced Diploma in Digital Marketing -
Shaw Academy
Retail Management Program (RMP) -
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)
Professional Diploma in Network Computing - (2 yr Dip.)
National Institute of Information Technology
Skills
- Growth Transformation
- Strategic Approach
- GTM Excellence
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Result Focused
- Situational Leader
Websites
Community Service
Board Member, EmpowHERto, Toronto Chapter, EmpowHERto is dedicated to partnering with minority girls and young women from underserved communities.
Training
- Diversity & Inclusion, Equinix
- Hire UP Training, Equinix
- Product Management Academy, Tech Data
- Sandler Sales Methodologies, Sandler Group (Ireland) Oracle
- Situational Sales Negotiation, BayGroup International (Turkey) Hewlett Packard
Awards
- Courageous Contributor, Revved Up awards, Equinix, 02/01/24
- Employee of the month, Magentrix Inc., 07/01/19
- Swarovski Spirit Ambassador, Swarovski Middle East, 2014
- Champion of the Quarter, HP Middle East, Q3, 2012
- Retail Executive of the Year - UAE, DISTREE Middle East Retail Academy, 05/01/11
- Employee of the Month, Tech Data, 06/01/04
Timeline
Director, Go-to-Market Strategy & Planning - Revenue Operations
Equinix Inc.
09.2023 - 12.2024
Director, Customer & Partner Success - Global
Upstream Works Software Canada
04.2022 - 07.2023
Head of Customer Success & Support - Global
Magentrix Corporation Canada
04.2019 - 03.2022
Integrated Channel Marketing Manager - Europe, Middle East & Africa
Belkin International
04.2016 - 04.2018
Country Leader - Upper Gulf & Lebanon
Swarovski Middle East
10.2013 - 12.2015
Commercial Partner Marketing Manager - Middle East
Hewlett Packard
05.2008 - 08.2013
Technology Sales - Financial Services Industry
Oracle Systems
02.2007 - 04.2008
Product Manager - HP Printer Group
Tech Data Middle East (TD Synnex)
11.2006 - 02.2007
Distribution Channel Sales - GTA Retail
Tomauri Inc.
06.2005 - 08.2006
Channel Sales Middle East - HP Printer Group
Tech Data Middle East (TD Synnex)
12.2002 - 04.2005
Master's in Business Administration (MBA) - International Business
University of Wollongong in Dubai
Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com) -
Bangalore University
Advanced Diploma in Digital Marketing -
Shaw Academy
Retail Management Program (RMP) -
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)
Professional Diploma in Network Computing - (2 yr Dip.)
National Institute of Information Technology