Cassandra Girard
Verified Expert in Marketing
Marketing Expert
Montreal, QC, Canada
Toptal member since October 10, 2024
Cassandra is a driven business leader with over 15 years of experience in consumer CX. She's led and nurtured high-performing global product marketing and strategy across the retail, consumer products, wholesale distribution, and travel industries. Cassandra has a proven track record of delivering client-centered solutions and GTM strategies, driving transformational programs, accelerating growth initiatives, fostering collaboration, and creating value through CX.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- CX Strategy
- Go-to-market Strategy
- Industry Analysis
- Omnichannel Marketing
- Product Management
- Product Marketing
- Sales & Channel Enablement
- eCommerce
Work Experience
GVP, Consumer Industries CX
SAP
- Led a high-performing global SME team across retail, consumer products, wholesale distribution, and travel, representing the voice of the customer (VOC) across field colleagues and customers. Focused on product marketing and go-to-market.
- Recognized as an evangelist and strategist in B2C omnichannel strategy, go-to market, and overall positioning.
- Sought after Customer Executive Sponsor, enabling trusted relationships and supporting the wins of high-valued deals globally.
- Contributed to multiple white papers, POVs, and press engagements and acted as a public speaker for internal and external events.
- Acted as the global point of contact for project work-streams between the Industry Business Units and the Customer Experience line of business, resulting in greater transparency, collaboration, and efficiencies across global GTM plans.
- Led team to successfully execute GTM plans and solution management strategies at the intersection of CX and industries within Lean constraints.
- Nominated and participated in coveted leadership development programs at SAP, a yearly program designed to nurture SAP's future leaders.
Global Lead, Consumer and Travel Industries
SAP
- Recruited, onboarded, and led a high-performing team—mentored team for GTM plans, QBRs, and all aspects of demand generation for respective industries. I oversaw overall GTM, product, partner, and marketing strategy and execution.
- Guided our team's GTM/product marketing strategy, resulting in SAP being recognized as a grocery commerce leader, making it the #1 commerce platform in this sub-segment.
- Mentored team to deliver high-quality field, market, and customer-facing content, setting a global benchmark across GTM/solution management teams.
- Led and mentored team in the successful build and launch of our travel commerce accelerator.
- Supported and grew our industry-specific partner ecosystem to address portfolio whitespace. Mentored numerous startups on how to navigate the SAP ecosystem successfully and improve their overall positioning and value proposition.
Industry Principal, Retail and Travel
SAP
- Acted as the first member of a newly formed industry team tasked to grow and create an industry team for SAP Hybris with a focus on GTM, product marketing, and solution management.
- Drove and launched industry-in-box framework and bill of material (BOM) for field colleagues globally.
- Served as a global subject matter expert for all top retail opportunities, driving incremental deal closing.
- Launched travel (airlines) as an industry dimension for SAP CX.
- Launched and executed industry CX global enablement programs for field and partner community.
- Contributed to and supported our CX omnichannel architecture framework, which was adopted across industries.
- Nominated as SAP Hybris spokesperson (external, press, conference).
Presales Solution Engineer
Hybris
- Exceeded individual targets consistently, becoming the first presales engineer to cover global opportunities for retail and fashion beyond the regional model.
- Developed the initial industry-specific presales process tailored for the retail and fashion sectors, creating a unique approach and demo framework.
- Evangelized an industry-first, VOC approach within Hybris to support the future creation of an industry SME group.
COO and Co-founder
Buyosphere
- Managed finance, forecasting, legal aspects, and various operations, leading initiatives in seed funding, convertible debenture rounds, and development credit.
- Led the company through three Agile product pivots, executing the CEO's vision, maintaining a Lean and Agile development cycle, and supporting our CTO in his technical leadership.
- Spearheaded partnerships and integration efforts with various partners, including Badgeville, Skimlinks, Kissmetrics, and Mixpanel.
- Grew traffic from 500 to 40,000 unique users in only six months.
- Obtained coverage by Forbes, Mashable, Techcrunch, Globe, La Presse, and many more publications. The company was included in the top 10 fashion startups to watch in 2012.
Director of Business Development
Fluid (acquired by Astound Commerce)
- Secured a significant creative design engagement with a top 100 online retailer, which resulted in acclaim in the online retail industry.
- Created channels for strategic, referral, and reseller partnerships, growing our partners from zero to 35 and increasing visibility and revenue growth. These partners included leading commerce platforms and other key service providers.
- Sold Fluid's most significant software opportunity, displacing five incumbent competitors, including Adobe.
- Contributed to the product direction of Fluid's product personalization strategy.
Director of Business Development
Truition
- Developed and acquired a new business within the specialty retailer/high-brand vertical.
- Consistently exceeded quotas and became the company lead for technology demos.
- Shaped B2C-specific commerce requirements, driving the product roadmap from auction platform to B2C commerce.
Project History
Buyosphere
https://youtu.be/FZ50LZFQjeM?si=8y_2UXodZDxtXF3LCo-founded Buyosphere and led the company through three agile pivots as its COO, handling all fundraising aspects, including seed funding, convertible debenture, and development credit.
New Travel and Hospitality Vertical at SAP
Successfully led the creation of a new industry vertical, with my team leading the build and launch of the SAP Commerce Travel Accelerator. This led to the creation of a pipeline worth $47 million across the air, cruise, and hospitality verticals.
New Business Model Launch for Quebec's Major Charter Autobus Organization
https://louloubus.com/en/Led a new business model project from ideation to launch for one of Quebec's largest school bus and charter operator.
This project took 14 weeks from ideation to launch with one developer and a limited $15,000 budget. It involved performing market and requirements analysis and leading UX, design, and proof of concept direction.
Education
Coursework Toward a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Information Technology and Business
Concordia University - Toronto, ON, Canada
Certifications
Director of Marketing
NextMBA
Digital Marketing: A Strategic Perspective
Yale University
Skills
Core
Go-to-market Strategy, Product Marketing, Product Positioning, Omnichannel Marketing, Copywriting, Marketing, Market Research & Analysis, Sales, Channel Strategy, Digital Marketing, Google SEO, Branding, Claude
Business Models
Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), SaaS, SaaS Product Marketing
Technical
SQL
Other
eCommerce, Industry Analysis, Sales & Channel Enablement, Public Speaking, eCommerce Strategy, Product Demonstrations, Executive Presentations, SAP, Retail Strategy, Go-to-market Plans, Value Proposition, Customer Experience, Customer Experience Management, Customer Support, Information Technology, Product Management, Leadership, Thought Leadership, Business Development, Requirements Analysis, Product Strategy, CX Strategy, Digital Innovation, Product Launch, Microsoft Teams, Presales, Business Requirements, Travel & Leisure, Order Management, Journey Mapping, Business Modeling, Startups, Design, Lifetime Value (LTV), Analyst Relations, ChatGPT, Claude.ai, Perplexity.aiy, Fundraising, Product Owner, Operations, Financial Reporting, Strategic Partnerships, Financing, Requirements
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