MIKE DIAZ

South Lyon, MI 48178 | 248-613-1559 | mikehdiaz@gmail.com | http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehdiaz

MARKETING VICE PRESIDENT| SENIOR DIRECTOR

GLOBAL MARKETING OPERATIONS | PRODUCT MARKETING | COMMUNICATIONS | DIGITAL MARKETING | CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
DIGITAL PUBLISHING/CONTENT SOLUTIONS | TECHNOLOGY (SOFTWARE/SAAS SOLUTIONS | BUSINESS SERVICES (B2B)
Customer-driven Marketing Executive with a passion for reducing sales cycles, expanding revenue, and fueling profit
growth through improvements in customer experience and lifetime value. Marketing thought leader; helps companies
scale up and accelerate growth by identifying market needs and responding effectively to competitive challenges.
 Customer Experience: Serve as voice of the customer and market, leveraging customer feedback and data-
driven storytelling to communicate potential business impacts of customer and market shifts and make a
compelling case for action. Prioritizes resources to improve customer experience and engagement.
 Strategy & Insight: Drive successful marketing strategies from big picture vision through execution. Leverage
surveys, interviews, focus groups, advisory boards, and more to uncover actionable customer insights, enable
customer success, and unlock new growth potential. Tie marketing and customer experience metrics to critical
top-level metrics for the business.
 Technology & Transformation: Scale up, turn around, and reposition marketing organizations to capitalize on
growth opportunities. Integrate technology and agile best practices to reduce time to market, drive efficiency,
and improve targeting through market segmentation and data access/quality.
“I often referred to [Mike] as our marketing genius, our 'ace in the hole.' … Because of his clear direction … our team
succeeded very quickly, producing double digit growth, innovative campaigns and new directions that have become
embedded into our overall strategy.” Senior Product Manager, ProQuest
Expertise
Market Strategy & Research, Strategic Marketing, Marketing Communications, Customer Experience, Research & Insight
Market Analysis, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Product Launch, Pricing Strategy, Market Intelligence & Segmentation
Voice-of-the-Customer, Demand Generation, SEO, Email & Social Marketing, Digital Advertising, Channel Marketing
Sales Forecasting, Sales Enablement, Customer Relationship Management, Referral Generation, Sales Training
Experienced in Salesforce.com, HubSpot, Seibel CRM, ACT, and numerous other marketing technologies and tools

EXPERIENCE
GROWTH CANVAS CONSULTING LLC, SOUTH LYON, MI (2015 – 2018)
Founder & Principal
Built small consulting practice to help B2B technology and services companies drive sales and marketing improvements,
streamline and optimize customer acquisition and retention, and accelerate growth. Worked with business owners to
identify critical gaps in capabilities by surfacing customer, market, and competitive information from surveys, interviews,
data gathering, and other research. Provided actionable insight into customer attributes, buyer needs and journeys, and
customer experience improvement opportunities. Leveraged voice of the customer feedback to sharpen company and
product positioning, improve presentations and sales tools, and drive positive word of mouth and referrals.
 Helped small, commercial architecture firm:
o Acquire new customers, maximize customer relationships, and tap new revenue streams by identifying
emerging business opportunities and articulating unique value proposition.
o Secure 5 new projects in core markets, 2 from adjacent markets, and 1 that taps into a new revenue
stream by mapping out ideal customer attributes and conducting several interviews.
o Identify strategic partners to improve penetration in adjacent markets.
 Guided global software development firm in:
o Ramping up sales and marketing efforts and driving customer-based business improvements.
o Optimizing company positioning, messaging, and sales tools.
o Improving close rate and securing 2 good fit clients.
 Spearheaded market assessment that helped software firm understand and validate market potential for new
SAAS solution. Surfaced market needs and key in-demand features, suggested updates to launch plans.
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PROQUEST, ANN ARBOR, MI (2003 – 2015)

Digital research and software solution provider serving higher education institutions, libraries
Executive Director Marketing and Strategic Initiatives, 2011 – 2015
Led ProQuest’s enterprise growth transformation initiative to develop and champion global strategy for attracting new
equity investor. Drove efforts to identify current business state, reviewed opportunities and challenges, and prioritized
potential growth opportunities including product and pricing synergies, adjacent opportunities, and potential acquisitions
and partnerships. Mapped out new growth strategy with compelling data-driven story. Additionally tapped to help turn
around Dissertations Research Solutions product line and launch new Academic Video Archiving and Discovery service.
 Delivered strategy transformation project on time and on budget; strategy gained Board approval and was
leveraged to secure equity investment from Goldman Sachs.
 Partnered with business unit and functional leaders to build out enterprise strategy pillars, align enterprise and
business unit strategies, and ensure timely and impactful Board presentation.
 Launched new SAAS solution for academic video archiving and discovery, generating 244 qualified leads through
webinar series and 5 thought leader videos.
 Leveraged customer interviews, focus groups, case studies, and innovative integrated campaigns to turn around
declining, high-margin Dissertation product line; rolled out new analytics solution with 15% growth over 2 years.

Executive Director, Marketing, 2008 – 2011

Promoted to migrate marketing efforts from product line to market-based focus. Led strategic and tactical Marketing
functions for $185M Academic, Community College, and Government markets. Supported M&A by developing a
comprehensive competitor assessment and making recommendations for potential acquisition. Oversaw development of
Net Promoter Score research capabilities and Foresee Results web surveys. Orchestrated live and online events, email
marketing, web and SEO efforts, blogging, social media, PR, digital advertising, website, and development of collateral,
demos, videos, and tools. Managed resource allocation, directed 14 staff, and administered $1M budget.
 Turned around North American marketing operations and performance and advanced ProQuest’s marketing
capabilities and culture.
 Secured $15M billings, obtained 5-year subscription commitments from key accounts by building out new
program with highly targeted proposals (program generated 67% win rate).
 Developed and managed strategic partnership that enabled ProQuest to better understand its customers and
changing market landscape.
 Responded to 75 customer, market, and trend questions associated with confidential bond offering, helping
ProQuest secure $275M in new capital on very favorable terms.

Director of Marketing and Marketing Services, 2006 – 2008

Promoted during company crisis to manage marketing functions, improve customer communications, and drive rapid
revenue growth across 3 academic product lines (Chadwyck-Healey, XanEdu, and Research Collections). Oversaw email
marketing, website, and sales tool development. Managed North America Tradeshow team and budget.
 Orchestrated 3 major product launches generating $2.5M in pre-sales, shoring up needed cash flow and helping
to position ProQuest as an attractive acquisition target.
 Instituted and leveraged promotional tracking to demonstrate that promotional efforts were a significant
contributor to sales and margin growth.
o Tied $3M in incremental billings to email campaigns to buyers and key influencers.
o Resulted in ProQuest Marketing team being retained post-acquisition (Cambridge Information Group).
 Rapidly responded to Google Book Project library scanning announcement with training and positioning, helping
sales to maintain momentum with key accounts by articulating unique value of ProQuest’s archival solutions.

Senior Marketing Manager, 2003 – 2006

Recruited to drive immediate and sustainable growth for Chadwyck-Healey product line. Led efforts to redefine marketing
strategy and develop comprehensive marketing plans, identified gaps in target market coverage, revamped marketing
collateral and target lists, ramped up email marketing efforts, and initiated highly targeted marketing campaigns.
 Turned around failing, high-margin product line resulting in:
o 20 product launches and $100M in new high-margin billings.
o 20% revenue growth (versus single-digit decline).
o Repositioning Chadwyck-Healey as a growth engine (instead of divestiture target).
 Ramped up email marketing, eliminating reliance on expensive, slow, and ineffective direct mail campaigns.
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 Accelerated revenues and improved speed to market with integrated marketing campaigns designed and
executed to maximize results within key budget windows.
 Instituted (and enforced) marketing schedules and process standards; repositioned Marketing from perceived
“overhead” organization to a revenue engine and strategic sales partner.

Previous Experience
International Marketing Director | International Marketing Manager, Thomson (Gale), Farmington Hills, MI
Promoted to drive revenue growth for this higher education/library digital solutions provider. Oversaw training and
support for 5 regional sales offices and 150 distributors, 10-language global advertising program, PR across 150
international outlets, and 60 major international tradeshows.
 Delivered 4X revenue growth—from $8M to $32M—by optimizing marketing resource allocation and scaling
team capabilities, systems (CRM), and processes.
 Built 7-member international team that earned Thomson (Gale)’s top performance award.

Industry Analyst, Aerospace and Computers, International Trade Administration, Washington, DC

 Supported international market entry and expansion efforts for US companies; directly recruited 18 senior
executives for aerospace trade mission to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

EDUCATION
Master of Arts in International Economic Policy
The American University, Washington, DC
Awarded Presidential Management Fellowship - a prestigious 2-year training and development opportunity in the US
Executive Branch | Completed “Maths’ for Economists summer course at London School of Economics and Political Science.

Bachelor of Arts English and History

University of Vermont, Burlington, VT
Graduated Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, semester abroad at Oxford

Professional Certifications
International Business Certificate (Georgetown University) | Net Promoter Associate (SatMetrix) | Pragmatic Marketing
(Foundations and Markets) | Inbound Marketing Certification – HubSpot

Professional Development
Leadership Training:
ProQuest Leadership Summit, Institute for Leadership Fitness, Thomson Organizational Leadership, Thomson Learning -
Global Managers Professional Development Program
Marketing & Sales Training
Strategic Marketing Management (University of Michigan Executive Education), Thomson Strategic Account Management,
Thomson Tactical Selling Skills

Volunteer Leadership and Advisory Roles

Board of Directors, Direct Marketing Association of Detroit | Trusted Advisor Group, Vistage Michigan | CODiE Award
Judge for sales/marketing software, Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) | Startup Advisor, Education
Technology Innovation Incubator | Board of Directors, Postsecondary Education (SIIA | Executive Panel, McKinsey Online

Selected Recent Marketing Presentations

CXPA Insight Exchange (2018): facilitated session on Measuring and Communicating ROI from Customer Experience
Reconverge: G2 Market Intelligence Leaders Symposium (2018) Improving Business Decision Making
Reconverge: G2 Market Intelligence Leaders Symposium (2017) Leveraging Customer Insight
5 Principles of Agile Marketing to Take Your Growth to the Next Level, Vistage CE22 CEO Group (2017)
Increasing Marketing Impact and Engagement Through Inbound Marketing, Michigan Marketing Minds (2015)