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BSG From the Boardroom

A curated selection of executive opportunities, industry highlights, and unique insights in executive search.

    [CLOSED] CCO | HOSPITALITY TECHNOLOGY CLIENT

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    BSG Team Ventures has commenced an executive search for a Chief Commercial Officer for our hospitality technology client which provides commission payment processing services. The Chief Commercial Officer will partner with the CEO and the rest of the executive team in a hands-on, active role.  Key to the position’s responsibilities includes accountability for all revenue and related functions, as well as partner on business and product strategy.

    Opportunity Overview

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    Chief Commercial Officer

    About Our Client

    Frictionless-free Commerce between Hotels and Travel Agents

    Our Client came together because they saw an opportunity to better serve their customers on a global scale. Rather than serving either hotels or travel agents for their commission processing needs, they could “close the loop” and serve both sides of the network to optimize the ecosystem. Because if they can enable hotels to be more commission friendly to travel agents, agents will re-book those hotels, which generates more revenue for the hotels and in turn more commissions for the agent, a “virtuous circle,” if you will.
    Spun out of Pegasus Solutions in 2013, and backed by pre-eminent private equity investor H.I.G., our client is headquarted in Dallas, TX with significant additional staff based in Norway and Spain.

    Our client Products and Technology
    Below is brief summary of a number of the products and offerings our client provides to both their constituents—hotels and travel agents. 

    For Hotels
    CommPay—timely payments, happy agent. As the leading commission payment solution in the industry, our client’s single data collection and funding system eliminates redundancies and streamlines the commission process, making sure that the agents who bring you business are paid in an accurate and timely manner. Their tools allow you to reduce your administrative burden, provide critical tracking and controls and enable you to focus on generating revenue and not managing commission processing.

    Benefits:

    • Reduced administration cost & effort
    • Improved travel agency relationships
    • Global reach
    • Commission reporting & insights
    • Pay only validated stays

    PayRoute—optimizes payment processing to anyone, anywhere, anytime. PayRoute™ is a global payment platform through which any B2B payment in the travel industry can be processed, and an essential tool for hotels to pay their affiliates.

    Benefits:

    • Due to their payments infrastructure, PayRoute can be a cost-effective alternative to virtual credit cards (VCCs) in distributing pre-payments to individual hotel properties, or local banks.
    • With PayRoute, you provide weekly payments in the currency of your choice to your affiliates, in a wide variety of payments methods: Wire Transfer, Direct Debit, & Credit Card
    • Gives you 24/7 visibility and access to reports through our client portal, as well as ensures legal and banking compliance
    • Recipients receive electronic payments from local banks in their local currency

    IntraBill—seamlessly automates hotel internal billing process. Streamline the invoicing process between you and your affiliated properties by letting our client handle your internal invoicing. They work with your team to understand your billing needs and then automate the process for transaction, membership, database, and marketing fees, making it more efficient, reliable and accurate.

    Benefits:

    • Since outsourcing internal billing streamlines the process, your staff is free to focus on revenue generation
    • Receive weekly payments in your preferred currency
    • Hotels are invoiced in the currency of their choice and pay our client in the same currency
    • Through their system, you will have access to invoices that have been posted to their web portal on your behalf, with up to date status
    • With our client's Payments software managing both your commission management and internal billing automation, they simplify the process for you and your hotels and ensure both processes are managed through a single portal

    For Travel Agents
    Sure Pay—the most pain-free way to collect agency commission payments. Sure Pay is an industry-leading hotel commission system for travel agents worldwide, helping hotel bookers in more than 160 countries recover their hotel commissions in a more cost efficient and timely manner.

    The Position
    Our client is looking for a Chief Commercial Officer who will partner with the CEO and the rest of the executive team in a hands-on, active role. Key to the position’s responsibilities includes accountability for all revenue and related functions, as well as partner on business and product strategy.
    The new role will not only be responsible for driving revenue in existing and new products soon to be launched, but will be the face of the company at industry events and thought leader involved on key industry ecosystem conference panels.

    Success in this role will lean on 4 pillars of skills and experience:

    • Proven functional depth in revenue growth, sales leadership, management, strategy and strategic marketing
    • Prior experience with B2B SaaS software solutions sold globally
    • Strong career history in travel and/or payments industry sectors
    • Prior privately held, PE-backed growth-stage company experience

    Ideal Candidate Profile
    A summary of key competencies required to be successful in this role include the following:
    FUNCTIONAL Prior Success

    o Responsibility for all revenue facing activities and functions (sales, marketing, customer service, etc.)
    o Functional C or VP career history in sales, marketing & business development
    o Selling larger ticket, more strategic & complex cross- divisional enterprise customer solutions
    o Optimizing direct (inside & outside) sales structures
    o Business & product strategy leadership
    o Strong experience in sales channel partner program creation/management
    o New product go-to-market & launch experience
    o Multi-functional budget creation & management focused on driving gross margin and optimizing cost of sales
    o B2B SaaS software selling experience
    o Track record of hiring successful sales teams with SaaS value prop selling experience
    o Strong sales team management, with rigor around CRM integrity, and pipeline management
    o Success at "crossing chasm," building from one customer segment to multiple adjacents
    o Deep international customer development experience (incl. EMEA, APAC and LATAM)
    o Managing remote, multi-cultural, multi-continental teams
    o Sales rolodex in hospitality industry
    o Education: BA or BS + MBA

    MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP Experience

    o Building scalable management processes without suffocating innovation/speed
    o Executive team mentoring
    o Success as player/coach
    o Remote/multi-office team management
    o Track record hiring/upgrading to A players for A team

    INDUSTRY Experience

    o B2B enterprise SaaS software, with specific experience in—

     B2B payments software
     Commissions tracking software (travel insurance, finserv)
     B2B SaaS middleware
     B2B travel-related software (GDS's etc.)

    STAGE of Company Experience
    o Working with privately-held investor-backed businesses (PE)
    o Sales growth from $75M—> $250M+
    o Taking company through multiple value creation inflection points with ultimate harvest/sale/liquidity
    o Experience with high growth businesses

    GENERAL:
    Finally, this individual should have as many as possible of the traits required to succeed in this leadership position:

    • High levels of intelligence, analytical strength and conceptual ability.
    • The ability, and willingness, to set and communicate demanding standards for professional staff and to hold people accountable for their performance; at the same time, sensitivity to, and insight into individuals’ capabilities and development needs, and the combination of firmness and likability that all good leaders possess.
    • Decisiveness when necessary, coupled with a willingness to seek input and build consensus as much as possible.
    • Unquestioned honesty and integrity; also, loyalty to colleagues and to the organization, and the ability to inspire loyalty. This person should have the ability to identify and focus on the Company’s best interests, rather than the agenda of any individual or group within the firm.
    • A very high level of energy and commitment, combined with enthusiasm and a positive attitude.
    • Excellent writing and speaking skills; this individual must be able to communicate complex ideas and information clearly and concisely.
    • Outstanding planning and organization skills.
    • Good strategic instincts and long-term vision; the ability to address both big-picture issues and detailed, day-to-day management concerns.
    • In general, the business and personal skills, and the absolute commitment required to make a major contribution to The Company during the coming years.
    • Attention to detail required to deliver consistently accurate data, information and reporting on time and on budget
    • A sense of ownership, not just of his or her own work, or that of their department, but a sense of ownership for the company as a whole.
    • Work ethic required to do what it takes to get the job done, and invest the time required to deliver on key responsibilities in a timely fashion

    Team

    The team currently numbers approximately 125. The team reporting into the CCO would include 5 direct reports—2 sales leaders, 2 account management leaders, and the Chief Marketing Officer. The total team reporting into the CCO numbers approximately 20.

    Financial Backing
    Our client is backed by pre-eminent private equity firm, H.I.G. Capital (www.higcapital.com). H.I.G. took controlling interest in our client in 2013, and since then has backed 2 strategic acquisitions and a multi-pronged new product development initiative with several launches slated for in 2017.

    Compensation
    Compensation is competitive with the position’s requirements. In a performance-based environment, this will include base salary, bonus structure based on corporate qualitative and quantitative strategic KPIs, and a stakeholder position in the company.

    For more information, please contact, OR to apply for the position:

    Email Clark Waterfall

    Submit Resume CCO (Hospitality Technoloty Client)

    -by Clark Waterfall on Apr 13, 2017 9:56:57 AM

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