Mark Elliott, Brand Development Manager at Amphora Brand Design
Shari is a true leader of people, process, details and overall management. She is astute in working with teams and building sustainable business strategies to win. The extra bonus is her friendly personality and grounded experience.
Susan Richwagen, (former) Senior Site Manager, MicrosoftStore.com
I worked with Shari for about a year when we were both on the online Microsoft Store/Pinpoint team, from 2008-2009. I was very impressed with Shari’s performance. She has many skills which would make her successful anywhere. Specifically,
- Shari has proven leadership and organizational experience and expertise. When I first joined Store, Shari owned the process of transitioning responsibility for PIC (Worldwide Product Information Catalog), the legacy e-commerce site, from the CMG-Digital Marketing team to the Store team. Shari started from ground zero to create a plan that covered transfer of headcount and work streams, budget, tracking and reporting, content management (including localization), tools, infrastructure, and much, much more. Shari owned creating the plan and driving the process single-handedly, successfully coordinating with dozens of individual contributors and managers at Microsoft and vendor agencies. Despite some organizational sensitivities about the transfer of responsibility, in the end all stakeholders were very pleased with the change.
- I was always amazed at her ability to simultaneously keep her eye on the big picture while keeping track of a multitude of details. There were many opportunities for things to slip through the cracks on this complex project – nothing did. (And I would know, as the legacy site management was handed off to me.) I have no doubt Shari could successfully lead a presidential inaugural team.
- Shari also has a passion for her client and their customers. I experienced this personally as her client while at Store, and saw it in her work on the Pinpoint team with partners. Shari is committed to understanding her clients/customers and their needs, and being their advocate. When working with Shari I was always aware that her focus was not just on getting things done (although she is very good at that), but on getting the right things done. My CRM experience at Microsoft, which has included ownership of Hotmail member communications, has shown me how essential this understanding and focus is to successful CRM.
- Shari is capable of getting up to speed very quickly. While I was at Store I saw her move from driving the PIC transfer, to collaborating on the internal and consumer marketing campaign for the US Store launch, to documenting a program manual for the Operations team, to working on the launch of MicrosoftPinpoint.com to a partner audience. Her extensive project management experience enables her to step in and add value from her first day.
- Finally – Shari is a pleasure to work with. Funny, positive, unflappable and a great collaborator – she is a person with whom you enjoy working long hours. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.