Bill Petro

Past

Senior Manager, Sales & Partner Development at EMC Corporation
Field Marketing Executive at EMC
Senior Director, Business Development at USA.NET

Director of Marketing at DMW Worldwide
International Market Development Director at Sun Microsystems
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Enterprise Management Products at Sun Microsystems
Solaris Product Marketing Manager at Sun Microsystems
Sales Tools Product Manage at Sun Microsystems
Major Accounts Program Manager at Sun Microsystems
Manager of Computer Operations at Elxsi Computer Corporation

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Education

University of California, Berkeley
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Recommended

23 people have recommended Bill

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Websites

Bill Petro’s Summary

Marketing professional who bridges the gap between strategy and execution, seeking a senior position in marketing or business development:

. Launched obscure technologies internationally to achieve market prominence: Java
. Built international marketing program that saved millions of dollars in cost of goods sold: Software distribution
. Trained Fortune 100 sales teams to meet and exceed quota: Sales Opportunity Management Process
. Coached account teams worldwide to accelerate time-to-revenue: Channels & Alliances Management Process
. Helped mature small startups into power houses in the marketplace: USA.NET
. Architected social media strategy, web presence, and online community: Corporations and Private non-profits

A record of achievement in Senior Management roles driving Product Development, Marketing, Strategy, and International Market Development. Successful 9 year career at EMC and 11 years at Sun Microsystems. Proven success in the marketing of: IT Solutions, Storage, Virtualization, Social Media, Service Providers, and Enterprise Management technology.

An exceptional Sales Trainer consistently selected by management to develop today’s markets and build tomorrow’s top sales leaders and organizations. In-demand speaker who has delivered Reseller Sales accreditation training as well as press and customer presentations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

An accomplished Technology Evangelist, Public Speaker, Author and Humorist poised to leverage the leading edge of technology in pursuit of global market growth. Publisher of the widely read blog at www.billpetro.com and a respected Keynote Speaker at several successful technology summits, seminars, and business conferences worldwide.

Bill Petro’s Specialties:

IT, Virtualization, Information Storage, Social Computing, Green IT, Data Deduplication, Corporate Marketing, Product Marketing, Product Management, New Product Introduction, International Development, Business Development, Sales Training, Teaching, Conference Speaker.

Bill Petro’s Experience

Senior Manager, Sales & Partner Development

EMC Corporation

(Public Company; EMC; Information Technology and Services industry)

March 2002 — July 2009 (7 years 5 months)

Accelerated time to Revenue for current and new sales professionals. Drove demand generation through high-level customer engagements. Provided global direction to EMC’s direct and indirect sales forces through the delivery of training in products, strategy and messaging as well as sales methodologies and sales skills. Personally sold the EMC product at the enterprise level by delivering high level presentations to clients’ senior management at Executive Briefing Center and customer conferences.

· Delivered Demand Generation engagements for: CDW, Tech Data, Ingram Micro, Arrow, Avnet, VMware, Cisco, Brocade, Unisys.

· Developed EMC’s future sales leaders by creating worldwide Virtualization Training workshop cross-functionally for Direct and Partner Sales Reps resulting in the delivery of more than 2300 student training modules per year.

· Launched new products by training EMC’s top Direct and Reseller Sales Reps at key VARs, receiving the highest evals.
Field Marketing Executive

EMC

(Public Company; EMC; Information Technology and Services industry)

March 2000 — March 2002 (2 years 1 month)

Acting as Chief Marketing Officer for Divisional VP of Sales, personally drove business development and demand generation for the Western US geography. Represented corporate marketing to field sales, translating complex to business use.
• Delivered high-level sales presentations to executives to close key account deals.
• Drove the relationship for the EMC / Cisco / Oracle partnership, delivering executive customer seminar talks.
• Launched new products, delivering Sales and SE training across geo and US to speed time to revenue.
Senior Director, Business Development

USA.NET

(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

1999 — 2000 (1 year )

Recruited by management to realize its vision for new markets, strategic OEM relationships, and more effective technology directions.

· Prompted the development of global and strategic business partnerships with large OEMs, platform vendors, and Wireless Information Device manufacturers resulting in preliminary engagement with Palm and Blackberry.

· Sold to the executive management of Research in Motion and Sun to promote USA.NET’s outsourced email offerings.
Director of Marketing

DMW Worldwide

(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

1998 — 1999 (1 year )

Conceived and established the company’s strategic marketing direction while managing an annual budget and reporting directly to CEO. Directed the development of Product Strategy, Definition and Positioning, Channel Strategy, and Product Release in close alignment with personally managed Marketing Communications initiatives including PR, Advertising Agency Management and Budgeting, Trade Shows, Press Relations and Product Launches.

· Refocused the company’s marketing direction by advocating the restructuring of its product portfolio and the practice of online ad placement to achieve a differentiating value proposition for the corporation, resulting in streamlined product line.

· Rationalized the organization by managing 6 Product Marketing and Marcom professionals, resulting in more effective trade show, product management and promotion activities.
International Market Development Director

Sun Microsystems

(Public Company; JAVA; Information Technology and Services industry)

July 1995 — July 1998 (3 years 1 month)

Promoted the launch of Sun products around the globe. Spearheaded critical launch support through the delivery of sales, reseller and partner certification training, press and customer presentations and keynote addresses at numerous Telecommunications Summits, Enterprise Computing Advantage Seminars and business conferences.

· Led 3 waves of launch and promotion of Java Technology as Sun evolved the platform to educators, government officials, military, students, and corporate executives across numerous industries worldwide resulting in Sun’s most effective product launch ever.

· Drove the adoption of Solstice Enterprise Management product by companies in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America effectively placing Sun in a stronger competitive position in the management software market.
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Enterprise Management Products

Sun Microsystems

(Public Company; JAVA; Information Technology and Services industry)

1992 — 1995 (3 years )

Guided the marketing of System and Storage Management product lines. Provided strategic marketing direction through competitive analysis, customer requirements, demand forecasting, pricing, promotion, and marketing collateral creation.

· Managed full lifecycle of Enterprise Management products: Installation, Administration, Storage Management, Backup, Thin Client products which resulted in more attractive and marketable enterprise management technologies for company.

· Regularly advised company President on Software Licensing Strategy for the purpose of protecting software revenue.
Solaris Product Marketing Manager

Sun Microsystems

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SUNW; Computer Software industry)

1990 — 1992 (2 years )

System Software Marketing, Mountain View, CA

Corporate CD-ROM Czar, responsible for Sun's first CD-ROM product: SunOS 4.1.
- Developed program for multi-million dollars cost saving and successfully helped migrate Sun's software product teams from tape to exclusive CD-ROM distribution.
- Wrote the CD-ROM Developers Toolkit to enable ISVs to migrate to CD-ROM and presented at numerous industry conferences.
- Led in development and promotion of Rockridge CD-ROM standard (extension of ISO 9660).
Sales Tools Product Manage

Sun Microsystems

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SUNW; Computer Hardware industry)

1989 — 1990 (1 year )

Marketing Programs, Mountain View, CA

Developed a variety of marketing programs for the field.
- Produced successful audiotape for field sales with VP of Corporate Marketing and sales team:
"How to Sell Competitively against HP, Digital, and IBM."
- Researched and wrote NT and Macintosh competitive reports for field.
Major Accounts Program Manager

Sun Microsystems

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SUNW; Computer Hardware industry)

1987 — 1989 (2 years )

Program Management Office, Mountain View, CA

Post-sales account manager for largest strategic corporate OEMs.
- Drove customer issues with internal engineering, marketing, manufacturing, order operations, legal to insure greater mutual success.
- Participated on technology strategy teams as a focal point for divisional activity for corporate strategic plans, facilitating and driving product strategy. Set up & coordinate quarterly technology reviews.
- Expedited shipments of systems as well as needs for information on futures and engineering changes.
Manager of Computer Operations

Elxsi Computer Corporation

(Computer Software industry)

1984 — 1987 (3 years )

Managed all headquarters' development, marketing, and production computers, including two PRIME 750, three ELXSI 6400 super-minis, Sun and Apollo workstations, and selection and installation of Macintosh network.
- Responsible for purchasing supplies, arranging maintenance, backups and hardware upgrades.
- Managed two computer operators. Trained users & customers on operating systems and text editors.
- Developed user interface and system administration tools. Helped set up Internet service.
- Coordinated bug database. Did database creation and maintenance.
- Set up benchmarks and alpha tested new releases of EMBOS and UNIX.
- Produced and shipped customized product tapes for all customer sites.
- Programmed in shell script, C, and Pascal.

Bill Petro’s Education

University of California, Berkeley

Bachelor of Arts , History, Religious Studies, Computer Science, Languages , 1971 — 1976
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

MBA , Marketing

On hold due to extensive travel schedule

Activities and Societies:

Advisory Board: University of Colorado School of Business
Board: Colorado Institute for Technology Transfer and Implementation

Additional Information

Bill Petro’s Websites:

Bill Petro’s Groups:

Sun Alumni Association, EMC Corporation, Campus Crusade for Christ, University of California Berkeley, Cal Alumni Association, Bowles Hall Alumni Association, UC Berkeley Karate Club, University of Colorado College of Business

Sun Alumni
Executive Suite
Inbound Marketers - For Marketing Professionals
Learning, Education and Training Professionals Group
Manager Tools
Personal Branding Network
VMware Virtual Community
Technology Professionals of Colorado
Technology Marketing Community
EMC Corporation
The Storage Networking Industry Association
MindManager Enthusiasts
Getting Things Done - GTD - SolutionPeople Innovation's Network of Action Innovators
EMC Developer Network
Cloud Computing
The Sales Association
New Media, Social Media, and Social Networking Participants
EMC Old Boys
Global Learning executives
Social Media Today
Social Media Marketing
The Storage Group
Cal Alumni Association | UC Berkeley
Backup & Recovery Professionals
Friends of Colorado
UCCS College of Business Alumni Association
Sales/Marketing VP's & Directors - Software & Technology
Storage Specialists
Training Professionals
Forrester
Storage Professionals
ChannelWeb Network
The eLearning Guild
EMC PROVEN PROFESSIONAL
Cloud Storage
Boulder Denver New Tech Meetup
Storage Bloggers
Social Media Academy
Rocky Mountains PDMA (RMpdma)
CXO Connect
The Job Hunter Group
VMware Partner Network
TweetMyJOBS.com
NeoAurora
Social Media Recruiting Group
Smart Selling Tools User-Group
Fusion Marketing - B2B Marketing and Sales