David Blake

Current

Director of Finance & Operations at Zinch

Past

Analyst at Oliver Wyman
Co-founder at Qgia
Research Assistant at Elixir Consulting

Intern at vSpring
Analyst at Altiris

see less...

2 more...

Education

Brigham Young University

Recommended

6 people have recommended David

Connections

216 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Twitter

David Blake’s Summary

I currently work with Zinch.com, a disruptive technology shaking up the way that colleges recruit students. Previously, I was a management consultant with Oliver Wyman and have continued to consult for both businesses and non-profits.

I have the goal to continue with my education when the time is right to receive my MBA & a PhD.

I am most interested in using linkedin to stay in to network within the EDU world, stay in touch with consulting colleagues, as well as to promote Utah Valley networking for BYU students, internet marketers, entrepreneurs, and non-profits. I am a self declared Utah Valley maven and love to help bring people and ideas together.

David Blake’s Specialties:

Advanced Excel modeling; Finance; Econometrics; Internet Marketing

David Blake’s Experience

Director of Finance & Operations

Zinch

(Management Consulting industry)

July 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

Zinch is a social network that connects students to colleges & scholarships, allowing them to showcase their talents and bring a personal web 2.0 approach to the college recruiting and admissions process.
Analyst

Oliver Wyman

(Public Company; MMC; Management Consulting industry)

July 2007 — January 2009 (1 year 7 months)

Mercer Management Consulting, Mercer Oliver Wyman, and Mercer Delta Organizational Consulting have joined forces under the name Oliver Wyman, creating one of the world’s leading management consultancies.
Co-founder

Qgia

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

January 2007 — July 2007 (7 months)

At Qgia, we specialize in creating online video strategies for a variety of different Web sites to help them increase their sales and conversion rates. We produce corporate video and then use a special ecommerce video player for delivery. This allows my clients to better engage their customers.
Research Assistant

Elixir Consulting

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Management Consulting industry)

March 2006 — June 2007 (1 year 4 months)

Built an integrated $10M budget using Excel best practices and a detailed project timetable, which extended over two years and outlined 12 teams traveling the world.

Helped launch online project Meosphere.com which was recently featured in the Mossberg Solution's of Wall Street Journal. Initiated a marketing campaign that led to the lowest customer acquisition costs for the company.
Intern

vSpring

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

May 2006 — July 2006 (3 months)

• Learned the components of Venture Capital through business plan case studies, term sheet evaluations, human capital and management reviews, due diligence processes, and company valuations.

• Placed on-site with a portfolio company in their business development group. Conducted the startup’s first ever comprehensive competitive analysis and consumer brand recognition studies.

• Conducted several key initiatives as the portfolio company changed their primary take-to-market strategy from custom installers to retail channels. Traveled to California to conduct primary research regarding scalability issues, evaluate the retail landscape, and competitor threat analysis. Presented studies, conclusions, and recommendations to executive management and vSpring.
Analyst

Altiris

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

May 2005 — October 2005 (6 months)

Sales Analyst.

• Opened the department of Sales and Financial Analysis for a global software company heralded 3 consecutive yrs. as “Deloitte Technology fastest growing management software company.”

• Executive packaging and presentation, including recommendations for future campaigns, of models of financial and sales analysis, including budget, sales history & opportunities, commissions, return on investment, etc. Trusted with executive-level access rights to all US financial and sales data.

• Redeveloped the revenue recognition and order processing procedures correcting the previous method that produced hundreds of errors per month requiring costly back-end corrections.

David Blake’s Education

Brigham Young University

B. Sc. , Economics , 2002 — 2007

B.Sc. in Economics, minor in Business. 3.9 GPA & 31 ACT. Recipient of the BYU Westburry Griffis, Altiris Achievement, & Jr. Statesmen Foundation Merit Scholarships.

Activities and Societies:

- PR Chair for Operation Smile, a non-profit org. providing surgeries to third-world children. Helped fundraise $200,000 in the largest student fundraiser in the organization’s history
- Teaching Assistant; conducted advanced-level macro economics tutoring.
- Involved with Finance, Management Consulting, and Investment Banking Clubs.