Christian Gammill

Current

• Advisor at MarketForceOne
• Co-Founder at The Graph
• President at SocialGuides

1 more...

Past

• COO (interim) at Mobile-XL
• VP of Product at TeleFlip Inc
• COO at Harmoney Financial

• Senior Strategist at IBM, Systems & Technology Group
• Senior Marketing Manager at IBM, Marketing Strategy
• Team Lead/Marketing Manager at IBM, Corporate Brand Strategy
• Marketing Manager at IBM, Corporate Marketing
• Strategy and Business Development Intern at Eli Lilly
• Lead Research Associate, LC/MS Dept. at AvTech Laboratories

see less...

6 more...

Education

• University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business
• Michigan State University
• PNHS

see less...

Recommended

41 people have recommended Christian

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• Great Company
• My Company
• My Blog

Christian Gammill’s Summary

I used to be a chemist - then a strategist - now a startup guy.

I like solving challenging problems - bigger the better.

I work with startups in varying capacities. I love to help people get things started. I love to help companies grow (commercialization). I’m interested in whats next in:

SOCIAL – new nodes, multinodal analysis, SNA, context and identity
DATA - metrics, analytics, modeling, etc
MOBILE – mobile web, global networks, mobile social and web/mobile bridge
CONTENT – content as advertising (branded content), social media, syndication, monetization and aggregation
GLOBAL – its a big world out there...

I've spoken at MIT, in Portugal and all over the US. I've traveled to and done business with folks in India, China, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, South Africa... and Canada.

Ping me on twitter (@gammill) if you want to chat – if you’re in Southern California, ‘lets do lunch’…

Christian Gammill’s Specialties:

I focus on Customer Development & Go To Market meaning Product (strategy, dev and marketing), Marketing (strategy, positioning & market selection) & Business Development (channels, partnerships and sales), General Management (strategy/leadership, decision making and team building).

I'm a quick learner who has worked in Mobile (content, messaging, etc), Content/Entertainment, Web 2.0 (Video, Social Networking/Media and APIs), Financial Services, Big Technology, Pharma & Healthcare.

Christian Gammill’s Experience

• COO (interim)

  Mobile-XL

  (Privately Held; Telecommunications industry)

  August 2007 — January 2008 (6 months)

  Emerging markets mobile platform (content, utility and social).
  - Launched mobile platform in Dubai and Capetown w/ founder/CEO.
  - Developed product strategy, collaborated with outsourced engineering/CTO, led product marketing, conducted International business development (traveled to Dubai and Capetown for Sales/BD activities), developed operational plan, provided team leadership and contributed to fund raising (significant angel round).
  
  Lesson Learned "mobile is the only way to play in emerging markets"

• VP of Product

  TeleFlip Inc

  (Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

  2006 — 2007 (1 year )

  - VC (GRP) backed mobile startup. Launched at DEMO'07, Red Herring 100 Winner, covered in NYT, WSJ, etc.
  - Led foray into and market/product development efforts in social media (e.g. MadKast and Zyb) & networking (Facebook app), API program (mashery.com distribution) and partner programs (MVNOs to mobile ad networks).
  - Led definition of product portfolio/strategy, roadmap & development. Launched product through beta program. Led development of overall go to market strategy including customer acquisition strategies and programs. Unfortunately, senior leadership chose to ignore the emerging social media movement.
  - Established first program and provisioned first four short codes w/ SMS aggregator, securing pricing and program terms. Collaborated on business development strategy (to include API distribution model). When the business model changed I was asked to move over to run product development and marketing - I'm a team player, so I did it.
  
  Lesson learned - "what VIRAL really means and multi-product portfolios make most sense"

• COO

  Harmoney Financial

  (Financial Services industry)

  2005 — 2006 (1 year )

  Brought in to launch stalled web based personal finance start-up. Successfully got company into Beta within months. The company was part content aggregator, content creator and financial toolset. Responsible for day to day operations - product development (product definition, web design & development, etc), business development (grew and managed partner network of category leading firms) and marketing (company/product launch, brand positioning, web/radio/pr promotion, etc). Company ran out of money prior to planned full scale launch so I moved on.
  
  Lesson learned - "if you are going for money when you need it it is probably too late" - glad I learned this one early.

• Senior Strategist

  IBM, Systems & Technology Group

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

  July 2005 — December 2005 (6 months)

  Lead development of business plan for $2B product line (iSeries) supporting LOB GM and VPs of Marketing, Product Development & Finance. Left IBM to pursue the startup world on the West Coast - haven't looked back since!
  
  Lesson learned - "growing a $2B business is hard as *&$#"

• Senior Marketing Manager

  IBM, Marketing Strategy

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; IBM; Information Technology and Services industry)

  April 2004 — July 2005 (1 year 4 months)

  One of 16 selected to lead IBM participation in National Innovation Initiative - project focused on influencing U.S. Policy to ensure the US maintains aa competitive edge w/ respect to innovation (one of the highlights of my time at IBM).
  
  With support of COO, CTO & CMO drove execution and alignment of brand/customer value model with Integrated Supply Chain (investment review process and executive metrics dashboard), Integrated Product Development (co-led FOAK marketing/technical 'study' with most prestigious technical community) and Marketing Communications (advertising executions). All efforts focused on delivering a superior customer experience to drive customer acquisition, retention and ultimately revenue across the IBM offerings portfolio. Work was presented to CEO at Senior Leadership meetings by executive team. Work credited with helping secure >$50m in revenue in pilot project alone.
  
  Lesson learned - "Innovation = invention + commercialization"

• Team Lead/Marketing Manager

  IBM, Corporate Brand Strategy

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  November 2002 — April 2004 (1 year 6 months)

  Led development of IBM Global Brand Strategy focused on increasing revenue through an improved customer experience (NOT advertising) .Included internationally recognized quantitative customer value model (structural equation model for any stats folks), brand positioning and cross-functional implementation plan. Partnered w/ country marketing teams and GMs in Germany, Japan, India and China to integrate into business plans and priorities.
  
  Lesson learned - "people want to believe so give them the most compelling vision and roadmap possible"

• Marketing Manager

  IBM, Corporate Marketing

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  September 2001 — October 2002 (1 year 2 months)

  Special Assignment to VP Corporate Brand Strategy.
  Led development of key strategic frameworks for market research, assessment and execution of the global brand strategy. Built the business case, secured executive support and conducted extensive research /analytics for a new approach to global brand strategy and management for 3rd most valuable brand (~$50B valuation). Secured successive increments of funding to roll out program globally, with an emphasis on emerging markets. Shifted the team and initiative from irrelevant to a top 5 corporate priority as assigned by Corporate Strategy (a very influential lot).
  
  Successfully integrated into 'On Demand' launch and company repositioning ($100m's in marketing spend).
  
  Lesson learned - "I can hang with the best of them"

• Strategy and Business Development Intern

  Eli Lilly

  (Public Company; LLY; Pharmaceuticals industry)

  May 2000 — August 2000 (4 months)

  Evaluated a $10B therapuetic category to determine strategic fit across existing therapeutic platforms, articulated value of category across the firm and identified potential licensing candidates. Worked on process to identify and evaluate key variables for screening licensing candidates across the Lilly franchises.
  
  Worked in group reporting directly to Mitch Daniels, SVP of Corporate Strategy and Policy,(now Governor of Indiana).

• Lead Research Associate, LC/MS Dept.

  AvTech Laboratories

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Pharmaceuticals industry)

  June 1995 — June 1999 (4 years 1 month)

  I was a chemist. Helped build new service offering and department for small angel backed pharma lab. Handled business side as well as technical development to help clients evaluate new drug candidates in product development pipeline. Was part of building a business from the ground up.
  
  AvTech was later acquired by Eurofins Scientific
  
  I was fortunate to have worked for a successful start-up as my first gig. I look back and know I contributed to that success - pretty cool.

Christian Gammill’s Education

• University of Michigan - Stephen M. Ross School of Business

  MBA , Marketing and Strategy , 1999 — 2001

  Ross School of Business ranked #5 (2007)

  Activities and Societies:

  High Tech Club, West Coast Forum & Marketing Club
  Built and led team through Entrepreneurship Class (developed business concept and plan in 14 weeks). Led first year consulting team project for regional managed health care company. Voted biggest team player 2nd year.

• Michigan State University

  BS , Chemistry , 1991 — 1995

  Activities and Societies:

  Summer Research Associate (2 summers) - Ion Binding Affinity Study (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and organic synthesis) and X-Ray Crystallography Study

• PNHS

Additional Information

Christian Gammill’s Websites:

• Great Company
• My Company
• My Blog

Christian Gammill’s Interests:

Fan of music and the arts in all forms, can’t get enough of the outdoors, learning to surf and enjoy traveling anywhere ‘they’ll’ send me (so far that list includes India, China, Japan, South Africa, UAE, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands)…

Christian Gammill’s Groups:

Facebook Developers Garage
Lunch 2.0
Twiistup
LA Tech Meetup
Under the Radar
DEMO
Digital Hollywood
AfricaCom
MashMeetLA
Deal Maker Media
Graphing Social Patterns
Digital LA
TechSet

•    The DEMO Conference
•    socalTECH
•    Ross School of Business Alumni
•    The Greater IBM Connection: IBM's alumni program for past and present IBM employees
•    MSU Alumni Association
•    On Startups - The Community For Entrepreneurs
•    MobileMonday
•    California Spartans
•    Igniting Innovation
•    Private Equity and Venture Capital Group
•    Start-Up Phase Forum
•    The Grasshopper Entrepreneur Network
•    IBM co/ex workers independent group
•    M & A advisors
•    Fans of Mashable
•    Southern California Venture Capital Community
•    Social Media Marketing
•    Ross LA Alumni
•    Venture Capital Group
•    SoCal Tech Group
•    Brand Activation: Cutting Through The Clutter
•    MOTM - Meeting of the Minds
•    SoCal Action Sports Network
•    Ross Business School - New York
•    Social Network Analysis in Practice
•    Go Blue Entrepreneur (Ross Business School)
•    Business Intelligence and Analytics Professionals
•    Sales and Marketing Professionals Promoting HighTech and Technology in Los Angeles and its Vicinity
•    Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing
•    Internet Business Development
•    Entrepreneurs = Recovery
•    GigaOM Pro
•    Collaboration & Project Management
•    Cloud Computing for the Enterprise

Christian Gammill’s Honors:

Awards & Nominations:
Co-led Academy of Technology Study (2005) [first ever non-tech/consulting lead]
Distinguished Practice Award, Zyman Institute of Brand Science, (2005)
Best of IBM Ovation Award (2005)
Innovation Catalyst, Nominated Member (2005)
Brand Innovation & Impact Award (2005)
National Innovation Initiative, Nominated Coordinator (2004) [DC based Council of Competitiveness Policy Program]

Speaking Engagements:

PDMA NY/NJ Chapter, New York, 2005
Innovations in Marketing Strategy, Chairperson, San Francisco, 2005
ESOMAR Annual Congress, Lisbon, 2004
MIT Sloan SOM, Annual Marketing Symposium, Boston, 2004
Guest Lecturer, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Christian Gammill’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch