Bob Schwartz

Bob Schwartz

Managing Partner, SchwartzGroup: Strategic Advisory Firm - Love building great eCommerce Companies & Brands.

Greater Los Angeles Area

Current
Past
  • CEO (Interim), Exec Board Member, Consultant at Portero Inc
  • Consultant & Advisory Board at Vivre.com
  • Consultant & Advisory Board at CitrusByte

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7 more...

Education
  • General Electric (GE)
  • University of Washington
Recommended
Bob has 8 recommendations 8 people have recommended Bob
Connections
500+ connections
Industry
Consumer Services
Websites

Bob Schwartz’s Summary

SchwartzGroup Strategic Advisory Firm – Internet Commerce
Fashion | Retail | Consumer Brands | Media Commerce
From venture back growth to Fortune 500, we work on a handful of select projects with CEO’s, Founders, Boards and Investors to build, grow or turn-around on-line efforts.

Bob has established himself as a visionary business builder of consumer-facing internet brand (commerce and media) companies delivering over $1Billion+ in revenue, achieving top internet rankings and leadership in diverse areas such as luxury, fashion, shoes, paid content and personal computers.

Past:
- CEO (interim) & Board Portero.com - The Leading Luxury Market
- Entrepreneur in Residence at Clearstone Venture Partners
- President, USSearch.com (NASDAQ Public Internet Company)
- Founder, GM / Executive Vice President of NORDSTROM.com (spun-off)
- Managing Director, eColony an Internet Capital Groups (ICGE) incubator
- Vice President, Packard Bell Computers - leading consumer PC manufacturer

Bob Schwartz’s Specialties:

Company Development - Growth, Turn-around, Fortune 1000 Division Development
Strategy, Leadership, Innovation
Revenue and Product Development
Talent Recruiting and Team
Partnership Negotiations
Capital Funding
Board and Advisory
*Internet, eCommerce, New Media, Retail, eTail, Luxury, Brands

Bob Schwartz’s Experience

  • Managing Partner

    Schwartz Group Strategic Advisory

    (Privately Held; Internet industry)

    January 2005 — Present (4 years 11 months)

    SchwartzGroup offers strategic direction, critical counsel, interim talent, capital strategy and business development in eCommerce, innovation, Internet growth to a handful of select consumer facing companies – brands, retailers, media and technology industries – and to the companies and investors that interact with those areas.

  • CEO (Interim), Exec Board Member, Consultant

    Portero Inc

    (Privately Held; Retail industry)

    January 2007 — October 2009 (2 years 10 months)

    SchwartzGroup Focus: Growth Strategy, Capital, Brand, Operational Structure, Methods and Efficiencies, Internet Marketing and Technology, Partnerships, and Talent Acquisition.

    Portero is the leading Authentic Luxury Marketplace for Pre-Owned, Vintage and New Luxury items (watches, handbags, jewelry, accessories & art). Portero offers exciting ways to buy and sell the world best luxury brands and is leading the way in creating a secondary market for luxury assets. The Portero brand stands for authentic, simple and vast selection of the best luxury brands.

    Interim CEO 10/08 - 07/09
    - closed $6.6M in 12/08
    - operational modifications
    - brand focus
    - launching new consumer shopping experiences (Private Sale & Portero 2.0)

  • Consultant & Advisory Board

    Vivre.com

    (Privately Held; Luxury Goods & Jewelry industry)

    May 2007 — June 2009 (2 years 2 months)

    SchwartzGroup Focus: Strategy, Capital, Operational Methods and Efficiencies, Internet Expansion, Partnerships, and Talent Acquisition.

    Vivre uniquely mixes content and commerce around unique luxury items and individualism via catalogs, internet, events and store fronts to produce experiences and stories from the viewpoint of Eva Jeanbart-Lorenzotti, Founder and CEO, Vivre.

  • Consultant & Advisory Board

    CitrusByte

    (Computer Software industry)

    January 2008 — November 2008 (11 months)

    Working with Founder and CEO refined Strategy, Operational, Business Development, Positioning and Client Strategy.

    The Citrusbyte DNA: Interface Design paired with Modern Technology, Lean Teams, Rapid Delivery, Quick Iterations & Predictable Results.
    CitrusByte.com

  • Entrepreneur in Residence

    Clearstone Venture Partners

    (Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

    May 2006 — August 2007 (1 year 4 months)

    Working with Venture Partners on Investment, sourcing, vetting and due diligence, with focus on the Consumer / Brand / eCommerce & Media space & “what is ecommerce 2.0?”

    Clearstone Venture Partners is a leading venture capital firm with offices in Santa Monica, Menlo Park, and Mumbai, India with over $650 million of committed capital raised in three funds and provides venture capital for technology and business model innovators.
    Clearstone.com

  • President

    USSearch.com (NASADQ: SRCH)

    (Internet industry)

    February 2002 — 2004 (2 years )

    As President (NASDAQ: SRCH - The leading paid search & public data company), led the turnaround and achieved record revenues and first time profits with a focus on rebranding, new products, technology development, recruited new talent. As President; renegotiated multi-million dollar partnerships to drive profitability, increased conversion rates by over 35% , ranked "Top 10 Paid Content" site with over 6,000,000 unique visitors/mo and recognized as a "Deloitte Fast 50 Company. Bob was a founding member of the senior management team at First Advantage (NASDAQ: FADV), which was formed by a merger of a division of First American Corp. (NYSE: FAF) and USSearch.com, Inc.

    US Search is leading Internet content company for location, reunion, trust and verification services and was merged to form First Advantage (FADV) a leader in enterprise employment verification and screening services.
    USSearch.com

  • Managing Director

    eColony (Internet Capital Group)

    (Public Company; ICGE; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

    May 2000 — February 2001 (10 months)

    An early stage $150M venture fund formed by Internet Capital Group (ICGE) to leverage Internet Capital Groups deal flow, partners, brand and needs to fund and develop best in class B2B companies.

  • Founder / GM / EVP

    NORDSTROM.com

    (Public Company; JWN; Retail industry)

    June 1998 — May 2000 (2 years )

    Goal: Hired to launch and make Nordstrom a leader in e-Commerce and spin-off ($15M Venture funding: Benchmark Capital) as a separate company, Nordstrom.com (eCommerce, Catalogue).

    Opportunity: Leverage Nordstrom assets to create a world on-line leader in Fashion Apparel eCommerce.

    Milestones: Built revenues from $0 to $100,000,0000/yr+ sales by second yr, making Nordstrom the leader in fashion apparel eCommerce. (2009 est $1B+)

    Recruited and managed World Class team in marketing, operations, creative, technology. Created NordstromShoes.com, "The Worlds Biggest Shoe Store" offering over 20 million pairs of shoes as a successful marketing point of differentiation via an innovative supply chain methodology, technology and marketing campaigns ranging from street PR to national TV commercials "Make room for shoes, get rid of everything else".

    Nordstrom, Inc. is one of the nation's leading fashion specialty retailers, with 175 U.S. stores located in 28 states. Nordstrom also serves customers through its online presence and through its catalogs. Nordstrom, Inc. is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol JWN.
    www.Nordstrom.com

  • Consultant

    Livebid.com

    (Consumer Services industry)

    1997 — 1998 (1 year )

    Worked closely with Founders on Leadership, Company Position & Strategy Development, Capital Sourcing ($800k Seed – angel)

    LiveBid is an On-line auction services and platform producing live physical world auctions interaction on the Internet.
    Sold to Amazon.
    LiveBid.com

  • Vice President - GM Packard Bell Interactive & Direct

    Packard Bell /NEC Computers

    (Privately Held; Computer Hardware industry)

    1992 — 1998 (6 years )

    As the youngest Vice President at Packard Bell (leading consumer/retail PC manufacturer) Mr. Schwartz identified and led the opportunity for Packard Bell to leverage its massive consumer distribution channels and software relationships to create:

    *Packard Bell Interactive: a software publishing group, Packard Bell Interactive. Gained 95% retail shelf space penetration in the first year packaging & publishing 15 CDRom titles. Also strategically gained valuable new Packard Bell Brand exposure to PC users in the software sections of the stores.

    *Packard Bell Direct: producing services and products (PC'’s, Accessories, Software, Warranties, Training and Support) to leverages its massive (1200 seat) consumer service and support contact centers. The objective, turn a cost center into a profit center. As GM he developed processes, systems, sales groups and new products to build revenue from $0 to $100MM+ in first year. He also identified the opportunity to increase revenue and margin in the area of excess and refurbished PC and accessory inventories by the development of various new consumer direct channels including physical outlet stores, commercial on-line services (Prodigy, Compu-serv), and then was early on to move onto the internet (PBFactoryOutlet.com)

    PackardBell.com

  • Prior Postions on request

    Prior Postions on request

    (Investment Management industry)

    January 1982 — January 1990 (8 years 1 month)

    - Ark Interface: Business Development, Programmer - Leading consumer interface development firm

    - Natl Marketing Director / VP / Co-Founder with Worldwide Insurance Network & SchwartzGroup Ins Services - Leading product development and national wholesale insurance brokerage and pioneer of Long-term Care and Home Health Care Insurance with over 12,000 agents nationwide. 1985-1990

    - Investment Advisor, Drexel Burnham Lambert: - Member NYSE 1982-1985

Bob Schwartz’s Education

  • General Electric (GE)

    Change Management 1999 — 1999

  • University of Washington

    BA , Economics , 1978 — 1982

    Activities and Societies:
    Washington Crew Team

Additional Information

Bob Schwartz’s Websites:

Bob Schwartz’s Groups:

• Gerson Lehrman Group Council

• Mentor - Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management

• Speaker - eCommerce, Internet, eTailing, Branding:
National Retail Federation National Convention; CNBC; CNNfn; e-tail conferences; Gartner Group; LinkShare Conferences; Jupiter Conferences, Red Herring Ventures; Hambrecht & Quist Conferences, ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox TV, InterActive Week; Business Week; WSJ; NY Times; Woman’s Wear Daily; ComputerWolrd; Internet World; BrandQuest

• National Retail Federation Internet Retailing Advisory Council (Founding Member)

• The Pacific Northwest Incumbent Internet Council (Founding Member)
- Costco, Starbuck, Nike, REI, Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom, Starwave (ESPN), Packard Bell

  •    Luxury & Lifestyle Professionals
  •    Linked:Seattle
  •    Private Equity and Venture Capital Group
  •    University of Washington Alumni Group
  •    eMarketing Association Network
  •    E-Commerce Network
  •    Washington Rowing
  •    Fashion Marketing & Digital Media Group (FMG): A Meeting Place for Fashion & Marketing Professionals
  •    Startup Specialists
  •    RETAIL EXECS
  •    Magento Users Group
  •    Shop.org Members
  •    Southern California Dealmakers Network
  •    Women's Wear Daily
  •    The Linked CXO / President, CEO, COO, CIO, CTO, MD, VP, Director 's
  •    KickApps Corporation - Social Media Leader

Bob Schwartz’s Honors:

"Red Herring as Top 100 Most Important Companies in the World" - Nordstrom.com, NordstromShoes.com

"Deloitte Fast 50 Company" - US Search

"Top Ten Paid Content Company" - US Search

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