TEAM BIOS

Anne Bakstad, Product Launch and Operations

Jennifer Clauson, Retail Channel Marketing

Jennifer Cuthill, Product Management and Strategic Marketing

Jennifer Harrell, Product Marketing, Strategy, and Research

Karie Starrett, Product Management and Services

Noël Adams, New Product Development and Product Management
Noël Adams, President of Phase Forward LLC, is a product management expert with 15 years experience in new product development, product management and product marketing for high technology companies. Skilled at managing the new product process from ideation and concept development thru rapid prototype development and market launch, Noel’s approach focuses on using the voice of the customer to build products that meet the needs of a changing marketplace. She has experience with both consumer and enterprise products in a variety of industries including telecommunications, wireless, enterprise software, online payments and consumer electronics. Noel founded Phase Forward in October 2002 and manages a team of consultants to implement client projects ranging from new product concept studies to outbound product marketing launches

Noël has worked in several startup environments as well as for Fortune 500 companies such as BellSouth where she worked in the new products lab and successfully launched the company’s first directory website. Her wireless career includes carriers Dial Call (Nextel), Contel Cellular (Cingular), and Aerial Communications (T-mobile) where she held various marketing and product management positions ranging from channel manager to product development. Leveraging this carrier experience, at Aether Systems, Noël managed product development for a suite of mobile commerce applications, including a cutting edge sports portal designed to run on 802.11 networks. As VP of Product Development for Typesoft she helped the founder launch a startup wireless device business from scratch, cutting the product development cycle in half and completing company launch, prototype development, market research, retail channel development, and marketing efforts in 8 months.

Noël holds a BS in Business from the University of Maryland, College Park and earned her MBA at Emory University in Atlanta. Noël is President of the Board of the Northern California Chapter of the PDMA (Product Development and Management Association).

Anne Bakstad, Product Launch and Operations
Anne Bakstad is a product launch expert with over 15 years experience leading Operations, Marketing, and Information Technology teams for technology and telecommunications companies. Skilled at managing large teams and using process reengineering to launch new products, companies and business initiatives, Anne’s approach allows companies to improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs. Anne has experience with both consumer and enterprise products in both start up and Fortune 500 environments.

As Director of IT Business Integration for Cable & Wireless, Anne managed the business process integration of 3 newly-acquired companies, which contributed to a 77% total savings in IT costs over the course of a year. Anne developed and implemented a new company-wide product lifecycle process and conducted training for product management, engineering, and operational teams. Before Digital Island was purchased by Cable & Wireless in 2001, Anne launched and led the corporate-wide process reengineering initiative, streamlining the customer implementation process for internet hosting customers. Through this work, she drove an over 50% decrease in interval from contract signing to billing and increased customer satisfaction by 31%. As Director of Customer Advocacy for Digital Island, Anne led a team of 65 global project and service managers, designing and implementing the cross-functional customer support processes and directly managing key relationships with several large corporate customers. Prior to Digital Island, Anne was the Customer Support Director at Metricom, a wireless ISP where she built and launched a company-wide Voice of the Customer program. Earlier in her career, Anne held several management positions at Pacific Bell/SBC Communications including serving as Customer Care Manager for Pacific Bell Mobile Services where she designed and implemented the PCS customer care center contributing to the launch of the first GSM product in California and Nevada.

Anne earned her B.A. in Communications at the University of California, Davis and her M.A. in Organizational Development at the University of San Francisco.

Jennifer Clauson, Retail Channel Marketing
Jennifer Clauson has over 10 years of professional experience in strategic and channel marketing. Jennifer’s expertise lies in retail channel marketing with strengths in marketing planning and implementation, new product launches, merchandising, retail promotional planning, and event planning. Jennifer has successfully executed large multi-million dollar retail marketing and merchandising programs on time and under budget, managing large cross functional teams. In addition to being a consultant on the Phase Forward team, Jennifer is co-founder and president of Channel Watch, a merchandising audit firm that helps manufacturers and merchandising firms audit their field merchandising campaigns.

Jennifer has worked with top PC software brands in the consumer software industry, marketing products for such big players as Broderbund Software, Mattel Interactive and Riverdeep - The Learning Company. As Director of Channel Marketing at Riverdeep, Jennifer was responsible for managing all retail channel marketing activities for the company representing over $60 million in revenue. Jennifer managed all merchandising and trade activity, as well as event marketing to increase sales and market share of key brands. Jennifer has experience working with the mass merchant, warehouse club, superstore, office store and toy store channels. She has worked directly with the top accounts in these channels including Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Staples. Most recently, at Adaptec, Jennifer was responsible for strategic program marketing for the entire consumer division which included products in the video conversion, wireless, software, USB 2.0, Firewire and hub categories. Her responsibilities included program marketing in the retail and online channels. She developed and managed strategic retail co-marketing partnerships with partners such as Sony, Imation, HP, and Iomega and developed and implemented demand generation, brand building, and web/online marketing programs.

Jennifer holds a BA in Economics from Tufts University in Medford, MA and earned her MBA at Emory University in Atlanta.

Jennifer Cuthill, Product Management and Strategic Marketing
Jennifer Cuthill has 15 years experience working in the areas of marketing, business strategy and product development. Specializing in using solid market analysis to drive strategic planning and implementation, Jennifer has worked in product development and strategic marketing for a wide range of companies and industries. At management consulting firm, Marakon Associates, Jennifer worked with major retailers and manufacturers to analyze markets, identify new business opportunities, and execute new product and marketing plans to increase revenues and cut costs. Her financial services and payments work includes significant experience in product development, and partnership marketing for both a startup and a major financial services firm. At InnoVentry Corp, Jennifer managed cross-functional teams to develop kiosk-based financial products, including product specifications, software development and testing, user interface, back office operations and product marketing. As a Director at Charles Schwab, Jennifer focused on developing business strategies and marketing programs to better serve smaller investors using consumer research and analysis to build and execute a new product and marketing strategy to address and grow this critical segment.

Jennifer holds a BS in Economics and Communications from the University of Delaware, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Jennifer Harrell, Product Marketing, Strategy and Research
Jennifer Harrell brings more than 17 years marketing expertise developing and implementing marketing strategies in technology and financial services. Her career spans marketing communications, product marketing, channel marketing, advertising, PR and marketing research at several technology start-ups and at large corporations including Electronic Data Systems and Oracle. She has a successful track record helping companies to develop clear and concise positioning frameworks and targeted marketing plans.

Recently Jennifer was VP of Strategy for Sterling Brands where she helped companies like HP, T-Mobile and Levi’s to develop branding and marketing strategies for their product lines. Prior to that, Jennifer was VP of marketing for Gatelinx, a voice over IP software provider where she managed all marketing activities. She also was Director of Global Marketing at Digital Island/Cable & Wireless where she led branding, positioning and solution messages, and developed outbound communication programs for execution worldwide. Prior to Digital Island, Jennifer held public relations, alliance marketing and product marketing positions with Oracle’s enterprise applications division. She was Director of Marketing for financial software start-up Maxxus where she developed collateral and demos and sales tools, and prior to that worked in EDS’ financial services division for 6 years in product marketing and business development.

Jennifer holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Colorado, is a RIVA-trained moderator, and is a member of the volunteer organization Taproot Foundation.

Karie Starrett, Product Management and Services
Karie Starrett has 15 years of experience in market research, business intelligence, marketing, product management, and professional and customer services for fast-paced, high tech companies such as Avaya, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and SBC (AT&T). Karie uses her broad business experience and expertise in developing and launching businesses from the ground up to help companies accelerate their time to market with winning strategies, successful launches, and products and services that address customer needs. Karie has experience with both consumer and enterprise products in both start up and Fortune 500 environments.

As Director of Services for CommScope’s Enterprise Solutions group, Karie Starrett managed a team charged with developing a start-up professional services business to complement the company’s premier enterprise infrastructure and network management product line. In her role, Karie was responsible for launching a new services business including the development of services strategy, marketing, engineering, process design, operations, delivery and management. The successful development of service methodology and tools resulted in a repeatable business model and a consistent and successful user experience while improving overall margins for service delivery, improving customer satisfaction, and driving product pull-through. In her previous role, Karie was the Senior Product Manager for CommScope’s WLAN Solution accountable for the end-to-end product strategy, launch, and support of the solution to Global Fortune 500 enterprise customers. She also played a key role in the company’s strategy and business development group identifying key market growth opportunities for the company to drive market differentiation and top-line revenue growth. Prior to CommScope, Karie was in charge of strategic market intelligence for Microsoft’s TV Platform and Ultimate TV / Web TV Groups, ensuring strategies, products, value propositions, messaging, pricing, and promotions were competitively positioned in the marketplace and within the industry analyst community. She performed a similar role at start-up divisions within T-Mobile and AT&T where she pioneered and developed innovative ways to capture, communicate, and create actionable intelligence to support business strategy, new product development, and product marketing.

Karie holds a BS in Political Science and French and a MS in Economics from Eastern Illinois University.