Don Linde
Seattle,WA
Summary
Self-directed and resourceful leader with 20+ years of experience successfully organizing, managing and delivering cross-functional projects at a global scale.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Director, Global Key Accounts
Maersk
07.2023 - Current
- Global leader of geographically distributed teams responsible for operational success, program capability development and implementation, and commercial growth of Maersk's global logistics and supply chain business with a major US retailer, spanning 22 countries.
- Portfolio of global services represented $250M+ in 2023 revenue, with $290M+ revenue goal for 2024, supported by annual account plan and growth roadmap.
- Defined and drove adoption of tech requirements for migration to new global supply chain operations platform. Implemented in collaboration with internal offshore tech teams, integrations with customer and third-party systems.
- Defined and implemented formal operational KPIs, joint goals, and structured Quarterly Business Reviews at executive level covering full scope of services, resulting in customer award as #1 global supply chain partner in 2023.
Chief of Staff, International Market Expansion
Chewy.com
10.2021 - 06.2023
- Owned go-to-market operations business planning and execution under COO for Chewy's first-ever international B2C market expansion, successfully launching Canda operations in June 2023.
- Single threaded vertical leader within COO's organization, with ownership spanning supply chain and logistics, finance forecasting and management, tech systems development and integrations, sourcing and procurement, headcount planning, and internal compliance with finance, HR, and legal teams.
- Represented COO in collaboration with partner organizations within Chewy, ensuring on-time and successful launch. Engaged with regular communications to CEO and C-suite on project status, decisions needed, and updates for investor earnings release calls.
- Led procurement activities, contract negotiations, headcount planning, and financial analyses to evaluate data and make budget recommendations. Defined and owned CAPEX budget of annual $25M+ spend, $3M+ OPEX spend.
- Provided comprehensive support to the COO as their trusted advisor, enabling them to focus on critical decision-making and path-of-escalation leadership tasks, ensuring organizational alignment and efficiency.
Head of Market Expansion, Amazon Global Sales
Amazon
09.2020 - 06.2021
- Owner of global expansion strategy and execution for US-based sellers entering international e-commerce markets, representing $120M+ annual sales.
- Leader of globally distributed teams responsible for annual operational planning, program and product development, global supply chain and logistics solutions, financial planning, marketing, tech roadmap prioritization, sales, and account management.
- Established offshore operations in Costa Rica, hiring and managing a 30+ person team to provide customer success enablement. Responsible for on-boarding 80+ new international sellers in first quarter of operations, representing annual run rate of net new additional $4.2M annual sales.
- Analyzed seller registration data to identify market specific pain points inhibiting seller expansion. Results used to revamp on-line "seller university" concurrent with launch of automated marketing campaign to nurture individual sellers through milestone launch points. Self-service adoption rate increased by 12% after 4 months of launch.
Chief of Staff
Amazon
10.2019 - 09.2020
- Owner of VP-led tech organization's “rhythm of business”, representing 10 Director-led global teams and 700+ employees.
- Leader of annual planning cycle, including operational planning (i.e., OP1/OP2, 3YP data analysis, document writing and presentation), annual goals, headcount and finance management, preparation and execution of executive level business reviews on monthly/quarterly/annual cadence, business partner of external teams (finance, legal, recruiting, HR, marketing, peers across SVP organization).
- Defined, allocated, and managed $55M+ OPEX budget as well as headcount planning and management across 700+ employee organization (i.e., requesting, securing and allocation of incremental headcount during OP process; recruiting and hiring, inclusive of backfills and re-org related transfers; remaining in synch with finance and HR business partners).
- Defined and owned management of organization's ~50 annual program and tech goals, including 10 "S-Team" goals aligned to C-Suite/SVP goals, service as proxy for VP and organization at quarterly updates, with 100% on-time success rate (92% success rate for all goals).
Principal, Amazon Global Logistics
Amazon
09.2018 - 10.2019
- Leader of program development team responsible for creating and implementing global logistics systems and supply chain capabilities supporting growth of Amazon's global e-commerce import supply chains, representing $5.2B+ in export-import merchandise value.
- Led annual planning process to propose and secure funding, resource allocation, and alignment with partner tech teams planning for high priority projects. Supported by resulting weekly, monthly, and quarterly cross-stakeholder business reviews to remain aligned on results.
- Defined, prioritized, and led operations and tech roadmaps enabling launch of multiple innovations, including: offshore distribution programs for global markets; use of rail service from China to Europe as alternative to ocean or air transportation; "fast fashion" supply chain for on-demand overseas apparel production with rapid customer delivery; direct import conversion program enabling taking possession of overseas product at point of manufacture for upstream injection into Amazon's supply chain.
- Leader of project team established to develop online order management and international transportation booking portal for Amazon's overseas manufacturers to replace third party application. Defined business requirements and prioritized tech roadmap for three-month implementation cycle, which resulted in $8M+ annual savings as well as 20% reduction in information latency for vendors.
Head of Global Business Operations
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
03.2017 - 09.2018
- Leader of centralized team responsible for design, efficacy assessment, governance, and development of AWS global sales compensation and incentive programs, representing $130M+ annual incentive compensation.
- Collaborated with finance, HR, sales leadership, and third party partners to develop, assess, and implement 15 new sales incentive plans and initiatives, attributed to $420M+ additional annual sales revenue
- Own analysis, preparation, writing, and presentation of annual program efficacy assessment to AWS CEO and leadership, as well as program change recommendations for approval and adoption.
Director, Global Sales Operations
Expeditors International
05.2004 - 06.2016
- Designed, implemented, and led global sales operations representing 600+ sales executives and account managers in 180+ offices across 50 countries
- Personally prepared, presented and implemented “Market Coverage” analysis for each of Expeditors’ markets globally, resulting in hiring of more than 100 additional sales executives and opening of 25 new offices globally.
- Program consistently exceeded 20%+ annual growth goal, with more than $100 million in net new sales revenue in 2015.
- Established Expeditors’ first industry vertical group, leading global teams of subject matter experts in retail logistics, supply chains, and e-commerce fulfillment.
- Drove executive support for the launch and development of additional industry vertical groups: healthcare & pharmaceuticals, aerospace & aviation, oil & energy, automotive.
Education
MBA - Strategy & Operations
Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management
Nashville, TN06.2004
Bachelor of Arts - China Studies
University of Washington, Jackson School
Seattle, WA06.1991
Skills
- Strategic Planning
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Change and Growth Management
- Rhythm of Business
- Internal & External Communications
- Operations Management
- Annual Planning
- Financial Leadership
- Headcount Management (HR)
- Tech roadmap
- Operational Analysis
- Program Management
Timeline
Director, Global Key Accounts
Maersk
07.2023 - Current
Chief of Staff, International Market Expansion
Chewy.com
10.2021 - 06.2023
Head of Market Expansion, Amazon Global Sales
Amazon
09.2020 - 06.2021
Chief of Staff
Amazon
10.2019 - 09.2020
Principal, Amazon Global Logistics
Amazon
09.2018 - 10.2019
Head of Global Business Operations
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
03.2017 - 09.2018
Director, Global Sales Operations
Expeditors International
05.2004 - 06.2016
MBA - Strategy & Operations
Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management
Bachelor of Arts - China Studies
University of Washington, Jackson School