Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Websites
Timeline
Generic

Joel A. Blumenau

Highland Park,IL

Summary

Entrepreneurial strategy and operations executive with 20+ years of experience leading cross-functional teams, driving innovation, and delivering transformative results for global organizations. Proven track record in corporate strategy, new business ventures, and large-scale project leadership, with deep expertise in digital transformation, emerging technologies, and executive-level communications. Adept at building agile, inclusive teams, developing business cases that guide executive decisions, and partnering with senior leadership to shape and execute long-term growth strategies in dynamic, fast-paced environments. MBA from Gies College of Business, University of Illinois with a focus on M&A and Entrepreneurism. BA degree in Economics from Stanford University.

Overview

19
19
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification

Work History

Senior Director – Strategy, Planning and Innovation

AAR Corp
01.2021 - 01.2025
  • Digital, Technology and Analytics Team
  • Building and Managing Multiple Teams including:
  • Innovation and R&D – Building and managing a team of analysts and product managers responsible for staying extremely market current on sustaining as well as disruptive technology innovations that affect the aviation industry. The team analyzes ROI, prices and schedules POCs, gathers data from POC efforts, prepares all senior leadership reporting and manages technology implementations. RPA, AI/ML, inspection drones, AR/VR, paperless environments, digital twins.
  • Corporate Venture Investment Committee - Member of this committee of three that reviews and recommends early-stage technology investment opportunities to the CEO on the basis of synergies with AAR’s existing strategic goals as well as ROI.
  • Strategic Systems Management – Heading team that is reviewing overall corporate technology footprint, interviewing and collating user feedback, recommending consolidation of redundant assets and spearheading efforts to unify the corporate technology landscape on a global basis.
  • Airvolution Self-Service, Aviation Repair Cycle Management – Cloud-based SaaS platform for commercial and military repair management teams. Responsible for all aspects of launch, product ownership, contractual negotiations, global implementation team management, client relations, customer success and professional services.
  • Website Design and Maintenance – Oversee multiple internal/external teams driving the redesign and maintenance of the corporate intranet and public facing sites. Responsible for team building, product ownership, external resource recruitment/management, product roadmap development, budgeting and operations.

Vice President of Customer Success

Code SixFour
01.2017 - 01.2019
  • User Support Material Creation – Write, develop and produce all user training content (FAQ articles, video and automated email communications) with topics including best practices, software functionality, process training, thought leadership and ancillary topics. (See learn.codesixfour.com; Most recently written: The Power of BenchmarkEdge)
  • Ticket Management and Product Improvement – Create and manage tickets in Axosoft and JIRA for production bugs, data requests, enhancement requests and software customizations based on specific client feedback.
  • Client Relations – Manage all C-level relationships and gather daily feedback from users to constantly drive engagement, increase usage and gather actionable feedback. Responsible for overall strategic direction of client success for this cloud-based SaaS consulting platform serving the insurance and benefits brokerage market. KPI metrics based on NPS, DAU, content events and churn. Also responsible for incisive and regular strategic consultation with clients and promotion of the value proposition of the software offering relative to their short/long-term goals.
  • Onboarding and Training – Work with the sales team to redesign and implement an updated onboarding and new user training program that improved retention and brought the NPS from a low of -40 to +70. Design, implement and maintain inline tooltip tutorials. Manage support trends and monitor user content responses via Intercom CRM platform.
  • Support Management – Respond promptly and accurately to 50 – 100 support requests per day during peak periods with responsibility for as much frontline resolution as possible then ticket management of escalation protocol, when necessary.
  • Team Building – Recruit, train and manage a team of Customer Success Managers
  • Project Management – Drive and oversee multiple client consulting projects and software customizations with strict deadlines and client specific requirements.
  • Exit via competitor acquisition - October 2018

Vice President – Client Services & Operations Lead

SpiderRock EXS, LLC
01.2008 - 01.2016
  • Client Services and Support – Managed all aspects of client services and support for this cloud-based platform including interfacing with C-suite clients to ensure their successful adoption and engagement with the platform.
  • Team Building – Recruited, built and trained client support team.
  • Business Development – Played a key role in sales and business development effort that resulted in over 1000% increase in trading volume in less than two years.
  • Head Technology Trainer – Trained and onboarded all new users and then oversaw all ongoing technical support.
  • Compliance – Led successful launch of a FINRA Broker Dealer and Registered Investment Advisor. Oversaw creation of Written Supervisory Procedures.

Director of Client Support

OptionsHouse, Inc. (subsidiary of PEAK6 Investments)
01.2006 - 01.2008
  • Launched Client Support and Trade Desk Division – Developed all client support protocols for this start up online brokerage effort. Recruited, built and managed a team of twelve registered representatives who were servicing over 5,000 retail accounts in less than two years.
  • Launched Institutional Sales Department – Generated institutional market awareness and successfully closed on commitments from three substantial institutions.
  • First $100 Million in Account Assets – Efforts were instrumental in landing the largest initial clients of the firm.
  • Launched Web Marketing and Channel Partnering – Sourced, developed, negotiated and managed multiple financial website co-marketing and advertising relationships.
  • Project Management – Led multiple technology initiatives and upgrades during the development phase of the trading platform including full automation of electronic account application process.
  • Auto-trading Services – Developed, launched and managed the firm’s auto-trading services in cooperation with multiple financial website partnerships.

Education

MBA Degree - Entrepreneurship And M&A

Gies College of Business, University of Illinois
Champaign, IL

BA Degree - Economics

Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA

Skills

  • 20 years of leadership in SaaS, fintech, and emerging technology sectors
  • Strategic planning, corporate strategy development, and execution
  • Cross-functional team building and agile leadership
  • Deep expertise in AI/ML, AR/VR, robotics, RPA, and industrial drones
  • M&A integration and post-merger technology consolidation
  • Corporate venture investing and early-stage technology evaluation
  • Product management, including global SaaS platform launches
  • Client services team building, onboarding, and customer success management
  • Executive-level communications and stakeholder engagement
  • Process improvement and digital transformation leadership
  • Project management for large-scale and emerging tech initiatives
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills
  • Experience with content creation, training development, and user support materials
  • Certified ScrumMaster and Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt

Certification

  • Certified ScrumMaster (Scrum Alliance)
  • Lean Six Sigma – Yellow Belt

Timeline

Senior Director – Strategy, Planning and Innovation

AAR Corp
01.2021 - 01.2025

Vice President of Customer Success

Code SixFour
01.2017 - 01.2019

Vice President – Client Services & Operations Lead

SpiderRock EXS, LLC
01.2008 - 01.2016

Director of Client Support

OptionsHouse, Inc. (subsidiary of PEAK6 Investments)
01.2006 - 01.2008

MBA Degree - Entrepreneurship And M&A

Gies College of Business, University of Illinois

BA Degree - Economics

Stanford University

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