KIM RICKARDS
Atlanta,GA
Summary
Dynamic Customer Success and Post-Sales Relationship Leader with over 15 years of experience driving impactful business outcomes for enterprise accounts. Expertise in post-sales relationship management, crafting tailored success plans, and ensuring customers realize significant ROI through targeted adoption, retention, and expansion strategies. Change management specialist adept at analyzing enterprise transformation dynamics to proactively identify adoption barriers and design effective success strategies that enhance organizational readiness for new technologies. Proven track record in translating customer feedback into actionable organizational improvements while minimizing churn and uncovering growth opportunities. Strong cross-functional collaboration skills and exceptional executive relationship management align customer outcomes with overarching business value.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
1
1
Certificate
Work History
Global Partnerships Specialist (Customer Success)
Atlanta Hawks
01.2023 - Current
- Lead post-sales partner success strategy for 75+ Fortune 500 brands, achieving industry leading retention and 30% increase in engagement scores
- Design data-informed success frameworks that connect partner goals to measurable business outcomes, strengthen renewal health, and uncover expansion opportunities, transforming partnership management from reactive service to strategic enablement
- Blend analytics, AI, and emotional intelligence to create scalable success models that maintain high-touch, human approach while leveraging Salesforce and Tableau for predictive insights on adoption, satisfaction, and value realization
- Drive cross-functional orchestration with Marketing, Operations, and Analytics teams, creating 360-degree visibility that enhances executive advisory capabilities and enables data-driven decision making across all stakeholder levels
- Serve as trusted advisor to C-suite executives, aligning strategy across organizational levels to deepen relationships, strengthen advocacy, and ensure partners achieve full ROI through proactive, thoughtful engagement
- Build proactive retention systems including early-warning framework that identifies renewal risks 90+ days in advance, enabling targeted interventions that prevent churn and identify upsell opportunities
- Establish voice of partner programs creating continuous feedback loops that transform insights into actionable improvements across teams, directly enhancing service delivery and business outcomes
- Elevated partner engagement into a data-informed, emotionally intelligent customer success model that scales across enterprise accounts while maintaining personalized attention to individual business goals
Executive Business Partner to CEO (Strategic Change & Stakeholder Management)
Cardlytics
01.2021 - 01.2023
- Analyzed enterprise-level change management during CEO transition and board realignment, developing deep expertise in why large-scale transformations succeed or fail; insights directly applicable to driving successful customer adoption of emerging technologies and ensuring business outcome realization
- Identified organizational patterns that predict adoption resistance and value erosion, now applying these lessons to proactively identify churn risks and develop individualized success plans that accelerate time-to-value and sustain customer engagement through technology transformation
- Mastered cross-functional stakeholder alignment during cultural and operational turbulence, building expertise in executive relationship management critical for establishing multi-level buy-in and creating guiding coalitions within enterprise customer bases
- Developed pattern recognition for organizational readiness and resistance points, enabling accurate assessment of customer maturity for AI/ML transformation and ability to tailor onboarding, adoption strategies, and success plans to each customer's change capacity
Program Manager, Customer Engagement & Retention (Talent Solutions)
LinkedIn
01.2018 - 01.2021
- Managed Customer Advisory Board (CAB) facilitating executive roundtables that captured voice of customer insights, directly influencing product roadmap and customer experience improvements
- Drove successful adoption through enablement programs including 'Rock Your Profile' playbooks that increased customer retention and value realization across enterprise accounts
- Partnered with Product, Marketing, and Customer Success teams to integrate customer feedback into quarterly business reviews and strategic planning — demonstrating thought leadership and cross-functional influence
- Led onboarding initiatives for enterprise clients, establishing success milestones and ensuring rapid time-to-value for Talent Solutions platform adoption
Executive Assistant To C-Suite Executives
American Express, Pinterest, Viacom & Make-A-Wish
01.2006 - 01.2018
- Supported C-suite executives across Fortune 500 companies, developing deep understanding of executive decision-making, stakeholder dynamics, and organizational behavior serving as the foundation for current customer success expertise
- Orchestrated cross-functional initiatives spanning multiple departments, honing ability to navigate complex, matrixed environments and drive alignment among diverse stakeholders
- Built operational excellence frameworks that improved executive efficiency and decision-making, skills now applied to creating customer success playbooks and adoption methodologies
Education
B.A. - Public Communications
Buffalo State College
Executive MBA -
Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business
04.2026
Skills
- CRM & Customer Success Platforms: Salesforce, KORE Sports CRM, Gainsight (familiar), HubSpot
- Analytics & BI: Tableau, Looker, Excel, Customer Health Scoring, ROI Dashboards
- AI & Automation: Foundations of Generative AI, Claude AI, ChatGPT for Business, Workflow Automation
- Project Management: Asana, Smartsheet, Mondaycom, Notion AI
- Customer Intelligence: Apolloio, ZoomInfo, Formstack, WolfCycle
Certification
- Change Management
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
- Foundations of Generative AI
- Crisis Management & Emotional Intelligence for Leaders
Timeline
Global Partnerships Specialist (Customer Success)
Atlanta Hawks
01.2023 - Current
Executive Business Partner to CEO (Strategic Change & Stakeholder Management)
Cardlytics
01.2021 - 01.2023
Program Manager, Customer Engagement & Retention (Talent Solutions)
LinkedIn
01.2018 - 01.2021
Executive Assistant To C-Suite Executives
American Express, Pinterest, Viacom & Make-A-Wish
01.2006 - 01.2018
B.A. - Public Communications
Buffalo State College
Executive MBA -
Georgia State University, J. Mack Robinson College of Business
Accomplishments
- Portfolio Performance: Managing portfolio of 75+ Fortune 500 brands with industry-leading retention rates
- Engagement Growth: Achieved 30% increase in partner engagement scores through data-informed success strategies
- Risk Mitigation: Developed early warning system identifying renewal risks 90+ days in advance
- Executive Relationships: Maintain trusted advisor relationships with 200+ C-suite executives
- Cross-functional Impact: Lead initiatives spanning 5+ departments ensuring customer success alignment
- Change Leadership: Certified in Change Management with unique practitioner experience analyzing enterprise transformation
CORE COMPETENCIES
- Post-Sales Customer Success
- Success Plan Development
- Customer Business Outcomes
- Adoption & Retention Strategy
- Executive Relationship Management
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Churn Risk Mitigation
- Upsell/Cross-sell Identification
- Voice of Customer Programs
- ROI & Value Realization
- Trusted Advisor Consulting
- Enterprise Software Adoption
- Organizational Change Management
- Transformation Readiness Assessment
- Stakeholder Coalition Building