MIKE RINI
Cleveland,OH
Summary
Dynamic marketing operations leader with a proven track record at VML, driving $200M+ in media investments. Expert in go-to-market strategy and operational excellence, achieving a 90% improvement in speed-to-market. Adept at cross-functional leadership and data-driven decision-making, fostering scalable growth and enhanced campaign performance across diverse channels.
Overview
25
25
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Client Services
ChoiceLocal
Cleveland, OH
02.2024 - Current
- Led marketing operations and GTM enablement across two national franchise networks, aligning national strategy with local execution for 300+ franchisees.
- Architect scalable planning, workflow, and reporting frameworks, improving operational efficiency by approximately 20%, increasing forecast accuracy, and reducing campaign turnaround times by 2-3 days.
- Lead an enterprise-wide operating model transformation spanning governance, planning, forecasting, and performance management to improve consistency and scalability.
- Collaborated with executive leadership to align marketing strategy, resources, platforms, and KPIs across marketing, sales, and delivery teams.
- Establish standardized execution models that improve accountability, transparency, and performance across distributed franchise organizations.
Vice President, Digital Activation & Marketing Operations
VML
Cleveland, OH
09.2018 - 02.2024
- Built and led a 65-person marketing operations and activation organization supporting approximately $200M-$300M in annual media investment across paid, digital, and retail media channels.
- Developed go-to-market strategies for retail media, integrating paid search, programmatic, and paid social across Walmart, Target/Roundel, Kroger, Instacart, and other retail media networks to optimize campaign performance.
- Launched retailer audience-sharing programs that allowed clients to leverage first-party retail data beyond walled gardens, improving audience precision and campaign performance.
- Designed and implemented enterprise operating models, intake workflows, QA standards, and governance structures that improved speed-to-market by roughly 90% and delivery accuracy by about 85%.
- Established media operations and ERP-style resource tracking systems for managing utilization, burn rate, and hiring forecasts, facilitating effective capacity planning and margin management.
- Introduced and scaled platforms including Skai, Pacvue, The Trade Desk, and DV360, standardizing campaign operations and measurement across clients and brands.
- Built taxonomy and data visualization frameworks that became the backbone of enterprise reporting and executive dashboards for portfolio governance and performance review.
Senior Vice President, Digital Activation
Stern Advertising
Cleveland, OH
08.2011 - 08.2018
- Founded and scaled digital and marketing operations within 60+ year traditional agency, defining services, pricing, organizational structure, and go-to-market strategy, resulting in enhanced agency capabilities.
- Generated roughly $1M in digital revenue in the first year and drove approximately 300% growth in the digital client portfolio through new offerings and cross-sell strategies.
- Established a separate P&L and resource model to ensure profitability, improve utilization, and support scalable growth of the digital business.
- Led digital transformation initiatives for enterprise clients including McDonald's, Kay Jewelers, Jared, and Zales, modernizing their media, SEO, and social approaches.
- Secured and retained SEO agency-of-record relationships for Kay and Jared over seven years, expanding into broader enterprise-wide Signet programs to strengthen brand visibility.
- Built repeatable, scalable processes for SEO, paid media, and social programs supporting hundreds of local and franchise locations to ensure consistent execution and performance.
Director, Search & Media
SapientRazorfish
Cleveland, OH
02.2006 - 08.2011
- Directed strategy, operations, and delivery for 20+ enterprise accounts managing more than $50M in annual media spend across paid search, display, and other digital channels.
- Led cross-functional teams across Cleveland, New York, New Jersey to ensure consistent delivery quality and client satisfaction while achieving strong financial performance.
- Generated over $15M in new digital business within two years by expanding existing accounts and winning new engagements.
- Developed onboarding systems, dashboards, budget trackers, and utilization models to enhance delivery consistency and maintain margins of 50%+ across accounts.
- Partnered with executive stakeholders to improve visibility into performance, forecasting, and operational health through standardized reporting and governance.
Senior Programmer Analyst
Penske Logistics
Beachwood, OH
01.2001 - 02.2006
- Designed and developed logistics and financial reporting systems to enhance enterprise operations and support informed decision-making.
- Built analytical tools and automated workflows with Oracle, PL/SQL, Business Objects, and Web Intelligence, increasing data accuracy and accelerating reporting processes.
Education
MBA - Business Administration
University of Phoenix
Cleveland12-2006
Bachelor of Science - Computer & Information Science
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, OH12-2000
Skills
- Marketing Operations Leadership
- Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy
- Operating Model Design
- MarTech & Marketing Technology
- Enterprise Transformation
- Business Transformation
- Digital Transformation
- Operational Excellence
- Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
- Organizational Design
- Executive Leadership
- Strategic Planning
- Vendor Management
- Continuous Improvement
- Organizational & Capacity Planning
- Resource Forecasting & Utilization
- Budget Management
- Campaign Operations
- Retail Media & Digital Commerce
- Analytics & Reporting
- Process Standardization
- Executive & Cross-Functional Leadership
- Automation & CRM
- Media & Commerce Platforms
- Workflow & Resource Management,
- Project & Workflow Tools
- Performance Dashboards
- Marketing Strategy
Career Highlights
- Scaled enterprise digital services from 2 to 65 employees and oversaw $200M–$300M in annual investment.
- Lead enterprise transformation, operational excellence, and strategic forecasting across two national franchise networks totaling 300+ franchisees.
- Improved speed-to-market by 90%, accuracy by 85%, and expanded the digital client base by 250% through disciplined execution frameworks and performance reporting.
Technology Skills
HubSpot, Brevo, Zapier, Skai, Pacvue, The Trade Desk, DV360, Tableau, Business Objects, Oracle, PL/SQL, Smartsheet, Asana
Timeline
Director of Client Services
ChoiceLocal
02.2024 - Current
Vice President, Digital Activation & Marketing Operations
VML
09.2018 - 02.2024
Senior Vice President, Digital Activation
Stern Advertising
08.2011 - 08.2018
Director, Search & Media
SapientRazorfish
02.2006 - 08.2011
Senior Programmer Analyst
Penske Logistics
01.2001 - 02.2006
MBA - Business Administration
University of Phoenix
Bachelor of Science - Computer & Information Science
Cleveland State University