Sarah L Millard
Boscawen,NH
Summary
- An accomplished start-up operations leader with 20+ years of experience building from ground up functions including finance, logistics, sourcing, human resources, and marketing with a focus on applying analytics for continuous improvement. Experience in US and China, both small business start-ups and new initiatives within larger corporate structure. Industry experience includes employee benefits, environmental services, education consulting, office supplies retailing, direct marketing, and management consulting. Specific expertise includes:
- New Market Development
- New Channel Development
- Partnership Management
- Financial Planning & Analysis
- Human Resources
- Team Mentoring & Development
Overview
27
27
years of professional experience
1
1
Language
Work History
Director
Shanghai
01.2021 - Current
- Responsible for all elements of China market entry: solution development, marketing, financial projections, data privacy compliance, legal, regulatory, etc
- Develop additional products to better meet market needs
- Reduced partnership development cycle from 1 year to 3 months through improved communications and ready-to-go materials
Director
PURELIVING LIMITED
Shanghai
01.2014 - 01.2021
- Finance: responsible for four legal entities in mainland China and Hong Kong
- Implemented financial controls & metrics to reduce company risk, including budgeting and forecasting, A/R tracking, contract review and approval, and chop approval processes
- Human Resources: responsible for staff across 5 offices including Hong Kong
- Launched staff KPIs; results from KPI implementation include decrease in inventory loss from 2% of COGS to 0.02% and decrease in customer quote errors from 20% to 8%
- Introduced additional benefits to aid retention, including ESOP plan for key employees
- Supply Chain: responsible for most product and service vendors, including our contract manufacturers
- Moved most suppliers to standard contracts and improved payment terms from 30% prepayments to 30 days terms
- Developed inventory forecasting process to reduce OOS while also balancing OH levels for key products
- Started “case” reporting to ensure vendor and product/service issues are known, tracked, and resolved to prevent repeat occurrences
- Aided UL and CE certification for our core air filtration product
- Operations: includes office management, continued ERP improvements, legal, testing labs, and residential business operations
- Achieved ISO 9001 certification
- Special Projects 2014
- Led NetSuite ERP implementation, from spreadsheets to Go-Live across 3 offices in 4 months
Marketing Director
01.2013 - 01.2014
- Developed and implemented consistent standards for all marketing aspects: leads capture and follow-up, event management, visual identity, budgeting, etc
- Led team providing bilingual marketing support for consulting business and 2 school locations, including brochures, events, SEO and SEM, social media, newsletters, and budgeting
Senior Director
STAPLES, INC
, MA
01.2011 - 01.2012
- The Office Superstore category), Oversaw national marketing strategy for all business units (Retail, Web, Contract, and Government):
- Sales: grew most profitable customer base 4% YoY and sales 10% YoY by segmenting and tailoring marketing communications to each segment, helping increase profitability through improved marketing efficiency and CRM
- Ecommerce: grew web order penetration from 18% to 32% within 18 months by launching new website, paid search, and affiliate marketing
- Operations & team: consolidated 4 local creative and analytical teams into single Shanghai-based team; centralized print and other services for additional savings
Director, General Manager
Staples UPS
01.2007 - 01.2010
- Database Marketing & Analytics: built data analytics team and processes to measure and optimize metrics like customer response rates, customer acquisition costs, and lifetime value
- Express (joint venture): P&L responsibility for 3-store test offering office supplies and mail & ship services in co-branded retail locations
Director
THE FRANKLIN MINT
Framingham, Franklin, MA, PA
01.2002 - 01.2002
- New Retail Channels: oversaw “back office support” of Staples’ newest business unit from Day 1 as we grew from $1.1M in Year 1 to $44M in sales by Year 3, creating and implementing many new processes as necessary; responsible for Inventory, Warehouse, Customer Service, Information Systems, Customer Data
- Integrity & Analytics, and Finance teams
- Project Manager, Corporate Strategy: market research projects resulting in dramatic changes to our customer acquisition strategies to better meet customer needs; modeled potential US P&L impact of change in customer focus, coordinating input from multiple business units and support functions, which resulted in “Back to Brighton” strategy credited by Wall Street analysts for building solid operational foundation; created business plan for and participated in valuation of Staples’ first Asian acquisition (OA365), ($400M global direct marketer)
Manager of Analysis
01.1998 - 01.2000
- Coordinated cost reduction levels for Europe, Japan, and South Pacific and set milestone “triggers” to help determine when reductions should be implemented
- Recommended changes in proprietary billing format and collections timing based on analysis of customer account activity
- Received quarterly PACE award for reducing Annual Plan production time by 75%
Associate Consultant
BAIN & COMPANY
Boston, MA
01.1998 - 01.2000
- Worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement strategic improvements; industries covered include power utilities and heavy manufacturing
- Built real-time database for client to analyze production and downtime trends, allowing them to complete reliable analyses in minutes which formerly took days
- Performed cost-benefit analysis for installing and operating a digital wireless network
schools operator
BE EDUCATION LTD
Shanghai
Education
Master of Business Administration degree -
01.2002
Bachelor of Arts - Japanese Studies, Mathematics
01.1996
Kyoto, Japan and Konstanz
Skills
- ADDITIONAL
- Skills: Proficient in
- Microsoft Office; skilled in financial and operational modeling, Netsuite ERP
Accomplishments
- Certifications: HSK4 Mandarin Chinese
Interests
Volunteering: , Board member of Avaloch Farm Music Institute, nonprofit focused on providing opportunities for
performing musicians; member of Colonial Dames of America-New Hampshire, nonprofit focused on
preserving New Hampshire’s colonial history
Timeline
Director -
01.2021 - Current
Director - PURELIVING LIMITED
01.2014 - 01.2021
Marketing Director -
01.2013 - 01.2014
Senior Director - STAPLES, INC
01.2011 - 01.2012
Director, General Manager - Staples UPS
01.2007 - 01.2010
Director - THE FRANKLIN MINT
01.2002 - 01.2002
Manager of Analysis -
01.1998 - 01.2000
Associate Consultant - BAIN & COMPANY
01.1998 - 01.2000
schools operator - BE EDUCATION LTD
TUCK SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AT DARTMOUTH - Master of Business Administration degree,
WELLESLEY COLLEGE - Bachelor of Arts, Japanese Studies, Mathematics