Bay Area, California

STUART ROWE

Bay Area, California

Online Portfolio: marginassurance.com

GOAL To make a transformative impact using my fourteen years of diverse and complex experience in the areas of strategic partner/vendor management, revenue assurance, payments, and billing with an innovative company that thrives on challenge and demands best in class results.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

May 2011 to Present: Partner Manager, Google –Mountain View, CA

+ Partner/Vendor Management:Head of EPS Partner Management Department responsible for strategic management of a multi-billion dollar portfolio of global payment partners across multiple business lines. Managed team of two direct reports and three dotted-line reports for the EMEA, LATAM, and APAC regions. Primary areas of focus:

• Created a comprehensive governance structure to effectively manage Google’s payment partners by establishing a consistent framework of vendor management:
• Tiered classifications based on volume, complexity, risk, dependency, and strategic value.
• A suite of recurring management activities with frequency based on tier level: regular operational reviews, cross-functional (internal) stakeholder reviews, formal periodic business reviews (QBR’s), and consistent scorecarding and benchmarking of vendor performance.
• Monthly performance dashboard and metrics to validate contractual and SLA adherence and drive continual improvement of vendor performance.

• Led RFP process for identification of new partners in support of new international markets and products, including owningthe RFP document creation and candidate evaluation process, leading key business term negotiations, and drivingcontracting to ensure timely execution of agreements.
• Established unified internal/external escalation procedures to reduce the resolution time for open issues.
• Acted as the single point of contact for multiple internal groups including Product, Engineering, Legal, Compliance, and Business Development.

Feb 2007 to Apr 2011: Manager of Merchant Services, The Walt Disney Company (HQ) – Burbank, CA

+ Billing and Payments:Responsible for $7BB of annual payment acceptance activities across diverse business segments of The Walt Disney Company including Disneyland, Disney World, ESPN, ABC, Disney Shopping, the Disney Store and Disney Online. Implemented best practices for recurring payment processing, least cost of acceptance optimization, evaluated alternative payments, and negotiated multiple payment agreements for most favorable terms. Interacted with cross-functional groups from Legal, Marketing, and IT to ensure compliance with PCI-DSS and company-wide agreements and policies. Acted as the single point of contact for The Walt Disney Company for payment acceptance, processing and related matters.

+ Margin Assurance:Developed reporting system to establish Business Unit reporting metrics for cost and revenue assurance functions. Analyzed revenue billing and payment streams to set key performance indicators (KPI’s) and implementedsystem of audit controls to proactively identify areas of revenue leakage and opportunities for gross margin enhancement.

+ Risk Management:Devised enterprise-wide strategy to manage risk based on the provider and method of payment as well as the operating characteristics of the Business Unit. Focused on balancing appropriate levels of risk against new customer acquisition and retention. Instituted control processes and periodic access audits. Reviewed account arrearage and instituted credit limit rules to minimize exposure.

+ Vendor Management:Owned relationships with major payment and billing partners. Reviewed on-going performance operations and met on regular basis to resolve issues. Negotiated pricing reductions and investigated the value of new service and technologies.

Mar 2006 to Feb 2007: Senior Manager, Revenue Operations, Disney Mobile– North Hollywood, CA

+ Start-up Billing and Payment Implementation: Hired by Walt Disney to create and implement billing and payment operations for new Disney Mobile MVNO. This included creating functional requirements for a wireless communications network, evaluating systems and vendors, testing and defect identification during deployment, creating and documenting best practices methods and procedures (M&P), supporting dynamic new product introductions, pricing, sales and customer care training, invoice validation, payment reconciliation, revenue assurance, and data reporting and systems implementation.

+ Production Operations:Optimized payment processing streams to achieve “least cost payment” acceptance while maintaining highest degree of payment receipt accuracy and timeliness. Detected possible fraudulent payment activity at first point of payment to mitigate possible fraud related losses and proactively contacted bank and merchant service groups when appropriate for investigation. Maintained same-day billing with zero adverse error rate while also maximizing billing operational revenue assurance to ensure maximum pass-through of all billable elements.

+ Internal Support:Provided direct support for internal clients including senior executive management, Guest Services (customer call center), Treasury, Accounting, Sales, Marketing, Product Managers, escalated Help Desk issue resolution and outsourced business partners.

Aug 2005 to Mar 2006: Director of Billing Operations, Telscape Communications – Los Angeles, CA

+ Margin Assurance:Responsible for Billing Operations including revenue assurance, billing compliance and validation, vendor dispute resolution, and ARPU analysis and optimization. Identified multiple areas of inaccurate internal rating that caused revenue leakage and suggested specific solutions as effective remedies. Worked with internal stakeholders to implement solutions as well as with external partners to improve delivered services and to customize them to fit unique business needs.

+ Management:Evaluated group of five analysts to determine current effectiveness and proposed new methods and procedures to take effectiveness of department to higher level. Transferred new skill sets as needed to develop key personnel into powerful resources. Increased credibility and respect of department through key cross-functional interactions throughout company.

+ Vendor Relations:Improved existing vendor relations by establishing regular forums for communication, providing consistent feedback on services provided, and obtaining variousimprovements in services. Negotiated most favorable terms for new services and evaluated potential new partners for existing services where applicable. Ensured contract compliance as applicable.

Dec 2003 to Apr 2005: Network Auditing Manager, Cingular Wireless – Redmond, WA

+ Financial:Responsible for Northeast, Tri-State, and Central market districts comprising over $40 million of monthly invoiced network transport expense. Conducted monthly close process for the three transport organizations including preparing and reviewing Oracle journal entries, month to month variance reporting and analysis of more than 60 individual metropolitan markets.Established relationships with network field groups to support timely and correct billing from vendors.Reviewed and approved over 1300 monthly accounts ensuring network transport elements billed accurately. Produced monthly financial scorecards for upper management. Met with field network engineering personnel to review financial results.

+ Management:Hired to build new world-class team of billing analysts. Hired, mentored, and led team of six analysts as part of the WNS Network Expense Management team to ensure correct mobile network billing. Interviewed candidates and selectednew hires to fill positions as required. Conducted initial team training and emphasized personnel development on an on-going basis.

+ Carrier Relations:Established and maintained positive relationships with carriers through regular issues meetings, responsive and accessible communication, and establishing credibility by competence. Negotiated special dispute and billing compromises to maximal company advantage.

+ Sarbanes-Oxley:Coordinated with internal compliance groups and outside auditors to identify business process gaps and implement new procedures.Administered series of internal controls.

Jun 2001 to Dec 2003: Manager of Network Cost, Acceris Communications– San Diego, CA

Feb 1999 to May 2001: Network Margin Analyst, STAR Telecommunications – Santa Barbara, CA

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts, Aug 1989 to May 1993, Reed College, Portland, OR

Stuart Rowe / Email: / Page 1 of 2