You've led customer strategy, ecommerce and marketing at companies like Saks Global and Rakuten. What made this the right time to join Rithum, and what convinced you the company is uniquely positioned for the next era of commerce?
What drew me to Rithum was the timing and opportunity. Commerce is entering a new phase where AI, data, and operational complexity are converging at once, and that creates a real need for a platform that can help brands and retailers operate with more intelligence and confidence. From my experience on the retailer and consumer side, I’ve seen firsthand how hard it is to manage growth across channels while maintaining consistency, speed, and a strong customer experience. At the same time, distributed commerce is creating entirely new opportunities for brands to reach customers wherever they shop, and success, now more than ever, depends on having the right technology and data foundation to turn that opportunity into growth.
What convinced me was seeing how Rithum was uniquely positioned through its scale, connectivity, and deep ecosystem. Rithum sits at the center of product discovery, marketplaces, fulfillment, retail media, and performance insights, which gives it a broad view of how commerce actually works in practice. That combination of reach, data, and operational depth creates a strong foundation for the next era of commerce, helping brands and retailers not only navigate change, but accelerate growth across an increasingly distributed commerce landscape.
As both CMO and Head of Global Strategy, you're shaping not just how Rithum goes to market, but where it goes next. What are your immediate priorities, and how do you see these two roles complementing each other?
My immediate priority is making sure our strategy and our story evolve together. Rithum has an incredibly broad set of capabilities across product discovery, marketplaces, retail media, fulfillment and performance insights, and one of the biggest opportunities is helping customers see how those pieces come together as one connected commerce platform. As commerce becomes more complex – and AI reshapes how consumers discover and buy products – our job is to make that complexity easier to navigate, both through our technology and how we show up in the market. Ultimately, it's about showing brands and retailers how a connected approach to distributed commerce can unlock new avenues for growth.
That's why I think the CMO and Head of Global Strategy roles are so complementary. Strategy helps identify where the market is headed and where we can create the most value for customers, while marketing ensures we're telling that story in a way that's clear, credible and rooted in real customer outcomes. When those two functions are aligned, we're better positioned to help customers understand how we can help them grow and compete in the next era of commerce.
Having spent years on the retailer side, you've experienced the complexity of modern commerce firsthand. What do you see as the biggest challenges brands and retailers are facing today?
Having spent much of my career on the retailer side, I've learned that the biggest challenge isn't a lack of opportunity; it's the growing number of decisions brands and retailers have to make every day. They're balancing expansion into new channels, shifting consumer expectations, tighter margins, supply chain pressures, and now AI-driven shopping experiences, all while trying to deliver a seamless customer experience. At the same time, they're under increasing pressure to find profitable ways to reach new customers, expand into new retailers and marketplaces, and unlock new sources of revenue, not simply add more distribution.
What often gets overlooked is that none of those decisions happen in isolation. A change to product content can affect discoverability. Inventory impacts marketing. Fulfillment influences customer loyalty. The organizations that will succeed are the ones that stop managing these functions as separate workstreams and instead operate with a more connected view of commerce. Technology can have the biggest impact by helping teams make better decisions across the entire business, so they can pursue growth opportunities with greater confidence while protecting margins, rather than simply adding more channels or tools.
Rithum connects everything from product discovery and marketplaces to fulfillment, retail media and performance insights. How do you plan to sharpen Rithum's positioning so customers see it as a unified commerce platform rather than a collection of capabilities?
For me, it starts with telling a clearer story about the end-to-end value Rithum creates. These are not disconnected capabilities. They are part of one commerce system that helps brands and retailers discover new growth opportunities, operate more intelligently, and grow more profitably across every channel where consumers shop.
I want customers to see Rithum as the strategic infrastructure behind modern, distributed commerce. That means being clearer about the problems we solve, the outcomes we drive, and how the different pieces of the platform work together. If we do that well, customers won't see a collection of capabilities, they'll see a growth platform that helps them navigate change and capitalize on new opportunities.
Your career has been rooted in building customer-first retail experiences. What lessons from consumer brands do you think tech marketers still overlook, and how will those shape your marketing strategy at Rithum?
One of the biggest lessons consumer brands teach you is that customers respond best to clarity, relevance, and consistency. Tech companies sometimes overcomplicate the story or lead with capabilities before they’ve earned the right to talk about business outcomes and growth. In retail, you learn quickly that if the value isn’t obvious, the message doesn’t stick.
Another lesson is that trust is built through repetition and usefulness, not just positioning. The best consumer brands make it easy for customers to understand what they do and why it matters, and they do it consistently across every touchpoint.
That absolutely shapes how I think about marketing at Rithum. We need to connect what we do to the growth opportunities our customers are pursuing and explain it in language that's simple, credible, and grounded in real business outcomes.
Commerce buying decisions now involve marketing, ecommerce, operations, merchandising, supply chain and finance. How should marketing evolve to speak to these diverse stakeholders while still telling one compelling story?
No one wakes up thinking they're going to be part of a “marketing” decision. Merchandising is thinking about assortment. Ecommerce is thinking about conversion. Supply chain is focused on inventory and fulfillment. Finance is looking at margins and profitability. Everyone is accountable for a different piece of the business, but ultimately they're all working toward the same goal.
That's where marketing has a unique role to play. It's not just about building awareness, it's about creating alignment across the organization. At its best, marketing connects business strategy to customer needs, helping every stakeholder understand how they're contributing to the same growth objectives. For Rithum, that means telling one clear story about helping brands and retailers unlock profitable growth across the entire commerce journey, while demonstrating how that translates into the outcomes each team is responsible for.
You've helped businesses navigate major transformations. Five years from now, if people say Rithum fundamentally changed how brands think about commerce, what would you want that transformation to be remembered for?
I don't think success will be measured by whether Rithum built another commerce platform. I think it will be measured by whether we helped brands and retailers embrace one of the biggest transformations in commerce with confidence, and ultimately emerge stronger because of it.
AI is fundamentally changing how consumers discover, evaluate, and buy products, and with that comes an incredible opportunity for growth. But it also introduces new complexity around data, product information, distribution, and decision-making. The companies that will lead won't simply be the ones adopting AI the fastest; they'll be the ones navigating the influx of data with the right foundation to turn chaos into sustainable growth.
That's what excites me most about Rithum. We have the opportunity to help brands and retailers turn change into a competitive advantage, finding new avenues for profitable growth, adapting as commerce evolves, and making smarter decisions. So if five years from now people say Rithum became the trusted strategic advisor that helped businesses navigate this new era of commerce and unlock opportunities they couldn't have reached on their own, that's a legacy I'd be incredibly proud of.
