ROBIN SCHEER ETTINGER - BIO
Robin Ettinger is a Marketing and Branding expert who creates successful strategies that generate business growth. Her broad-based skill set enables her to meet the needs of her clients across many aspects of the business continuum. Robin has experience creating the strategic direction for successful multi-channel marketing and branding campaigns and deep expertise in developing brand positioning, product direction, and 360* campaigns in traditional and digital media, for launching new brands, new product lines, or reinvigorating existing brands/products.
As chief marketing officer and marketing vice president for over 20 years, Robin has accumulated experience across several industries, multiple distribution channels and business models encompassing all aspects of effective marketing. Using right and left brain thinking, she synthesizes data/analytics with her strong creative background to make decisions and identify solutions for complex challenges - solutions that are actionable and aligned with the company’s strategic vision.
Robin partners with sales, product development, and C-level management, bringing creative ideas based in fact and/or experience, and building effective strategies that result in profitable growth. Robin is recognized as an excellent team builder, having developed many of her staff to grow into senior executive roles in a variety of companies. As a strong and motivating leader, Robin considers mentoring critical to the ongoing success of both the individuals and the companies. Building a strong bench is an integral part of long-term success.
Robin has had the opportunity to work for several global, iconic luxury brands including Montblanc, Escada, and Godiva Chocolatier. As VP Marketing for the Americas at Safilo Eyewear, she provided brand management for over 25 brands including Dior, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Kate Spade, and Hugo Boss. Having spent six years at Liz Claiborne in various roles, including Director of Strategic Marketing and Retail Marketing Director for their company owned stores, she is experienced in fashion and retail.
Robin holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of the Arts. She is a guest lecturer at LIM College, Baruch College, and FIT providing insights and mentoring to graduate and undergraduate students in the marketing disciplines.
KEN ETTINGER - BIO
Ken Ettinger is a sales, sales management and negotiation professional who has delivered award-winning results for large and small companies. His expertise includes identifying potential clients, mapping the path from prospect to customer and building relationships to increase penetration and revenue growth.
Ken’s experience is extremely diversified, enabling him to provide unique direction and support for companies in need of restructuring and modernizing their sales function or in seizing a growth opportunity. He has hired sales teams and individuals across all levels of experience and built, trained and managed independent rep organizations. Ken’s expertise includes managing and collaborating with sales operations as well.
As manager of a $40MM branch of a computer reseller to Fortune 500 accounts, Ken gained insight into the art and science of sales, the rewards of hiring and mentoring younger group members, and the constant challenges facing management of a fast-paced operation with over 50 people in sales, technical support, administrative, warehouse and shipping.
Throughout his IT career, Ken won many performance awards from Dell, Microsoft, Symantec, IBM and HP to name a few. Specifically, as head of the account team who won the Goldman Sachs account, Ken and his team were honored by Goldman Sachs with the 5-STAR Vendor Award, top honor in the IT services category. His skills were also well recognized when named Account Executive of the Year for Dell Technologies, increasing revenue of Dell’s largest US territory by the largest percentage while over-exceeding every KPI. Another example was a year-long sales cycle culminating in a $13 million purchase order from UPS and the ongoing support relationship with the client.
Before entering the IT world, Ken spent many years in importing, sales and marketing of consumer goods. This included product development, inventory management, and extensive overseas travel negotiating purchases for companies with as many as 1,500 products.
Ken’s strength in negotiation developed over many years educated by day-to-day negotiations with overseas and domestic suppliers and augmented by traditional sales and account management classes (Miller Heiman, Sandler Method, Strategic Selling, Karrass Negotiation Seminar, etc.). He accesses a wide-range of negotiation styles while bringing a deep understanding of local cultures and practices to ensure success in closing deals and maintaining good customer relationships. Ken’s natural teaching ability combined with his sense of humor enable him to provide effective training and mentoring to others.
Ken attended Horace Mann School and New York University, and has done graduate work at the NYU Graduate School of Education. He is a guest lecturer at LIM College and teaches negotiation classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.