Who we are

Sherry Thomas-Zon – Marketing, Fund Raising

• Over 30 years as a Marketing Executive, General Manager, Product Manager and CEO of early staged companies.

• Head of Mobile, Retail Marketing for Walmart. The mobile team drives the vision and delivery of Walmart's digital customer adoption and growth strategy through its audience and product marketing practice in alignment with customer needs and business objectives.

• Led mobile foundation and strategic product initiatives for award-winning Macys and Bloomingdales apps from assessment to implementation, working across multiple teams, technologies, and business processes..

• Vice President and General Manager of Local Corporation, in L.A., Ca.  Led retail data products strategy and business execution supporting location enrichment for Omni-channel retailers and brand digital campaigns.

• CEO of Krillion Inc, S.F..Ca.  A Hummer Winblad Venture Partners portfolio company, Krillion developed the first location-based shopping search engine. Led commercialization from consumer search to location data provider, building out B2B product offering and operational efficiencies. Acquired.

• Executive Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business, MA, San Francisco State University.

John Craig – Spark Group, Product Management

• Product Management Specialist.

• Over 37 years of Product Management experience from Ericsson, Telefonica, and several small companies and startups, including; Worldzap, Cambridge Positioning Systems, Destinator, Intermap.

• Individually and as a Team Lead have designed, launched, and managed 100's of Products, both B2B and B2C. These Products have been of various types: software, hardware, data/analytics, services and multi-vendor integrations

• Responsible for Product Management and Marketing in 4 Companies.

• Deep domain expertise in Cellular/Wireless, Maps and Navigation, Advertising, IoT, and Personal Data.

• Lived in multiple countries (UK, France, Sweden, Germany) and worked in multiple industries (Mobile, Advertising, Automotive).

• Masters of Engineering degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Heriot-Watt University.

Björn Ternström – Spark Group, Product Specialist

• Senior Product Manager and Program Manager with more than 20 years experience of all aspects of Life Cycle Product Management.

• Experienced working in USA and Sweden, strong background in working globally with customers and accounts, and with R&D organisations distributed worldwide.

• Led development of strategies and roadmaps for multiple functional areas.

• Managed complex Product Programs with +20 MUSD yearly R&D budgets, with a proven track record of delivering customer and business value within budget frames.

• Led a team of Product Managers to balance and prioritise feature and product requirements from 150+ customers, while securing alignment with strategies.

• Co-ordinated Go-To-Market activities; Product Packaging and Pricing, Value Argumentation and Technical Sales Support material, first customer deployments.

• Driver of product configuration tools improvements for more efficient sales support.

• Managed yearly SW Releases, securing content and market introduction on time within budget frames.

• I value being reliable and flexible and working with a collaborative mindset.

• M.Sc. EE, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Stockholm.

Thomas Nordén – B2B Marketing

• Over 25 years of product marketing and marketing experience from technically advanced B2B products from companies.

• Worked as Nordic Product and Marketing Manager Océ (aquired by Canon). 

• Close to ten years experiences as Marketing and e-commerce manager at  Tobii Dynavox (eye-controlled computers, software and content for individuals with disabilities).  

• Has launched close to 100 products.

• Founder of Early to Rise AB, a product marketing and launch consultancy firm. 

• Masters Degree in Marketing/Social Science.

• Loves marketing tech and getting stuff done.   

Charles Lafage – Market Intelligence, Strategy

• 20 years of experience in Strategy Consulting, Market Intelligence, Government Policy, and Marketing.

• Founder of Cyelcy, an Atlanta-based consulting firm that helps clients discover and decode the deep market trends driving change in their industries.

• Held leadership roles in strategic planning, market intelligence, GTM strategies, analytics, and product marketing at Autodesk.

• Founded Zen Projects, a boutique consultancy focusing on marketing and GTM strategies for B2B tech startups in Stockholm.

• Charles's career is marked by a commitment to excellence, innovation, and continuous learning, establishing him as a leader in Strategy & Market Intelligence.

• Brings a multicultural perspective with a dual French-American background and professional experience in the UK and Sweden.

• Holds an MBA from ESSCA Ecole de Management, with additional coursework from Yale, IDEO U, University of Sydney, and University of Illinois.

Hans Örtholm – Spark Group, Services & Customer Relations

• 30 years’ experience from management of IT Services and consultancy as Account General Manager, Industry Engagement Manager, Solutions Delivery Director as well as Principal Business Consultant.

• Worked with companies like SAS, Swedavia, SL, Telia, Tele2, Telenor, Grundfos, Coloplast, Saab, ABB, Volvo Aero, BT Industries, Södertälje och Nynäshamns kommuner, Landstinget i Östergötaland, Vin & sprit, Sergel kredittjänster.

• Managed services within IT Operation and management covering IT infrastructure, IT applications, IT security and IT consultancy towards customers in the Nordic region. Orchestrated international delivery capabilities including India, Bulgaria, Ireland, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, USA, UK, Spain and Latvia.

• Extensive experience transforming difficult accounts with poor client relations into successful accounts with strong and healthy customer relationships.

• Special area is to establish trusting long-term B2B customer relationships based on common innovation and win-win business perspective.

• Broad experience from establishing strong customer-oriented delivery teams based on trust in the individuals in combination with common values and visions to the team.

• Led and participated in tender processes and contract negotiations of IT services contracts with contract values up to approximately 1000 m sek.

• Graduation from IHM Diploma Marketing 2 years program with distinction in all subjects, including the final comprehensive project, also awarded as best project for the current year.

Carol Hargrave – Spark Group, Marketing, GTM

• Developed B2B content marketing strategy for Austin-based FinTech startup to help them win key accounts.

• Developed B2B marketing strategy for Baltimore-based FinTech startup to help them enter the market and gain awareness from a variety of constituents including their target market, investors and the media.

• Develop go-to-market strategy for local SaaS startup including market analysis, value prop development, branding, and acquisition and retention strategy. Led to successful exit for business.

• Developing B2B marketing strategy for established Swedish manufacturing business to refresh and energize their sales operations.

• Former Chief Marketing Officer for Klarna and Dignifi

• PayPal, Carol held the position of Director of US Consumer Marketing

• Citi Group, Vice President, Managed new account acquisitions marketing for the Home Depot Private Label credit card for both consumer and business accounts. 

Per-Ola Andersson – Product and Business Management

• 30+ years of managerial experience in Ericsson, Telia, Digital Equipment, Compaq, Unisource and as independent consultant.

• Strong consultative mind and experience from both Product and Services companies.

• Solid experience from all aspects of product development in both small, medium, and large global companies. Been there, done that and succeeded with:
  – Built a SW product unit in California for Ericsson
  – Advised mgmt. of Alfa Laval on lowering costs and reducing total assortment in their product portfolio
  – Managing the consultancy business unit for DEC with profitability.

• Built Product Management organizations in both small and large international companies.

• Driving Agile Product Management in sw and hw products.

• Certified Product Manager – ISPMA.

   

Tord Johnson – Manufacturing Specialist

• Ph.D. Student in microelectronics, specializing in frequency generation for wireless systems.

• CTO for MTEK focused on by providing digital building blocks, liberating the value of data locked up and hidden in production machines and processes.

• Specialized in manufacturing excellence, supply chain management, design and manufacturing that helps corporations around the world meet their core business and quality objectives.

• Supports companies in building their TQM with hands-on expertise in developing processes, metrics, corrective actions, skillset improvements of operators and leadership teams.

• Skilled in providing coaching and mentoring for leadership teams facing challenges with sustainable quality measures.