Professional Services Team | Catalyst Strategies

The team is focused, experienced, and offer solid advice. They are a ‘no fluff’ group. They get work done and are entirely focused on driving customer-centric solutions.

Vice President, AAA

Catalyst Strategies consultants are experienced and specialize in accelerating revenue growth in the technology and services sectors. On average, our consultants have more than 20 years of operating, management and consulting experience. Each client team includes seasoned “A-players” with executive experience with world-class corporations and consulting firms.

The Catalyst Strategies team is known for quickly delivering practical recommendations and working collaboratively with clients to drive decisive action that leads to tangible market results.

Trish Hayward

Founder and Managing Partner

Trish Hayward has 25 years of experience accelerating top line revenue for leading brands in the technology and services industries. In 1998, she founded Catalyst Strategies to help technology and services companies achieve aggressive growth goals. Trish pioneered an approach to growth strategy that unifies analytical discipline, practical ideas, agility and collaboration. The firm is known for driving executive teams to decisive actions that lead to market results.

Trish oversees projects with high profile clients including SAP, Charles Schwab, Intuit, Yahoo!, Cisco Systems, Kodak, eBay, Citibank, Univision Communications, Wells Fargo, and Blue Shield of California. She also advises private-equity and venture-funded companies such as Ning, TrustedID, Cake Financial, LiveFuels, Hydropoint Data Systems, Imara, and other companies funded by leading private equity and venture capital firms including NEA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Battery Ventures, Nth Power, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Sequoia Capital. Trish has also lectured on business growth topics, such as business planning and competitive advantage for corporate and early-stage CEO training programs, as well as for masters level courses in marketing and strategy.

Prior to founding Catalyst Strategies, Trish was a consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton’s New York Strategy Practice and a partner with Marketing Corporation of America, where she served a variety of Fortune 100 consumer-services clients. Trish has held VP-level line management positions, including those at Turner Broadcasting and at Themestream, one of the web’s first user-generated content sites, which was funded by Kleiner Perkins and Redpoint Ventures. Trish started her career in high technology sales with Control Data Corporation.

Trish holds a MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a BS from the Pennsylvania State University.

Mary Culley

Partner

Mary Culley is a senior executive with more than 20 years of experience of exceeding revenue and profitability goals for high growth enterprise software and services companies. She delivers strategic planning, go-to-market acceleration services, and organizational development for sales, channel, field marketing, and business development functions.

Mary’s experience includes sales strategy, sales operations, and field marketing initiatives for Cisco, McAfee, eBay, Entercept Security Technology, diCarta, Vividence, and Sun Microsystems. She has expertise in the thermal management, security, CRM, ERP, web services and mobile markets.

Mary has a track record of building high performance sales teams, aggressively driving customer acquisition and revenue within a range of industries and company profiles. She has also successfully led numerous sales integration teams during significant mergers and acquisitions. Prior to consulting, she held senior manager and vice president positions at Symantec, Delrina Technology, CKS US Web, SCO (The Santa Cruz Operation), and Vividence, a Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital portfolio company.

She holds a BA with Honors from UCSC.

Sarah Hammann

Principal

Sarah Hammann has built and launched profitable businesses for 20 years in Global 100 and early-stage companies—from consumer goods and financial services to technology and health care. Sarah’s expertise is in excavating consumer insights that unleash growth opportunities and build brands.

Since 2006, Sarah’s clients have included Johnson & Johnson, Blue Shield of California, Microsoft, and Advanced Micro Devices as well as early stage companies in health care, technology and retail services.

Before joining Catalyst Strategies, Sarah was chief marketing officer of Posit Science, a life sciences company in brain health. Sarah built marketing and sales from scratch—leading a team to craft the brand, value proposition, business model, and offer strategy. Previously, Sarah was general manager of Small Business Services for Intuit. Her team delivered double-digit growth by identifying and launching two breakthrough services.

In her New York era, Sarah was senior vice president of Market Development for Standard & Poor’s. She led global product management, marketing, research, and communications for six divisions. Prior to S&P, Sarah was vice president of New Business Development for Reader’s Digest Association where she launched the company’s digital media business and profitably expanded the customer base. Sarah started her career in brand management with Procter & Gamble and in consulting with McKinsey & Company.

Sarah holds an MBA from Cornell University as well as a BA with honors in History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Sandra Smith

Principal

Sandra Smith has 16 years of experience developing and executing growth strategies for leading Fortune 500 companies in financial services, telecommunication, and high-tech industries. Sandra brings a unique combination of exceptional consulting skills with line management experience delivering successful business results. Her focus is on strategy development, strategic planning, product strategy and integration, as well as new opportunity assessment.

A principal with Catalyst since 2002, Sandra has led projects for Schwab Retail Services, Intuit, eBay, and acted as a senior advisor for AAA. Before joining Catalyst Strategies, Sandra was a Director of Advised Offers for Charles Schwab. She had P&L responsibility and directed all aspects of the business including marketing strategy, pricing, sales and distribution, operations, and technology infrastructure. Under her leadership, the service was developed, launched and scaled up to almost $1 billion in assets during its first year. While at Schwab, Sandra also worked as an in-house consultant, successfully launching new retail businesses and improving the profitability of existing ones.

Prior to Schwab, Sandra spent three years as a project manager at the Boston Consulting Group where she successfully managed strategic projects in corporate strategy development, growth opportunity identification, market entry planning, acquisition due diligence, post-merger integration, and strategic planning process design. Sandra also brings world-class experience in new product and service development from her four years at Bell Canada.

She holds a MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of Business, a Masters of Applied Science in Management Information Systems from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor with Honors in Industrial Engineering also from the University of Toronto.

Jill Richards

Consultant

Jill Richards has more than 20 years of experience developing strategies and leading marketing, business development, and market research programs for a broad range of clients, including eBay, Cisco, SAP, Wells Fargo, AT Kearney, Bain & Company, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Deloitte.

Before joining Catalyst Strategies, Jill served as vice president of Marketing at Visto Corporation and directed member acquisition and product marketing at Netscape Communications and America Online. She has also been a consultant at Price Waterhouse, KPMG, and Braxton Associates.

Jill holds an MBA from The Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles and a BA in International Relations from Pomona College. She also studied business at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris in Paris, France and international relations at the Institut Universitaire des Etudes Européennes in Geneva, Switzerland.

Deborah Steinthal

Consultant

Deborah Steinthal has over 25 years business development experience across technology, service and consumer goods industries. Her work delivers substantial business growth and big change across private and public enterprises, globally. Deborah has enabled organizations large and small to transform from startup through formalization; reposition due to competitive market dynamics; manage through fast growth; launch new initiatives, products and services; and integrate strategy and organization post acquisition.

Deborah has led technology-based business incubators at Lockheed Martin; launched and built a highly profitable professional service ecommerce practice at Oracle; and filled the lead role in Marketing and Business Development during the launch phase of several startup businesses. With a solid decade of management consulting expertise, she has worked with over 100 companies repositioning to grow or preparing for exit, as Founding Partner of business strategy consulting firm Scion Advisors.

An innovative thinker, Deborah has a proven and collaborative approach to growth planning that engages business leaders in envisioning, breakthrough thinking and successfully executing customer-based strategies that accelerate growth in top line revenues.

She holds a BS in Business and Economics from Lehigh University, and is a graduate of the Lockheed Management Institute at Santa Clara University. Deborah has served on numerous boards, is broadly published, an invited speaker, panelist, and has moderated CEO roundtables for the last 10 years.

Susheela Vasan

Consultant

Susheela Vasan has over 20 years of consulting and operational experience creating and implementing growth strategies for technology and services companies. Her expertise is in identifying and growing new markets for early stage to Fortune 500 companies, with particular emphasis on emerging technologies. Her experience includes work in the early stages of the UNIX, cellular telephone, network services, multimedia, network gaming, VOIP, and Internet markets.

In her previous consulting experience at McKinsey & Co., Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and as an independent consultant, Susheela specialized in strategy and implementation projects focused on emerging markets, serving clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Pacific Bell, American Express, and Wells Fargo.

Susheela’s operating experience includes executive roles at start-up companies. She is owner of GiftLit.com, an online retailer of book-of-the-month gifts. She also led product marketing for 3DO, a multimedia company funded by Electronic Arts, Matsushita, MCA, Time Warner, AT&T and Kleiner Perkins.

Susheela holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Engineering, summa cum laude from Cornell University.

Kim Drew

Consultant

Kim Drew brings more than 15 years of experience in business strategy development and execution, primarily in the financial services and technology industries. Kim is a seasoned consultant, having worked as both an in-house and external advisor, who brings a perspective grounded in significant operating experience.

Prior to joining Catalyst, Kim spent eight years with Charles Schwab in a variety of strategic and operating roles. Her most recent role was vice president of business strategy, where she successfully partnered with various Schwab divisions to develop new business opportunities and growth strategies. Prior to this, she was vice president of Web trading, responsible for all aspects of online product development and client user experience for trading and equity news and research capabilities of www.schwab.com.

Prior to Schwab, Kim was a management consultant with Arthur D. Little, in Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, CA. She advised multinational technology and telecommunications clients on product and marketing strategies, with particular expertise in market entry strategy development for manufacturers entering the US consumer market. In addition, Kim worked with several telecommunications firms to evaluate, benchmark, and redesign new product development processes and build product portfolio management capabilities.

Kim has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelors degree in Economics and Philosophy from Boston College.

Michael Whitcomb

Consultant

Michael has more than 20 years of experience in line marketing management and with marketing services companies, covering both the consumer and B2B sectors. With expertise in marketing strategy and integrated marketing planning, he is known for design and implementation of innovative and successful growth initiatives for Fortune 500 and early stage companies.

Prior to joining Catalyst Strategies, Michael was Managing Director of the Ackerman McQueen, the nation’s 10th largest independent advertising agency. His clients included LeapFrog Enterprises, Juniper Networks, Xirrus WiFi Systems, BancTec, Claimetrics Insurance, Mega Brands, and Hooked On Phonics. Among other successes, Michael can point to the fact that over its 11-year relationship with Ackerman McQueen, LeapFrog grew from a start-up to over $650 million in revenues, winning the Grand Effie for the most effective marketing campaign in 2004.

Before joining Ackerman McQueen, Michael was CMO for Jarden Corporation, a $4 billion diversified consumer products company. In addition to M&A initiatives, Michael led the successful restage and re-branding initiative of two major divisions. Earlier in his career, Michael advanced through the brand management ranks at Quaker Oats and was managing director for the launch of Gatorade in Australia and New Zealand, the most successful launch of Gatorade anywhere outside of the U.S. Michael started his career in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather in New York.

Michael holds an MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia and a BA in History from Dartmouth College.

Jillian Heisman

Consultant

Jillian Heisman has over 18 years of experience providing strategic direction to early stage and Fortune 500 companies. Jillian‘s background includes cross functional expertise in strategic/business planning, finance and operations. She has direct experience with all phases of business evolution for new ventures from idea generation through fundraising, market launch and execution of business strategies.

Jillian’s expertise includes assisting clients in evaluating the feasibility of new concepts, assessing new market opportunities, conducting customer/market validation, performing market and competitive research, developing strategic, operational and business plans and financial modeling to quantify resource requirements, cash flow and earnings potential for new ventures. Special emphasis is on formulating growth strategies for emerging technology companies.

Representative clients include companies in the Internet, computer software and hardware, clean tech, telecommunications, health care, business services, manufacturing, retail, and consumer products industries.

Prior positions include management consultant for Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouse Coopers) West Coast Retail Consulting Practice and research and portfolio analyst with investment banking firms Kidder Peabody (now UBS) and Cornerstone Investments in San Francisco, CA.

Jillian holds an MBA with honors in Finance and International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and a BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in International Relations .

Freny Cooper

Consultant

With almost 20 years experience in high technology marketing, Freny Cooper provides strategic insights into Catalyst Strategies clients’ marketing plans. She has worked with a variety of Fortune 1000 and early stage companies on strategic plans, communications plans, and marketing strategy and programs to encourage growth. Since joining Catalyst Strategies, she has worked with clients such as Cisco, SAP, Network Chemistry, eBay and Hydropoint.

Prior to joining Catalyst Strategies, Freny consulted for companies such as Palm, Inc., Apple Computer, Plantronics and KnightRidder, as well as numerous start-ups, helping them improve their demand generation programs, refine their advertising strategies and develop impactful web sites.

Freny has held senior marketing communications positions at Silicon Graphics and Claris, where she significantly increased awareness and initiated e-commerce efforts for their products.

She holds an MBA from the Marshall School at the University of Southern California and a BA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

Thomlyn Binnett

Consultant

Thomlyn has been consulting since 2004, focusing on financial services and health care with an emphasis on consumer services development and marketing. As a consultant, her projects have included driving the strategic development a multi-channel enterprise-wide strategy and five-year roadmap for sales and consumer installation processes; managing planning and administrative operations for an eBusiness organization; and leading organization development activities including change management, strategic recruiting, performance measurement strategy, and employee engagement.

Prior to consulting, Thomlyn spent more than 11 years working in marketing and eBusiness at Charles Schwab. Her responsibilities included acquisition of new clients, development of the mass market segment of clients and managing online goal and portfolio planning tools. As the Director of the Independent Investing Foundational Service, Thomlyn had P&L responsibility and directed all aspects of the business including marketing strategy, pricing, and offer management for all self-directed clients with less than $100k in assets—representing 1.6 million households and $470 million annual revenue. Thomlyn’s experience at Schwab also includes various roles in eBusiness where she managed online portfolio and goal planning tools.

Thomlyn holds a BA from Mills College.

Scott S. Smith

Consultant

Scott S. Smith has more than 20 years of experience in information technology strategy and implementation planning for companies in financial services, high tech, consumer products, and clean tech. Scott’s hands-on industry experience in both senior technology and technical marketing management roles enables him to expertly apply advanced technology to support business growth and transformation.

Scott’s success in supporting business transformation with technology is based on his ability to adeptly translate business vision into IT plans. His technology experience includes web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA), enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise architecture (EA), and identity management (IdM) across leading server platforms, operating systems, and database environments. His structured approach leverages proven business process methodologies including Six Sigma, Project Management Institute (PMI) and PRINCE2.

Before joining Catalyst Strategies, Scott held senior management roles in professional services and technical marketing at Sun Microsystems. While leading the program management office (PMO), he led implementation of new business processes and best practices resulting in increased profitability of strategic account business. As a senior principal engagement manager, Scott had responsibility for defining IT project strategy for web services, consumer products, and high tech companies, including Juniper Networks, Apple Computer, Clorox, Ross Stores, Gap Inc., PG&E, and California ISO. Prior to Sun Microsystems, Scott held technical marketing management roles at Intel Corporation and Paradise Systems/Western Digital.

He holds a BSEE with Eta Kappa Nu Honors from University of Pacific and is a Six Sigma practitioner and ITIL Foundation certified.

Paige Hallsted

Analyst

Paige Hallsted has been with Catalyst Strategies since 2004. She brings strong analytical and project management skills to clients across the firm’s portfolio, including AAA, Blue Shield of California, eBay, Cisco, Intuit, and SAP. Prior to joining Catalyst, Paige was a Senior Associate at Denning & Company, a private equity advisory firm. There, she was responsible for project management and research for fund origination, due diligence and qualification, and fund performance tracking. In helping shape the strategic direction of the new firm, Paige spearheaded the development of the firm’s market strategy and marketing communications, and led all public and industry media relations.

Prior to Denning & Company, Paige was an investment analyst at GameChange Venture Capital, a seed-stage venture fund started by Mobius Ventures and Accenture Technology Ventures. Paige focused on identifying and evaluating business proposals, researching target markets, and working with the team on investment strategy and process. Prior to joining GameChange, Paige was an Investment Analyst in a joint venture between Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation and Hambrecht & Quist, the “HealthNet Ventures Fund”, where she worked directly with the two general partners on all fund affairs, from deal origination to competitive profiling to quarterly reporting. Paige began her career in private equity in 1998 at Hambrecht & Quist.

She graduated with a B.A. in Human Biology from Brown University.

Bill Crisick

Analyst

Bill has over fifteen years experience developing complex financial and data analysis models for organizations spanning the gamut from small startups to major players in the financial services industry. The models Bill creates are technically sound, dynamic, parameter-driven and robust, and always focused on clarity and ease of use. Bill’s modeling skills masterfully integrate his engineering and business school background.

Bill has previous consulting experience on the Management Services staff of Touche, Ross and Co. [now Deloitte and Touche] where he performed engagements in industries as diverse as shipbuilding and retailing. He has executed financial and data analysis models for clients such as Johnson & Johnson, Charles Schwab, AAA, eBay, Salient Wealth Management, and Carl Zeiss Meditec.

Bill holds the degree of Master of Science in Industrial Administration from the Krannert School at Purdue University, and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with Tau Beta Pi honors from Purdue University. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in California.

Dr. Leroy Miller

Senior Director, Business Research

Dr. Leroy Miller is a veteran market research expert who provides in-depth fact-finding, analysis, and problem-solving capability and has expertise in financial and economic analysis, customer and competitive analysis, and regional and global market data collection and review. He draws upon extensive online and offline resources including subscription based online and governmental databases, public company data, analyst reports, and Internet resources. He complements secondary research through intensive competitive, industry expert, supplier, or analyst interviews. Leroy has extensive research experience in both business and consumer industries across the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Leroy has been on the faculty of the American University in the School of International Service and the World Capitals Program since 1983. As a Fulbright scholar he received his doctorate, magna cum laude, at the University of Bonn in international relations in 1980. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with his B.A.

Alliance Partners

Business growth is our core competency. We work with alliance partners who offer complementary services such primary market research, branding and naming, content and editorial services, and employee engagement and performance.

Contact Catalyst Strategies to learn more about how we can identify and catalyze growth opportunities for your organization.