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Our experience serving hundreds of retail clients has taught us that retailers who understand every decision they make, in every department, directly affects the relationship with their customers. Those who treat every customer interaction as an opportunity to enhance their brand are the retailers who gain sustainable customer loyalty. We have built our business on a relentless commitment to delivering products, solutions and services that help our clients build passionate customers at every point of interaction. Our client roster reveals our track record of success. We create passionate customers by simplifying the inherent challenges of cross-channel commerce in the store, on the web, and over the phone.
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Escalate Retail was formed in 2006 by leading private equity firm Golden Gate Capital through the merger of Ecometry, Inc. and GERS Retail Systems, two of the industry’s most venerable multi-channel commerce solution providers. The combined company leverages a legacy of almost 50 years serving the retail industry with a solution suite targeted to several vertical markets, including apparel, consumer electronics, department stores, direct marketing, furniture, luxury, and specialty hard lines and soft lines.
Our clients are among the leaders in their markets, with high-profile brands like The Home Depot, Brooks Brothers, The Buckle, Frontgate, and EILEEN FISHER among the hundreds of names on our client roster. Additionally, year after year Escalate solutions are identified among the leaders in their class by analyst reports, customer surveys, and media scorecards. Most recently, our Order Management and Order Fulfillment applications were named the leading solutions to Internet Retailer’s Top 500 e-Commerce sites.
The corporate headquarters is in San Diego, CA with offices located across North America and Europe.
Prescott Ashe
Managing Director, Golden Gate Capital
Prescott Ashe is a Managing Director of Golden Gate Capital. He has 15-years of private equity investing experience and has participated in both growth-equity and management buyout transactions with more than $10.0 billion in value. Mr. Ashe focuses on (i) technology-related industries (specifically software, IT services, electronic hardware and manufacturing services), (ii) the consumer products and retail sectors, and (iii) business services. Prior to joining Golden Gate Capital, Mr. Ashe was a Principal at Bain Capital, which he initially joined in 1991, and a strategy consultant at Bain & Company. Mr. Ashe holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley (where he graduated first in his class).
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Stewart M. Bloom
CEO, Escalate, Inc.
Stew is responsible for corporate strategy and execution for Escalate, and the attainment of the company’s goals. His leadership philosophy is focused on building effective business partnerships, setting a high standard of integrity and transparency for Escalate’s customers, alliance partners, and stakeholders, as well as the retail and technology community we are members of.
Prior to joining Escalate predecessor company GERS Retail Systems in 2005 as its CEO, Stew served as Vice President, North American Technology Services for Capgemini, a global professional services and outsourcing firm, where he served some of the firms largest Retail, Consumer Products, Media and Technology clients. Before joining Capgemini, Stew was Senior Vice President, eStrategy Consulting for Mainspring prior to its IPO and subsequent acquisition by IBM. Previously, he was a Partner with Ernst & Young Management Consulting leading the firm’s eBusiness Practice, and the Ernst & Young Center for Technology Enablement. Earlier in his career, Stew was co-founder and Vice President of enterprise software and services provider DSSI (acquired by E&Y), held other management positions with large public systems integrators, as well as retail store operations in both the home décor and consumer electronics industry segments.
Stew is a member of the Board of Directors at Escalate, and a former Board Member for Leopard Communications (acquired by Ogilvy). He is an active member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the College of Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
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David Dominik
Managing Director, Golden Gate Capital
David Dominik is a Managing Director of Golden Gate Capital. He has extensive private equity investment and operational experience, especially in a broad range of technology-related industries. Prior to Golden Gate Capital, Mr. Dominik spent ten years as a managing director at Bain Capital where he was responsible for managing Information Partners, a specialized fund within Bain Capital that focused on software, information services, and transaction processing companies serving a broad range of end markets. Mr. Dominik also built several scale companies in the semiconductor and electronics industries. Mr. Dominik also served on the investment committee of Brookside, Bain Capital's public equity hedge fund. In addition, Mr. Dominik opened and ran the California office for Bain Capital. Previously, Mr. Dominik was a partner at Zero Stage Capital, an early stage technology venture capital firm where he helped co-found several successful technology ventures. He was an early investor and assistant to the chairman of Genzyme Corporation. He also served as a Consultant at Bain & Company. Mr. Dominik has a J.D. from Harvard Law School (cum laude) and an A.B. from Harvard College (magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa).
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Stewart M. Bloom
CEO
Stew is responsible for corporate strategy and execution for Escalate, and the attainment of the company’s goals. His leadership philosophy is focused on building effective business partnerships, setting a high standard of integrity and transparency for Escalate’s customers, alliance partners, and stakeholders, as well as the retail and technology community we are members of.
Prior to joining Escalate predecessor company GERS Retail Systems in 2005 as its CEO, Stew served as Vice President, North American Technology Services for Capgemini, a global professional services and outsourcing firm, where he served some of the firms largest Retail, Consumer Products, Media and Technology clients. Before joining Capgemini, Stew was Senior Vice President, eStrategy Consulting for Mainspring prior to its IPO and subsequent acquisition by IBM. Previously, he was a Partner with Ernst & Young Management Consulting leading the firm’s eBusiness Practice, and the Ernst & Young Center for Technology Enablement. Earlier in his career, Stew was co-founder and Vice President of enterprise software and services provider DSSI (acquired by E&Y), held other management positions with large public systems integrators, as well as retail store operations in both the home décor and consumer electronics industry segments.
Stew is a member of the Board of Directors at Escalate, and a former Board Member for Leopard Communications (acquired by Ogilvy). He is an active member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the College of Business Administration at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
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Mike Larkin
Executive Vice President & CFO
Responsibilities: Corporate financial planning, analysis, accounting, controllership, administrative, human resources, and legal activities.
Mike has served over 20 years as CFO of GERS Retail Systems (now Escalate Retail) guiding the company through major new initiatives for financial growth as well as important strategic acquisitions and mergers. Previously, Mike was a member of the GE Corporate Audit staff where he conducted intensive financial, operational, and other special reviews for executive management and the GE Board of Directors at fourteen different company-owned businesses in twenty-five domestic and foreign locations.
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Spence Mallder
Sr. Vice President, Software Development
Responsibilities: Accountability for quality and performance of Escalate's software engineering capabilities. This includes company-wide software application engineering, technology and process integration, strategy development and product delivery.
Spence brings over 22 years of experience in all aspects of retail application development with particular emphasis on e-commerce and complex systems development and integration. His background includes leadership roles at IBM where he was the Lead Partner in the Retail Application Innovation Services (AIS) group within IBM Global Business Services. He was also responsible for the strategy, definition, and development of IBM's Retail Multi-Channel solution. Prior to IBM, Mallder held senior roles with Mainspring and Ernst & Young where he led software development, design, and implementation projects. His technology experience spans development of real-time, object-oriented applications, CORBA, J2EE, messaging middleware, and hardware-in-the-loop technology simulations.
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Rob Neibauer
Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Sales
Responsibilities: Leadership and coordination of sales programs and client acquisition activities across all business units of the company.
With over 18 years experience in delivering e-commerce and enterprise focused technology solutions, Rob brings a diverse and solid background to his role as the sales leader for Escalate Retail. His previous sales leadership roles include Blue Martini Software where he served as VP of North American sales and CoolSign Media, where as Senior VP of Sales he was responsible for all direct and reseller sales channels and strategic alliances. Additionally, Rob has also held sales leadership roles at JD Edwards and product management positions at FourGen Software.
Rob's leadership has been instrumental in helping bringing flagship accounts to the Escalate Retail client portfolio, including, Nordstrom, Federated Department Stores and Starbucks among others.
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Ron Franks
Vice President, Professional Services Business Development
Responsibilities: Development of solution implementation and customization service strategies to minimize risk, maximize investment return and insure client success.
Ron has a broad background of successful services and implementation engagements as a veteran of 17 years in the systems implementation field. He has held leadership positions in professional services management at Ecometry and Blue Martini Software. Other key roles include Vice President, Consulting, Education & Support Services at Vastera as well as a variety of managerial and executive positions at Bain.
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Rich Harmatiuk
Vice President, General Manager, General Retail Industry
Responsibilities: Overall direction and operations of the General Retail business unit, with particular emphasis on the needs of specialty hardlines, softlines and apparel retail organizations.
Rich brings over 34 years combined retail and software experience to his leadership role as GM of the company's largest business unit. He has held a number of key positions over the years at Escalate Retail including Vice President of Development, and Product Management. Additionally, Rich was instrumental in the establishment of the General Retail business unit in 1992, as well as, the company's business intelligence and supply chain initiatives. Prior to joining Escalate, Rich held leadership positions in distribution center management and store operations for a nationally recognized retail chain.
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Brian Johnson
Vice President, General Manager, Direct Commerce Industry
Responsibilities: Overall direction and operations of the company's Direct Commerce division focusing on the needs of Catalog and E-Tail retailers.
With over 19 years of Direct Commerce experience, Brian has worked with many of the country's Top 100 catalogers and e-commerce companies in providing solutions to meet the specialized needs of the direct marketing industry. Since joining Escalate Retail in 1996, Brian has been instrumental in growing the company's client base of leading direct marketing clients and insuring a high level of customer service and satisfaction. Brian came to Escalate Retail, from Acxiom where he was Director of the MorTech division, responsible for supplying Order Management Solutions to the catalog marketplace.
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Michael Julson
Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
Responsibilities: Developing and managing the company's technical vision and leading all aspects of the company's technology development including standards and conventions, process best practices, and technology partnerships.
Michael has over 15 years of software development management experience, including overseeing the Research & Development (R&D) and Client Application teams for Ecometry Corp. Prior to that, he served as Systems Development Manager at Dow Chemical and the CTO of Visual Fire, an e-commerce software provider. Michael’s development experience includes the architecture design and management of highly scalable and robust e-commerce applications for Dow Chemical, Disney, Terra Lycos, and Sony Corporation. He is a member of the board of directors for the Association for Retail Technology Standards (ARTS), the retail technology standards division of the National Retail Federation.
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Tim Kilbane
Vice President, Technology Services Group
Responsibilities: Overall direction and management of the Professional Services Organization across all Business Units of the company providing customer services including client management, implementation consulting, development integration, education and all types of technical services.
Tim brings more than 22 years of experience in sales and operations in the furniture industry, as both a retailer and vendor. Prior to Escalate Retail, he held various positions at GERS Retail Systems including services support, and key account management for several top tier retailers including Home Depot, where he oversaw the retailer's Order Management Services rollout. Most recently, Tim served as Vice President of Services for GERS Retail Systems.
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Tom Mudd
Vice President, Software Development for General Retail
Responsibilities: All of phases of software product development for the general retail marketplace.
Tom brings over 24 years combined software development and retail experience to his position with the company. Since joining the company in 1993, he has been instrumental in developing and managing many large-scale specialty retail ERP implementations throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Japan and Australia. He has held previous positions in application support, technical support, professional services and previously worked 10 years in a variety of retail environments, including consumer electronics, general retail, and grocery.
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Steve Pulver
Vice President, General Manager, Big Ticket Retail Industry
Responsibilities: Overall direction and operations of the company’s Big Ticket Division focusing on the needs of the Home Furnishings, Consumer Electronics and Appliance retailers.
Steve has over 27 years of combined software and retail experience. Steve has worked with many of the country’s top Big Ticket retailers, including owning and operating his own retail chain for over a decade. Since joining Escalate Retail in 1991, Steve has established a proven track record of creating and implementing significant advances in Big Ticket solutions within POS, distribution, customer service and merchandising. During this period, he has held multiple management positions in both sales and services. Previously, Steve worked as Vice-President of Sales and Services for BayLogics, a software company offering corporate real estate solutions to many of the nation’s largest retailers.
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Candie Rogers
Vice President, Customer Support
Responsibilities: Managing the company's overall customer support operations including contact centers, web support, and technical support.
Candie brings over 15 years of support management experience to her role at Escalate Retail. She has a proven track record of managing operations in support of several major companies including FAO Schwarz, Kenneth Cole, Telebrands, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Petrossian. She has held previous positions with Ecometry Corp. where she was directly responsible for direct marketing operations, client services, and call center management.
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