Glen MEHN, BA, MBA
e-mail: glen.mehn@oba.co.uk | tel: +44(0)7942 675 755 | skype: glenmehn

Summary

• Bright, articulate, international Oxford MBA with significant product development & operations management experience seeking a new challenge
  • Fifteen years in start-ups focussed on Product Management, ICT development and operations, including a year of management consulting with entrepreneurs in Africa
  • Skilled in cross-functional leadership and management; thrives on finding elegant, creative solutions to problems such as turning ideas into products and services

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  Skillset
  

  Cross-functional Consulting & Implementation | Product Development and Management | Change Management | Financial Modelling | Business Plans | Operations Strategy & Implementation | ICT Strategy

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  Work Experience

  2001-            Boot Partners (Consultancy & incubator, privately held)
  London, UK & Silicon Valley, USA
  Start-up Consultant (London, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda), 2009-
  Associate Consultant (Silicon Valley, USA), 2001-2007

  • Restructured a USD$2million/year seed firm, preparing it for a USD$700,000 investment
  • Built operations/management frameworks for Mobile Transactions Zambia Ltd (MTZL)
  • Wrote business plan, advised on fundraising and incubation business model for African Enterprise Partners, a social venture consulting & deal flow company in Zambia
  • Advised Aros Capital on the structure and investment strategy for their Altruistic fund
  • Managed MiaVia spam filter appliance from idea through proof of concept and execution
  • Created IT strategy for and launched MyVest automated managed accounts system

  2009-            Appfrica (Software incubator, privately held)
  Kampala, Uganda
  Non-Executive Director

  • Sourced funding, advised on company & innovation strategy, represented at conferences

  2008-2009    MBAs Without Borders (Entrepreneur development, privately held)
  Kampala, Uganda
  Entrepreneurship Consultant/Interim Executive

  • Interim executive for Ugastove, a 40 person manufacturer of energy-saving stoves
  • Reduced manufacturing losses by 85% with new record-keeping processes
  • Doubled sales in six months with a new marketing & sales strategy
  • Ensured successful carbon project validation & verification via financial management

  Jun-Aug, 2008       Man Group, PLC (Alternative investments, LSE/FTSE50)
  London, UK
  Organisational Design and Communications consultant (MBA Internship)

  • Created a strategy to re-launch the Intranet to drive internal communication
  • Advised on specific ways to use bonuses to increase collaboration
  • Restructured employee induction process to communicate company culture and strategy
  • Planned the shift from an email-only culture to a face-first/phone-second/email-last culture

  2005-2007    Perlegen Sciences (Genotyping and personalized medicine, privately held)
  Silicon Valley, USA
  Internal Operations Consultant

  • Managed team of eight who built a USD$12million high-availability genotyping data centre
  • Saved USD$4million in capital expenditure by expanding data centre capacity while reducing power usage by 30%
  • Designed network security strategy and tactical plan ahead of Sarbanes-Oxley requirements (USA legislative standards for all public companies)

  2004-2005    LookSmart, Ltd (Online advertising, NYSE)
  San Francisco, USA
  Production Operations Lead

  • Managed team of eight production operations staff to run a 6,500 node data centre
  • Led technical lead Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in information security and systems audit
  • Saved over USD$400K/year by migrating acquired BI mainframe system to 250 node cluster, thus increasing ad serving efficiency and shrinking working capital requirements
  • Saved USD$1.5million by avoiding capital expenditure with virtual IP addressing system

  1999-2004    SquareTrade, Inc. (Online dispute resolution, privately held)
  San Francisco, USA
  Head of IT, 2002-2004
  Systems Administrator, 1999-2002

  • Managed team of eight and a USD$500K budget, including operations and QA lab
  • Created innovative, secure partner integration and offline/batch processing API
  • Introduced OSS/Agile methodology to replace waterfall/traditional development methods
  • Implemented data centre change without downtime, resulting in a USD$150,000 annualized operational cost savings (on USD$1.2million in revenue)
  • Managed all IT and Operations infrastructure during growth of company from 3 to 90

  1998-1999    TriStrata (Secure document handling, privately held)
  Silicon Valley, USA
  Systems Administrator

  • Managed all internal systems and development infrastructure, including mail and web

  1992-1998    The Space Between (Multi/interdisciplinary arts production non-profit)
  New Orleans, USA
  Designer, Producer, Director

  • Created  and produced quarterly, sold-out, multidisciplinary performances in New Orleans
  • Managed teams of twenty including carpenters, designers, and electricians

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  Education and Qualifications

  2007-2008       Pembroke College, University of Oxford, UK – MBA in Strategy and Entrepreneurship
  1997-1998       Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, USA – Postgraduate Certificate in Theatre
  1991-1997       University of New Orleans, USA – BA in English, Design, Sociology

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  Achievements

  Leadership          

  Led Oxford team to finals at UCLA Global Leadership Competition
  Managed Burning Man (http://www.burningman.com/) tech team of 20 for three years
  Drove strategy and creation of Managed 50 person Burning Man camp for five years

  Sustainability      

  Founder & Co-chair of Oxford Summit on Business and the Environment
  Won Idea 2007 Idol business plan competition: Heat=energy: Data Centre Sustainability

  Social Enterprise

  Communications Director, Oxford Business Network on Social Entrepreneurship
  Inaugural team leader, Oxford Volunteer Consulting Club
  Worked on & launched Burning Man Extranet to manage 4000 global volunteers
  Registered coach on BiDNetwork (Mentoring developing world entrepreneurs)
  Volunteered in Moravian homeless shelter overnight once a week for a year
                                     
  Publications         “Strategic Use of Internet-Based Social Lending for Small Enterprises” IBIMA, (2008)
                                      “Incubation as a Model for Development Entrepreneurship” Africa Gathering, (2009)

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  Additional Information

  Nationality            USA/Unrestricted eligibility to work in the UK (Tier 1/General)
  Languages            English (native speaker), Spanish (Conversant)

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  Interests

  Sport                    

  Road cyclist: 3rd place in HEC MBAT team for Oxford/Saïd Business School, Rowed in Pembroke M-III, Yoga practitioner (Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Iyengar)
  

  Food and Wine    

  Pembroke College, Oxford MCR Sommelier, 2007-2008