Christian Egeler CV - Christian Egeler's CV

Product Executive Who Thrives in Fast Paced Environments

“There is nothing permanent except change. Embrace new challenges.”

Enabling culture transformation and driving change bottom up.
My innovation organization has contributed 60+ key filed patents.
Building a full end to end startup organization in a big company.

STRENGTHS

TECHNICAL SKILLS

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Lenovo, Greater Tampa Area, FL

CTO & Technical Product Management Owner July 2021-Present

5G Connected Consumer Business

· Creation and ownership of technical roadmap for connected laptop and tablet solutions that are geared towards video conferencing, cloud office productivity, and cloud gaming use cases. In this role, I interface with all the other Lenovo business units to not only promote device and cloud computing but also wireless device to device collaboration between Lenovo products and products that use open technology standards. Device collaboration includes Lenovo accessories, Lenovo AR/VR, Lenovo Home Edge, and Motorola smartphones. Responsible for global markets with current emphasis in North American and Western Europe markets. Heavily correlated to network infrastructure roadmaps and network infrastructure readiness of leading telecom carriers. Revenue emphasis beyond hardware revenue to include solutions & software revenues.

· Leverage and grow telco channel relationships to promote and gain acceptance of new 5G connected products and solutions. I do joint product marketing research and business development with tier 1 US national public telco operators and large private network operators to promote ideas and drive adoption of new Always on Always Connected laptops based on Qualcomm chipsets.

· Implement and lead new use case definition and prototype development working closely with business development and portfolio management counterparts. Use Lenovo standardized build, leverage, partners process to decide how new technology partners are integrated into new Lenovo products. Hands on with prototyping that includes working directly with internal and external engineering teams and developing necessary artifacts to complete prototype. Promotes use of Lenovo cloud solutions for use cases that benefit from cloud compute resources enabled by high-speed connectivity.

· Perform product marketing research with customers, sales channels, and partners to identify key pain points and needs, specifically around connectivity as it relates to the Lenovo device portfolio. Use inputs to influence technology roadmap.

· Developed and leading evolution of new consumer connected experience where new 4G/5G laptops are instantly connected on initial customer out of box experience to a network provider with initial trial data plan with no effort and working with carriers to expand an always on always connected experience.

· Development of executive summaries presented on a monthly basis to Lenovo Consumer Executive leadership based in Beijing that identify opportunity, risk, help required, and next steps on new connected device business or technology partnership opportunities.

Self Employed, Greater Tampa Area, FL July 2020-June 2021

5G / XR Consultant

· Short term consulting engagements around market sizing, market trends, and revenue projections in the telecom & XR spaces.

High Yield Investment Analyst / Coach

· Guiding large membership towards investing in deep value opportunities and sustainable high yield investment opportunities.

· Devised options plays that provided high returns for consistent income generation.

· Researched SEC filings, investor presentations, fundamental review, and technical analysis of long-term trading patterns.

Magic Leap, Greater Fort Lauderdale Area / Plantation, FL June 2019-June 2020

Product Strategy | Product Management | Product Marketing

Lead Product Manager – Enterprise | Cloud | Telecom | IoT | AR/VR

· Product launched Magic Leap’s first enterprise focused SKU with MVP feature sets within 6 months of joining the organization. It was the company’s first headset solution that included an enterprise SaaS device management revenue model.

· Created product strategy centered around training, data visualization, location-based experiences, spatial conferencing, and spatial CRM applications. Identified and pursued key verticals where AR/VR hardware would enhance human productivity.

· Created enterprise & developer SKUs with pricing for Magic Leap’s first enterprise offering and revamped developers bundle in Q4 2019 in collaboration with marketing, finance, and sales operations. Executed go to market strategy with marketing and sales that included e-commerce, partnerships with key telecom partners, and direct sales vehicles. Resulted in high sales of new developer bundles and enterprise bundles that brought in Magic Leap’s first software-based revenues.

· Presented to existing and potential investors Magic Leap’s value proposition of using AR technology to improve revenue or cut costs in different enterprise verticals that included Smart Cities, IoT, location-based experiences, manufacturing, and education.

· Lead Product Manager for first party training and remote assist solutions in manufacturing, aerospace, and health verticals. Efforts included managing internal and external teams to develop first party software on top of an optimized device platform.

· Lead Product Manager for internal MVP device management platform. Collaborated with 3rd party leaders in mobile device management to integrate Magic Leap devices with their industry leading MDM solutions.

· Created 3-year product roadmap approved by C-Suite and Board of Directors for Magic Leap cloud services using public, hybrid, and edge networks for the Magic Leap ecosystem involving identity, visual location, object recognition, 3D rendering, and future offloaded headset compute.

· Created business and technical product requirements for next generation headset hardware to pivot and baseline product for enterprise and consumer use cases that included offloading of device compute to the cloud.

· Created technical product requirements and co-developed initial technical architecture with engineering team for features such as See What I See video conferencing and other key enterprise platform improvements.

· Interfaced with the sales team and early adopter customers directly to identify common needs required for wearable computing. Consulted with customers on how spatial computing would increase efficiency/revenue and lower costs. Assisted and enabled lower volume sales to enable customers to start proof of concepts.

· Partnered with the Business Development team to build relationships with key partners including Unity, Epic Games, Salesforce, SAP, PTC, Wacom, and Deloitte. Relationship building was either to support partners creating solutions on the Magic Leap platform or collaborate on key AR/VR features set areas that required time and investment from platform partners.

· Collaborated with US/Japan carriers and major data center partners around wearable computing device using mobile edge compute solutions to offload compute or enable new types of enterprise solutions using the latest Wi-Fi and 4G/5G networks. Performed marketing booth functions to advertise Magic Leap solutions at AT&T Business events.

· Collaborated with key telecom and health customers to sell the Magic Leap Enterprise edition with Device Management that they could resell with managed services. Effort included creating and operating a sustainable and scalable deployment strategy.

· Introduced highly productive product management tools and procedures such as aha to a new team still using spreadsheets for requirements management that increased product management productivity and cohesiveness with the engineering teams.

VERIZON Device Technology / (XR) Product and Research Group, Greater NYC Area / Basking Ridge, NJ June 2013-December 2018

5G LABS | 5G APPLICATION R&D | 5G MEDIA

Director Product Development & Tech Innovation, October 2016 – December 2018

· Built from the ground up a large creative and cross discipline internal startup group of 100 employees and contractors with 5 senior manager reports inside of Verizon focused on XR strategy, innovation, and product development. Managed and overseen business development, pre-sales, and product development (UX, Hardware/Software engineering, QA), and operations (Platform/DevOps) teams.

· Owned operations, finance, and product development resources as COO and CFO of the XR Innovation and Product group. Part cost center and part P&L. Managed annual group budget of $30 million to perform product development and research.

· Responsible for product definition, user experience and information architecture, software architecture, software design, testing, automation of internal and external products and solutions.

· Created environment for team to ideate and create key intellectual property around XR, Volumetric Content, AI/CV/ML, and Edge Compute tied to future 4G/5G network strategies through proof of concepts, marketing activations, and early B2C and B2B2C trials. Resulted in 60+ new IP filings in 2-3-year time period.

· Presented XR Technical Strategy with key Verizon decision makers around 5G / FiOS and Multi-Access Edge Compute inside of Verizon and with key partners. Output was a dedicated 5G product retail team that focused on AR/VR product marketing and management as well as tighter integration with the 5G commercialization team.

· Technical Director for Verizon’s advanced media research. Research involved novel and practical volumetric content delivery programs over 5G networks. Engaged in BD and partnership discussions with major sports leagues and content partners by hosting them and winning them over with a thought-out multi-year roadmap.

· Engaged with corporate PR and marketing teams the group’s major achievements via panels, conferences, interviews, and press releases.

· Managed development and operating execution of Verizon sponsored VR experiences for 2017 and 2018 Super Bowls through onsite installations on the field and in customer areas. Had to roll up sleeves and work late hours to meet aggressive schedules.

· Generated $2 million in revenue in the first year through marketing activations, partnering in RYOT business deals, and early-stage proof of concepts with key Verizon Enterprise customers by engaging early and often in pre-sales pitches and demos.

· Managed the creation of new XR concepts and prototypes for cloud-based computer vision and 3D rendering use cases that took advantage of low latency cloud computing hosted in Verizon’s network.

· Managed implementation of AR/VR Real Estate Mapping solution for central offices and AR Field Training for Field Technicians inside Verizon enabling $5 million of annualized cost savings over a 3-5-year horizon.

· Managed development and launch of an early access Augmented Designer portal, an end-to-end augmented reality authoring solution entirely hosted on AWS enabling the streamed delivery of augmented reality content. Key customers included RYOT, Time, Yahoo Taiwan, and Verizon Field Op teams. Use cases were around consumer experiential, advertising, consumer shopping, and field training. Supported via SDKs and branded application on iOS, Android, and Web platforms.

· Managed development and launch of an immersive 360 video streaming platform to enable new Verizon Media Group advertising & content exposed through RYOT & Huffington Post content applications and web portals. Developed player integration with AOL/Yahoo and Verizon Media platforms to enable use of their CMS and distribution.

Senior Manager Research and Product Development – Mobile Device Technology, November 2014 – October 2016

· Managed a small team of handpicked high performing professionals that covered areas of research including Device Analytics, WebRTC enabled communications, and new types of device hardware from tactile remotes to wearable headsets.

· Created and built a rapid prototype team from scratch of cross discipline engineering including hardware, industrial, and software experts to explore new intellectual property and concepts. Output included functioning software prototypes and early phase hardware incorporating a complete industrial design.

· Managed iOS / Android application development for SDKs / middleware for Verizon applications around identity management, data analytics, network APIs to support Verizon branded applications including self-management, backup, etc.

· Program managed a large multi-company effort around a Firefox web-based OS platform for low-cost smart feature phones and low power display accessories. Output included a set of full platform requirements encompassing both hardware/software and beta quality level application platform and cloud app store embodied via a fully working hardware 4G flip phone prototype using the Verizon production network.

· Partnered with product leads in Device Marketing & Technology teams to develop accessory prototypes that included a Bluetooth controller carrying a user’s personalized profile that would interact with a set top box and an eInk display case for iPhones. Output was a fully working industrial design, hardware prototype, and alpha quality software.

· Managed Device Analytics program that would allow for onboard smartphone/tablet analytics to be used to reduce cost of customer support. Included both network, device, and usage analytics in accordance with carrier regulation.

· Managed resources that worked on key creation of 360 video players prototypes that incorporated elements of interactive content with AOL advertising. Embodied on Android, iOS, and Samsung GearVR devices.

· Successfully created and delivered an investment pitch to Verizon C-level executives around a 5-year business plan that encompassed new device hardware, platforms, and value-added services around AR/VR. The goal was to be first to market in the telecom space around the next major device compute platform and integrate with a future 5G strategy.

Principal Member Technical Staff – Mobile Device Technology, July 2013 – November 2014

· Managed and created carrier specific requirements coming from the Verizon device marketing and product groups. This included all specific network requirements and many of the core Verizon applications. Did end to end technical program management for launching new Windows Phone and Blackberry devices in the 2013-2014 timeframe.

· Engaged with all major OS, OEM, and chipset vendors around CPUs, modems, and OS platforms. Reviewed and collaborated on vendor roadmaps. Worked with vendors to resolve technical issues and develop test plans for new device introduction in conjunction with the portfolio and product teams. Highlighted OEMs include Apple, Samsung, LG, Microsoft, and Kyocera.

· Vendor managed OEMs and vendors in carrier test labs to test out new VoLTE and other IMS service features. Validated E2E call flows and troubleshooted problems using industry standard and proprietary tools. Result was successful validation of all network attach and IMS VoLTE voice and messaging use cases.

· Expert in Mobile OS platform for Android and other Linux based OSes to support integration and launch of new Verizon services. Work included research of operating systems and platforms and development of middleware / platform services. Result was creating a comprehensive matrix and roadmap of all technical platforms with different metrics.

· Managed and developed key vendor relationships with vendors working on new device platforms that included IoT and wearable devices. Contributed to Verizon product teams working on new products in wearable areas such as GizmoPal.

· Engineering management of ISVs and offsite engineering resources for key strategic projects inside of Verizon’s Device Technology group.

MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS, Schaumburg, IL June 2001 – June 2013

Senior Staff Engineer in Various Lead Roles

· Systems engineering and software technical lead in Motorola’s two-way radio, public safety LTE, and enterprise communications business.

· Pre-Sales and Post-Sales support for police agencies that purchased mobile video and license plate recognition systems. Enabled $5 million of sales for mobile DVRs in the first year.

· Enterprise Software and Platform architect for new voice over Wi-Fi devices and communication systems. Platform and application software development included Windows Mobile and Android. Developed communication framework middleware, audio device drivers, and SIP frameworks to communicate with internal and 3^rd party iPBX solutions.

· Solution architect for device and app level integration with Cisco and Avaya iPBX solutions.

· Pre-Sales engineer presenting to CIO and IT leadership new types of enterprise communication systems. Setup customized demos and implemented customer trials onsite at customer’s place of business.

· Led engineering software development on PC and smartphone platforms to evolve Public Safety LTE feature sets on top of 3GPP in areas of QoS and Identity Management. Software development was heavily tied into kernel software modules, network drivers / transport frameworks, and identity management.

· Provided demos and new product training to police department IT as well as post-sales support.

· Developed an integrated license plate capture and mobile digital video recorder solutions for police vehicles. Demoed and trialed to lead public safety agencies.

· SW Developer for fault management solutions for Astro and Tetra standard two-way radio communication systems. Expert in backup and restore of topology / fault management databases. Wrote scripts and configured / managed custom IT elements in for HP Openview solution.

· As a system engineer, worked with Motorola Labs on a next generation FPGA based license plate detection and ultra-wide-band 60 GHz transmitter / receiver for fast video upload use cases. Successfully project managed both projects to completion.