recommendations

Strategic Marketing ◄ Business Planning ► Innovative Thinking

Listings from various work recommendations:

Nuance Communications

George is one of the best marketing leadership and marketing talent that I've encountered in my career. He'd be an excellent addition to any business needing a leader that can deliver measurable results - fast. George joined Nuance as part of our acquisition of TouchCommerce, a mid-size cloud digital engagement company where George was CMO. George was part of the core executive team that was disrupting the customer service industry through AI-powered digital messaging. Wins at AT&T, Sprint and more happened during George's tenure as their CMO. As I came to know George and the result of his leadership and work, I was impressed at the KPI's across Web/digital, PR, analyst awards, lead gen and sales assets and training. I selected George to run WW Enterprise Division marketing based on the results he delivered in his prior role.

As VP WW Marketing for Nuance Enterprise (a $500M revenue Cloud AI business), George didn't miss a beat. He reorganized the team to align to our strategy, GTM and bookings and revenue plans. He led a cross-functional team including business and sales leaders to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy and plan. George's middle name could be "KPI" - he built targeted programs with KPI's for every aspect, and integrated these into SFDC. As a result, Nuance Enterprise business has had 5 years of consecutive YoY revenue growth. Our brand awareness increased with the industry analyst community and target customer segments, and our worldwide sales team became more effective from sales assets and training provided by the marketing team under his leadership.

George's collaborative style and teamwork are a testament to his experience and strong work ethic. His passion for marketing is infectious. He delivers results and has tight control of the budget - and finds ways to get more bang for the buck along the way. He has proven to be a talent in medium to global organizations - and has delivered in the age of AI solutions.

Robert Weideman, EVP & GM Nuance Enterprise

I have been working with George for more than 7 years now in different capacities. To cut through the chase, when you meet George, the sun will starts shining! George's positive spirit, open communication and kindness makes him a very pleasant professional to work with. George is as sharp as a razor in discussions, he is a creative marketing leader and he always amazes me with his knowledge of our business. He has proven to be a very senior leader with Nuance as well as with TouchCommerce. I very much appreciate his personality; his professionalism and his friendship. I recommend George without a doubt for any senior Marketing role.

Brian Manusama, Senior Director Research and Advisory, Gartner

George and I worked together for the past 7 years, first for TouchCommerce and after the acquisition, at Nuance Communications. As CMO of TouchCommmerce, George focused on growing the pipeline and increasing brand awareness. He built solid partnerships not only with our executive team including the sales leadership but also with our strategic customers. His focus and tenacity put the company on the map leading to the subsequent acquisition by Nuance Communications. At Nuance, George continued to lead the overall marketing strategy and execution for the Nuance Enterprise Division and stepped up to take the mantle of leading the growth segment of the business as a General Manager. George is very passionate about the business and has the ability to pay attention to the details while not taking his eyes off the big picture. As a business and marketing leader, George gets high marks and earns my highest recommendation.

Marina Kalika, Senior Director of Marketing

George and I worked for the past 7.5 years across two companies (TouchCommerce and Nuance Communications). George expertly filled the role of Chief Marketing Officer for TouchCommerce raising the brand awareness, marketing and sales support. He joined at a hyper growth moment for a VC-backed firm and played a vital role in the successful sale of TouchCommerce to Nuance Communications. In the second innings of his role, George continued to lead the overall marketing strategy and execution for the Nuance Enterprise Division and stepped up to take the mantle of leading the growth segment of the business as a General Manager. George is a natural at Marketing. I was particularly impressed by George’s ability to pay attention to the smallest of the details while not taking the eye off the big picture. As a business and marketing leader, George earns my highest recommendation

Soma Bulusu, Director of North America Operations Technology at Amazon

(Previous Clients from) MARKETify

“George Skaff is an outstanding and a seasoned senior marketing professional. He has the unique ability to identify marketing gaps and make recommendations that are practical and spot on for the problem at hand. George is very methodical and knows the Marcom landscape, he gets the job done and leaves a solid long lasting structure in place. We have enjoyed partnering with George over the years."

Ra'ed Elmurib, EVP Corporate Development, PMC-Sierra

"I had the pleasure of working with George in several occasions. Most recently he helped me setup the strategic Marketing goals for my company noHold, Inc. George is an experienced executive who combines knowledge of the business, sense of the market with passion for success. I thoroughly enjoyed working with him.”

Diego Ventura, President & CEO, noHold

SGI (Silicon Graphics International)

"George Skaff is one of the finest CMO's I've ever had the pleasure of working with and for during my career. He excels at both managing upwards and outwards in the organization, working with other C-level staff to understand, create and articulate company vision into actionable strategic marketing efforts, while also managing downward and throughout the organization - building alliances and empowering his teams to do great work. I've had the pleasure of working at a few extraordinary environments in my career, and with a few extraordinary managers - George is one of them.”

Ron May, Director of Corporate Marketing, SGI

“George is a true marketing professional. I had extensive dealings with him at all levels during his time at Rackable Systems and SGI. I thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of working with him. He went well beyond what is expected to support my emerging business in EMEA and was always, reliable, available and a good source of advice and knowledge. I have no hesitation in endorsing him as a fantastic person and marketeer.”

Rod Evans, Vice President, EMEA, SGI

“I am pleased to recommend George for a Senior Executive Marketing position in your Company. I worked directly with George for over 2 years and was constantly impressed with his marketing knowledge, brand awareness, and attention to detail. George was instrumental in bringing together two very different technology companies and ensuring we ended up with one brand and one cohesive plan. He also took the extra time to understand the cultures of both companies and merge them together into common areas of focus and priorities. George developed a detailed marketing and product marketing plan taking inputs from the Sales Organization and working closely with Sales to set the correct priorities. George was a pleasure to work with and I would welcome working with him again in the future.”

Jim Brinker, Vice President, Federal Sales, SGI

“George is an exceptional leader that intelligently scaled our marketing organization as the business more than doubled in size. He is a creative thinker that is as talented at establishing strategy as he is in creating vision. His ability to work cross-functionally within the organization to achieve results was impressive, and he encouraged all the members of his marketing team to outperform within their roles. He is always a pleasure to work with, and any future organization will be lucky to have him as their CMO.”

Jason Coari, Director of Marketing, EMEA, SGI

DigitalPersona

“I have had the pleasure of working for George now at two companies (DigitalPersona and Wyse). In both circumstances, I watched him take marketing teams to the next level. George is a very strong leader and an excellent motivator. He knows when to trust his team to pull a project together and just when to step in, ensuring a project is successful. Professional, communicator, leader, mentor and "results driven" are just some of the words I would use to describe him. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I highly recommend him and would gladly work for him again.”

Tom Grissinger, Senior Demand Generation Manager, DigitalPersona

“George’s direction, creativity and attention to detail enabled our team to produce unique and targeted outbound marketing campaigns that consistently brought in qualified revenue generating leads. His understanding of the value of analyst and press relations resulted in more coverage in his first quarter at DigitalPersona than had been obtained in the entire prior year. George’s personable management style allows for a team spirit and business growth.”

Lori Paxton, Marketing Communications Manager, DigitalPersona

“George's leadership skills excell in his ability to drive the strategic direction while empowering his staff to apply their expertise and knowledge to getting the job done. George is very communicative in what is needed by the team to achieve the results in the time committed. For my role, George had a great understanding of what the channel needed and how to support them with the tools and resources they required to be successful.”

Pauline Turski, Channel & Partner Marketing Manager, DigitalPersona

“George was always available, enthusiastic, supportive, and interested in supporting sales. The same culture was instilled in his marketing team.”

Gary Oberman, Software Developer and OEM Sales Manager, DigitalPersona

Wyse Technology

“I knew George had to be our next VP of WW Mktg when I first met him at competitor's forum. Then it got even better 6 months later when he took charge of our corporate strategy process, hired and organized the right team and tri-angulated Mktg, Sales and Engr to the benefit of customers and the company. Strategic partnerships coupled with the above yielded over 12% marketshare gain & being No.1 worldwide. I highly value him personally and professionally.”

John R. Stringer, Former Chmn, CEO & President, Wyse Technology

“George and I worked well together because he understands the urgency of the sales business and blends that with the creative marketing strategies and on time execution of tactics in customer and solution focussed marketing programs. We innovated together in the use of salesforce.com.”

David Yewell, VP International Sales, Wyse Technology

"I worked for George for 4.5 years while at Wyse Technology and got to know him well. He is one of the best senior marketing executives I have worked with. George can be a tough manager, but also supports his staff and earns their respect. He has a rare combination of marketing talent, business acumen, technological understanding, international orientation and people skills. He built a very capable team of marketing professionals that worked very well together and now hold some of the key positions in the WW server-based computing industry. He also has a huge amount of international experience and speaks multiple languages. This international understanding was one reason I succeeded at Wyse; he understood the differences of Europe and let me manage them locally and make the company successful (we grew 420% over 4 years in EMEA). George understands that he is only as good as his team and helps them effectively as a coach and manager. I have no hesitation in recommending him for a senior executive position.”

Stephen Yeo, Director of Marketing, EMEA & ANZ, Wyse Technology

NEC Computers

“George is an extremely knowledgeable marketing executive with excellent leadership and visionary skills. He is very personable and has a proven track record of delivering results. It would certainly be a pleasure to work with George again in the future.”

Brad Timchuk, VP Sales PB NEC, PB NEC

"George Skaff brings the unique combination of pragmatic strategy and forward-thinking creativity to the marketing effort. While at NEC, George drove new product strategies for vertical markets that were resounding successes. He did this utilizing existing products but with innovative new positioning and strategy. I highly recommend George for executive-level marketing.”

Mike DeNeffe, VP of Marketing, NEC Computers, Inc.

Avatar Peripherals

“George and I worked together previously at Logitech on a product launch. A few years later I came over to work for him at Avatar. His vision and passion made for a successful launch of the Shark 250 and put Avatar in a position to compete against other players in the storage and removable media categories.”

Bill Mowry, Director of Marketing, Avatar Peripherals, Inc

DocuMagix

“George is one of the most experienced consumer-oriented VPs of Marketing I know. He is full of ideas, has lots of energy, and is willing to take a firm stand on what he feels is right for the company. George is a great asset to any company he joins.”

Samuel Hahn, Co-Founder, VP of Engineering, CTO, DocuMagix

“I've worked with George at Logitech and later at DocuMagix. George is a very fantastic leader of people and has a proven track record of creating vibrant marketing programs which speak to the consumers needs.”

John Arena, Software Quality Assurance Manager, DocuMagix, Inc.

Logitech

“George joined Logitech as the first manager of the product support group. He rose to a Director position and managed several Logitech marketing groups both in the US and internationally. He is a dedicated customer advocate, strong people leader and determined marketing executive. He can move from analysis, requirements, positioning and objectives to the implementation of effective marketing and business development plans. He is knowleadgeble, energetic, result-oriented and a team player. A top notch marketing executive.”

Giacomo Marini, Co-founder, EVP, Chief Operating Officer, Logitech