Hey! So I'm Ken Leaver
I'm an American guy living the digital nomad life here in Bangkok and like to help tech companies on a consulting/contract basis. I first came to this SE Asia region back in 2014 when Lazada was in its early days and fell in love with it.
Education-wise I graduated from Cornell University (Dean's list) in 1999 (was #8 university in the world at the time) and from IESE Business School in 2005 (was #1 MBA in the world at the time according to The Economist).
To sum up my experience, I consider myself a hybrid of sorts:
7 years of Strategy Consulting:
BCG (Boston Consulting Group): in London
Strategy Partners (#1 Russian Strategy Consultancy): i'd made it to what is essentially the level below partner and sold several projects
5 years of Commercial leadership:
Visa Inc. (led Product Issuing for CIS & SEE region, 18 countries) managed what was a ~$50m+ issuing card P&L)
Groupon (CEO Ukraine): in 2011 I took it from #4 to #1 and had the highest average m-to-m growth rate of any country in Europe for my first 14 months.
8 years of Tech leadership:
Lazada (SVP Product in charge of Ops & Marketplace): me & one other person were 2nd to the CPO in seniority
Wayfair (Director of Product): a $20bn+ US leader in furniture ecommerce
Pomelo Fashion (Head of Product & Data): omnichannel fashion ecommerce leader of SE Asia that has raised $100m+ in funding
If you want to read about my story in a lot more detail you can find:
And for the past few years I have done a lot of tech consulting/contracting for companies like:
Wasoko, a $500m+ valued leading ecommerce player in Africa
Shipper, a $300m+ valued Indonesian shipment & fulfillment player
Branded, a $300m+ valued FBA aggregator
Ozon, a $5bn+ #2 B2C ecommerce player in Russia
Yandex, a $20bn+ valued leading tech player in Russia & CIS
In general I would say my expertise lies in tying together business strategy with tech as the two are extremely intertwined these days.
And in the e-Commerce realm, as a result of numerous consulting engagements, there are probably only a handful of people out there that have seen as many different tech architectures and team structures as I have, as well as the learnings that go with it.
Enjoy and please do comment. I love feedback
