Jim Nellis

Responsible for developing the strategic direction of the foundation. The foundation is focused on providing direct measurable assistance to groups and individuals struggling at the most basic levels.

My team specialized in eliminating the technical challenges of understanding, appreciating, and adopting Apple's exciting products. We focused on changing teaching and learning at colleges and universities across the Northeast United States. With a sales goal over $1M, and a contender position in the marketplace (Windows® still has over 90% market share), I ensured my Sales Engineers were equipped with the best tools, training, coaching, and inspiration to deliver the sales results I expected.

The skills required to develop and execute on sales and marketing strategies map very closely with those used in developing a long-term, highly political project in the Nation's Capitol. Architects and Product Managers both need their vision flawlessly executed, and persuasion is key to winning hearts and minds. Setting clear objectives, defining roles and goals, measuring and rewarding success, and correcting and adjusting for shortcomings defined my contribution in this short, but rewarding engagement.

By improving cross-group trust, providing deep technical and sales training, and developing shared, mutual goals between the Sales Engineers, Account Executives, Marketing, and Product Development the team easily secured the critical wins for Widows XP, Vista, Server, Small Business Server and Office to achieve our annual budgets beyond $1B for EMEA.

Building on my success with Microsoft’s traditional hardware partners, I joined the startup management team to attack Palm’s dominant position in the handheld computer market. I hired, trained, and managed Sales Engineers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. My team was instrumental in turning around Microsoft’s position by selling Windows Embedded, PocketPC, and PocketPC Phone Edition and the involvement of the embedded community flourished through the programs I designed.

All of the unbelievable technical, procedural, and organizational challenges between Microsoft and its largest global partners; Dell, Compaq, IBM, and many others were mine to overcome. I repeated this rewarding accomplishment again and again from Windows 95 through every product release up to Widows XP.

Technical sales of outbound automated call processing hardware and software.

Financial Services and Sales of Large- and Mid-Range computers and financial processing equipment.

Associated Students Parliamentarian