Marcus "Esports" Howard

I have 15 consecutive years of strategic/tactical experience with building startups in various industries, including gaming, news media and restaurants. I specialize in identifying exponential growth opportunities and converging trends in consumer markets. Also, I excel at creating/executing blue ocean business strategies. Growth Hacker. Innovator. Techie. Leader.

Chief Growth Officer

We're redefining education and workforce development with esports. We offer end-to-end services clients needs to create a truly wow factor esports gaming space or large scale arena. We recently completed the world's largest investment in the high school education esports space. Reach out to us if you have any projects or questions that we could help you with.

www.vesselxr.com

Marcus Howard

Glou Beauty

Glou is a P2P marketplace using AI to make beauty resale faster, cheaper, and safer for consumers.

- Visible Hands VHBOS ‘23
- Techstars Detroit powered by JP Morgan '23
- AWS Impact Accelerator for Women Founders '22

And featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine as a leader in beauty resale.

Founder / CEO

EKOS.AI

If you're struggling to run an engaged community over Slack, Whatsapp, Eventbrite, Partiful, Linkedin, and Zoom etc... DM me. EKOS is a game changer. Used by the top accelerators, angel groups, and business schools in the US. Ekos is a community platform for a hybrid world (remote + in-person).

EKOS is like a romper. A one and done outfit for all your needs. Canada, let's get on EKOS!

----- official messaging below -----

EKOS is a community management platform bridging both IRL and virtual interactions on one seamless platform.

Online community platforms are one-way content shops. Event platforms are focused on organizing a community to come together at a point in time. 

EKOS enables meaningful relationships to be built with tools that foster organic engagement between members.

Head of Business Development - Canada

Anthropologie

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- Managers' first call for back of house support (anything and everything from merchandising, stock management, art department support, to IT support, and unparalleled product knowledge across all categories)

- Exceeded daily team sales targets by elevating customer experience and internal team communications; resulted in the store achieving company quarter sales goal for the first time.

- Oversaw merchandizing and inventory management to boost stores sales and continually refresh the customer experience. Was recognized for outstanding inventory management and customer service.

Store Operations Fairy

Graham & Walker

I was selected to join The Graham & Walker Catalyst out of hundreds of applicants. Catalyst is a co-hort experience program that helps women startup founders succeed in VC and get fundraise-ready.

Catalyst Program Batch 3

The Capital Network

Fellow 2022 Cohort

RxFulcrum Inc.

Adhoc tasks for marketing department in a start-up environment.

CRM and Marketing

LVMH

- Conducted in-depth market and consumer research on niche luxury fragrances (demand analysis, customer profiling, benchmarking, purchase behavior) 

- Researched new and potential product categories for brand extension

- Delivered a complete strategy for approaching a new target market, including the use of integrated digital/retail experiences

Business Analyst and Project Communications Lead - CEMS Business Project

Pellas Group - Compañia Licorera de Nicaragua

- Rotated through trade marketing, marketing, and sales and distribution departments to provide recommendations on best business practices

- Researched and proposed a new on-premise marketing strategy to increase brand awareness and consumer engagement among the top 10% of the population by 100%, while respecting local regulations surrounding the liquor market 

- Lead the team's efforts in discovering the best new digital platforms for the company's brands to expand into and created two implementation plans for the company's brands. 

- Optimized the customer experience at the Flor de Caña boutiques by implementing retail strategies of luxury brands to increase brand loyalty. 

- Created a marketing plan for increasing visitor volume to the brand's distillery tour to reach revenue goals.

Business Analyst Internship

Ivey Business School at Western University

- Explored a growth opportunity through retail expansion

- Created customer profiles to further understand retailer's value proposition to each customer segment

- Conducted extensive research on Canadian real estate and retail environment

- Delivered a recommendation that would increase retailer's EBITDA margin to 30% within 12 months by opening 5 stores in  strategically selected neighbourhoods

External consultant for upcoming low-cost optical retailer 

Amica Mature Lifestyles Inc

- Researched and implemented a CASL compliant digital communications platform for Amica’s retirement communities; achieved 17% retention of the customer lead database. 

- Leveraged Google Business Analytics to improve the sales and marketing team’s lead generation and targeting accuracy with geographic and demographic data analysis of potential Amica residents against existing residents.

Digital Marketing Intern

If you clicked on my profile because of my headline, thank you for the data point in SEO. I am trying to align my online persona with who I actually am. I am much funnier, cooler, and smarter IRL, and my profile had no personality. My people will make me take this down. I’d also like to take this opportunity to point out a crowning achievement of mine: Ivey plagiarized my admissions essay and is still using it so happy centennial Ivey! :D 

Ivey admissions team/dean: if you see this, I have receipts and will accept a settlement. 

Below is approved messaging from my team: 

🙋🏻‍♀️ BIO
Karen Lee is the Founder and CEO of Glou Beauty, the first and only consumer-to-consumer marketplace dedicated exclusively to beauty products. With a deep passion for sustainability, Karen is determined to lead the movement of conscious consumerism within the beauty industry.

Shop my stash: https://glou.co/u/karen

📚 EDUCATION
• Master in International Management (MiM), CEMS
• Masters of Science, Ivey Business School
• HBA, Ivey Business School

🌎 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
• Italy | Università Bocconi, Innovative Retail and Luxury Management, and Project Lead with LVMH
• China | Tsinghua University, Technology Strategy and Conducting Business in China
• Nicaragua | Liquor industry (Flor de Cana)

🥳 THINGS I DO FOR FUN:
- 15+ years of involvement in the FIRST Robotics community (I volunteer as an FTA) 🤖 
- Art history 🖼
- Improv comedy 🎭  
- Sailing ⛵️
- Roller skating 🛼 and Ice skating ⛸
- Reading until 4am 📚 

⭐️ Recognition and Awards ⭐️ 
🏆 Inaugural member of AWS Impact Accelerator for Women Founders
🏆 Winner of best pitch deck #AllRaise Seed Bootcamp Fall 2020 
🏆 Volunteer of the Year FIRST Canada York Event 2019

For my twitterings: https://twitter.com/glou_ceo

taplio

The Battle

Marcus Howard

Karen Lee

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