Peter Mahnke
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
- Ability to bridge the gap between the business/market needs and technical requirements.
- Deep understanding of the web with interest in web standards, accessibility, information architecture and user experience.
- Solid Product Management skills with 15 years experience in all phases of the product lifecycle.
- Ability to manage the ongoing maintenance and enhancements of content rich websites.
- Proven, hands-on manager who has created and managed teams of creative, technical and marketing individuals.
PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Defined and articulated strategic product vision for several companies.
- Responsible for several companies’ most important products and websites.
- Successfully defined, built and launched many products and content-rich web portals.
- Experience with due diligence for acquisitions and key partnerships.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Gartner, Inc.
New York, New York & Egham, United Kingdom
December 1999 — Present
Gartner (www.gartner.com, NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading provider of research & analysis for the global information technology industry. Gartner provides data, advice and opinions, provides consulting and events to 45,000 clients worldwide with annual revenues over $870 million USD.
Director, Product Management
Reported to the world-wide head of Global Product Management (previously the EMEA GVP of Product Management & Client Services), responsible for the strategic direction of gartner.com portal. Responsibilities also included programme management of internationalization and localization strategy for web products and management of the EMEA-based websites and e-commerce initiatives. I was supported by a team of five product managers, two graphic designers, a web developer, a marketing manager, an editor and two writers.
- Defined the strategic roadmap for gartner.com for the next 3-5 years.
- Defined the internationalization and localization strategy for Gartner’s web-delivered products and services.
- Launched four EMEA-based websites (Gartner Europe, Italy, Germany and Austria) which is used by 90% of Gartner’s EMEA clients, leading to a 15% improvement for client retention and events attendance.
- Designed custom Content Management System to efficiently handle localization and translations of gartner.com content.
- Created two very successful intranet tools to help the Sales, Research and Web teams understand how clients use the Gartner websites and client metrics.
- Managed the development of the first significant e-commerce efforts in EMEA with over $1 million USD sales in first year and $1.5 million USD in the second.
Newgen Software, Inc.
New York, New York
July 1998 — December 1999
Newgen (www.newgen.net) is an Indian based, document management company with its own products as well as the capabilities to deliver other industry solutions. The US subsidiary is a solutions provider, specialising in web based document imaging, workflow and management.
Vice President, Product Management
Reported to the President of the Newgen USA where I helped establish the US group and was responsible for overall product/project management. I managed three teams of eight people.
- Defined strategic direction for company, which grew from 0 to $5 million USD in one year.
- Lead consultant for all engagements, representing over $3 million in revenue.
- Implemented several web-based document management solutions for financial service companies, including Citibank, Smith Barney and E*Trade.
Dow Jones & Company
New York, New York
March 1992 — June 1998
Dow Jones (www.dowjones.com, NYSE: DJ) is a world leading business and financial information publisher of; The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Dow Jones Newswire and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It currently employs over 7,000 people and $1.7 billion in Revenues for 2004.
Assistant Vice President, Product Management & Director of Product Management and Operations
October 1996 — June 1998
Reported to the President of a Dow Jones subsidiary, IDD, I was responsible for the strategic direction of the company’s products. I managed teams of various sizes with diverse skill sets including: product mangers, project mangers, web designers, editors and writers.
- Designed and built Barron’s Online (www.barrons.com) which attracted more than 200,000 subscribers within two years. I managed the user interface & creative design, technical development, content management tools and ongoing operations, including new editorial content.
- Managed the design and development of many web-based applications for several financial institutions and publications, including: Smith Barney Access, E*Trade and the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition. Applications were all web-based providing pricing, alerting, screening, custom charting, news, personalization tools and portfolio applications.
Product Manager & Assistant Product Manager / Business Analyst
January 1993 — October 1996
Reporting to the head of the Personal Investor Products Group, I was responsible for market sizing, product definition, financial projections and project management of the creation of a number of software and online products. I managed one marketing analyst and one data analyst.
- Created online stock screening tool for Dow Jones News Retrieval, called Tradeline Personal Edition and the Tradeline Technical Analyst Edition with annual $1.5 million in revenue.
- Launched and maintained one of the first commercial web sites, Interactive NestEgg.
- Designed and launched a Windows application, Tradeline Electronic Stock Guide that was distributed with Intuit’s Quicken Deluxe product and had revenues of $4 million USD over four years.
- Designed and launched stock & mutual fund charts for Prodigy, a pre-internet online service, with $3 million USD in revenues per year.
TECHNICAL SKILLS
I have considerable experience with various relational and time-series databases, content management systems, document management systems and the web. For prototyping and personal projects, I work with Perl, Javascript, xhtml, MySQL, MovableType, Photoshop on Mac OSX, Windows OS and various UNIX systems. I have a deep interest in user-centred design, information architecture, web standards, accessibility standards and weblogs.
EDUCATION
BA, Colgate University, Hamilton, NY, 1991. Major in English Literature with a junior year abroad to Manchester University and UMIST.
VOLUNTEERING
- St Margarets Community Website (www.stmgrts.org.uk) — designed, built and maintain the highly sucessful community website which offers news, events and local information. It was built with custom scripts and uses MovableType as a CMS.
- Churchill School & Center (www.churchillcenter.org) — designed, built and maintained the school’s original website and CMS.
OTHER
| Technical Editor | O’Reilly & Associates book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web |
| Blogs | Actively Blogging since 1994 at www.transitionelement.com and www.mahnke.net |
| Born | 4 May 1969 |
| Married | with two boys (Owen — 6, Ryan — 4) |
| Visa status | Indefinite Leave to Remain |
| Hobbies | sailing, black & white photography, camping, cooking, gardening and travel |