FR

Federico Raoul Cucchi

Senior Director of Commercial Strategy; VC fund & startups advisor

London, England

Invests in

Stages:

Locations:

  • Min Investment:

    $100,000.00
  • Max Investment:

    $5,000,000.00
  • Target Investment:

    $1,500,000.00

Education

  • BSc (Hons) Economics

    (2004 - 2007)

  • MA International Political Economy

    (2007 - 2008)

  • Maturità Scientifica

    Collegio San Giuseppe, Istituto de Merode

    (2001 - 2004)

Work Experience

  • Senior Director Commercial Strategy & Commercial Analytics, EMEA

    2023

    1. Drive the future of commercial/business intelligence 2. Plan the volume and revenue performance of the total EMEA portfolio for the following year 3. Steer and/or lead EMEA strategic commercial projects, e.g. launch of new brands in new categories/sub-categories; accelerate growth in specific distribution channels

  • Director of EMEA Strategic Development

    2022 - 2023

    1. Long term strategy planning: work with regional leadership team to create the long-term business strategy; manage business performance enhancement programmes. 2. Corporate reporting to Board of Directors: lead EMEA corporate analytics to deliver insightful and compelling stories on the holistic performance of the EMEA business, coordinating the leadership team of each division. 3. Budgeting: lead the creation of the early budget for total EMEA, providing direction on key lines of the P&L, coordinating key stakeholders, and deliver a compelling story on forecasted performance and investment priorities to the Board of Directors. 4. Project management office: create and embed frameworks, processes, and tools to successfully deliver strategic programmes and projects impacting total EMEA; project manage critical pan-EMEA projects. 5. People leadership: drive engagement and productivity of the Performance Development division as part of the division’s leadership team and programme managing its priorities; direct management and coaching of 2 resources.

  • EMEA Strategic Planning & Performance Management Senior Manager

    2020 - 2022

    Enabling sustained accelerated growth by developing and embedding project management governance, principles, and tools to deliver strategic initiatives across EMEA. Deliver corporate reporting (including Board of Directors reporting), plans, and budgets for the total EMEA business.

  • EMEA Commercial Development Manager - Fitness & Sport Energy Drinks

    2019 - 2020

    Entered the new fitness and sports energy drinks segment and launched 2 brands (7 SKUs) across 10 countries. Lead the commercial proposition development and deployment, as well as the NPD commercial roll out.

  • Advisor & LP

    2022

    1. Evaluate and advise on start-up investment opportunities in the consumer goods sector 2. Advise on the fund's marketing and business development plans/practises

2020 - 2021

  • Advisor

    2020 - 2021

    1. Advise the VC fund on potential investments, predominantly within consumer goods 2. Mentor startups in the portfolio on a variety of topics including distribution; pricing; consumer insights and innovation

2017 - 2019

  • Commercial Strategy & Planning Manager

    2018 - 2019

    Global remit. Category: footwear & apparel. 1. Deployment to trade: managed seasonal deployments to trade, inspiring our commercial team to sell with confidence across the globe by presenting them the distribution strategy and ensuring the delivery of effective tools for successful sell in meetings with retailers and in market activations. 2. Sales growth: assess commercial performance across channels and regions and drive the delivery of commercial opportunities by coordinating the multifunctional team and Pentland's global sales force. 3. Customer focussed product development: ensure the development of commercially focussed product ranges by reviewing and inputting at key moments and delivered incremental sales by coordinating the creation of exclusive ranges for specific retailers.

  • Brand Manager

    2017 - 2018

    Global & local (UK) remit. Category: footwear & apparel. 1. Brand strategy: provided strategic focus to the cross-functional team (product innovation, supply chain, shopper & consumer marketing, sales, digital) by creating and deploying the medium and long term brand plans and growth targets for the footwear portfolio. 2. Repositioning: delivered actionable insights through a situational analysis of Ellesse and coordinated the development of its new positioning, identity and implementation roadmap. 3. Business plans: unlocked incremental funds to propel the mid-long term growth of our brands through the development of investment cases for the board of directors. 4. Marketing planning: developed the integrated yearly marketing plan for Kickers and briefed agencies and internal teams based on it. 5. Integrated marketing campaign: coordinated the cross-agency team (creative, media, PR, in store) for the development of the Ellesse AW18 communication campaign. 6. Commercial strategy: coordinated cross-functional commercial strategy and presented at meetings with retailers, delivering a sell in of 20% above target on key accounts; galvanised our global sales force and partner network by presenting our brands’ seasonal product strategies. 7. Licensees management: fostering effective working relationships with our global licensee network and ensuring cohesive and impactful marketing activations around the world.

  • Chief Product & Operations Officer

    2015 - 2017

    Beauty products online marketplace and business intelligence. 1. Team management: recruited, managed and coached three direct reports with very different responsibilities (programming; marketing; operations) and freelancers, driving effective working relationships across different countries. 2. Analytics & data management: lead the restructuring of data categorisation processes thus significantly reducing time inefficiencies and systemic errors; set up analytics reports and tools and recommended growth opportunities based on weekly/monthly performance reviews. 3. Website UX optimisation: significantly increased MBM’s weekly sales by redesigning the website (all devices) based on user journey analytics. 4. Product development: created MBA’s B2B data intelligence platform. 5. Business development: created business cases based on our data intelligence platform and lead pitches to multinational companies. 6. Digital marketing: significantly grew MBM’s user database through digital marketing campaigns and partnerships.

2013 - 2016

  • Consumer & Market Insight Senior Analyst; Assistant Manager; Manager

    2013 - 2016

    Predominantly local (UK & Ireland) remit. Category: skincare & toiletries. 1. Growth opportunities: identified gaps in the market and drove new product development in Western Europe by coordinating my CMI counterparts across the region and leveraging our combined continuous and ad-hoc quant data. 2. Segmentation: drove portfolio efficiencies and contributed to the most successful body skincare new brand launch since 2012 through consumer segmentation and usage & attitudes research. 3. Category management: ensured the listing of one of our suncare brands in key retailers through its repositioning and proving its unique value for shoppers through quantitative research. 4. Marketing mix optimisation: optimised the whole marketing mix of a new product range through volumetric analysis and influencing senior management and our global headquarters. 5. Portfolio optimisation: optimised the sub-brand hierarchy and product range of the mass market skincare portfolio through quantitative analysis. 6. Distribution channel strategy: optimised L’Oréal Paris’ skincare portfolio strategy in supermarkets, returning the brand to growth after 2 years of decline. 7. Communications concept development: lead the market research (qual & quant) and concept development for various innovative and successful communication campaigns.

ANT; Glamlink

2011 - 2013

  • Head of Marketing & Product Development

    2011 - 2013

    Algorithmic trading and automated asset management platform (ANT); a B2B social network to streamline the supply chain of the fashion industry (GlamLink). 1. Marketing strategy and activation: created ANT’s go-to-market strategy, logo and website. I also managed business development and raised most of the funds. 2. Product development: developed GlamLink’s business plan and created, with an extremely tight budget, its social network by coordinating programmers, graphic designers and investors.

2011 - 2011

  • Consumer & Market Knowledge Associate Manager

    2011 - 2011

    Global remit. Category: fine fragrances. 1. New product development: optimised the marketing mix of new product launches based on qualitative and quantitative insights. 2. Segmentation: managed the qualitative stage of the consumer re-segmentation for Hugo Boss Fragrances. 3. Agency selection: managed the pitch for the appointment of a new agency for name co-creation.

2010 - 2011

  • Category Analyst

    2010 - 2011

    Local (UK) remit. Category: food. 1. New service launch: set up and customised Worldpanel Online (online consumer insight analysis tool) for Kraft and Premier; managed its launch including training sessions for key client employees. 2. Analysis: conducted complex analyses such as market and shopper segmentations; new product launch assessments; competitive and category growth analyses. 3. Market intelligence: proactively created and managed the internal FMCG industry weekly newsletter, which became a key marketing asset used with our external clients. 4. Sales: sold additional services to clients, e.g. databases, ad-hoc market segmentations.

  • European Policy Administration Intern in the Cabinet of the President

    2008 - 2009

    1. Policy analysis: prepared reports for the head of economic affairs. 2. Publication: wrote chapters of “The Penguin Companion to European Union”, by Timothy Bainbridge and Anthony Teasdale (Penguin Group, September 2012) and contributed to “British Political Facts” by David Butler (Macmillan).