Kelly Gillease

Driving Growth & Scale in Consumer Businesses

I'm a high-performing executive business leader with 20+ years of hands on marketing experience. I specialize in unlocking scale in direct to consumer, e-commerce, fintech and travel startups. I'm passionate about driving growth, consumer value & delivering unparalleled results.


I have specific expertise in performance and acquisition marketing (search engine marketing, SEO, affiliates, social), retention & loyalty (email/CRM, retargeting, mobile advertising and push notifications) awaren…

Kelly Gillease

Work

Experience

  • Nerdwallet

    Nerdwallet

    Chief Marketing Officer

    Aug 2018 - Sep 2022

    nerdwallet gives consumers and small businesses clarity around all of life’s financial decisions. when it comes to credit cards, bank accounts, mortgages, insurance, loans or expenses like hospital costs and medical bills, consumers make almost all their decisions in the dark. nerdwallet is changing that, helping guide consumers' decisions with free, accessible tools, research and expert advice. headquartered in san francisco, we have more than 200 passionate “nerds” -- and $100 million in capital from ivp, rre ventures, iglobe partners and silicon valley bank -- to disrupt the personal finance industry. named one of the bay area news group’s best places to work, we offer: a world-class benefits package; flexible vacation; and amazing perks, from catered meals to a dog-friendly office and dedicated time for volunteering. we’re growing rapidly. if you’re interested in joining an amazing team made up from leaders from box, jpmorgan, linkedin, trulia, visa and zynga, please visit http

    • 3x increase in performance marketing revenue at a profitable ROAS
    • Test and launched national brand campaigns with a profitable payback window and doubled aided awareness to mid-60%s.
    • Built CRM team and program strategy, triple digit growth in registrations and CRM revenue
    • Member of IPO team and M&A for KnowYourMoney and Fundera acquisitions
    • Oversaw SEO & Organic growth team, driving over 100M visits annually
  • Notonthehighstreet.com

    Notonthehighstreet.com

    Executive Marketing Consultant

    Jun 2018 - Aug 2018

    notonthehighstreet.com was founded by british entrepreneurs holly tucker mbe and sophie cornish mbe in 2006. we have changed the face of uk enterprise by supporting growing small businesses, offering a route to market for designer-makers who would otherwise struggle for custom or lose out in the battle with high street giants. bringing together more than 5,000 of the uk’s most creative small businesses, we offer more than 200,000 original, inspirational lifestyle products, many of which are bespoke and made to order. we have grown from a turnover of £134,000 in our first year to £158m in 2016. we have scooped a host of awards, including being ranked 57th in the sunday times virgin fast track 100 and 25th in deloitte uk fast 50, and a special commendation at the growth investor awards in 2016 we employ circa 200 staff in our headquarters in ‘silicon-upon –thames’ (richmond)- which is growing incredibly quickly. at notonthehighstreet.com we’re excited about discovering and developing tal

    • Leading performance marketing team migration from agencies to in-house management
    • Development of Christmas high season marketing plan
    • Reforecasting, data and attribution model review
    • CRM relaunch support
    • Talent evaluation for marketing team and hired new Director
  • Studyblue

    Studyblue

    Chief Marketing Officer

    Feb 2017 - Jun 2018

    studyblue is a well-funded, self-sustaining, edtech startup in downtown san francisco. our learning app helps millions of students to create digital flashcards and quizzes, share learning tools and study smarter. in addition to creating their own study materials, students can look at and study other student-created flash cards and materials. with native android, ios and web applications, studyblue allows students to access the world's largest library of shared study materials from any device. from biology to psychology, birdwatching to language learning, studyblue helps students master any subject. this is an exciting time at studyblue as we are in growth mode and ramping up to build new tools for our growing student network. our team prides themselves on being honest, humble and hardworking and together we are revolutionizing how students learn.

    • Key contributor in strategic acquisition by Chegg in July 2018
    • Focused on product marketing, promotional strategy, and growth-hacking
    • Responsible for logged-out product experience, optimization of sign up rates and logged-out site engagement metrics
  • Tripadvisor

    Tripadvisor

    Vice President Marketing, Attractions

    Aug 2015 - Feb 2017

    Find the good out there.

    • Scaling global marketing strategy & programs for all TripAdvisor Attractions brands (TripAdvisor and Viator)
    • Responsible for 50%+ of Attraction revenue
    • Integration team member for Viator-TripAdvisor integration post acquisition
  • Viator

    Viator

    Vice President Marketing

    Oct 2005 - Jul 2015

    Travel with an insider.

    • Expanded search marketing programs from <$12K spend/year to over $20M, with commensurate sales results, while maintaining efficiency targets
    • Developed targeted automated and mass mailing customer communications to launch CRM program
    • Developed and executed mobile marketing plan for app and mobile website releases
    • Led international expansion strategy and localization team to operate in 9 languages
    • Started marketing team as first employee and scaled talent efficiently as needed

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