Paul Ford

Strategic Leader | AI-Powered Insights, Personalization & Identity

A product leader who specializes in developing teams and building scalable consumer products with stability & security. Directly responsible for enterprise-size roadmap development (100M+ MAU). Proven track record of managing complex customer journeys via internal lifecycle strategies.  Expert in acquisition and retention via email/push/CRM/web/app, leading cross- functional teams across product, design, and partnerships, and using rapid and centralized services with AI capabilities to drive business outcomes.


Leadership Philosophy: I’ve created a Mindset, Process, Acumen framework to build high-performing teams that thrive on transparency and structured accountability. My diverse experience enables me to empower and professionally develop teams while coaching resilience, vision, and creation of data-informed, standardized product delivery across a number of domains. Management of multi-tier teams of 10+ members: Product, UX, Marketing, Account Mgmt.

EXPERIENCE

Ask Media Group | Senior Director, Head of Product

March 2022 - March 2026

  • Enterprise AI Transformation: Spearheaded a full-scale pivot to GenAI-driven content production via an automated workflow orchestration platform, reducing annual OpEx from $1M to $100k while increasing production volume by 15,000% and expanding from 1 to 7 languages to cover global brands including Ask.com. Doubled annual organic contribution margin from $3M to $7M via scaling our GenAI platform across brand portfolios and sharing unified architecture across product teams while also improving UX onsite.

  • Regulatory & Compliance Architecture: Established a robust human-in-the-loop trust & safety framework for editorial content moderation, integrating 3P platforms and internal moderators to ensure 100% coverage for regulatory needs during rapid GenAI scaling.

  • 0 to 1 Platform Build: Monetized a 0-1 internal MarTech revenue platform for a new content marketing internal product vertical, which grew contribution margin from $15k to $30k per day at launch. Evolved this product into a unified system of record across all business lines:

    • Scale via UI + API: incorporated AI features for creatives, insights, campaign cloning via UI design and API.

    • Monetization Standardization: multi-layout, intent-based recommendation engine for users & automation across push, paid, and organic for 100s of sites, 100M+ MAUs.

  • Cross-Functional Leadership: Developed a multi-disciplinary organization of PMs, UX Designers, and Account Managers, creating a team of highly talented and strategically aligned operators.

Overstock | Senior Director, Product Mgmt (Marketing & Customer)

November 2018 - March 2022

  • Personalization Identity Stack: Directed product strategy for an enterprise communication streaming data platform. Led 0-1 modernization migration from static to cloud-based services via AWS/Snowflake backbone. Utilized CDP identity 3P & homegrown CRM to create realtime stream for targeted marketing personalization near instantly for users. Delivered 3.5B annual emails and 1.4B push + in-app notifications, directly driving $40M+ in annual contribution margin.

  • CX & UX: Leader for multi-tenant contact center architecture over multiple products for CX needs: initial migration from legacy to unified cloud platform, implemented 0-1 “agentless” solutions via SMS/Chat. Designed customer-centric solutions for customer self-service via automation from supply chain fulfillment, returns, CSAT, loyalty/rewards, and user-generated content.

  • Club O Loyalty Program: Modernized subscription-based enterprise loyalty program which drove 33% YoY growth and led to 2 Loyalty360 Awards (Gold & Silver), gained $8/member incremental value for ~600k paid member base.

  • Platform Efficiency & SEO: Led the platform migration of all site tags/pixels and data layer to a unified Tag Management & Data System (Tealium iQ), resulting in a $100k reduction of annual vendor costs and a significant decrease in page load latency, & building a server-side data layer for multiple marketing and onsite developer use-cases.

  • Strategic Scaling: Directed a cross-functional AdTech org to re-architect Overstock’s ~75M SKU product feed, migrating from legacy 24-hour batch processing to near-real-time synchronization across 3P platforms (Google, Facebook). Resolved complex latency and inventory-sync friction points for campaign managers while improving user-experience with accurate pricing & promotions.

  • Financial Infrastructure Modernization: Orchestrated the end-to-end payments platform migration of external credit card providers for $2.25B in annual gross sales processing. Maintained 100% platform uptime during the transition, achieved +1% to order capture auth.

Parscale Digital | Director of Digital Marketing

April 2017 - October 2018

  • Integrated Growth Strategy: Directed and built full-funnel digital marketing strategies across SEO, editorial content marketing, paid search, and social for dozens of brands within client portfolios.

  • Agency Modernization: Developed a cross-disciplinary team of digital specialists to implement standardized KPIs and data-driven project management workflows, improving service delivery speed & retention.

FOUNDATIONAL LEADERSHIP & SERVICE

US Army Nat’l Guard Commissioned Officer: Led platoon-sized elements in high-stakes operational environments. Developed core competencies in tactical planning, logistics, and personnel leadership.

Co-Owner | Entrepreneur | SMB Startup: Managed full-scale DTC business operations, pricing & packaging, P&L,  and distribution for a craft manufacturing startup. Navigated complex distribution, sales, and marketing efforts.

Enterprise Field Engineering: Managed large-scale hardware & software deployments of RFID and network technology systems for global enterprise clients.

TECHNICAL & LEADERSHIP TOOLKIT

Transformation & AI:

  • GenAI Implementation (LLM orchestration)

  • ML Propensity models,

  • human-in-the-loop workflows

  • trust & safety

Retention/Lifecycle & Data:

  • Customer Data Platforms (Tealium, mParticle)

  • CRM, Lifecycle Orchestration (Braze, Oracle, Salesforce, HubSpot)

  • Insights Platforms (Pixel/Tag Mgmt, GA4, Looker, Amplitude, Parse.ly, Chartbeat)

Platform Growth:

  • Platform Strategy

  • UX/UI

  • API development

  • data-first architecture

  • bias toward building

Leadership & Culture:

  • Senior Leadership

  • Radical Candor

  • Cross- Functional stakeholder mgmt (exec/board level)

  • OpEx Optimization

AWARDS

  • Loyalty360:

    • Employee Engagement & Impact - Gold

    • Technology & Trends - Silver

  • OpenAI:

    • 10B Token Award

EDUCATION

  • University of Phoenix - San Antonio, TX

    • BS, Small Business Management & Entrepreneurship

    • Feb. 2016

    • Honors Graduate

  • New Mexico Military Institute - Roswell, NM

    • AA, Political Science

    • May 2002

    • ROTC Graduate, Commissioned Officer, U.S. Army

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