Charlie Ninegar: COO @ DSS Games | Operator | Sales Leader | Mentor | Occasional Speaker in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California

★ Overseeing the operations and financial performance of DSS Games, a leading party game company specializing in adult and family-oriented games. Direct management of Finance, HR, Supply Chain, Production & Marketing functions. ★ Strategic leader driving business continuity, implementing financial management practices, and ensuring healthy profitability while driving significant year-over-year growth. ★ Managing cross-functional teams, supporting production and distribution, forging strong partnerships with major retailers, contributing to the company's success and market expansion. Find us at Amazon, Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, FiveBelow, Spencer's, Forever 21, Francesca's, Meijer, Kohls and more.

KEY ACHIEVEMENT ★ Leading teams of mentors in the SDSI Accelerator program, delivering 20-week mentoring programs to help start-ups and young businesses from across the country to establish, pivot, and scale business operations. ★ Awarded inaugural Bill Walton "Mentor of the Year" - 2024 https://parkitmovement.com/ https://sundaygolf.com/ https://trailmagik.com/ https://truwild.com/ https://gotighties.com/ https://rolflexpro.com/ https://perspectivefitwear.com/ https://roseys.love/

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS ★ Served as the partner & advisor for startup organic skincare line and led early-stage talks with Whole Foods & Unilever for distribution and investment consideration. ★ Launched 3P Amazon strategy, which led to 300% growth and made up 66% of the total business in its first year.

Closed out nearly 10 years at SPY with a five-month role under the new parent company following its acquisition. After a rewarding tenure and seeing the company through significant change, I decided to pursue a new opportunity to support personal growth and took a new position with Nixon.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS ★ Led global sales and business strategy across all channels, categories, and markets, playing a lead role in the successful sale of SPY to BOLLE BRANDS in partnership with the interim CEO & CFO in Sep 2019, and oversaw and often led all Board of Directors meetings with the CEO and CFO. ★ Supervised 10 direct reports with 70+ employees/reps and 20+ distributors while heading the development and go-to-market strategy for a new product line; REFRESH, aimed towards a new consumer demographic. ★ Developed the first-of-its-kind, app-based, rep interface tool that produced sell-through insights across different retailers and POS systems in real-time. Significant retail partnerships during my tenure include Costco, Zumies, Tilly’s, Dicks Sporting Goods, Zappos, Nordstrom, Powdr Corp, Vail Resorts, AAFES, GovX, Sunglass Hut and many more.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS ★ Executed a large marketplace cleanup effort, including the overhauling of distribution, driving AUR up to 40%+ on Amazon, eliminating all counterfeit sales of SPY on Amazon, and transitioning from 1P to 3P strategy to double gross margin dollars on every unit sold. ★ Launched an app-based rep servicing tool, to produce real-time data and insights for national account business and restructured the pricing strategy on multiple product lines (Sun, Snow, Moto) for domestic and international markets. ★ Coordinated a cross-functional effort to revitalize the product lifecycle strategy to elevate the internal/external visibility to end-of-life goods, maximize margin to SPY, and to reduce channel conflict with closeout sales.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS ★ Oversaw all SPY sales in North America, led six direct reports and Sales Directors/Managers administering 4K+ accounts, 50+ reps, and multiple distributors. ★ Redeveloped rep commission strategy, including the first-ever closeout plan that empowered reps and saved the company a substantial margin on large volume deals. ★ Devised and implemented strategies to drive profitability to the business during challenging market conditions and decreased sales rates while supporting the execution of a corporate partnership with POWDR Enterprises, owner of 17 snow resorts in North America.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS ★ Played an instrumental role in developing and launching the Crosstown Collection, a limited production, limited distribution eyewear collection, for preferred retailers. ★ Administered all Crosstown responsibilities/duties, including competitive analysis, product development, marketing direction, sales goals creation, target customer identification, and production of a Go-To-Market plan for the entire collection.

KEY ACHIEVEMENTS ★ Headed sales in the Western US, including Alaska/Hawaii and all categories (Sun, Optical, Snow, Motor, and Softgoods) while leading the largest segment of SPY's annual sales under one manager, successfully achieving growth every year. ★ Orchestrated the development of a first ever bonus structure that empowered reps and assisted the company in realizing over four years of consistent YOY growth.

Founder of this non-profit memorial surf contest, which evolved into 3 annual events, including the Halloween Scare 'N Tear. International coverage including LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Time Magazine.