EVP, Customer Strategy & Growth

American Kennel Club•New York, NY

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Executive Vice President, Customer Strategy and Growth, will sit at the intersection of marketing, data, digital, customer experience, and revenue optimization, with a singular mission: drive transformational growth across our customer base and digital platforms, and develop programs to maximize lifetime customer value while delivering world-class experiences. This leader will be responsible for redefining how AKC acquires, engages, retains, and monetizes relationships across the full lifecycle of dog ownership. The role goes well beyond traditional brand marketing. The EVP will own customer strategy end to end - from sharpening AKC’s value proposition and relevance for modern dog owners to building data-driven engagement models, modernizing digital touchpoints, and unlocking long-term customer lifetime value.

Requirements

Acts to surpass team goals, seizing opportunities to extend the limits of what is possible
Sets continually higher goals for the team that are ambitious but achievable
Identifies and acts on new opportunities that enable performance targets to be exceeded
Seeks new challenges and is energized by exceeding targets
Identifies all necessary stakeholders and connects with them to gain support or agreement
Negotiates with a genuine give-and-take approach that takes all parties’ perspectives into account
Takes advantage of opportunities to build strategic relationships to achieve a specific outcome
Engages others in open dialogue and adapts own influence approach to different stakeholders in ways that address their interests or concerns
Anticipates emerging or potential conflicts among all stakeholders and takes steps to pre-empt them
Creates a 2-3-year roadmap or blueprint to implement the enterprise strategy in own area
Identifies and prioritizes the most critical future factors to consider in making decisions
Makes plans to address changes or trends in the external landscape (i.e. competitors, clients, and market segments) that affect own business or area
Develops plans that consider the impact beyond own area, location, function, or market
Proven success as a senior growth, customer strategy, or marketing leader responsible for driving measurable revenue and engagement outcomes.
Deep expertise in CRM, customer databases, and monetization strategies, including segmentation, lifecycle marketing, and lifetime value optimization.
Hands-on experience launching and scaling customer-facing websites, apps, portals, or digital platforms that serve as primary engagement channels.
Demonstrated ability to translate e-commerce or digital performance insights into high-impact growth initiatives.
Experience designing, launching, and monetizing digital marketplaces or transactional platforms.
Exceptional analytical and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to synthesize data, market insights, and business objectives into clear priorities and action plans.
Track record of building, leading, and inspiring cross-functional, high-performing teams.
Comfort operating with urgency and accountability in environments facing revenue pressure and strategic inflection.
Passion for mission-driven work and a genuine interest in serving dog owners, breeders, and the broader dog community.

Nice To Haves

Ideally in regulated or trust-based environments.
Experience designing, launching, and monetizing digital marketplaces or e-commerce platforms.

Responsibilities

Define and execute a unified customer strategy spanning acquisition, engagement, retention, and monetization across digital and offline touchpoints.
Reframe the AKC customer relationship from largely transactional interactions to long-term, value-based engagement.
Develop programs and offerings that increase customer lifetime value while delivering meaningful, trusted experiences.
Build and leverage robust customer databases and CRM platforms to enable personalization, segmentation, analytics, and monetization.
Translate customer insights and data analytics into actionable growth initiatives that drive measurable revenue and engagement lift.
Establish disciplined measurement, testing, and optimization processes to maximize business impact and unlock new revenue streams.
Lead the upgrade, growth, and optimization of customer-facing digital engagement platforms, including websites, apps, portals, or marketplaces.
Oversee the design and execution of digital experiences that deepen loyalty, improve usability, and strengthen trust.
Bring experience designing, launching, and monetizing digital marketplaces or e-commerce platforms, ideally in regulated or trust-based environments.
Lead the development and growth of an AKC-branded online marketplace for dogs and AKC shop, ensuring a safe, secure, and compliant environment for breeders, exhibitors, and buyers.
Lead and integrate marketing, registration, and customer service into a single, customer-centered operating model.
Partner closely with product, technology, operations, finance, and customer-facing teams to deliver seamless, end-to-end experiences.
Build and lead high-performing teams, assess existing talent, and make thoughtful decisions about structure, capabilities, and resourcing.
Navigate an organization with long-standing processes, custom-built systems, and tenured stakeholders.
Establish credibility quickly through subject-matter expertise, clarity of thinking, and early impact.
Balance respect for institutional knowledge with the ability to challenge legacy assumptions and drive change.