Summary: - 20+ years in Marketing Management. - 16 years hiring and managing personnel. - Involved in the start-up of 15 companies either as a consultant or as an entrepreneur - 17 years of business to business marketing experience. - 17 years managing marketing for service companies. - 14 years of experience in the management and implementation of Internet strategies - 10 years experience as a consultant. - 8 years in international marketing. - 5 years experience in retail store management.

My first marketing experience was when I was training for bicycle racing at the velodrome. Back then, it was a rare to see amateur athletes with sponsors. I was able to find a sponsorship with the shoe manufacturer AVIA - who had developed a range of cycling shoes - and bike shop. This was my first step into the wonderful world of marketing.

Once my cycling career was over, it was time to start working in the real world. My first business was, of course, a bike shop. I was general as well as marketing manager, and one of my responsabilities was to look for ways to improve our profitability. While doing so, my partner and I started to look for new products overseas. We were negotiating with manufacturers in Japan, China and Korea to get exclusive Canadian distribution rights for their products. This is how my international marketing involvement began.  

After selling the store, I worked with one of the most well-known trademarks in all of Canada: Kodiak. As a marketing coordinator, I assisted the national marketing director in the development and implementation of local and national marketing strategies. This stage of my career was very rewarding since Kodiak was extending its brand by licensing it to manufacturers of complementary products. Today, I am proud to see that several licensees continue to use the brand; you can see the Kodiak name on backpacks, gloves, socks and clothing!

While working for Kodiak, I started my Masters in Business Administration at HEC Montreal. My specialization was: marketing and business strategy. During my studies, several assignments led us to work on-site with companies. As some of these companies liked what they were seeing, I got my first consulting mandates.

One of these mandates was with a corporate training school. Over time, the company grew and I was offered the position of director of sales and marketing. During my time with the company, it went from a single service school, to a diversified training center with a wide range of services. We also signed agreements with Spanish training schools in Costa Rica and a Canadian language school in Cuba. We were one of the first companies to do business in Montreal on the Internet. Our website was transactional in 1998 and was bringing us up to 80% of our new contracts. We had some of the most prominent companies in the Montreal area as customers and soon a branch was opened in Toronto. In less than 10 years, we grew from a small training center to one of the largest language schools in greater Montreal. The name of that school: LANGAGE D’ICI.

Meanwhile, I worked on an idea for appointment-based professionals. The goal was to use the Internet to share their calendar thus making it accessible to their clients, but in a confidential and secure manner. I was in charge of the design, ergonomics, and specifications, as well as overseeing the development of the application. The name of this application: i-schedule. Today, many online calendar are available to you, but i-schedule was designed in 2003 and launched in 2004 making it the first ever on the Internet!

In 2006, life took me to Mexico where I started a renovation business: RenoMex. We negotiated the exclusivity of a brand of Mexican ceramic for our town, San Juan del Rio, in the state of Querétaro. In addition to managing the business, I consulted with some Quebec manufacturers who wanted to expend to the Mexican market. I was able to get a Quebec manufacturer of pizza dough into both Costco and Sam's, tow of the biggest warehouse outlet chains in Mexico.

Back in Quebec, I continue to consult for companies wanting to go to Mexico, and Mexican companies interested in coming here, as well as consulting for small and medium businesses who want to outsource their marketing. On top of it all, I also took the reins of LANGAGE D’ICI and reshaped it to include more training options. Of course, I have a great team working for me, but I am the contact point between my clients and my companies - so if you hire Principio Group, I will be the person responsible for your project.

No matter what business you are in, Principio Group is your marketing solution, and it would be my pleasure to be part of your success.

Stéphane Elmaleh-Riel, MBA
Founding President and senior consultant

 

Email: stephane@groupe-principio.com