Company | Principals
HAVING FUN BUILDING SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURIAL TEAMS
Company/Product Strategy and Business Development
James Parasole
User Experience Design and Development
Nancy DeCicco
Finance and Funding Strategy
Scott Hall
Digital Marketing/Transformation and Customer Experience – CX
Although all of our principals and management consultants have held significant successful positions in companies ranging from innovative start-ups to multibillion dollar firms, we soar the highest by bringing our broad experience to other entrepreneurial teams in order to launch new products and find dynamic solutions.
Company/Product Strategy and Business Development
John Polo provides Strategic Directives' clients with solid, hands-on business and organization strategies. He has held numerous senior management positions at start-ups to $31b manufacturing, consumer products, and IT management consulting and services companies worldwide. With focus on marketing, product, sales, funding strategy, and development across a wide number of industry verticals, John prioritizes investments that maximize both short- and long-term growth. He is currently Founder, Chief Operating Officer and Board Member with Top Flight Technologies, Inc. in Boston.
His 30+ years of expertise include companies such as Gartner Group, Charles River Consulting, Howard Systems International Consulting, and S-doc (Internet Security). Seasoned in application development, network infrastructure support, IT management consulting, and business transformation projects, John has performed senior leadership roles for Kraft Foods North America, Perkin-Elmer, and many worldwide clients for Gartner Group. He is a well-respected industry practitioner and spokesperson on Continuous Improvement Programs to drive business results.
John is President of Strategic Directives and has attracted Principals to the Company that believe in the holistic approach of offering industry best practices across a range of business disciplines to aggressively impact overall sustainable success, whether providing active management roles or leading key project needs.
Bachelor of Science in Business Management, University of Connecticut; Associate of Science in Computer Science, Norwalk State Technical College, Connecticut.
User Experience Design and Development
James has extensive experience in user experience design, development, and digital accessibility. He currently leads the User Experience group at Memorial Sloan Kettering and previously served as Senior Director, UX Development and Accessibility at CVS Health. He is also the co-founder of Princeton Justice Initiative, a community non-profit whose mission is to alleviate, reduce and eliminate poverty in Central Western New Jersey.
BA in Design Studies, University at Buffalo; MFA in Graphic Design, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
Finance and Funding Strategy
Nancy leads Strategic Directives' clients in all facets of financial and funding strategies. She brings 25 years of providing clients with solutions to their financial, structural, and organizational needs, including taxation, accounting, investment relations, and human resources.
Nancy has started and led several accounting and tax consulting companies, which have included a large, diverse, and loyal client base, ranging in size from small operations to multimillion-dollar corporations. Her expertise and experience include the recent funding, corporate structure and financial strategies for start-ups, JJT (Digital Imaging), S-doc (Internet Security), InfoPort Communications Group (a broadband communications provider), and Intechfinity (a business process orchestration company).
At Strategic Directives, Nancy is Chief Financial Officer and oversees all merger and acquisition, financial, taxation, human resource, and legal coordination.
BA in Accounting, Rutgers University, New Jersey.
Digital Marketing/Transformation and Customer Experience – CX
Scott Hall is responsible for leveraging and implementing the social media and digital marketing platforms in the online marketplace for Strategic Directives' clients. His heritage in the online arena from software sales and management, marketing, venture capital and founding technology companies offers a unique perspective and ability in this area. Scott is the purveyor of CX Insider which covers customer experience, innovation and digital transformation for today's enterprises, and Linked Insider Marketing - providing the latest insider tools and information to maximize Linkedin for business growth.
Hall brings 20 years of experience in enterprise software and technology applications, plus deep domain knowledge of direct, video, social and online marketing and implementation. Having worked at companies like CompuServe (AOL), Velocix (Alcatel-Lucent), Macmillan Digital (Pearson) and Loudeye/Nokia (Microsoft) offer a breadth and depth of leadership, strategy and execution to our clients. A published author, his book, The Blog Ahead, is an overview and analysis of the growing social media space and its impact on business and the media.
Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Westminster College.