Team

Lynley Sides, Principal

Lynley has focused her 17-year consulting and operational management career on helping biotech and tech companies develop breakthrough products and bring them to market. Bringing expertise in research, organizational excellence, large project management, and complex product development she has helped small companies and new divisions of Fortune 500 companies solve critical problems and efficiently meet growth objectives.

Through S&A and A.T. Kearney, she has advised clients including Genentech, XenoPort, HP, SGI, Outlook Ventures, and MGM Interactive. Projects have included the creation of matrix product development structures and enterprise business models; business process improvements; outsourcing; acquired company integration; and transformations of problem organizations to best-in-class. Additionally, she has served as interim VP, Marketing and developed business plans for several startups, all resulting in subsequent rounds of funding.

As VP, Marketing at Red Herring Online, Lynley’s organization and suite of vendors developed and launched several of the industry’s most profitable products and managed marketing programs that drove one-year increases in subscribers and sales of over 300%. The early years of Lynley's career were spent in product management and marketing at IBM and Westinghouse where she was focused on launching a revolutionary product that won several awards including the "Corporate Best Marketing" and Control Engineering magazine's "Product of the Year" awards.

Lynley holds an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech. Her published articles and speaking engagements have offered perspectives on executive decision making, product development and multi-channel marketing. Additionally, she founded and leads Small World Mandarin programs which benefits special needs orphans in China.

Alejandro’s consulting career, which spans fourteen years, has focused on three areas: corporate strategy, organizational effectiveness and change management, and business and financial analysis. His client list ranges from early-stage start-ups to large, multinational corporations. Most of his work has been in biotechnology, software, e-commerce, and energy. Notable engagements include a restructuring of the project team system for the clinical organization of a large biotechnology firm, the development and implementation of a major operations outsourcing effort for a software developer, and a two-year project to redefine processes and roles for the management of IT initiatives across several business units of a national energy company.

Alejandro has significant experience both in individual contributor roles as well as in managing complex, multi-project teams. He began his career with a specialty consultancy in Mexico City and spent several years at the Boston Consulting Group.

Born and raised in Mexico, Alejandro graduated with honors from the Universidad Iberoamericana with a degree in industrial engineering. He obtained his MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Kristen’s fifteen-year career has primarily consisted of marketing and P&L management positions at early stage start-ups and new business divisions of Fortune 500 companies including Nestle, Disney and Safeway. She has served as Chief Operating Officer of healthcare products company Murad where she led sales, marketing, finance and operations. Previously, she was VP of Marketing at eHow, where she was named a Top 100 Marketer by Advertising Age, and a brand marketer at Nestle.

Initiatives under her leadership included: designing and executing strategies for growing revenue and market share; developing and launching new brands and products; improving efficiency of product development, manufacturing and distribution operations; outsourcing a call center; and designing organization structure and performance management systems.

In addition to her operational experience, Kristen has spent three years as management consultant with S&A, focusing on organizational effectiveness, change management and communications. Recent engagements include at a large biotechnology company: executing a change initiative around DNA banking and conducting lessons learned assessments on three major product launches to institutionalize best practices.

Kristen holds an MBA with honors and a BA in English from Anderson UCLA. Additionally, Kristen lectures in Anderson UCLA’s Entrepreneurial Finance course taught abroad in UK. She has also advised educational foundations and institutions, including the Broad Foundation.

Julie has nearly 15 years of experience consulting to Fortune 1000 companies in a variety of industries including high technology, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, insurance and consumer packaged goods.  Her client list includes Washington Mutual, Advanced Micro Devices, Hewlett-Packard and Nestle, among others. Her consulting work has focused on organization effectiveness, process redesign, project management, marketing strategy, communications and change management.  Most recently, she was a Managing Consultant at Towers Perrin in San Francisco .

In addition to her consulting experience at Towers Perrin, Julie has also worked directly for Pitney Bowes, Kaiser Permanente and California State Automobile Association. Her experiences at these companies have provided her with an important perspective on what is required to implement changes within a large organization. 

Julie holds an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA and a BA in Psychology from UC San Diego, where she graduated with honors.  She also has a certificate of process redesign mastery from the Hammer Institute.  Additionally, Julie has worked extensively as an advisor to nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area including Taproot Foundation and the EcoMom Alliance. 

Over his career, John has helped many large organizations improve their businesses.  He has consulted to companies in biotechnology, telecommunications, manufacturing and other industries in functional areas including product development, marketing strategy, marketing, sales and service operations, business process design and project management.  Most recently, John helped a biotech company improve their end-to-end drug development business processes to support the efficient and effective execution of global clinical trials.

In addition to his consulting work, John held senior marketing and product management roles at SingTel Optus, a large South East Asian telecommunications company, in Sydney, Australia where he gained deep experience with global product development strategy and planning and marketing campaign execution. 

John holds an MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA and a BS in Business Administration from The Haas School of Business at University of California at Berkeley. 

Donovan’s five year consulting career has focused on organizational effectiveness, change management and financial analysis. His career began at Tucker Alan/Navigant Consulting where he worked with clients in technology and biotechnology industries performing financial analyses.

In 2005, Donovan joined S&A and is currently an associate consultant. Recent engagements have included executing a change initiative around DNA banking and restructuring of the project team system at a large biotechnology company. His roles have included situation assessments using quantitative and qualitative analysis, project management, and definition of roles and deliverables.

Donovan holds a BS in Business Administration from Saint Mary’s College of California. Additionally, Donovan coaches high school basketball in Lafayette.

Hilary Jules is a marketing and business development consultant, primarily serving technology clients such as BEA Systems, Salesforce.com, Palm, and Intervoice. Hilary's consulting services include: marketing strategy, messaging and materials development; lead generation; business development strategy; deal term negotiation and alliance management; partner program development; and general project management. Hilary brings to each client engagement a combination of strategic thinking and detail-oriented execution to successfully drive initiatives from initial concept through completion.

Previously, Hilary was a member of the leadership team at Plumtree Software for four and a half years. She held a number of management positions including Director of Alliances and Business Development and Director of Corporate and Partner Marketing. Prior to Plumtree, Hilary worked in the E-Services Division at Hewlett-Packard, and in the corporate business strategy group at Charles Schwab.

Hilary earned her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her MBA from The Anderson School at UCLA. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.

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