o9 Solutions Partners with Two New Business Leaders who are excited to add their in-depth knowledge to the aim10x community

DALLAS, TX – April 6, 2021 – o9 Solutions, the leading AI-powered integrated business planning platform, announced the addition of two new leaders at the forefront of digital transformation.

o9 Solutions’ AIM10x Executive Council added two members to its roster. The AIM10x community has two more members, Francisco Crespo and Cheri Mara are ready to offer up their valuable knowledge and experience from long careers within supply chain, commercial and executive functions. o9 Solutions has built up a strong and vibrant network of industry leaders to discuss learnings, failures and experience through the AIM10x community, their knowledge will add to the hive of minds rich with thoughts and ideas to ease all of their digital transformation. The main topics discussed are leadership, strategy, change management, digital transformation journeys, and how to leverage new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning to reach business goals.

“The AIM10x Executive Council gains two inspiring leaders. Francisco Crespo and Cheri Mara both have impressive CVs, full to the brim with experience in supply chain management, commercial planning and leadership,” said Chakri Gottemukkala, CEO at o9 Solutions and active member of the AIM10x Executive Council. “Each leader brings a unique perspective to the AIM10x Executive Council’s thought leadership in navigating digital transformation journeys. Francisco, with his experience in the beverage industry and Cheri in retail, both enter into the community with a fresh outlook and careers built on pushing the boat out, always willing to learn new things and take companies into bold new directions.”

"Both enter into the community with a fresh outlook and careers built on pushing the boat out, always willing to learn new things and take companies into bold new directions."

Chakri GottemukkalaCEO - o9 Solutions

Francisco Crespo

Francisco Crespo is a strategic executive and board member with global experience in strategy, marketing, operations, innovation, digital transformation, and M&A delivering accelerated growth.

In his tenure at Coca-Cola, Francisco has had a wide impact across the company and its bottling system, managing large Latin American P&Ls. As Chief Growth Officer, Francisco was the architect of Coca-Cola’s “Discipline of Growth,” an action-oriented framework that doubled the company’s growth rate and tripled Coca-Cola Trademark’s growth rate.

Earlier in his career, Francisco led the implementation of a collection of Forums/Factories (Marketing, Innovation, Commercial, M&A) to bring strategic planning into action by having cross functional teams making informed decisions in an agile and seamless way. In his days as Commercial Director of Femsa Buenos Aires he led the implementation of RGM and Right Execution Daily, a commercial platform to deliver outstanding design (OBPPC, campaigns, terms and conditions, etc.), execution (distribution, ips, sovi, price, etc.) and learning (tracking key strategic and execution metrics) in the marketplace.

Francisco says: I am honored to join AIM10x Executive Council. The digital economy demands CPG companies to rethink their businesses in a customer-centric way that builds scale not from an average but from technologically enabled mass customization. Predicting demand and connecting all the pieces for an efficient yet agile supply chain is a central element of the future of brands and retail. o9 builds a platform to serve this purpose and pushes forward knowledge by bringing together this network.

"o9 builds a platform to serve this purpose and pushes forward knowledge by bringing together this network."

Francisco CrespoExecutive Advisor - o9 Solutions

Cheri Mara

Cheri has spent over 25 years in leadership roles across the retail and cannabis industries driving growth in fortune 500 companies such as Walmart, Canadian Tire and Indigo, and is the former CCO at Ontario Cannabis Store. She is an accomplished executive with experience in operations, merchandising, P&L oversight, multichannel product distribution, and marketing involving both start-up and growth organizations.  A results-oriented, decisive leader with proven success in identifying new revenue opportunities and strategic positioning for business units requiring turnaround, Cheri has experience in both the private and public sectors. She has an exceptional track record of growing sales and growing the bottom line while spearheading operational improvements to drive productivity and reduce costs. She is known for driving customer-centric solutions and building high-performing teams and excelling in dynamic, demanding environments while remaining pragmatic and focused.

Cheri says: The complexity of retail today is ever-increasing. We have more data and information than ever before guiding decisions; however, this can be overwhelming, cumbersome, and lead to analysis paralysis for most organizations. The key to unlocking an organization’s full potential lies in its ability to transform data into customer solutions. I am excited to work with an innovative company like o9 that builds tools that focus on turning information into actionable insight.

"I am excited to work with an innovative company like o9 that builds tools that focus on turning information into actionable insight."

Cheri MaraExecutive Council - o9 Solutions

About the AIM10x Executive Council

The AIM10x Executive Council is a network of visionary leaders who have built significant operating experience at some of the world’s largest companies. Together they will set the vision for all aspects of an integrated enterprise—from supply chain to finance, sales, and product development, which will lead to global enterprises that are more efficient, sustainable, and profitable.

It is part of the broader ‘AIM10x’ initiative sponsored by o9 Solutions, which aims to empower a global community of professionals who are dedicated to digitally transforming planning and decision-making capabilities. The AIM10x Executive Council members are sharing their insights about leadership, strategy, change management, and Digital Transformation journeys through the AIM10x Webinars, AIM10x Podcasts, and AIM10x Innovators Network.

Visit the AIM10x Executive Council

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About the author

o9 Solutions

The Digital Brain Platform

o9 offers a leading AI-powered Planning, Analytics & Data platform called the Digital Brain that helps companies across industry verticals transform traditionally slow and siloed planning into smart, integrated and intelligent planning and decision making across the core supply chain, commercial and P&L functions. With o9’s Digital Brain platform, companies are able to achieve game-changing improvements in quality of data, ability to detect demand and supply risks and opportunities earlier, forecast demand more accurately, evaluate what-if scenarios in real time, match demand and supply intelligently and drive alignment and collaboration across customers, internal stakeholders and suppliers around the integrated supply chain and commercial plans and decisions. Supported by a global ecosystem of partners, o9’s innovative delivery methodology helps companies achieve quick impact in customer service, inventory levels, resource utilization, as well as ESG and financial KPIs—while enabling a long-term, sustainable transformation of their end-to-end planning and decision-making capabilities.