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Esther Palacín Rojo

Senior Manager

Business Development | Digital Transformation | Transversal Project Management | Improvement of Processes, Costs and Results.

About me

In a nutshell

Degree in Engineering, Master in Digital Business, executive MBA, Digital Marketing, and Data Science.

Black Belt LSS certification in progress. 

Experience of:

  • + 15 years in Cross Project Management, oriented to the Development and Transformation of Companies, through Innovation, Digitalization, and Continuous Improvement. Increasing profitability, sales, and product/service quality, with a focus on internal and external customers, and
  • + 5 years in Business Development (new countries, products, business models) of solutions that combine digital tools with knowledge and experience to bring value to customers.

Some of my skills

  • Team player,
  • Persevering in the fulfillment of KPIs,
  • Used to working in and managing VUCA environments (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous),
  • Fast and continuous learner,
  • Data analysis, 
  • Problem-solving and decision-making, 
  • Project management (cost, time, quality),
  • Process analysis,
  • Continuous improvement. 

What I like to do on a daily basis

Cross-functional projects involving different departments (Operations, Sales, Finance, Legal, Marketing, HR).

Change Management and Digital Transformation (People + Processes + Products/Services)

Continuous Improvement / Operational Efficiency (Quality, Time and Cost)

Focus on everything that adds value to both internal and external customers (Customer Centric)

Bringing out the best in the people I work with (People Person)

Start and promote businesses and/or departments from scratch.

Business development, products/services, new business models, ...

Gain insight from data and be able to make decisions and carry out actions

To feel satisfied with the work done, that it is useful both for the improvement of the company and for society

Technology Skills

➡️ Data analysis: R (Rstudio)

➡️ Project management: MS Project, Trello, Planner

➡️ BI: Power BI

➡️ CRM: Salesforce

➡️ CMS: WordPress

➡️ Online Campaigns: Adwords, Facebook Ad

➡️ Web analytics: Google Analytics

➡️ MS365: Teams, SharePoint, others

➡️ Processes: Minitab, Visio

Experience

Suez

Environmental Services

As a Solutions Owner, I manage a set of digital solutions (SaaS) dedicated to the management and revenue enhancement of utilities and the preservation of the most important resource on the planet, water. Carrying out different tasks:

  • Business development - clients, internal and/or external. Currently working remotely with clients in 5 continents (+10 different countries),
  • Define and collaborate in the Go-To-Market implementation of all solutions in the different countries,
  • Products/Solutions development para cubrir las necesidades de los clientes, ya sea mediante:
    • internal, in-house development,
    • mergers and acquisitions (due dilligences) and/or, through
    • strategic partner agreements,
  • Project Leadership and monitoring of projects and the work team (3-4 projects per year),
  • Follow up the profit and loss for each project.

Reporting to the Business and Operations Director, responsible for planning and managing projects aimed at optimizing internal processes, service quality, and products/solutions within the commercial division. Leadership in integrating the division and standardizing processes across the Americas, Europe, and the Middle East. Analysis, creation, and implementation of new opportunities and business models.

Main contributions:

  • Collaboration in the definition of commercial strategy and business development by country.
  • Implementation of SalesForce, the definition of reports, KPIs, and dashboards.
  • Project management of the integration of the international sales department.
  • Project leadership for the restructuring of the commercial portfolio by country.
  • Cross project management of digital transformation (Implementation of collaborative tools).
  • Development of the marketing strategy: storytelling of services, landing page, SEM campaigns, RRSS, SEO.
  • Implementation of sales tools in a new company acquired in Brazil and key support in the integration of this company with the international sales and operations departments.

Reporting to the Business Development Management, in charge of the creation and implementation of the BI department, with the purpose of contributing to increasing sales and leveraging the potential of the business within the digital environment. Design and management of plans and projects for the digital transformation of the Marketing, Sales, and Operations areas in Spain. 3 people team.

Main contributions:

  • Definition of metrics and KPIs , implementation and management of actions in Salesforce.
  • Identification and implementation of improvements in IT systems, and commercial tools.
  • Implementation of the bid approval system through Salesforce, achieving a savings of 250 K EUR.
  • Process automation for Business Development, Operations, HR, Finance, and Legal.
  • Competitor analysis and customer tracking in RRSS (Portfolio, sales, and business model evaluation).

Responsible for the definition and management of continuous improvement projects, with an emphasis on the areas of Business Development, Marketing, Operations, HR, Finance, and Legal. 7 people team, with the purpose of improving productivity and efficiency of operations, as well as customer experience and satisfaction.

Main contributions:

  • Optimization, implementation, and standardization of a new offer and pricing model. Reduced time and resources invested. Reduced lack of information by 25%; reduced time to prepare an offer from 28-17 days; improved customer focus from 3 to 7.5%.
  • Creation of automated customer-oriented tool, with which an approximate price of services/products can be self-calculated, as well as the potential savings.
  • Improvement of IT tools through Salesforce, for measurement, monitoring and improvement of Business Development, Operations and Marketing KPIs.

Agbar

Water management / Industrial solutions

Reporting to the Purchasing Management in Spain, responsible for the creation and development of the purchasing department for the industrial sector within the group. 2 peoplw team.

Main contributions:

  • Key collaboration in the implementation of the purchasing procedure for more than 100 companies.
  • Definition and launch of tenders for the entire group.
  • Optimization of supplier network, reducing the portfolio from 170 to 70 suppliers (without afecting the quaility, price, risk...).
  • Increased negotiation capacity and savings of 1M EUR in internal and supplier management.
  • The leadership of purchasing improvement initiatives in the group's operations department.

Reporting to the CEO, selected to establish the technical department from scratch; planning procedures, and implementing management tools. Initiated the business development strategy and engineering projects. Industrial projects for clients such as Damm, Cosentino, Ecocat, BBraun, and Henkel, among others.

Deisa

Water treatment / Process water engineering for industry

My duties consisted in managing construction projects of process water plants for different industries (all over Spain). for different industries (all over Spain). From the definition of the process, the negotiation negotiation and purchase of equipment and subcontractors, construction management, definition of the functional logic and start-up of the plants.

Education

Uned

Master's degree in Big Data & Data Science applied to economics and business administration | 2022

The Power MBA

Master's degree in Digital Marketing | 2021

Lean Six Sigma Institute

Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma certification | Currently

The Valley Business School

Master's degree in Digital Business | 2019

UPC

Master's degree in Water Management | 2017

ICIL

Master's degree in International purchasing | 2015

IESE

Master's degree in Business Administration | 2012

UB

Chemical engineering | 2002

Languages

Spanish

5/5

Catalan

5/5

English

4/5

Chinese

2/5