Regional Director-ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

OLPC, Sales and Distribution
The position is within B* OLPC, Sales and Distribution, a recently formed group responsible for Sales and Distribution of OLPC laptops on a global basis. One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organization created by Nicholas Negroponte and others from the MIT Media Lab to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. These machines will be rugged, open source, and so energy efficient that they can be powered by a child manually. Mesh networking will give many machines internet access from one connection. The pricing goal is $100 by 2010.
Summary: The Regional Director, will have full P&L responsibility for the Sales and Distribution of OLPC laptops and servers in the assigned region. The individual holding this position will execute a Sales and Marketing plan defined by OLPC and Brightstar by engaging with OLPC’s institutional liaisons (UNDP, governments, Private Foundations and NGOs) in identifying opportunities to provide elementary school systems this revolutionary educational tool. At the same time, the individual holding this position will bring about Brightstar’s local resources to guarantee a smooth customer experience all the way from proposal discussion, through contract negotiations to delivery of the solution.

Responsibilities: • Convert leads into winning bids and proposals. Secure Purchase Orders and LC from customers. • Conduct joint planning meetings with OLPC, Prospects (UNDP, Governments, Private Foundations and NGOs) and in-country B* teams. This includes clearly defining customer requirements. • Oversee all aspects of the MOU, RFQ and Contractual Agreement process with customers. • Prepare with OLPC and B* in-country teams Product/Fulfillment Cost Analysis to support proposals/bids. • Build and manage a Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Sales Forecast based on target and active engagements. • Maintain a 6 month rolling forecast to be used by Brightstar’s VP/GM of OLPC Sales and Distribution in managing OLPC’s manufacturing forecast. • Manage the relationship between B* local sales teams and the supply chain organization in the procurement, manufacturing and delivery of products to customers, resulting in high customer satisfaction. • Manage the inventory of demo equipment in support of open sales opportunities. • Provide Sales Training to Brightstar’s local sales force on OLPC products and their competition. • Coordinate the relationship with local/regional developers of educational software solutions (as appropriate). • Coordinate the qualification of local 3rd party technical service organizations in support of OLPC. • Define, implement and manage a local marketing plan in support of OLPC. • Communicate to OLPC competitive information which can be used to improve the positioning of the product and optimize the go-to-market strategy.

Requirements: • BA/BS degree in Business Administration or related field preferred. • 5+ years sales management experience including government and educational sales (including tender). • Proven ability to interface with high-level government officials, diplomats and educators. • CE/Computer industry experience highly preferred (ideally involving system and/or consultative sales). • Ability to work in a culturally diverse environment and excellent communication and negotiation skills. • Proficiency with MS Office. • Multilingual - English (Spanish, or other as required to support assigned region)

Applications should be sent to
uche.bassey@kimberly-ryan.net