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Ben Saren

Marketing executive and behaved citizen by day, unruly insomniac by night. A dash of mania, a sprinkle of wonder, a heaping tablespoon of impulsiveness. Unwilling to follow the masses, longing for truth and meaning. Having fun along the way.

For my detailed resume please contact me.

• Full Name Ben Saren
• Address Somerville, MA
• Phone +1-617-863-0393
• Email ben[at]yoursuspect.com
• Blog http:/www.yoursuspect.com
• LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/bsaren
• Photography http://www.bensarenphotography.com

Litle & Co., a Vantiv company | Lowell, MA

Vice President Marketing

Currently leading Marketing at one of America’s fastest growing companies. Founded in 2001, Litle & Co. landed No. 1 rankings on both the Inc. 500 and the Deloitte New England Technology Fast 50. As Vice President of Marketing, overseeing a department of twelve expert marketers, ultimately responsible for re-contextualized and repositioning Marketing within the organization, and accountable for measurable opportunity creation, as well as repositioning Litle’s solutions in the payments industry and within the marketplace.

Litle was acquired by Vantiv ($VNTV) in December 2012 for $361MM (NYSE: VNTV).

CitySquares Online, Inc. | Boston, MA

Co-Founder & CEO

Co-founded CitySquares, the pioneer of hyper-local search, in 2005, bootstrapped it for 19 months until securing Series-A from angel investors including Mark Cuban and Jonathan Kraft, among others. Overall responsibility for business strategy, partnerships, operations, investor and board matters, and corporate development. Instrumental in key accounts and partnerships with SMG, TMP, Primedia, Citysearch and the US Postal Service. CitySquares grew its customer base to over 13,500 local and national advertisers, headcount to 23, monthly website traffic exceeding 2.2M unique visitors, and earned a reputation as the pioneer of hyper-local search. CitySquares was acquired by Pixelfish in 2010.

Atomic Enterprises | Boston, MA

Founder & CEO

Provider of back-office technology solutions and front-office new media and digital marketing solutions for B2B and B2C clients in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Profitably and organically grew the company to three US offices, 20 employees, 30+ contractors, working with multinational real estate clients like Tishman Speyer Properties, television production studios, not-for-profit organizations, to local brick-and-mortar boutiques. Atomic was sold to a local competitor in 2005.

Prospero Technologies | Cambridge, MA

Director, Information Technologies

Originally contracted as Y2K consultant, hired as full time Director of IT when Delphi merged with Well Engaged to form Prospero Technologies. Managed a staff of twelve IT personnel located in Cambridge, MA and Sausalito, CA. The team was responsible for all IT strategy and the creation and implementation of new IT operations, ranging from end-user services, help desk operations, web and database server farms, LAN, WAN, VPN, and intranet design and implementation. Set strategies, policies, and best practices.

Previous Experience

Various

Previous experience in web development, design, IT and project management with Digital Equipment Corporation, RSA, Parametric Technologies, GE Capital, and Bell Atlantic.

References

The following references are from LinkedIn. Go to my LinkedIn page to see more.

Bala J.

Litle & Co.

Ben overhauled our marketing strategy and the results are clear for everyone to see….He is part of a bold new breed of marketing talent that melds technology, strategy, story telling and analytics that delivers real results. Ben has a remarkable ability to bring loads of positive energy to any team or initiative that he is a part of. After every discussion with Ben, I always come out inspired and motivated to get stuff done. Our exchanges are lively, intense and I always walk away with new ways of thinking about problems, solutions and positioning.

Chris R.

Litle & Co.

I’ve been working with Ben for over 2 years and he has completely revamped and revolutionized our Marketing and we would not be in the successful position we are without his efforts. He is a tremendously gifted speaker and presenter and his ability to relate to multiple departments and markets is clearly one of his strengths. I enjoy working with Ben and would recommend his efforts to anyone.

Peter K.

Litle & Co.

When Ben joined Litle two years ago I was immediately impressed with his ability to rapidly drive change and communicate vision at all levels. He is adept at utilizing technology in the most efficient way to reach his goals and he stomps over roadblocks with abandon. His energy is infectious and invigorating to the entire organization and he is unique in his ability to integrate his technological knowledge with crisp marketing and develop clear messaging that resonates with customer and employee alike.

Dave K.

Litle & Co.

I’ve known Ben for the two years he’s been at Litle and have loved working with him from the minute he started – by painting one of the walls in his office with whiteboard paint.

Ben’s self-description is ‘corporate catalyst, marketing technologist, change agent.’ Spot on! He is all that and more. He brought verve into our marketing department that we’d never experienced before. Ben immediately took a shotgun approach to communications, both internal and external, introducing our blogs, Yammer, Twitter, and completely reworking our public web presence, combining well-crafted presentation with user interaction.

Ben has a unique ability to take banal, obscure, geeky technical concepts and mold them into compelling solutions. He skillfully guides his team along the way producing both precise copy and beautiful graphics.

Ben is exceptionally bright, incredibly motivated, powerfully focused, and wonderfully eccentric. After decades as a technology executive in various technology companies, I’ve come to appreciate these are essential ingredients of a successful marketing executive!

I heartily recommend Ben without reservation.

Jason P.

CitySquares

Ben is one of those rare individuals that you meet and just know will be successful. For six years I have watched him take on numerous challenges with conviction, drive and integrity. His leadership and steadfast belief has been the driving force in the creation and success of CitySquares. It has been a pleasure to call him a colleague and friend.

Rafic H.

Atomic

I had the pleasure of first working with Ben in 2005 when he invited me to Boston for a couple weeks to explore a partnership between our organizations. I knew from the start that Ben had the right mix of technical savvy, leadership qualities, and demonstrated success for a strong partnership. Ben was friendly from the get-go, making potent and relevant introductions to others in his network, yielding more opportunities for me and my firm. Years later I’m proud to say that Ben and I continue to find ways to work together and also proud to say we’re also friends.