PEAC Ventures, Inc.
Equipping Leaders to
Achieve Extraordinary Results
SERVICES
Accelerate Business Performance
Strategic Planning
Tactical Planning
Revenue Improvement
Customer Engagement
Turnaround Businesses
Process Improvement
Assessments & Reviews
Executive Development
Leadership & Team Development
EXPERIENCE
Public Company Managing Committee Executive:
Visa
Bank of Boston
St. George Bank
Public Company
Board Member:
Green Dot
E*Trade
Private Company
Board Member:
Virtual Communities
Cashcard
CLIENTS
Capital One Bank
Capital Partners
Creditcards.com
DISQO
Ethic Officers Association of America
Federal Home Loan Bank
George Advertising
Google CTA - Gaming
Habitat for Humanity
Nick Pierce & Associates
Rubicon Project
Univ. of S. Carolina
Velocify
Visa
Wells Fargo
For over a decade and a half, PEAC has worked successfully with leaders and teams of start-ups to Fortune 100 businesses to accelerate and achieve extraordinary results. We would welcome the opportunity to work with you and your organization.
TESTIMONIALS
As Director of Architecture at a $140 billion dollar financial services organization, I was responsible for a significant transformational initiative to modernize and streamline IT systems/operations. The main objectives of this initiative were to improve our speed and ease to market for product/services and to gain cost/performance advantages in the increasingly competitive digital economy. Because of the size and impact of this proposed IT architectural change within the highly regulated financial services industry, we engaged PEAC Ventures to consult and provide support on this effort. Bill and I worked intensively over a 3-month period to formulate a new, cloud computing IT architecture strategy, organizational restructuring and implementation road map. This work was done and presented in such a professional, comprehensive and clear way that we gained full board, executive and regulatory approval and support within a very short time frame. Implementation of this multi-year project is now underway. Recently, I moved to a new company to aid large, global gaming companies leverage the power of the cloud through high performance computing, data analytics, and machine learning. Working with Bill was absolutely the high point of my 13 year career in financial services, and I have continued to work with him at my new company. I would not be where I am today without Bill's guidance and mentorship.
Robert Martin
Chief Technology Architect - Gaming
I first met Bill Ott in 2015 when PEAC Ventures was brought in to help Rubicon Project's product team learn how to improve the way we organize our team as well as develop, plan & execute a strategy. Initially, I was skeptical what someone from the banking and finance industries could teach a modern technology product team, but I quickly learned just how wrong that view was. Bill understands leadership, business, and the business of leadership better than anyone I have ever met, period. His knowledge, Insights, tools, lessons and experiences apply across business sectors, companies, and generations. In two days with Bill, our team and I learned more about effective leadership, team structure, strategic planning and tactical execution than I had in all my years of professional experience - it took him just two days to accomplish what we had been unsuccessfully trying for three quarters - which was to organize and consolidate a recently acquired company into a single product team with a comprehensive product strategy within the larger corporation with a set of key tactics and routines to successfully execute the strategy.
Since our initial meeting, Bill has also been coaching me on a one-on-one basis. Working with Bill has helped me in every area of my career and even my personal life. His advice has made me a better communicator, a more confident leader, a better mentor and has given me the ability to assess team dynamics and personal strengths and weaknesses - helping me plan more effective strategies, organize teams and deliver better project outcomes and results. Most importantly, I feel like I can tell Bill anything and that not only will he have valuable advice and guidance about any given situation, but that I can trust the confidentiality of our conversations.
As someone in the middle of my career who has experienced both his team planning and develop sessions and seminars as well as one on one coaching, I feel that Bill Ott is the "X Factor" that can be the difference between simply solid and great leaders and teams.
Oleg Zhoglo
Senior Product Manager
The Trade Desk
San Francisco, CA
I have worked with and engaged Bill at various companies where I have worked over the past decade in a number of circumstances, including but not limited to as a board member, executive committee leader, strategic planning, annual planning and as a team and executive coach. Bill's level of wisdom, professionalism and ability to accelerate the growth of individuals, teams and companies is unparalleled. With a combination of his rich experience as an executive combined with his remarkable humility and interpersonal capability he quickly connects with people. His diverse array of abilities circle around one core tenet, being a leader. Leadership is what he not only provides and models, but he continuously inspires this attribute and skills in others.
Tiffany Chelvsig
SVP People & Business Operations
Greendot, Rubicon Project & Velocify
Los Angeles, CA
Having known and worked with Bill Ott and PEAC Ventures over the past two and a half years, I strongly recommend his professional services to any organization focused on excellence and building highly functional teams grounded in leadership effectiveness, managerial courage, emotional intelligence, and operating effectiveness & efficency. Bill has led several management session & retreats, off-site trainings sessions, and onsite working sessions for our organization with a focus on identifying top strategic and tactical priorities, talent evaluation, leadership development, decision-making, and work/life balance. In each of these cases, our team came away highly aligned, engaged and motivated to achieve new heights. More importantly, Bill provided the tools and techniques required to execute on this alignment and motivation. Bill combines the wisdom of an Executive with the demeanor of a Professor in his approach, and he has an uncanny ability to make complex information and learning easy to understand and apply through real life examples and story telling.
Bill has served as an Executive Coach to me directly in times of need often providing enough guidance to arrive at a conclusion without offering a direct answer. This technique as made me a better leader and risk manager that consistently can navigate intricate professional roadblocks. I recommend that PEAC Ventures be placed at the top of any professional needs list. Having worked with multiple professional consultants throughout my career, I can attest that Bill’s tailor-made style and approach has stood out as producing premium results.
Jason Pollick
Senior Vice President
Commercial Banking Operations
Capital One
McClean, VA
By way of introduction, I have combined a 40+ year career in the financial services industry (CEO of three companies; board member of two national banks) with my profession as an educator (Dean, Georgetown University’s School of Business; twenty-three year faculty member of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) and long-term involvement in business ethics, corporate governance, and organizational leadership, including serving nine years as the CEO-Executive Director of the Ethics and Compliance Officers Association (ECOA), the world’s largest association exclusively for ethics and compliance with over 1,500 members.
I have known Bill Ott for almost twenty years in numerous capacities. We first met when I interviewed him as a candidate to join the board of E*Trade Bank (E*Trade) and its affiliates. I was immediately impressed with the breadth and depth of his experiences, as well as his perspectives regarding the role of the board. It was clear that he was an excellent candidate to join the governing body. At E*Trade, he first chaired the Audit Committee (AC), of which I was a member. Bill was always thorough in his preparation for the committee meetings, as he was for the board meetings themselves, and fully engaged in his fiduciary oversight responsibilities. Bill understood the delicate balance between fiduciary oversight and management. He played a quiet role in coaching the leadership team at E*Trade, while being careful not to step into a management role. As AC chair, Bill saw risk trends emerging in the mortgage industry in early 2016 long before management, several other board members and the general market saw them. His wise counsel constructively steered E*Trade away from more serious dangers. He concluded his tenure on the board of E*Trade serving as Chairman of the Board.
At the time of his board tenure at E*Trade, I was operating as CEO of the ECOA. Bill was extremely instrumental in helping me devise a strategy to move the ECOA from a U.S.-centric to a global organization across six continents. He also spent time with my staff to clearly define their new responsibilities, and to provide leadership development to them. In particular, he helped break through inherited silos in the organization, and to develop a strong sense of teamwork. With his assistance, the ECOA experienced considerable growth and a dramatic increase in its surplus.
Following my ECOA experience, I assume the leadership of a boutique consulting firm. Therein, Bill has worked with me in several engagements including, among others: a mid-sized asset management firm seeking a turnaround strategy; a technology-focused corporation supporting the intelligence community. In each case Bill helped create a clear strategic focus, organizational re-structuring to support the strategy, management and team assessments, coach and team development.
Bill and I have maintained a close and continuous relationship. I have always valued his judgment. Perhaps the most important asset Bill possesses is the complete trust I have that he is always acting in the best interest of the individuals and organizations he represents.
Keith Darcy
Independent Senior Advisor
Deloitte & Touche LLLP
Former
CEO and Executive Director
Ethics and Compliance Association
I’ve known and worked with Bill Ott since January 2010, when he first joined the Green Dot Corporation Board of Directors. At that time, I had been serving as a Green Dot Director since making an early stage venture investment in the company in 2002. He and I served together for 3½ years on this Board as well as on its Audit, Governance and Compensation Committees. Bill was the first independent director to join the Green Dot Board, since being originally constituted by early round investors. Shortly after Bill joined the Green Dot Board, Green Dot formally announced plans to acquire a bank. In 2011, the company became a bank holding company, requiring the Board to meet 10 times a year. Therefore, I had the opportunity to work closely and often with Bill during those 3½ years. I both enjoyed and valued working with him. Bill brought significant public company executive managing committee and public & private company board experience to the Green Dot Board. His extensive and deep background in leading and managing companies turned out to be most important and critical to the company. During this time, Bill provided exceptional guidance through the transitional years of being a closely held private company to becoming a publicly held bank holding company. He also possessed a deep understanding of revenue generation, product management, operations and technology that proved invaluable. I found Bill to be extremely prepared, reasonable, analytical, objective, fact-based and balanced in his approach. The skills, experience and qualities I most value in Bill are his unquestionable integrity, deep management expertise and knowledge and his professionalism. Bill has a very approachable style and brought a very positive, constructive energy to this work. He worked closely with the management team at Green Dot on a diverse variety of initiatives and earned their strong respect and confidence. While we have both finished serving on the Green Dot Board, Bill and I still stay in frequent contact on matters of common interest. As a former corporate financial executive at Intuit and at Vons, I was impressed with Bill’s ability to work across the organization to achieve desired results and recommend Bill for any consulting engagement or any board directorship without any reservation.
Ginny Hanna
President and Managing Member
Hanna Ventures, LLC
Former Head of Investor Relations – Intuit
Former Corporate Treasurer – Vons Supermarkets
I have known and worked with Bill for ten years. I have engaged him as a business consultant and executive leadership coach for past three years at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. He has work closely with me on corporate strategic planning, process improvements, and effective organizational restructuring. He has worked with me to build and develop my team. He has coached me with my communication skills related to the executive management team and the board of directors. Bill has provided with me with key tools that I used everyday in leading my team, and he has shown me ways to work on critical paths to success. Overall, Bill has a helped to prepare me for my current executive leadership role. I have gained invaluable skills that would not be possible otherwise without his support and guidance. What sets Bill apart from other consultants and coaches is that he has tremendous experience and skills. He is able to quickly defining an issue, and can help you build a clear strategic and tactical path for achievable improvements. Bill will help you think outside the box. He gets significant results quickly and efficiently, and he does it in a manner that is sustainable. Most importantly, Bill has the highest ethics and confidentiality of anyone I have ever worked with, and I trust and recommend him completely.
Alp Can
EVP - Chief Risk Officer
Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta
I have been working with Bill for nearly two years now. A corporate reorganization thrust me into a challenging environment and in a newly established position as Chief Product Officer for our company. I sought an executive advisor and leadership coach to help me build a new team from the ground up and improve my leadership skills. Bill helped me to assess myself, my team, and build a plan for creating an effective organization. Many of my peers recognized the value Bill brought immediately, leading him to taking on the leadership of a strategic planning offsite for the entire senior leadership team. Through this process, we were able to define a key path forward for a business in transition. I continue to value my work with Bill, including having him lead and advise on team meetings, team planning, and my own personal leadership skills. Bill has a keen eye for rapidly assessing people and helping one to understand and confirm questions or decisions that can sometimes linger. Speed is a critical component in business and Bill is an accelerant to any decision or review. Finally, Bill is a consummate professional and has earned my trust and the trust of everyone on my team to share critical insights with him. I plan to continue to work with Bill and recommend him without reservation.
Matthew Goldman
Chief Product Officer
CreditCards.com
Pasadena, CA
In my first year as executive director of the Newnan-Coweta Habitat for Humanity, Inc., I had to restructure the organization's board of directors. Over 60 percent of my board was new, and I had to get everyone on the same page so the organization could move in the right direction. Bill was highly instrumental in assisting with this effort. We worked together for several months, and Bill designed a day and a half strategic planning retreat that created an environment of trust and allowed individuals to communciate freely and openly. We were able to identify the organization's strategic vision and areas that needed to be prioritized over the next one and two year periods, each baord members's strengths, and how they could best contribute to the organization. By the end of the strategic planning retreat, the board felt and was more cohesive, responsive, and engaged.
This would not have been possible without Bill's help. Not only is he a great listener, but he is both extremely intuitive and experienced , which allows him to switch gears at a moment's notice to address issues as they arise. I've seen him work with various personalities and bring out the best in those he comes into contact with
I cannot recommend him enough professionally and truly value the friendship we have created throughout this process.
Cristina Bowereman
Executive Director
Newnan-Coweta
Habitat for Humanity, Inc.
ABOUT US
PEAC Vision: Equip Leaders to Achieve Extraordinary Results
PEAC Mission: Put Strong Teams in a Position to Succeed
Founder: William Ott (Bill) established PEAC (pronounced Peak) Ventures, Inc., a boutique consulting firm, in 2003 to bring his proven executive experience building and turning-around Fortune 100 companies to a wider range of Companies, Boards, Senior Executives and their teams. He served as COO of Visa, Group Executive of St. George Bank (Australia) and Group Executive of Bank of Boston. He served on the board, was named Chairman of E*TRADE Bank in 2008, and he helped to successfully guide that company through the 2008 financial crisis. He served on the board of Green Dot where he assisted the company to transition from a privately held to a publicly traded company. He is a lecturer on Leadership & Management at Pepperdine University. Given his background, skills and experience, he brings the perspective of both a proven, successful senior executive leader and an experienced board member to each engagement.