About me!

Michael Oualid

Father of 2, I am an eternal learner with many interests: science, technology, arts, culinary innovation… I also read a lot of newspapers and many articles on the web….!

I love to share with my kids, my family and friends what I am learning….For years, I wanted to create a blog but never had a chance to start… With the 2020 pandemic, I had the time to seek inspiration or help via readings online… I finally decided to write about my passions, my thoughts, and curious wonderings about our world. This is how The Curious Thinker started in January 2021. One month after, I decided to rebrand it and rethink about social media strategy and this is how on February 14, 2021 the idea of ThinkerSquid came up where I want to learn and share with others around 6 main themes: Arts, Science, Society, Culinary, Travel and Digital.

Take some time to explore the site and feel free to reach out if you would like to collaborate on a project together.

What do I do for work?

Product and People leader with a blend of consulting and operational experience.
Outcome driven in alignment with organizations’ goals generating cost savings & improved customer satisfaction.
Drive Product Strategy and execution for diverse companies/industries with the enablement of capabilities that transcend customer experience.
Manage cross-functional team, build relationship with internal/external business stakeholders.
Known for high-quality deliverables that meet/exceed timeline & budgetary targets.
Leverage technical, business & financial acumen to communicate effectively with executives and their respective teams.
Instructor at Product School since October 2021

Skills

Product Management / Product Design / Product Development & Engineering / Product Vision and StrategyStrategic Planning and Budgeting / Digital Transformation/ Design Thinking / Discovery/ Delivery / OKRs / Outcome Based Roadmap

Project Management, Waterfall/Agile

Global Leadership & Team building, coaching and mentoring / Cross-Team Collaboration

SaaS / E-commerce and Digital Payments / CRM (Sales, Marketing, Service) & Analytics / Content & Knowledge Management / Customer Service and Support.

Global Training & Support

Lecturer in Business Schools

English, French

Experiences

Director Product Management at American Express – NYC, USA
(2015 – Current)
I had the opportunity to join American Express via my network – This is a wonderful company with a lot of great people. Within my role, I am trying to make the life of my internal customers easier (who are my sales and account development colleagues) by leading a team of product managers supporting CRM platform across the US, Canada and Mexico- Great team, great colleagues, great vision!

Assistant Vice President – CRM at Guy Carpenter (Marsh McLennan) – NYC, USA
(2011 – 2015)
I joined Guy Carpenter in 2005 after immigrating to the US the same year – It was a great opportunity to be acclimated to the American way of working. During 4 years, implemented and maintained CRM solution for 900 sales colleagues globally with the objective to improve productivity and sell more. Great Experience, culture. This is also here that I really started my product management journey.

Manager – Intuito – Paris, France
(2005 – 2011)
I joined this start up in 2005 at its first steps … It was created by 2 former Deloitte Partners and was amazed to be part of this adventure. I continued to use my consulting cap during more than 5 years to assist and support various customers in diverse projects to define their CRM strategies (sales process automation, campaign management, data visualization, content management, call center optimization). In addition, This was also the time for me to become a leader (focus on talent development) and share my knowledge by teaching in educational institutions (ESSCA-Angers and Enass- Paris) as a lecturer in my domain of expertise: CRM and data management. Some of great customers: Marsh, Barclays, ANDRH, Credit Agricole.

Consultant – British Telecom/KPMG Consulting – Paris, France
(2000 – 2005)
2000 is the year where I left my path to PhD in Biology to start a new adventure during the “Internet Bubble” by joining Syntegra, a sub company belonging to British Telecom. One year later, the company acquired KPMG Consulting and this is when I started to learn consulting techniques and methodologies while working with tenured colleagues. Some of great customers: CHANEL, L’Oréal.

Research Assistant – Inserm U268 – Villejuif, France
(1998-2000)
Graduated in Biochemistry in 1998 and Immunology in 2000 with the objective to continue a career in medical research. Worked in 2 laboratories: in France and in the Netherlands. Published 2 scientific articles… but then..