Earth Class Mail
Company: Earth Class Mail, Portland, OR USA
Entry Submitted By: Communique PR
Company Description: Earth Class Mail is a business process outsourcing service for online postal mail management. The company helps customers streamline bookkeeping operations, outsource mail scanning, cut bill payment and processing time, reduce trips to the bank through remote check deposit, and more
Nomination Category: Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Executive – Service Businesses – up to 100 Employees
Nomination Title: Sarah Carr, CEO
Describe for the judges the activities and accomplishments of the nominated executive during the eligibility period (up to 500 words):
Sarah Carr was appointed as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Earth Class Mail in
September of 2009.
Earth Class Mail is a business process outsourcing service for online postal
mail management. The company offers a SaaS (Software as a Service) model that
helps small and medium businesses scale operations without increasing headcount.
A time-saving tool, Earth Class Mail helps customers streamline bookkeeping
operations, outsource mail scanning, cut bill payment and processing time,
reduce trips to the bank through remote check deposit, and more.
Upon being named CEO, Sarah’s immediate mandate was to refocus the business to
ensure its survival - the company was losing nearly a million dollars a month.
She needed to lead the struggling company through a seismic shift, redefine the
business model and ultimately drive the company to profitability.
Today’s businesses must operate lean and work smart to survive and thrive. It
takes a special set of leadership skills to guide an organization through this
type of situation. Sarah was selected because of her savvy and dedicated
leadership, as well as her long track record of increasing performance and value
for the companies she has been involved with. Cutting expenses and increasing
revenue is difficult during the best of times, yet Sarah’s measured approach
accomplished just that.
Delving deep into the data, she surprising learned that Earth Class Mail lost
money on every customer—even those that never received a piece of mail. As a
result, she revamped the pricing model separating the monthly subscription fee
from activity fees. Customers now pay separately for services such as bank
deposits, package and mail forwarding, document shredding and document storage.
While this was difficult for some existing customers, it attracted a new set of
customers that found the a la carte service model attractive.
In addition to the pricing model, Sarah stripped out a layer of management and
cut the marketing spend to almost zero to focus efforts on determining who the
target customer really was and what the messaging needed to be. The results were
impressive. She slashed $9 million from operating expenses in less than one year
putting Earth Class Mail on the road to recovery.
The economic crisis has been a dramatic game-changer for businesses. Sarah
became CEO of Earth Class Mail during a challenging time. She is a leader with a
vision for the future and has the courage to take drastic, but measured and
necessary actions, effectively saving the company and putting it on the road to
success.
Recently Sarah participated on a Congressional panel regarding innovation and
the relevance of the U.S. Postal Service in the 21st century. During her
testimony she shared her belief that the U.S. Postal Service can remain viable
to provide the services consumers want and need by partnering with private
services such as Earth Class Mail. Sarah’s vision is to work with public and
private sectors reinforcing Earth Class Mail’s role as a vital participant in
the postal ecosystem.
List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:
July 6, 2010 – ABC News - Earth Class Mail recommends alternative revenue source
for US Postal Service
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/cent-stamp-increase-save-post-office-11102638&tab=
9482930ion=1206853&playlist=11102646&page=1
June 22, 2010 - Law Firms Adopt Earth Class Mail to Securely Handle Confidential
Documents, Increase Efficiency and Save Money.
http://www.earthclassmail.com/PressReleases/June22-2010
June 12, 2010 - Innovation and the Continued Relevance of the US Postal Service
in the 21st Century. http://www.earthclassmail.com/PressReleases/June12-2010
Provide a brief biography of the nominated executive (up to 100 words):
Appointed President of Earth Class Mail and promoted to CEO and Chairman of the
Board in 2009, Sarah joined the company in 2008 as COO. Prior to Earth Class
Mail, she was president and COO of Print, Inc. leading the company in an
advantageous sale to Pitney Bowes.
Sarah’s 20 plus years of leadership experience with top-ranked national and
international financial and business services firms include Bowne Global
Solutions, The Thomson Corporation, Citibank, Shearson Lehman Hutton, Simon &
Schuster and Deloitte.
Sarah received her B.A. in Accounting from Lehigh University and completed
executive courses at MIT and New York University.