Stephen Mello

Steve is an accomplished software and marketing executive who has 30+ years of experience primarily in the MARETEC and advertising spaces. Across Steve’s career, he has been a key leader in several software companies ranging from multi-billion-dollar, multinational IBM, to late-stage start-ups (Localytics and SproutLoud) and a mid-sized public software company (Upland Software).

The majority of Steve’s past 10 years have been spent running Strategy, Product Management and Development organizations in the MARTEC space. Most recently, Steve was VP of Strategy and Product Management for SproutLoud software, a Florida-based company focused on distributed marketing software that drives coordination and collaboration between national brands and their local partners.

Prior to SproutLoud, Steve led Strategy, Product Management and Development for Upland Software’s Customer Experience division, the largest in the company.  During this time he successfully built the organization into a focused, cohesive unit that was delivering industry-leading products.  Steve joined Upland through its acquisition of Localytics, an app marketing leader located in Boston. The vision, strategy and product direction developed by Steve and his team were key to attracting Upland’s acquisition interest.

Prior to Localytics, Steve spent 20 years at IBM where in his last 3 years he was VP of Strategy and Offering Management and the overall business leader for IBM’s Watson Commerce division, which comprised IBM’s eCommerce, Content Management and Order Management software lines. In this role, Steve and his team launched several new offerings, including IBM Dynamic Pricing, which helps clients stay competitive and maintain business strategies in rapidly changing web environments, and IBM Order Optimizer, which helps clients meet the ever-increasing demands of customers in terms of order fulfillment while controlling costs and maintaining profits.

Before this role, Steve ran Strategy and M&A within IBM’s Watson Customer Experience business unit where he successfully led the integrations of Unica, Coremetrics, and Tealeaf, bringing the first SaaS businesses into IBM, transforming systems, processes, and roles in line with this key strategic shift.  After leading these integrations, Steve was VP of Strategy and M&A within for the division where he and his team drove 5 acquisitions – Extify, Silverpop, Aspera, Phytel, and Daeja.

Prior to these roles, Steve held various marketing roles within IBM’s Websphere middleware division.

Steve spent the first 10 years of his career in account management at several leading advertising agencies located in New York City. Steve holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Wake Forest University.