Meet Steve

As a seasoned senior executive with 30+ years of global experience at the CEO, CMO, SVP, and VP levels—in large and small for-profit companies, large and small nonprofits, startups, and everything in between—Steve brings a broad range of experience across all aspects of successfully running an organization, including: visioning, corporate and product strategy, sales, marketing, fundraising, communications, operations, and technology implementation.

In his roles as a senior executive and as a consultant to a wide diversity of organizations, Steve has had the privilege of working with more than 100 organizations around the world.

Steve founded Executive Advisory Partners in 2015 to leverage his experience to help organizations lead and manage through critical inflection points—those critical junctures in the life of an organization that can make or break it (or turn it around).

Steve has since co-founded three additional firms, each built around a different kind of inflection point: Cogitant Partners, where he serves as Co-Founder and CEO, which scores how exposed a company is to AI disruption and turns that score into a prioritized, board-ready roadmap for mid-market executives; Group1631, which brings senior strategic counsel to nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and educational institutions working to grow both mission impact and revenue; and Cutwater Advisory Partners, where he is Co-Founder and CEO, which helps business owners reach an optimal exit by combining capital, experienced operators, and a disciplined process.

Before founding Executive Advisory Partners, Steve co-founded and operated as CEO of The CSK Group, a strategic branding and marketing firm, working with a broad variety of clients. Prior to that, he held several executive level positions including:

• Multiple executive positions in the technology sector, including Vice President of product marketing at PeopleSoft, where he led the global product strategy, product marketing, product branding, and public relations for a $1 billion division of PeopleSoft.
• Vice President of product and industry marketing at J.D. Edwards, where he led a global team of 50 in driving product and industry strategy and sales enablement for the $1.2 billion software company.
• Sr. Vice President at a large faith-based nonprofit, where—during his 5-year tenure—he was responsible for global church and community outreach, constituent acquisition, marketing communications (including direct marketing and creative), global brand strategy and implementation, partner development, as well as global innovation and incubation.

Over the past 15 years as CEO of both The CSK Group and Executive Advisory Partners, Steve has facilitated strategic planning, helped drive growth strategies, facilitated the development of new brands, helped develop go-to-market strategies, facilitated the development of pricing and packaging offerings, and helped dozens of CEOs operate more effectively to drive growth.

Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and Administration, with a minor in Economics, from Bradley University and a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from DePaul University.

Steve’s standard day rate is $5,000/day.