Charles Scrase headshot

Charles Scrase

Strategic Advisor

Charles is an experienced business leader, with 15 years of strategy, sales, operations and marketing experience at Google, where he built sales and operations organizations from the ground up. He has significant experience building and leading teams, having managed global, regional and national teams across dozens of countries and offices, as well as having led the 500 person Google Ann Arbor office for more than five years.

Charles particularly enjoys helping teams define their vision and strategy, and then build the required business systems and processes to execute effectively. He has helped a variety of organizations at Google and beyond achieve a high level of performance by focusing on developing strategy, building strong organization culture, defining clear operational principles and helping teams hold themselves accountable.

Charles also has a deep understanding of customer acquisition and marketing strategy, having worked across a variety of customer facing functions during a period of dramatic transformation in how businesses and organizations of all types communicate with and generate business from existing and new customers.

In addition to his experience at Google, Charles also has experience as an entrepreneur in both business and social domains. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer who founded his own educational non-profit (which is still thriving today), his own real estate investment business and his own strategic advisory firm. He has an B.A. in English from the University of Michigan and an MBA with a focus on Leadership & Ethics from Duke University.

Charles is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he and his wife Roxie are raising their family of three kids ages 9, 12 and 15.

Past Projects

  1. Led the refinement of a well-established company's vision, mission, and strategy; then worked with the senior leadership team to develop a clear set of priorities, goals, and measurable KPIs. Worked with the senior leadership team to implement these goals and track performance, leading to a significant improvement in overall performance.
  2. Designed and implemented a new employee compensation model to better align individual incentives with company objectives. Worked with the CEO to develop the change management communication plan and helped the company implement the new compensation model.
  3. Worked with a major university's athletic department and senior leadership team to develop a strategy for how to approach a complicated and ambiguous change in the marketplace. Conducted broad-scale stakeholder interviews to understand the environment and key priorities, completed competitive benchmarking and analysis, and determined a strategic framework for moving forward. Educated all key stakeholders on the proposed recommendations, achieved buy-in, and then worked with leaders to implement recommendations.
  4. Worked with the CEO of one of the largest non-profit organizations in the United States to develop a new fundraising strategy by pivoting to online advertising. Helped the entire organization understand how to define and measure success using a new advertising medium and then implement a major new advertising program that achieved successful results.
  5. Worked with the senior leadership team of a well-established company to evaluate the organization structure of the company and determine the ideal new structure to support a new stage of growth. Helped to define the new structure, define new roles, and then helped to manage the implementation of the reorganization, including developing the change management communications.

Example Services

  1. Designing and implementing corporate strategy
  2. Defining and communicating an organizational vision, mission and strategy
  3. Go to market strategy with a focus on customer acquisition and market share growth
  4. Digital marketing strategy across search, display, video, email and social
  5. Developing operational processes and systems to execute on strategy
  6. Developing sales processes and systems to execute on strategy
  7. Hiring - developing processes and ensuring successful outcomes
  8. Implementing effective diversity, equity and inclusion practices