CHARLES H. BALLARD

Summary:

• Lead high-performance insights and analytics team powering Saudi Arabia’s national tourism strategy. Oversee business intelligence, KPI development, and data-driven decision-making for Saudi Tourism Authority and its partners, supporting one of world’s most ambitious tourism transformations.
• Architected STA’s comprehensive performance measurement framework, aligning marketing, operations, and digital transformation across divisions. Provide real-time strategic reporting directly to CEO and executive team, ensuring data remains at the heart of major initiatives and investment decisions.
• Drive collaboration across wider Saudi tourism ecosystem, bringing city-level destinations and national gigaprojects such as NEOM, Qiddiya, and The Red Sea Project together around consistent, best-in-class performance measurement. Champion efficient, unified reporting approaches, eliminate duplication, share knowledge, and enable collective progress at national scale.
• Collaborate daily with C-Suite leaders, divisional heads, and international partners to centralize data, streamline reporting, and unlock new growth opportunities across the Kingdom’s rapidly expanding tourism sector.

Key Achievements:

• Built STA’s first modern analytics and business intelligence platform, delivering unified KPIs, targets, and dashboards that drive strategic clarity and foster cross-divisional collaboration.
• Spearheaded STA’s ‘AI for Tourism’ initiative, positioning the Authority as a global leader in tourism technology by integrating machine learning and advanced analytics into core business processes, operations, and visitor experience.
• Launched and led game-changing data partnerships with over 20 top travel research and booking platforms, providing the Kingdom with first-of-its-kind visibility into global advertising impact and traveler booking behavior.
• Produced monthly executive insights reports for CEO and company leadership, including the Saudi Arabia Minister of Tourism, providing critical, actionable intelligence that shaped major projects, national campaigns, and policy decisions.
• Recognized for transforming complex data into clear, actionable strategy, building high-performing teams, and establishing STA as an international benchmark for data-driven tourism growth and innovation.

Summary:

• Served as Meta global authority on marketing measurement strategy, driving transformative growth and measurement excellence across $2.3B Authorized Sales Partner (ASP) ecosystem. Oversaw data-driven performance for 22,000+ advertisers and agencies in 24 emerging markets spanning EMEA, APAC, and LATAM.
• Designed and led Meta’s cross-regional measurement strategy, setting new standard for how emerging markets adopt advanced measurement, reporting, and attribution. Influenced C-level priorities and shaped industry best practices adopted by teams worldwide.

Key Achievements:

• Unlocked $65M+ in new revenue by launching and scaling innovative pilot programs, including brand video and cross-border business growth streams, which boosted advertiser engagement and international expansion.
• Transformed partner measurement capabilities by designing and rolling out comprehensive suite of insights and performance solutions, directly influencing Meta leadership’s decisions and improving program outcomes at scale.
• Launched "MarSciTV", a multi-season global video education initiative that trained 21,000+ advertisers and became a core part of onboarding for all new Meta sales hires worldwide.
• Established and managed Meta’s first global partner research function, from 1,000s of agency/advisor satisfaction surveys to biannual industry benchmarking, ensuring ASP feedback continuously shaped Meta’s products, support, and go-to-market strategy.
• Recognized for building strong cross-functional alliances, delivering actionable insights to C-suite leaders, and helping Meta’s reseller program become a best-in-class growth driver for both Meta and its partners.

Summary:

• Built and led Tripadvisor’s global Strategy and Insights team, delivering innovative measurement, research and analytics products that drove revenue, unlocked new markets, and informed company-wide growth strategies. Managed $1.5M research budget, overseeing international teams and partnerships with major travel brands, agencies, and consultancies.

Key Achievements:

• Launched and scaled multiple market-defining analytics and measurement products, including a best-in-class market insights platform for global destination tourism and a commercial insights product for financial firms and consultancies. These innovations drove 30%+ revenue growth in year one and generated $5M in new annual revenue.
• Drove Tripadvisor’s expansion and revenue growth in emerging markets, particularly APAC, by equipping regional teams and clients with tailored insights and new KPIs, securing high-value partnerships with leading brands across Asia-Pacific.
• Represented Tripadvisor in over 50 public speaking engagements at major industry conferences and media events, consistently positioning the company as a thought leader and trusted source of travel analytics and market intelligence.
• Created new measurement solutions for internal and external clients, helping land seven-figure deals with global players such as Expedia, Marriott, British Airways, and Visit California.
• Monetized data from 480M+ global users, transforming travel trends into actionable strategies and commercial growth for the world’s top travel brands.
• Led global research programs that elevated Tripadvisor’s reputation, driving substantial international media coverage and influence.
• Designed and launched the COVID-19 Weekly Client Insights product, providing real-time analytics that guided industry recovery efforts for clients worldwide.

Summary:

• Hired directly from summer internship into full-time internal consulting role in premier MBA strategy and transformation program. Led initiatives to drive culture change and employee engagement for 120K staff across 28 countries.

Key Achievements:

• Directed McKinsey-led company-wide Organizational Health Index (OHI) transformation, driving rollout of interventions across all 6 business units and 120K employees.
• Identified and developed top management talent, analyzing staff engagement data for 22,000 teams and pinpointing high-potential leaders and areas needing additional support.
• Presented organizational improvement recommendations to BT Group’s 7 CEOs, shaping quarterly strategic priorities at the highest level.
• Drove 30% boost in company-wide employee engagement in 12 months by overhauling quarterly survey methodology and targeting rapid intervention where most needed.
• Contributed to technical implementation and product launch for BT Sport Premier League, supporting national infrastructure upgrade and business entry into live sports broadcasting.

Summary

• Built and led digital media analytics team for a rapidly growing agency, delivering strategic, actionable campaign measurement and reporting to major clients. Oversaw a team of five, worked closely with agency leadership, and collaborated directly with C-suite executives to drive highly measurable results.

Key Achievements:

• Partnered with Comcast CMO to optimize acquisition volume and efficiency across all digital media channels, strengthening agency-client relationship and strategic impact.
• Generated over $1.2M in new revenue in first year by launching multivariate landing page and content testing division, driving a 65% increase in Comcast’s online ROI and significant growth in media investment.
• Developed campaign measurement solutions that made complex data clear and actionable for clients, helping them achieve real business growth.

Summary:

• Led measurement and analytics for international digital agency's key clients including General Motors and American Express. Owned A/B study, website analytics, and test program design across all digital marketing channels to improve UX and conversion.

Key Achievements:

• Lifted prospect interaction and click-through rates by over 270% for 1.2M member email recontact program after creating dynamic content email testing program for 2 major GM brands

Also: previously served as Senior Data Specialist at Forrester Research (2000 – 2002)