What Happened?
Dayton, OH-based Crown Partners has Appointed Rich Minns as Chief Technology Officer
About the Company
Crown helps clients do business digitally with content, commerce, communications, and analytics. We provide eBusiness solutions that make a difference for Global 2000 and midmarket companies alike. Services include Content (web content management, digital asset management, digital communities), Commerce (eCommerce, product content/information management, order management, customer service), Communications (digital messaging, digital marketing, digital experience), and Analytics (business intelligence, web analytics, ecommerce analytics). Our complete eBusiness point of view enables clients to xcel faster™ than they ever imagined possible. Crown values talent, courage, and collaboration. We readily accept challenges and continuously seek to improve. We respect our clients and their culture. Our solutions aren’t right unless they are highly relevant and naturally in line with your corporate values—solutions that are meaningful and positively differentiate your company. We act as full partners on a long-term journey of ongoing business growth. Our DRIVE—Dedication, Relevance, Inspiration, Velocity, and Excellence—informs everything we do.
About the Person
Rich Minns has over 17 years of experience at Top500 Internet Retailer companies and now leads Crown as Chief Technology Officer, aligning internal and client teams towards a unified technology vision. Growing up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, Rich always had a basic understanding of programming languages coming naturally to him through his parents. A passion for sports that continues to this day conflicted with a natural talent in programming and in college, a career path was determined (though unintentionally). In his final months at University of Central Florida, Rich decided to work at 1800flowers. The job allowed him to expand his public speaking skills gained as a leader of his fraternity and honestly, pay off debt. He quickly found himself at an innovative internet retailer with an opportunity for technology leadership and guidance. The seed was planted as Rich trained associates in the 1800flowers Florida call center. Quickly realizing a need for improved documentation on the training process, he used his hidden talent and built applications to rapidly train new recruits. It caught the attention of the corporate New York Office and prompted a move and promotion. Once in New York, Rich utilized his skill in programming to build custom applications for managing orders, the largest and most critical system at the company. Over time, he grew with 1800flowers driving consistent technology processes, managing offshore teams and implementing new functionality, eventually leading several brands to technology excellence. After 1800flowers went public, mergers and acquisitions became more frequent and Rich took on the added responsibility of assisting with technology integrations for brands including Fannie Mae Chocolate, Wine Tasting Network, Cheryl’s Cookies and many others. Eventually becoming a Senior Director, he moved to being named Vice President of Information Technology. As VP, Rich managed technology for the entire Gourmet Food and Gift Basket brands. The leap into the startup world happened as chance but was caused by an itch to align with forward thinking startups. The plunge from 1800flowers led to an opportunity to lead as Chief Technology Officer of a flash sales startup in New York. Totsy was VC funded, but like many startups grew too fast too quickly. Within a few weeks of starting at a new company, Rich lead the team for the next six months towards adopting a new eCommerce system to power all online applications. His relationship with Crown began as Totsy relied on Crown’s technical and strategic expertise to support and scale the flash sales system. The ride lasted for a year and six months when Totsy lost VC funding in the summer of 2013, and Rich joined Crown shortly thereafter. Now as Chief Technology Officer of Crown, Rich’s background in retail eCommerce technologies aligns with Crown’s vision towards Experience-Driven Commerce. He now leads Crown’s technology vision and intellectual property and guides client executives in definition, adoption and delivery of technology solutions. Rich lives in Long Island, New York with his wife and two daughters and will work out of the New York office. He can be seen frequently competing in elite endurance races, triathlons, marathons, and Spartan races throughout the year. LinkedIn
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