Sumit Bhagchandani, MBA
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Sumit Bhagchandani
MARKETING TECHNOLOGY & AI EXECUTIVE
I build AI-native platforms that turn marketing into a measurable growth engine.
20+ years transforming MarTech and AdTech ecosystems at Discover Financial, Hertz, and Ansira; owning $10M+ platform portfolios, scaling 80+ person globally distributed engineering organizations, and delivering $20M+ in direct revenue impact.
Now at the frontier of enterprise AI, leading the design and deployment of Agentic workflows, conversational agents, and LLM-powered automation at Goodway Group that compress execution time and eliminate engineering bottlenecks.
Uniquely positioned at the intersection of deep MarTech expertise and hands-on AI engineering: I don't just set the roadmap I build what's on it.
Revenue
$20M+ Revenue generated
People
80+ Engineers led globally
Portfolio
$10M Platform Portfolio
business units
6 Business Units unified
Expertise
Agentic AI
in Production
I don't just advise on AI; I build it. At Goodway Group I architected the company's first Agentic AI practice, deploying conversational campaign agents that compressed time-to-market by ~85% and eliminated engineering bottlenecks. My stack includes LangGraph, CrewAI, LLMs, N8N, and enterprise AI governance frameworks that balance rapid innovation with regulatory compliance.
Marketing Technology at Scale
At Discover Financial, I built an identity-resolved GDPR/CCPA compliant MarTech/AdTech ecosystem from scratch serving 30M+ customers, unifying 6 business units, and managing a $10M portfolio. I understand the compliance-first constraints of regulated industries and how to build platforms that are scalable, secure, and auditable. Represented Discover on the World 50 Marketing Technology Innovation Research Group.
Revenue Tied Platform Outcomes
Every platform I build is measured in business outcomes, not just technology delivery. $20M in incremental revenue at Hertz. $1M in annual cost savings at Discover. 15% customer engagement lift. 40% email performance improvement at multiple clients. I translate complex technical architecture into P&L impact that CFOs and CMOs can read.
EXPERIENCE
2024 - Present
VP AI Enablement & Adoption
GOODWAY GROUP
Recruited to architect and lead the company's first Agentic/Gen AI practice, building and deploying AI-powered platform applications across 3 brands. Designed a conversational Google Ads Agent that compressed campaign creation by ~85%. Established the enterprise AI governance and enablement framework that scaled AI literacy across the organization while managing regulatory compliance and risk.
2021 - 2024
VP Marketing Technology
DISCOVER FINANCIALS
Built and led an 80+ person globally distributed engineering organization (MarTech, AdTech & Data) serving 30M+ customers across 6 lines of business. Unified fragmented AdTech architecture through API-driven integration layers driving 15% customer engagement lift and 10% media cost reduction. Owned $10M portfolio P&L delivering $1M in annual savings. Engineered GDPR/CCPA-compliant Identity Resolution (ID Graph) strategy. Represented Discover on the World 50 Marketing Technology Innovation Research Group.
2020 - 2021
ANSIRA
VP Marketing Technology Services
Led 15+ MarTech Platform Engineers delivering cross-industry solutions for Subaru, Chick-fil-A, Cracker Barrel, Synovus Bank, Beam Suntory, and American Home Shield. Generated $500K–$1M in incremental revenue for Cracker Barrel. Drove 40% email open rate increase and 25% CTR lift for Chick-fil-A. Reduced Subaru campaign execution time by 30%.
2016 - 2020
Director Marketing Technology
HERTZ
Led MarTech for a $6B multi-brand business (Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty). Generated $20M in incremental revenue by architecting an LTV/RFM-powered personalized win-back campaign — the company's largest data-driven revenue initiative. Achieved 40% ROI increase and 15% customer retention improvement. Engaged directly with CMO and CIO on technology roadmap and investment strategy.
2012 - 2016
Marketing Technology Manager
VERIZON CONNECT
Directed a 10-person team delivering a 20% ROI increase through process re-engineering and personalized campaign development. Drove 40% increase in email CTR and 25% growth in customer engagement through data-driven segmentation.
2004 - 2012
Software Engineering Roles
GARTNER & 3I INFOTECH
Siebel CRM lead engineer at Gartner boosted operational efficiency by 30% across campaign management and audience building. ERP and CRM implementations at 3i-Infotech improved customer retention by 25% and revenue by 20%.
SKILLS
Martech & AdTech
Strategy & Leadership
Marketing Operations
Digital Transformation
AI & Agentic Workflows
Cloud & Architecture
Product Management
Vendor Management
EDUCATION
Master of Business Administration
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS - URBANA CHAMPAIGN
Graduated and gained comprehensive knowledge in business administration focusing on digital marketing and entrepreneurship.
Bachelors of Computer Science Engineering
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND MGMT.
Excelled in academics and actively participated in extracurricular activities, developing a well-rounded skill set.
MY VALUES
Integrity
I say what I mean and I do what I say everytime.
Humility
I stay curious because I know how much I dont know yet.
Accountability
I own outcomes fully, not selectively.
Loyalty
I show up for the people who show up for me.
Empathy
I lead by understanding not just directing.
Respect
Every person in the room gets the same quality of attention.
Compassion
I invest in people's growth as seriously as platform delivery.
Authenticity
I read as myself, not a version of myself shaped by the room.
These values don't sit on a wall, they show up in how I lead every day. My approach is grounded in the four principles of value-based leadership.
How I Lead
Self Reflection
Be self-aware.
Integrity, authenticity, and accountability all begin here. I invest time in honest self-assessment understanding my strengths, acknowledging my blind spots, and staying clear about my motivations. Leading 80+ person globally distributed organizations taught me that the most important leadership work often happens before you walk into the room. I ask hard questions of myself first: Am I making this decision based on what's right, or what's comfortable? Self-awareness isn't a soft skill it's the foundation of everything else.
Integrity
Authenticity
Accountability
Balanced Perspective
Look at multiple perspective
Empathy and respect live in this principle. The best platform decisions I've made came from genuinely listening to engineers, marketers, data scientists, compliance teams, and executives and finding the solution that honored each perspective. When I architected Discover's unified AdTech ecosystem across 6 business units, the technical answer was the easy part. The hard part was understanding what each business unit needed and what success looked like from their seat. Balanced perspective means checking your own certainty at the door.
Empathy
Respect
Humility
True Self Confidence
Admit what you dont know.
Strive to grow.
True self-confidence is not arrogance, it's the security to say "I don't know" in a board meeting, to admit when a strategy isn't working, and to change course without ego getting in the way. At Goodway, I built the company's first Agentic AI practice knowing I was entering fast-moving territory where no one had all the answers. That required confidence in my ability to learn and iterate not confidence that I had it figured out. I strive to be better on my leadership journey every day, and I create environments where my teams feel safe doing the same.
Loyalty
Compassion
Accountability
Genuine Humility
Care about every single person.
Genuine humility means every person from a C-suite executive to a junior engineer joining their first sprint gets the same quality of attention and investment from me. It means celebrating your team's wins louder than your own. It means representing Discover on the World 50 Marketing Technology Innovation Research Group not because I had the answers, but because I believed I could learn from peers who would challenge my thinking. The platforms I build only matter because of the people who build them, use them, and are impacted by them.
Humility
Compassion
Empathy
Respect
Loyalty
A bit about me
Outside of work, I'm based in Atlanta, GA. I'm an avid reader, photographer, and traveler. Running and yoga keep me grounded. As a self-described tech geek, I'm always prototyping something usually involving whatever AI framework dropped last week. Lifelong learning isn't a value I list, it's how I actually spend my time.
