Mateusz Zielinski

Areas of Expertise

• Growth & Market-Entry Strategy
• Product & Portfolio Road-Mapping
• Change Management
• Digital & AI-Driven Transformation
• Go-to-Market & Pricing Strategy
• Portfolio Management
• Operating-Model Design
• OKRs & Performance Management
• Data-Driven Decision-Making

Professional Experience

Consultant, Highberg Group

Amsterdam, Jan 2023 - Present

Growing boutique consulting firm specialising in digital transformations.

• Operating Model for Unicorn Defence Scale-Up: Designed product-domain operating model for a hyper growth hardware company. Defined business-to-product interactions and embedded data-driven prioritisation, highlighting user-centricity while safeguarding the company's unique value proposition.
• Software Product Lifecycle Process: Orchestrated an overhaul of a global medical-hardware company's product lifecycle by aligning 30 teams across the US, Europe, and India. Implemented early user validation, SAFe PI-planning, and automated testing to deliver 20% faster releases and a 15% reduction in time-to-market.
• Internal AI-Powered Knowledge Engine: Defined and led a high-level solution leveraging Azure AI to ingest SharePoint documents and surface best-practice recommendations on demand; managed a cross-functional team through a three-month sprint, reducing decision-cycle times by 15%.
• Strategy-to-Execution Framework: Led two consultants to design and roll out an OKR/OGSM governance model with strategic roadmaps, capability-building workshops, and QBRs across five global high-tech clients in four months, boosting strategic time-to-market by 20%.
• Internal Sales Enhancement: Led a collaborative improvement session with partners and senior consultants to streamline the sales process, leveraging insights from Hubspot and best practices to maximize conversion rates, resulting in a 10% increase in early conversion.

Freelance Consultant, Smaqu Consulting

Amsterdam, Jan 2021 - Dec 2022

Working independently on leveraging my experiences at corporate clients.

• Strategic Portfolio Prioritization: Consolidated and re-prioritised 20 product-and-marketing initiatives for a EUR 1B+ global FMCG client using the OGSM framework, assigning single-leader ownership to sharpen focus and accelerate execution.
• Strategic Process Alignment: Embedded OKRs and Quarterly Business Reviews across 150 employees, lifting engagement-survey scores 12% in six months by linking day-to-day work to new strategic objectives.
• Employee Survey Implementation: Deployed a 10-language Qualtrics survey to 5,000 staff (81% response rate) and built leader and frontline dashboards that made feedback ownership explicit and actionable.

Chief of Staff, Fontem Ventures B.V.

Amsterdam, Jun 2019 - Dec 2020

Global e-commerce scaleup providing nicotine products in the form of vaping devices.

• COVID-19 Business Review: Led a cross-functional assessment of seven business areas, focusing on supply-chain resilience and e-commerce growth. In one month designed and launched five mitigation initiatives that diversified suppliers and accelerated the pivot to digital, safeguarding revenue through the pandemic.
• OKR Governance Implementation: Introduced an OKR framework and quarterly business reviews with six executive leaders, raising initiative-completion rates 16% within 12 months and tightening leadership focus.
• New Market Entry Management: Directed strategy-and-execution work for two EMEA/Asia entries, coordinating a 10-person cross-functional team to reach launch-ready status in six months, positioning the business for a EUR 350M revenue opportunity by 2025.

Strategic Project Manager, Imperial Brands plc

United Kingdom, Mar 2016 - May 2019

4th largest tobacco company in the world.

• Global Operating Model Management: Managed the design of the global operating model for sales and marketing, creating consumer-centric processes, cascading decision-making to frontline employees, and improving profitability by approximately GBP 21M.
• Workday Implementation PMO: Tracked the implementation of Workday, a human resource management system, enhancing processes and change management for over 25,000 employees globally and consolidating 100 systems into a single one.
• Organizational Innovation Initiatives: Partnered with C-level executives to define and implement six organizational innovation initiatives, improving organizational setup and increasing employee engagement by 5%.

Education & Courses

Growth Hacking Course - 2020

Growth Tribe 12-week program with practical experience.

• Performance Marketing Strategies and Execution to optimize retention and ROI.
• Digital Marketing Foundations incl. SEO, Google Analytics and Social Media basics.

Master of Science Finance (Distinction) - 2014

University of the West of England - Bristol, UK

• CISI Award for valuation report on Nike

Additional Information

Languages: English, Polish, Dutch (beginner).

Certifications: Harvard CS50 - Intro to Computer Science (2025)

Certifications: SAFe Practice Consultant (2024)