About Drew
Drew Strauchen - Chief Advisor
EDUCATION:
Masters in Business Administration
Northern Illinois University Bachelor of Science Industrial Technology (CMfgE)
Ohio University
At a Glance:
Throughout my career, I've been passionate about marketing communication and brand transformation. I've always strived to build and lead highly qualified teams, develop strategic plans, and achieve measurable results. It's been an incredible journey, and I'm proud of the positive impact I've had on the organizations I've worked with. And it is my aim as an advisor to leverage my experience to the betterment of those I am able to partner with in the future.
My Storyline:
2000 Having spent over 24 years in the B2B industrial technology and manufacturing space my journey has been both challenging and rewarding. I started my career at OSG USA Inc., where I began as an Application Engineer. Over the next 15 years, I progressed through various leadership roles, from engineering and marketing to manufacturing and international sales and ultimately becoming Vice President of Marketing & National Accounts. In this role, I was responsible for over 35% of the organization P&L and developed strategic sales and marketing plans for major accounts like Grainger, Fastenal and MSC Industrial.
2015 I moved from cutting tool to machine tool accessories with HAIMER USA LLC, where I served as Vice President of Marketing & Business Development for North America. I was brought on board to elevate brand perception and awareness while developing new channels of business including national distributors and e-commerce giants like Amazon.
2018 I took an opportunity to test my knowledge in the private equity space, and joined GWS Tool Group as Executive Vice President of Marketing & Business Development. It was a transformative period where I built the marketing division from the ground up, successfully integrated 12 new companies via the strong GWS M&A engine and expanded the companies robust private label program.
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, our team at GWS was able to continue our acquisition success while expanding the brand into a premium, nationally recognized custom cutting tool company. And in 2021, we achieved an successful exit with the sale of GWS to the Sandvik (SMS) Group.
2022 Ventured outside the industry to join another private equity venture, serving as the Chief Marketing Officer at Trachte USA LLC. In this role, I developed our corporate strategy, launched new traditional and digital marketing plan (inclusive of new website, content marketing strategy, lead generation and formalized market research reporting) , and began the integration of a new enterprise-wide CRM system. 14 months after joining, the company had a successful sale to nVent for 690 million USD.