Christian Sutherland

Results-driven Product Marketing & Operations Leader with 10+ years of experience launching high-impact digital products and scaling e-commerce platforms. Expert at translating complex technical functionalities — such as automated supplier portals and finance integrations — into clear, value-driven narratives for diverse stakeholders. Proven track record of reducing onboarding lead times by 60% and driving a 113% increase in turnover through strategic GTM planning and lifecycle optimisation.

Experienced operating across both agile SMEs and large multinational retail organisations, with strong presentation and stakeholder management skills up to senior leadership level. A specialist in bridging the gap between engineering roadmaps and customer-facing messaging.

Product Manager (Vendor Portal & GTM) at Holland & Barrett Ltd (2024-02 – 2026-04)

• Owned the 1–3 year Vendor Portal development roadmap end-to-end, prioritising new modules against business goals, supplier impact and technical capacity.
• Led senior steering committees to align Tech and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) on priorities and milestones, ensuring key projects land on time and in full (OTIF).
• Partnered across Commercial, Tech, Engineering, Master Data, Finance and Supply Chain to ensure the platform evolves in line with business needs and integrates cleanly with global operations.
• Drove a standardised international approach to the portal by partnering with Benelux and International teams on shared enhancements.
• Owned strategic relationships and contract management with external providers (DocuSign, Authenticate/Ideagen), ensuring service levels and commercial terms support the roadmap.
• Applied Agile methodology to Vendor Portal development, using sprints and Kanban boards to plan, track and deliver work in iterative cycles.
• Ran delivery of multiple Vendor Portal modules as concurrent projects, holding daily calls with Business, Product and Tech to track actions and progress, using Monday.com to manage workstreams, owners and deliverables, and providing structured status reports to leadership that proactively flagged risks and bottlenecks.
• Collected and defined problem statements from internal and external stakeholders, applying benefit mapping to assess value, and partnering with Tech and Engineering to determine feasibility and roadmap viability.
• Redesigned the end-to-end branded supplier onboarding journey — including automated bank detail verification and integrated KYC checks — cutting average lead time from 100 working days to under 40 while accelerating compliance turnaround.
• Designed and launched a self-service data edit tool giving internal and external users the ability to update verified supplier data directly, without requiring Tech/Engineering involvement — eliminating the need for a Jira ticket on over 1,000 changes within 6 months.
• Extended self-service beyond onboarding with a tool enabling suppliers to access their own EPOS sales data directly, removing a manual internal tracking and promotion process.
• Partnered with BI to build an automated, real-time onboarding dashboard spanning GNFR, Marketplace and Benelux, replacing manual reporting with live visibility for stakeholders.
• Built a centralised supplier ticketing tool, resolving 408 tickets in the first 9 months against defined SLAs — improving supplier experience and reducing escalations.
• Designed and implemented an 'Accreditation Bypass' workflow for branded suppliers, removing a 37-day Technical SAQ stage to accelerate speed-to-market.
• Led the decommissioning of a legacy SharePoint-based supplier portal, migrating all supplier data and processes to the new Vendor Portal to replace a limited, poor-experience legacy system.
• Acted as the business-wide subject matter expert for Goods for Resale (GFR) supplier onboarding, owning end-to-end process governance and reporting, applying a strong understanding of due diligence requirements, and proactively identifying bottlenecks to bring suppliers online as quickly as possible.
• Managed an Onboarding Coordinator responsible for day-to-day supplier communication and journey support, providing bespoke trackers to manage caseload and flag delays.
• Authored training guides and process documentation for internal and external stakeholders, and delivered training across the business on the onboarding process and subsequent changes.
• Built reporting dashboards giving Senior Leadership ongoing visibility of onboarding pipeline performance and throughput.
• Introduced periodic supplier feedback surveys to capture what suppliers liked, disliked and wanted to see next — feeding directly into roadmap prioritisation and feature design.
• Led UAT on all new Vendor Portal features, maintaining a structured issue-tracking process to ensure releases meet business requirements.
• Designed and delivered internal and external training programmes and guidebooks via a centralised SharePoint hub, increasing feature utilisation and reducing inbound queries.
• Planned and delivered end-to-end feature release rollouts to users, combining live training sessions, webinars, written guides, release notes and short pre-recorded videos, and systematically collected post-release feedback through surveys and follow-ups to inform iteration.
• Tracked and reported supplier engagement KPIs, using data-driven insight to refine processes and improve the supplier experience.

Portal Manager at Independent Buying Consortium Ltd (2022-07 – 2024-02)

• Took over management of the transition from an off-the-shelf supplier portal to a bespoke Magento-based platform, overseeing project delivery, launch and full migration of supplier data and processes.
• Collaborated closely with Senior Leadership to define business strategy, ensuring the Portal roadmap was directly aligned with overarching commercial objectives and growth targets.
• Developed formal project plans, timelines and milestones for portal delivery, running a regular cadence of stakeholder check-ins and structured status reporting to keep delivery visible and on track.
• Content-managed the web-based supplier/member portal end-to-end — including blog posts and marketing promotions — keeping it dynamic, active and commercially relevant.
• Built and maintained relationships with supplier partners and members to continuously update portal content, services and information, and to manage the rollout of new initiatives.
• Owned and delivered against workstream KPIs, tracking and reporting site metrics (user analytics) and forthcoming developments monthly to senior managers.
• Managed the relationship with the third-party development partner, agreeing an SLA to reduce friction points and bottlenecks and ensure delivery matched business requirements.
• Managed a direct report (Data Manager) responsible for cleansing and uploading supplier SKU data into a bespoke Magento platform — loading 40,000 of a total 80,000 SKUs — working closely with him on a strategic approach to prioritise best-sellers going live as quickly as possible.
• Worked cross-functionally with Commercial, Sales and Marketing to align portal activity with wider business priorities.
• Scaled the portal on time and within budget against a pre-agreed work plan, increasing the scale and scope of the portal's impact on the client's business.
• Drove ongoing portal development informed by supplier feedback, business strategy and data — expanding the comprehensiveness of product/service coverage and catalysing new initiatives.
• Grew sales and engagement through day-to-day content management, including blog posts and marketing promotions.
• Directed SKU upload strategy with the Data Manager to prioritise best-selling products first, successfully loading 40,000 of 80,000 total SKUs and accelerating time-to-live for high-value stock.