Mergers & Acquisitions - Bridget Smith, Zazzle
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At PromoKitchen, we're exploring all the different sides of mergers and acquisitions in the industry. In this episode, Chef Kate Plummer and Sous-Chef Andrea Pereira sit down with Bridget Smith, Chief Project Officer at Zazzle. Bridget led the Zazzle purchase of ASI Top 40 Distributor Boundless Network and was its Interim President for almost a year. Bridget shares insights on what to do when a merger or acquisition isn't going as planned, red flags to look out for when you are looking to sell, and reminds us that right now there are an immense amount of opportunities out there.
Bridget has had many roles since she started at Zazzle in 2005. Presently, she's the VP of Special Operations, overseeing the myriad of new opportunities that Zazzle is working on. She is also the international operations, primarily opening and staffing the European headquarters in Cork, Ireland. She was Zazzle’s CFO for seven years and has also managed the acquisition of FanMade and Boundless. Quite simply, there's not a facet of the business that Bridget hasn't touched. Prior to coming to Zazzle, she was a CPA at Ernst & Young, the Director of Finance for Apple's U.S. operations for 13 years, VP of Finance at Intuit and also co-founded an educational software company, Tenth Planet, which was later acquired. Bridget enjoys skiing, hiking, playing golf, snowshoeing and playing with her three grandkids in Nevada, where she set up operations at our manufacturing facility in Reno.