BIOGRAPHY FOR D. BRUCE MERRIFIELD, Jr.
Bruce started his consulting practice for the
world of independent distribution channels in January of 1980, after having
spent 8 years working for a growth-by-acquisition chain of distribution
companies with 300 employees. During his time with that company, he: rose
through the ranks; quarterbacked turnarounds for 4 acquisitions; and was the
chief operating officer for his last two years.
In 1983, Bruce bought Clark Security
Products, a San Diego distributor which then had $7 million in sales. He turned
around Clark, installed a high-performance culture. Clark grew organically to over $150MM in sales
and about 350 employees and was sold to Anixter Corp. in December, 2010.
Over the years, Bruce has given countless
speeches to well over 100 trade associations, as well as many of the world’s
largest corporations with many repeat assignments along the way. He has written
over 100 published articles and authored “Electronic Commerce for Distribution
Channels” in 1999. (A National Association of Wholesale-Distributors’
book publication). Visit Bruce’s site and prodigious distribution work
at www.merrifield.com including
indexes to his 450+ YouTube video clips.
Bruce has been and currently is a formal
advisor or board member for many firms and provides specific, strategic advice
to many more on a regular basis. He has done several, contract turnaround
projects in which he has worked with existing management throughout. And, he is
an equity partner in two separate, but related firms that leverage
software-as-a-service technology to create new business models for
distributors.
Bruce co-founded the Advance Profit
Innovation Conference (apicconference.com) in ’08. Since then, he has become
the pioneering authority on both “Cost-To-Serve Economics” and “Line-Item,
Profit Analytics Management” for distributors. His 40+ “Strategic Insights for
Distributors”, essay series (also at his web site) reflect this work.
Other than that, Bruce has two wonderful
kids, lives in Coconut Grove, FL and plays a good game of tennis. In a previous
life, Bruce graduated from Princeton with a BA in Biochemistry and Harvard
Business School with an MBA.