Will Mau

Résumé

Will Mau

Operations & Technology Executive · AI & Automation · Revenue Systems

I am an operations executive who builds the systems most VPs only buy. Fifteen-plus years across operations, revenue, and business technology. Currently VP of Operations at TalentSmartEQ and one of four members of its Executive Leadership Team.

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Selected work

A sample of the systems I have designed and shipped at TalentSmartEQ.

68% of support tickets auto-handled

AI case-handling system

An Azure OpenAI agent reads incoming support cases, classifies them, and resolves routine ones (passcode resets, registration changes, license lookups) end to end.

The full story

The system auto-handles about 68% of incoming cases end to end and writes a structured handoff for cases that need a human. The visible outcome: Client Success spends time on relationships and complex cases instead of routine resets, and response times improve rather than degrade.

10 sec from new lead to first-touch email

AI lead-triage system

Every inbound lead is auto-classified and answered with a personalized first-touch email in about ten seconds, live in production.

The full story

Before approving the build, I directed a deep study of historical converted leads to find what actually predicts conversion. The system now classifies inbound leads in real time, suppresses junk before a sales rep sees it, and reclaims an estimated 50 to 100 hours of manual triage monthly across the regional sales team.

95% Apex test coverage, running weekly

Executive forecasting platform

A snapshot system that gives TalentSmartEQ its first reliable year-over-year view of pipeline, quota performance, and deal history.

The full story

Salesforce stores opportunities as single mutable rows, so history evaporates the moment a stage changes. I directed a custom snapshot object, an Apex batch that runs every Monday at 5 AM, a 95%-coverage test suite, and a Lightning Web Component executive dashboard. It has run weekly since early 2026 with no manual intervention.

6 weeks multi-vendor incident response, closed with forensic report

Cyber-incident response leadership

Led TalentSmartEQ’s response to a 2025 security event from initial discovery through closure. Coordinated outside forensics, outside counsel, IT infrastructure, and the cyber-insurance carrier across roughly six weeks of work.

The full story

The work spanned attorney-client-privileged communications, evidence preservation, vendor coordination under time pressure, executive briefings, and a fully documented forensic narrative submitted to the carrier at close. Most operations executives only see this in tabletop exercises. The system-level outcome: a cleaner playbook on the other side of the incident than we had going in, with clear vendor sequencing and decision-authority documentation.

100s of cross-team hours saved per year

Clickwrap legal re-architecture

A multi-round editing, approval, and signature cycle for every new customer agreement, collapsed into a single-click workflow.

The full story

Legal still owns the underlying contract template, but each new agreement now flows through automation instead of email chains, reclaiming hundreds of hours annually across legal, sales, and operations and shortening the path from interested customer to signed agreement.

Monthly refresh of who to call next

Customer-health system

A monthly report ranks customers by velocity and surfaces accounts running low on assessment credits or with stagnant inventory, then routes a working call list to the sales team. The signal that someone is about to reorder, or about to churn, used to live in two different systems. Now it shows up as a list.

The full story

Usage data and the customer relationship lived in different systems, and nobody was joining them. The refresh now surfaces reorder opportunities and churn risk, ranked by velocity, with one-click outreach so sales opens it like a working list.

How I lead

  1. 01

    Diagnose before you build

    Most operations problems are definition problems, not tool problems. A few hours with the actual data (the tickets, the lost-deal notes, the funnel report) and the right system falls out of the diagnosis.

  2. 02

    Build what should be built, buy what shouldn’t

    One vendor quoted $90K a year for what a 200-line script does better at about $20 a month. When a vendor solves it cleanly, buy. When it doesn’t, direct the internal build.

  3. 03

    Make it boring to operate

    Every system ships with a deployment guide, a backfill guide, and a what-to-do-when-it-breaks guide. The job is not to be the only person who understands how it works.

  4. 04

    Leave the team faster than you found it

    Operations should not just add reporting overhead. Anything I build has to give the team time back, or it should not ship.

Experience

Vice President of Operations

May 2021 to Present

TalentSmartEQ · Remote

Operations and technology leadership for a remote-first emotional-intelligence training company, as one of four members of the Executive Leadership Team.

Highlights
  • Transformed revenue operations across Salesforce, Pardot, and legal processes, reducing operational bottlenecks by 87% and accelerating sales velocity and forecasting precision.
  • Implemented AI-driven automation and custom GPT workflows across quoting, onboarding, and reporting, freeing sales capacity while improving data quality and compliance.
  • Directed enterprise system integrations across Salesforce, Pardot, QuickBooks, DocuSign, Conga, Microsoft 365, and Azure to unify reporting across sales, finance, and operations.
  • Built executive dashboards and forecasting models that give leadership real-time visibility into pipeline health, conversion rates, and territory coverage.
  • Launched an enterprise SharePoint intranet that centralized resources and accelerated onboarding and cross-functional collaboration.
  • Oversee technology, cybersecurity, GDPR and data-privacy compliance, and contract management across global teams in the U.S., India, Mexico, and Guatemala. Built the Guatemala function personally, sourcing candidates through a regional partner in 2025.
  • Led the response to a 2025 security event end to end, coordinating outside forensics, counsel, IT infrastructure, and the cyber-insurance carrier through to a final forensic report submitted at close.
  • Currently operating the launch of a new product line, from build specs through dev-partner coordination, pricing, and fulfillment.
  • Promoted from Director of Sales Operations to Sr. Director of Operations to Vice President.

Senior Sales Manager, Professional & Academic Channel

Mar 2018 to May 2021

Cengage · Clifton Park, NY

Sales operations leadership for a B2B channel of one of the largest education publishers in North America.

Highlights
  • Led an enterprise Salesforce implementation that delivered a 10x productivity lift in six months by standardizing reporting, automating workflows, and improving pipeline hygiene.
  • Designed KPI frameworks and compensation models that aligned incentives to revenue targets and drove sustained quota attainment.
  • Built a sales enablement and onboarding program that cut new-hire ramp from eight months to four weeks, accelerating productivity and reducing churn.
  • Directed territory planning and segmentation, aligning resources to market opportunity and increasing pipeline conversion.
  • Partnered cross-functionally with Marketing and Product to refine GTM plays, improve funnel quality, and deliver revenue growth across B2B channels.
  • Developed strategic account relationships that strengthened customer loyalty and expanded long-term recurring revenue.
  • Promoted from Sales Manager.

Manager, Inbound Sales

Jan 2014 to Mar 2018

Charter Communications · Albany, NY

Frontline sales leadership for a regional telecommunications provider, across inbound sales and sales effectiveness.

Highlights
  • Directed sales strategy and team operations for inbound sales; the team achieved top-ranked status within the enterprise.
  • Spearheaded the redesign of sales processes around advanced CRM tooling to optimize operational efficiency and customer engagement.
  • Initiated and managed a peer-mentorship program that elevated sales performance and cohesiveness across the team.
  • Led the development and rollout of a comprehensive sales training program, improving sales metrics 9% and cutting average handle time by 72 seconds.
  • Overhauled the leadership onboarding process, accelerating leader readiness and reducing organizational churn.
  • Promoted from Supervisor to Manager of Sales Effectiveness to Manager of Inbound Sales.

Operations Manager

Jun 2013 to Jan 2014

TJX · Clifton Park, NY

Operations leadership for a combined Marshalls and HomeGoods store: human resources, logistics, and customer experience.

Highlights
  • Managed human resources, logistics, and customer experience across a combined Marshalls and HomeGoods store.
  • Revamped training protocols and removed the store’s decade-long status as a "focus" store for shrinkage.
  • Refined staffing through targeted interviewing and placement, turning a 50% employee shortage into a consistent 5% surplus.
  • Reallocated resources to strengthen logistics, store turnover, and profitability.
  • Held audit and compliance standards that consistently passed external audits.
  • Transformed store culture and operational focus, improving employee morale and customer satisfaction.

Executive Team Leader

Oct 2010 to Jun 2013

Target · Clifton Park, NY

Sales floor and logistics leadership for a major retail store, directing a team of more than 120.

Highlights
  • Spearheaded sales floor management and logistical operations for a major retail store.
  • Engineered a strategic increase in store revenue from $32M to $36M within two years by enhancing transaction value and refining sales strategy.
  • Boosted average transaction value by more than $5, directly impacting annual gross sales and profitability.
  • Directed a team of more than 120, implementing development programs that promoted internal growth and improved performance.
  • Introduced rigorous performance standards that drove the store to top rankings across key company metrics.
  • Cultivated a high-performance culture that moved several team members into advanced roles.

Social Studies Teacher

Aug 2007 to Sep 2010

Schenectady High School · Schenectady, NY

Taught secondary social studies, integrating technology into the curriculum and leading an after-school program.

Highlights
  • Delivered a dynamic social studies curriculum using methods that lifted student engagement and academic performance.
  • Spearheaded the integration of technology into the curriculum and secured business donations for essential classroom computing.
  • Directed an after-school program that enriched educational offerings and supported professional development for veteran teachers.
  • Engaged local businesses and community stakeholders to support educational initiatives.
The complete history, with recommendations, is on LinkedIn.

Independent practice

Alongside the work at TalentSmartEQ, I run Mauops, a solo Salesforce, AI, and automation consultancy. Most small businesses are paying for software they barely use and doing by hand what should be automated. The same approach fixes that.

  • Salesforce & RevOps Health Check

    1 to 2 weeks

    A diagnostic pass on the CRM and revenue stack, ending in a prioritized fix list.

  • Funnel Bottleneck Sprint

    2 weeks

    Find where the funnel leaks, then build and ship the fix.

  • Executive Dashboard Pack

    1 week

    The reporting leadership actually needs, built and documented to hand off.

Recent engagements and fixed-scope offerings at mauops.com

Published writing

Technology

An executive with enough technical fluency to architect solutions, evaluate vendors honestly, and direct technical work without translation overhead.

Platforms

The systems I administer and architect.

  • Salesforce (Apex, LWC, SOQL, Flow, Pardot)
  • Microsoft 365
  • SharePoint (intranet architecture)
  • Microsoft Graph
  • Azure

Hands-on

I write the code when that is the right call.

  • Python (pandas, simple-salesforce)
  • Apex (batch, triggers, 95% test coverage)
  • Lightning Web Components
  • TypeScript & Astro
  • SQL
  • Git & GitHub Actions

AI & LLM

Production AI, built carefully.

  • Azure OpenAI
  • Structured-output classification
  • RAG patterns
  • Shadow-mode deployment
  • Human-in-the-loop audit

Education

M.A., American History

University at Albany · 2007 to 2010 · 4.0 GPA

B.A., History, Political Science & Education

The College of Saint Rose · 2003 to 2007 · 3.6 GPA · Student Association President

Certifications

Civic & community

Elected Board of Education Member

Schalmont Central School District · 2024 to present

Elected in 2023 and reelected in 2026. Two years of work including Pre-K expansion, the Woestina school reopening, a Residential Trade Technology program, and a 1.95% tax levy held well under the state cap.

Troop Committee Chair

Scouting America, Troop 3054 · 2024 to present

Chair the troop committee: strategic planning, adult-leader development, and community engagement. Also built and maintain the troop website.