Bill Pearce
Continuing Professional Faculty | Assistant Dean, Chief Marketing Officer | Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES
Industry expert on marketing, strategy, and innovation
Areas of Expertise (7)
Marketing
Digital Marketing
Corporate Innovation
Growth
Startups
Marketing Strategy
Innovation
About
Bill Pearce is Assistant Dean and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for the Haas School of Business, and is a continuing professional faculty member in the Marketing Group and the Institute for Business Innovation.
Pearce is a senior executive with an outstanding track record of profitable business-building based on exceptional strategic, analytic, and financial disciplines. He has broad marketing and general management experience in both the consumer products and consumer service sectors. Bill has functional expertise in both sales and marketing, and is recognized as an inspirational leader who builds strong teams of direct reports and cross functional teamwork.
Pearce ascended the marketing ranks at consumer goods companies including Procter & Gamble, Taco Bell and Del Monte, the latter two as Chief Marketing Officer. He built general management skills as P&L owner at every stop along the way in his marketing career with emphasis on driving Topline and bottom line growth.
Pearce earned his undergraduate degree from Syracuse and then spent six years in sales at Miller Brewing and Coca-Cola USA. Desiring a career in general management, Bill earned his MBA from Cornell University. He began his marketing/GM career with Procter & Gamble, where he spent 11 years. Desiring additional responsibility, he became VP Marketing of the Food Division at Campbell Soup Company. He first advanced to the C-suite with Taco Bell as CMO. There, Bill led the business to consistent same-store sales growth and steered the brand through an E. coli scare with no long-term impact to the brand.
As Chief Marketing Officer for consumer brand marketer Del Monte Foods, Pearce led a turnaround of that company’s complex portfolio of over 30+ brands by upgrading analytic, strategic, and planning practices to drive improvements in portfolio management, marketing productivity, and new product development. The result was a tripling of the market capitalization value and the subsequent purchase of Del Monte by a Private Equity consortium led by KKR.
Most recently, Pearce became Lead Board Director at Ooma (NYSE) and Chairman of VC-backed RichRelevance.
Education (2)
Cornell University: MBA
Syracuse University: BA
Links (2)
Honors & Awards (1)
Haas Club Six
2012-2020
Selected External Service & Affiliations (3)
- 2011 – present, Executive Chairman, RichRelevance
- 2009 – present, Board Member American Heart Association
- Board member and advisior several tech firms
Positions Held (1)
At Haas since 2011
2017 – present, Assistant Dean and CMO, Haas School of Business 2012 – present, Chairman, RichRelevance 2012 – present, Lead Director, Ooma (NYSE) 2012 – 2014, Managing Director, The Partnering Group 2011 – present, Professional Faculty, Haas School of Business 2008 – 2011, CMO, Del Monte 2007 – 2008, CEO, Foresight Medical Technology 2003 – 2007, CMO, Taco Bell 1992 – 2003, Marketing Director, Procter & Gamble
Media Appearances (15)
The UK changes crypto strategy
Protocol online
2022-04-05
Great Britain has grand crypto ambitions, and aims to become a global hub for crypto. But Bill Pearce, a member of the Continuing Professional Faculty and Chief Marketing Officer at Haas, pointed out that Brexit caused London to fall behind Amsterdam and Frankfurt as a major financial center. “This is a bet-hedging to remain relevant to the fintech world,” he said.
The rise of the gig economy spells the end for these workers: 'We’re the vestiges of the old system
MarketWatch online
2021-07-14
Jobs like grocery store delivery driver are disappearing due to the rise of the gig economy. “Grocery stores have notoriously thin margins,” said Bill Pearce, a member of the Continuing Professional Faculty and Chief Marketing Officer. “For them, using other people’s money—like DoorDash’s — is more appealing,” he said.
Fintech Goes On The Mortgage Offensive
Protocol online
2021-07-06
The aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007 brought new controls and regulations for homebuyers, but now technology is lightening the burden and opening up opportunities. "Mortgage fintech filled the vacuum," said Bill Pearce, a member of the Continuing Professional Faculty and and Chief Marketing Officer.
In a World Let Loose, Video Game Makers Are ‘Doubling Down’
The New York Times online
2021-05-30
With the ebbing of the pandemic, businesses have “better clarity and more confidence to invest” because of coronavirus vaccines and predictions of how people will respond when the world opens up, said Bill Pearce, a member of the Continuing Professional Faculty and Chief Marketing Officer at Haas. Some industries that followed conventional wisdom by slowing down, like car dealerships, are now kicking themselves because they can’t fulfill surging demand, he said.
A Crypto Wonk Is Running The SEC
Protocol online
2021-04-20
New SEC head Gary Gensler knows fintech and Wall Street, and has studied how new technologies, including blockchain and cryptocurrency, are dramatically changing finance. He's also known for strong views on how to make sure those changes aren't hurting consumers. It’s a “warning shot to the Street and fintech," said Assistant Dean Bill Pearce, a member of the Haas Professional Faculty, as well as Chief Marketing Officer. It signals "a new day at the SEC," he added.
Social investing rocked Wall Street. Now, fintechs are seizing an opportunity.
Protocol online
2021-04-12
Confronted with the rise in social investing, hedge funds are playing every angle. Bill Pearce, a member of the Haas professional faculty and Chief Marketing Officer, said he worries about immature investors who could lose their savings while thinking they're "sticking it to Wall Street." Hedge funds, he said, look at the online conversations, and say, "We're gonna take these guys for a ride." He added: "And they did."
Feds Have Smart Questions For Smart Banks
Protocol online
2021-04-02
Massive amounts of data are now available to train AI systems. But AI models are only as good as the data used to train them. That's why it's important to focus on bias which "could seep into algorithms" and unknowingly be introduced into AI models, said Assistant Dean and Chief Marketing Officer Bill Pearce.
You Can’t Escape Digital Currency Now
Protocol online
2021-02-26
The Coinbase public offering has made some experts nervous and there's also some concern about Bitcoin. Bill Pearce, a member of the Haas professional faculty and the school's Chief Marketing Officer, said there's an "irrational exuberance in this market aided by a high-value stock market and low-yield and inflationary fears" that made Bitcoin attractive as an inflation hedge.
Print it: Readers buck e-readers for service, quality at Sacramento bookstores
Sacramento Bee online
2020-06-09
Locally-owned bookstores have seen a resurgence after years of decline, and that might just be because they offer something more than just a product. "It if was just acquiring a book, a retail economic argument would be you’d get it cheaper on Amazon," said Asst. Dean Bill Pearce, a member of the Professional Faculty and Chief Marketing Officer at Berkeley Haas.
'This isn't Webvan': Giants and upstarts are racing to seize grocery delivery's moment
Protocol online
2020-04-29
New delivery markets are opening up as a result of the pandemic but startups should approach the boom with caution. Not every company will make it, and whether they do will depend on factors such as cost of delivery and the customer experience, said Assistant Dean and Chief Marketing Officer Bill Pearce.
Your Ad Here—Uber Moves Into Car-Top Digital Billboards
Wired online
2020-02-26
Uber is rolling out rooftop billboards for cars in Atlanta, Dallas, and Phoenix. Considering that the company lost $8.5 billion last year, a business that provides a near-term return on investment has an obvious appeal, says Bill Pearce, assistant dean and Chief Marketing Officer at Berkeley Haas.
Behind the blitz: Falun Gong practitioners spend millions on Shen Yun ads. How do they do it?
San Francisco Chronicle online
2020-01-11
A Shen Yun-linked San Francisco nonprofit group reported $3.9 million in ticket sales while spending $2.2 million on advertising and promotion. That's an unusual amount spend on ads, says Asst. Dean and Chief Marketing Officer Bill Pearce, a member of the marketing faculty. “Typically, if you’re higher than 10%, it’s really high,” he said, noting that the industry benchmark for ad spending is 7.5% of projected revenue. “It’s truly from a marketing standpoint what we call a ‘heavy-up.’”
What’s in a Domain Name?
Inside Higher Ed online
2020-01-08
Bill Pearce, chief marketing officer and assistant dean for marketing and communications at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, said the school had purchased some domain names but noted, “We have to draw the line somewhere.”
When holiday shopping goes digital, what gets left behind?
KCBS radio
2019-12-06
The 2019 holiday shopping season has kicked off with record-breaking online sales, but a continued decline in foot traffic to local retailers. Can brick-and-mortar stores survive in an increasingly online world? Asst. Dean & CMO Bill Pearce joins for a discussion of retail trends.
‘Meth. We’re on it,’ South Dakota says in ridiculed ad campaign that cost $449,000
The Washington Post online
2019-11-19
An anti-drug campaign in South Dakota has caused raised eyebrows across the country. Asst. Dean Bill Pearce, a professional faculty member in the Marketing Group, said any real message was lost by an ad campaign that embodies "poor strategy and poor execution." "I can’t imagine this is what they intended to do; any good marketer would look at this and say: 'Yeah, let’s not do that,'" Pearce said. "I’m sure South Dakota residents don’t like being laughed at. That’s what’s happening right now."
Teaching (4)
Strategic Brand Management
MBA, Spring 2020
Corporate Launchpad
EWMBA, Fall 2020
Marketing Strategy
Fall 2020
Growth Marketing
Spring 2020
Social