Aamir Burki
Sr. Director, Product Information at Grainger
Sr. Director, Product Information at Grainger
Born as an information geek who enjoys the daily battles of digital transformation & ecommerce... My insight into solving big business problems comes from 18 years of ecommerce, content and digital transformation leadership. I have deep experience with B2B distribution and B2B manufacturing and the challenges unique to those customers and organizations. 

I've developed some beliefs that are core to who I am as a leader and consultant:

I believe that strong leaders must find strength in those around them and happily shoulder accountability.

I believe that digital strategies are valuable only in conjunction with a tactical foot on the ground. 

Using those two principles, I've been able to lead teams that achieve great success across multi-million dollar ecommerce, digital strategy and enterprise architecture projects.

In the world of B2B digital commerce: 

Digital Transformation is often less about technology and more about adapting organizational strengths and supporting them with a new digital foundation - and measuring, measuring, measuring. In B2B this means understanding your value prop in the market and staying true to it while you incorporate more digital thinking.

I *know* the key to ecommerce conversion and positive customer digital experience lies at the intersection of search, analytics and content. Ultimately, "findability" is a requirement for all web sites. Institutional focus on "search and find" requires a hard hat- a combination of human hand and technology that comes from logic and empirical data. 

I'm always looking to get in touch with other ecommerce leaders and continuing my path of learning. Drop a line!
Grainger
https://www.linkedin.com/company/w.w.-grainger
Greater Chicago Area
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Sr. Director, Product Information
Grainger
https://www.linkedin.com/company/w.w.-grainger
Chicago, Illinois
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Director, Merchandising
Codifyd
https://www.linkedin.com/company/codifyd
Principal Consultant and Practice Lead for Codifyd Digital Strategy

* Creating business value for B2B organizations through digital transformation, ecommerce and product content strategies 
* Engaging with Distribution and Manufacturing executives, helping them with business critical challenges by building roadmaps and business strategies, while ensuring the tactical and technical recommendations support the organizational goals
* 20+ engagements with leaders in the B2B field - curious, just ask


Codifyd Commerce designs customer-centric strategies that...

* Align content to customer
* Create differentiated B2B solutions
* Transform your digital future

Codifyd Commerce services:

* Commerce and Business Strategies
* Product U/X
* Technology Strategies: PIM, MDM, Data Quality and Syndication
* Content Factory
* Content Syndication & Onboarding
* Analytics & Testing
* Data Governance
Chicago, IL
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Principal Consultant & Practice Lead, Digital Strategy
Codifyd
https://www.linkedin.com/company/codifyd
Work on enterprise-wide digital and content strategy solutions for complex ecommerce projects, including client engagement:

*Ecommerce strategies
*Digital Strategy/Content Strategy leadership
*Ecommerce Web Analytics practice leadership using both Coremetrics (IBM Digital Analytics) and Google Analytics
*Ecommerce Site Search Optimization with Solr and Endeca. 
*Ecommerce A/B and multivariate testing
*Data Governance strategic guidance and tactical process implementations
*Supporting PIM (Product Information Management) Tool selection and implementation
*Creating and delivering consulting workshops on: taxonomy, faceted search, product data best practices, SEO & ecommerce strategy
*Developing organizational content flow processes
*Developing/Managing voice of consumer-driven ecommerce product taxonomies
*Data Modeling: ecommerce taxonomies & faceted search
*Cleansing & developing attributed product data
*Consulting & creating SEO landing pages: keyword rich copy, metadata
*Developing processes to align product data goals with technology and best practices 
*Managing multi-year, multi-million dollar ecommerce consulting projects
*A roomfull (or shedload if you are in the UK) of referable and happy clients to attest to the above

In addition, internally facing duties include:

*Developing sales cycle proposals 
*Writing SOWs for long-term, multi-million dollar engagements
*Creating cost/resource model
*Strategic ecommerce product data, user interface consulting
*Managing vendors and vendor deliveries
*Managing teams of up to 15 consultants
*Ownership and accountability for all deliverables and client delight in multi-million dollar/Fortune 500 engagements
Chicago
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Principal Consultant
World Book
https://www.linkedin.com/company/world-book
* Created new taxonomies for media and content for Rights and Licensing clients 
* Maintained & Tuned Endeca Search Engine
* Developed Keyword/Inline Referencing solution across World Book online product
* Overhauled World Book taxonomy structure and related online classification search
* Managed online publishing projects, databases and metadata for Rights and Licensing clients
* Processed online reports and generate web design changes with data analysis
* Proctored usability testing with customers to aid understanding of customer web usage
* Wrote index and cross-referencing solutions for World Book encyclopedia and online products
chicago
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Digital Indexer - Associate Manager
Macmillan Publishing
https://www.linkedin.com/company/macmillan
*  Directed index from start to finish, including creating index terms, editing and layout of final index
    * Worked closely with project editors, managing editors and copy editors throughout editorial process
    * Managed usability testing of indexes with customers
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Indexer, Freelance and in-house
McMaster-Carr
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mcmaster-carr
This was the role where I cut my teeth and learned about B2B business, ecommerce, search & find and how to solve the challenges of digital marketing in a fast moving world.

Mcmaster remains in so many ways a leader in how it thinks about Product User Experience and remains a major part of my DNA in all aspects of digital commerce. Certainly proud of being a part of the early team that helped create the Mcmaster digital presence.

*  Created visual browse and overall search & find strategies for product categories with up to 10,000 items
*  Researched and developed structured digital data models supporting customers as the experience moved from print to digital
*  Researched, measured and tested using advanced ecommerce analytics for effectiveness of search experience and overall UI/UX
* Increased online sales for all product categories transferred from static HTML to parametric search
* Wrote and presented in-depth digital category strategies
* Worked closely with IT specialists, product merchandisers, McMaster executives and catalog production
Elmhurst, IL
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Web Design/Search Design
Bachelor of Arts
Journalism, Philosophy
https://media-exp1.licdn.com/dms/image/C560BAQFonK534Iq8-Q/company-logo_100_100/0/1519856139080?e=1655942400&v=beta&t=kghmOSr2LzIGByL56DUfAdYhJgYYD5s51J3iQdeB6Fc
Indiana University Bloomington
https://www.linkedin.com/school/indiana-university-bloomington/
Proud to support Public Schools.
Palmer Elementary School of Chicago Public Schools
LSC (Local School Council) Elected Member
http://www.builtinchicago.org/2017/02/16/employees-hold-culture-together
Built In Chicago Article
Keynote speaker at the 2017 B2B Online North America and B2B Online Europe conferences. Also speaker at 2016 B2B Online North America and European conferences.
http://b2bmarketing2017.wbresearch.com/aamir-burki-speaker
Keynote Speaker - B2B Online
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-j-kosar-1bb739116
Lake in the Hills, IL
Brett J. Kosar
Product Information Specialist at Grainger
https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-mckinney-583751108
Greater Chicago Area
Erika McKinney
Sr. Director, Primary Pricing
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-elias-315589139
Greater Chicago Area
Jennifer Elias
Sr. Financial Analyst Merchandising and Supplier Management at Grainger
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abe-thomas-41286822
Greater Chicago Area
Abe Thomas
VP, Merchandising, Publishing and Pricing at Grainger
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-plasz-87713916
Greater Chicago Area
Michelle Plasz
Senior Supplier Manager at Grainger
https://www.linkedin.com/in/madeline-gibula-b5554a14a
Chicago, IL
Madeline Gibula
Product Information Specialist at Zoro | M.B.A. Information Systems, Data Analytics Cetificate 2021
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-d-1952a7
Chicago, IL
Scott D.
Director of Infrastructure Technology at UChicago Medicine
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackson-bill
Greater Chicago Area
Bill Jackson, SAFe PMPO, CSPO, CSM
IT Digital Product Owner at ABC Supply Co. Inc.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-fisher-9ab3b964
Kenosha, WI
Jenna Fisher
Supplier Program Associate at Grainger
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vfefer
Chicago, IL
Vladimir Fefer
Digital Marketing Manager at  Regal Rexnord
https://www.linkedin.com/in/terence-ro
Evanston, IL
Terence Ro
Software Developer at Zoro
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickpower34
Chicago, IL
Patrick Power, MSc
Senior Associate of Paid Search at Grubhub
https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtneybae
Greater Chicago Area
Courtney Bae, PMP
Continuous Improvement Manager | Zoro.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenjamesburks
Greater Seattle Area
Steven James B.
Product Management - Data Privacy - Partnerships
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marlowejohnson
New York, NY
Marlowe Johnson
Chief Executive Officer at EdAgree, Inc
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaneharrisinfo
Washington DC-Baltimore Area
Shane Harris
Sr Director of Product Management at Mimecast
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfredjohnson
Greater Chicago Area
Al Johnson
Global Head of Procurement & Supplier Growth Strategy
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottdbuchanan
Seattle, WA
Scott Buchanan
Chief Marketing Officer at Forter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardbeader
Greater Boston
Howard Beader
VP l Everbridge Product Marketing l Former: ServiceNow, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP
Steve Motley
      
          



            
              
        
              
  

    
        Aamir is one of very few individuals I have come across who can consider themselves a true expert in B2B, Content and ECommerce. He combines this expertise with great client relationships and an ability to articulate complex issues in a simple business friendly way. It's always a pleasure to work with Aamir and I would not hesitate to recommend him to others. Jason Hein
      
          



            
              
        
              
  

    
        Aamir is a thoughtful, perceptive, customer-obsessed leader who focuses on designing innovative solutions that don’t just meet the average but that put his clients in a position to disrupt their industries. In a world of narrowly-focused specialty unicorns, Aamir considers the broader picture, bringing a broad experience across facets of e-commerce to bear on problems – reducing the need to herd cats across multiple service providers. He is persuasive by default, but can be prescriptive when necessary. When it is necessary he consistently relies on data to make his points, and doesn’t let dogma (his own or others’) limit his thinking. I would welcome an opportunity to collaborate with him and would prepare extra-carefully if I knew I was competing against him. 
Liked by Aamir Burki
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On this International Women's Day, I would like to simply say thank you to several women who were amazing role models and partners in my career and…
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Happy International Women's Day 2022. I have the pleasure of being surrounded by some awesome women both at home and at work. I am committed to the…
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I'm excited to share that I will be speaking at  Chief Data & Analytics Officers UK in London today (March 14th) alongside 70+ leading data…
https://pk.linkedin.com/in/aamir-usman-burki-553a01a1
Pakistan
Aamir usman Burki
--
https://pk.linkedin.com/in/aamir-farhat-burki-25b803226
Islāmābād, Pakistan
aamir farhat burki
Student at Taylor's University
Master Data Management Professionals
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https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7435363
Search Technology Addicts
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https://www.linkedin.com/groups/163521
Information Architect, IA
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https://www.linkedin.com/groups/80164
Manufacturing, Wholesale & Distribution Forum
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https://www.linkedin.com/groups/144583
Taxonomy and Ontology Community of Practice
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https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1750
B2B eCommerce for Distributors
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User Experience Group
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https://www.linkedin.com/groups/79272
Enterprise Search User Group
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