Twelve years ago, Merle founded GO to help to create sustainable growth, value, and operational excellence for companies to enhance the lives of owners, employees, families, and their communities. GO moves beyond traditional management advisory services and brings an “operator centric” perspective and proven experience that know how to accelerate business growth from startups to middle market companies. GO has served over 200 clients and 30 PE firms and supported their teams in generating over $2 billion in value creation.​
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Prior to GO, Merle spent 25 years helping premier brands like NIKE, adidas, TaylorMade and Callaway drive growth and profitability. He has held numerous senior executive positions including serving as President of a $300 million business, General Manager with P&L accountability for a $600 million business and serving as CMO for a global billion-dollar company.​
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Growth has been at the core of each of his operator experiences. At Callaway, his team delivered strong business improvements by strategically repositioning the brand, stabilizing revenues, and rebounding operating income of core categories by 98% and 41% respectively. As the President/General Manager of adidas Golf, revenues soared 63% and profits 125% in 18 months through product reinvention and sales distribution transformation. As the CMO at TaylorMade his team successfully reinvented and globalized the brand which led to a 300% increase in revenues. At NIKE, he helped drive a 58% annual compound growth rate at NIKE Golf over 5 years. His tenure in NIKE Retail focused on expanding NIKETOWN’s and NIKE Factory Stores that resulted in driving revenues up ten-fold in less than 5 years.​