Lars Lee

About Lars Lee

Strategic retail media leader who accelerates business growth through customer-obsessed strategy, operational excellence, and insight-led storytelling. I lead with clarity and purpose, transforming complex data into narratives that inspire action, align stakeholders, and unlock long-term value.I’ve partnered with some of the world’s top brands to modernize their paid media approaches, building scalable frameworks, leading cross-functional teams, and accelerating adoption of innovative solutions. My approach is grounded in deep customer empathy, a bias for execution, and a relentless focus on performance.With an MBA in Innovation & Entrepreneurship, I bring both startup agility and enterprise discipline to every challenge, balancing vision with measurable outcomes.

Experience

1. Sr Search Performance Manager

   Sam's Club

   Oct 2022 — Present · San Bruno, CA, US

   Recipient of MAP’s inaugural ‘Associate of the Year’ award for exceptional impact, values-driven leadership, and advancing strategic priorities. Paid Search Lead managing a high-performing team of 3 Search Performance Managers, setting vision, strategy and execution for sponsored search. Reputation for bridging cross-functional collaboration, team development, platform innovation, and scalable go-to-market enablement.Strategic Impact: • Led growth initiatives, campaign best practices, and paid search strategy that contributed to MAP’s first-ever $100M AOP quarter• Built performance storytelling templates which have been adopted org-wide to drive presentation consistency and strategic clarityThought Leadership:• Founded the ‘Brunch & Learn’ weekly education series, fostering cross-functional fluency in search strategy, optimization, and solution-selling• Launched the monthly ‘Search Navigator’ bulletin, a key Sales resource for paid search strategy across suppliers and advertisersTeam Building & Talent Development:• Spearheaded recruiting efforts for the Search Center of Excellence by partnering with Talent Acquisition; created a cohesive team, driving career planning and an impact-focused team culture• Mentored 2 direct reports awarded the ‘Making a Difference’ award and one with an ‘Exemplary’ rating• Co-created the Sponsored Products Certification Program, an internal training initiative designed to up-skill associates and standardize paid search excellence across MAPProduct & Analytics Collaboration:• Partnered with Data Science and Business Intelligence teams to develop org-wide, Tableau-powered performance dashboards and reporting tools to drive analytical efficiency, enhance search strategy, and sales effectiveness • Streamlined accountability between Operations and Sales teams by co-developing Paid Search RACI framework for Managed and Self-Service/API accounts

Education

• University of Washington

  B.A., Sociology

  2005 — 2009

• Seattle University

  MBA, Global Leadership Development

  2011 — 2014

• The Overlake School

  High School, General Studies

  2001 — 2005

Skills

• Sales
• Event Planning
• Imagination
• Product Development
• Conflict Resolution
• Merchandising
• Social Networking
• Social Media Marketing
• Creative Problem Solving
• Teamwork
• Creative Writing
• Online Marketing
• Apparel
• Social Media
• Fashion
• Facebook
• Adobe Creative Suite
• Customer Service
• Retail
• Marketing
• Inventory Management
• People Skills
• Creative Concept Development
• Entrepreneurship
• Advertising
• Management