Bio
Mr. Merrill began his career in telecommunications immediately following his undergraduate studies by joining Qwest Communications' (formerly US WEST) operations and technology team. He spent time working on customer value analysis, network infrastructure initiatives and operations management before moving to Covad Communications to help establish Covad's Denver operations and manage its Technical Assistance Center (TAC) .
While at Covad, Mr. Merrill joined their international strategic development team and travelled to Tokyo, Japan to manage Covad's strategic alliance with ACCA Networks, a Japanese broadband service provider, formed through investment by Covad and NTT Communications. He worked with ACCA to develop new product strategies and improve operational efficiencies. While in Asia, Mr. Merrill also managed Covad's strategic investment in Indian broadband access provider, Dishnet DSL.
Coinciding with his work in Denver and overseas, Mr. Merrill obtained his Master's of Science in Telecommunications from the University of Colorado's Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program (ITP). Following graduation from CU, Mr. Merrill joined the MBA program at Harvard Business School.
This fall, Mr. Merrill will begin working for Samsung's Global Strategy Group (SGSG) in Seoul, South Korea, as a Global Strategist. As Samsung's primary corporate internal strategic consulting group, the SGSG has three key objectives: 1) Continuous improvement of Samsung's various affiliate companies by providing innovative ideas and an external perspective on leading issues; 2) Collaboration between senior management within Samsung and the SGSG to contribute to Samsung Group's existing globalization efforts, and 3) Exposing SGSG professionals to management within the affiliate companies to build an internal resource of global managers with a deep understanding of Samsung and Korea.
Outside of professional and academic endeavors, Mr. Merrill enjoys playing basketball, scuba diving, and traveling internationally.
Education
BA, English, Wabash College, 1998.
MS, Telecommunications, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2003.
MBA, Harvard Business School, 2006.