Chris Shimojima is a marketing-driven Board Director and CEO with consistent record of revenue and profit growth in competitive and dynamic industries. Skilled at solving broad and complex business issues by combining astute strategic insights with focus on operational excellence, he is passionate about creating a differentiated, breakthrough customer experience. Having led organizations in Fortune 200 corporations to PE-backed companies and start-ups, he is uniquely experienced at evolving the organization’s culture by teaching new principles while leveraging its innate strengths. Over his thirty year career in industries that includes consumer packaged goods, telecommunication, athletic footwear & apparel to retail, Chris has created, developed and launched new brands and businesses that have collectively generated over $4 billion in revenue.

Most recently, Chris served as the CEO of Provide Commerce, a $650 million specialty retailer of high quality gifts with its portfolio of well-known brands – ProFlowers, Shari’s Berries, RedEnvelope, Personal Creations and Gifts.com. Chris exited the company following its successful sale to the FTD Group, Inc. in March 2015.

Since leaving Provide Commerce, Chris founded C⁵ Advisory, a boutique consultancy with the mission to inspire and assist CEO’s and their C-suite executives find new paths that address their most pressing business issue – growth. With a focus on start-ups to middle-market companies, C⁵ Advisory brings personal and tailored one-to-one engagement that traditional consultants cannot offer.   Chris also is a co-founder of Daasity, a consultancy focused on helping enable small to mid sized companies adopt and practice “Big Data” analytics to increase productivity and margin growth.

Before joining Provide Commerce, Chris worked at Nike for six years as the VP of Global Digital Commerce overseeing the company’s e-commerce and the NikeiD mass customization businesses.  As Nike’s first global e-commerce leader, he successfully expanded the business globally into 24 countries.

From 2001 to 2006, Chris worked at Sears Holdings Inc. where he served as the VP/GM of their direct-to-customer businesses that included Sears.com, Kmart.com, Kenmore.com, Craftsman.com and a portfolio of specialty catalogs.  During his five-year tenure at Sears, the online business delivered a CAGR of 48% approaching $1 billion in sales.

Chris brings 20+ years of professional experience that is grounded in brand management, direct marketing and ecommerce.  Chris spent the first third of his career with consumer packaged goods and services companies like Tambrands (a P&G unit), Nestlé, Pepsi-Cola, and AT&T.

His career in digital commerce began in 2000 when he signed-on to become the SVP/CMO for an internet start-up – Kozmo.com – that offered “internet to your door in one hour” ecommerce/delivery service.  As the CMO, Chris was responsible for merchandising, marketing and PR for the start-up.  

Chris serves as an independent board director for Aurora Health Care, a $4.5 billion health care system in Wisconsin, where he serves on the Governance and the Quality Committees; and for Implus Corporation, an innovative designer and distributor of footwear accessories and fitness products, where he serves on the Audit Committee.  He has also been a member of Gryphon Investors’ (a private equity firm) Executive Advisory Board since 2009.

Chris was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. Speaks fluent Japanese, graduated Cum Laude from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and earned his MBA from the University of Chicago. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Shirley.