A senior commercial executive, entrepreneur, and business builder with 25+ years of experience across packaging, manufacturing, distribution, services, energy, and retail — who has built commercial functions from scratch, redesigned incentive plans, improved margins, and run his own business profitably from start to exit.
I'm Alex Naumov. I run Rospex Consulting and Rospex Holdings from Charlotte, North Carolina. I work with two distinct kinds of clients: large companies that need commercial excellence work, and small owner-led businesses that need senior operating perspective across the whole company.
My career started by building a business from scratch. In 2002, I co-founded a fast-casual restaurant concept in Eastern Europe. Within three years, we had grown from a single walk-up cafe to 10 locations, 110 employees, and ~$2M in annual revenue. I led the entire company and was responsible for the P&L. We reached profitability in 14 months and 15% margins by year three. We sold the business profitably in 2005. That experience — the hiring decisions, the cash flow tightness, the supplier negotiations, the culture-building, the failure of one location and the breakthrough of another — is the foundation of how I think about every business I work with today.
After that exit, I spent 20+ years inside large companies in senior commercial and executive roles. I built pricing and commercial functions from scratch at InnoWare Plastic. I designed and launched a global price analytics platform at GE Power with 550+ users that delivered $7M+ in annual incremental margin (and was still in active use years after I left). I led pricing strategy at The Home Depot and WestRock. I built the commercial excellence function from scratch at Rubicon Technologies. I was promoted to Vice President, Commercial Excellence at Huhtamaki Flexible Packaging, where I redesigned the global sales incentive plan that drove EBIT to a new historic peak. Most recently I served as VP of Global Commercial Excellence at Sealed Air Corporation.
The throughline across all of it is the same: I find the structural problems in how a commercial organization is set up — pricing, incentives, processes, accountability, data — and I redesign them to actually work. Sometimes the answer is a new compensation plan. Sometimes it's a new pricing structure. Sometimes it's an organizational redesign or a CRM discipline change. The common factor is that the work is always grounded in real outcomes, not in frameworks.
I'm now applying that experience as a consultant. I work with large companies on commercial excellence and with small owner-led businesses on full business improvement. I also actively acquire small businesses through Rospex Holdings, which gives me a buyer's perspective when I help small business owners prepare to sell. In all of this work, my value is the same: I have done this, not studied it.
The most common failure I see in companies of any size is mistaking ambitious targets for strategy. Big goals without a clear answer to HOW the company will win — against what competitors, with what advantages, in what segments, with what resources — become competing mandates that optimize one metric at the expense of another. Real strategy is competitive honesty plus deliberate alignment of organization, resources, and metrics. With that discipline, companies grow. Without it, they invest in proclamations instead of plans.
Founder of Rospex Holdings (acquisition of small businesses in the Southeast U.S.) and Rospex Consulting (commercial excellence and business performance advisory).
Led global commercial excellence for the Protective Packaging segment.
Built and led the global commercial excellence function. Designed the sales incentive plan that drove EBIT growth of 25% over 2.5 years across a 300-person sales force in 4 regions, surpassing the historic peak year.
Stood up the Commercial Excellence function and team from scratch. Built capabilities in commercial training, negotiation, costing and pricing, commercial policies, incentive design, margin management, and profit improvement.
Built the commercial excellence function from scratch at a $600M waste services company. Introduced individual GP-based incentives and share-of-wallet program. Sales grew 20% and gross profit grew 30% within 9 months.
Led pricing teams in two folding carton divisions. Launched a Deal Review process for comprehensive review of large opportunities with Sales and Operations leadership.
Led Price Localization strategy. Helped turn around the profitability of 40+ stores in the Northeast. Identified key value items and key value categories. Modeled price tests and monitored performance of price changes and new pricing tactics.
Designed, built, and launched the Athena price analytics and business intelligence platform with 550+ global users. Won 8 GEAR awards and graduated from GE Crotonville Leadership Development. Increased win rate from 77% to 89% on 150+ bids.
Built the pricing function from scratch. Improved data integrity on special-priced accounts from 40% to 90% within 2 years. Educated the sales team on pricing and commercial best practices.
Co-founded a fast-casual cafe chain. Launched 10 locations. Grew the company from 10 to 110 people. Reached profitability in 14 months, 15% margins in 3 years. Sold the business profitably.
Free, confidential, and useful. Tell me what you're working on. I'll tell you honestly whether I can help.