Experience

Twelve years of CRM. One thread.

A decade building CRM functions for some of Ukraine’s largest companies — across fintech, retail, healthtech, and pharma. Then — after the full-scale invasion — relocation to Amsterdam, a one‑year stint at StuDocu, and almost two years owning the EMEA merchant CRM/lifecycle layer at Uber. Below: the engagements that matter.

2024–2025 · Amsterdam

Uber EMEA →

2022–2023 · Amsterdam

StuDocu →

2013–2022 · Ukraine

PrivatBank, Citrus, apteka24, DOC.UA, ALLO →

Reference

Skills & tools matrix →

Case 01 · Apr 2024 → Dec 2025

Uber EMEA ~ 2 years · Amsterdam HQ

Senior MarTech Solutions Manager (EMEA CRM) → Senior RevOps Strategist (Central Operations). Owned and rebuilt the lifecycle layer for 250,000 merchants across 17 countries, ~2M monthly comms, and ~2,000 automations. Then moved into Central Operations to connect CRM capabilities directly to P&L outcomes.

Scope
250K merchants
Markets
17 countries
Comms
~2M / month
Stack
SFMC → in‑house

The setup

The merchant CRM stack at Uber covered restaurant partners across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa on the Uber Eats product — 17 countries, 8 languages, 250,000 active merchants, ~2M automated communications per month, around 2,000 distinct automations in the system. The MarTech stack was Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), connected through an in‑house data warehouse, with significant operational debt from rapid scale.

What I did

  • Built a single source of truth.

    Built the first EMEA merchant CRM performance dashboard by connecting SFMC outputs to Uber’s data warehouse. Replaced ad‑hoc spreadsheet tracking with cohort‑based, P&L‑linked metrics.

  • +49% CTR, +20% open rate across core EMEA lifecycle.

    1.53% → 2.28% CTR; +20% open‑rate lift (43.9% → 52.7%, read as a delta — Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates the absolute). From systematic A/B testing, AMPscript fixes, deliverability hygiene, and LLM‑assisted personalization.

  • Diagnosed and fixed a global SFMC deliverability defect.

    ~84% → 95%+ globally — affecting merchant emails worldwide, not just EMEA. The fix shipped to all Uber markets.

  • Co‑led the UK WhatsApp CRM beta: >80× ROI vs email.

    On merchant ad spend. Result: WhatsApp integration was elevated to a 2026 global priority at Uber.

  • Mapped, rationalized, and brought ~2,000 automations under structured intake.

    Eliminated shadow campaigns, deprecated duplicates, introduced a Jira‑based intake (~50 tickets/week) with clear ownership, governance, and operating rhythm.

  • Consolidated the comms tooling — one notification went from weeks to minutes.

    Centralizing fragmented in-app and lifecycle messaging onto one platform cut the time to ship a single notification from ~1–2 weeks of engineering to as little as ~10 minutes — the kind of consolidation that pays for itself every week after.

  • 2025: transitioned to Senior RevOps Strategist (Central Operations).

    Co-authored the Merchant Education CRM strategy with a €25M FY26 incremental forecast. Architected the CRM communications framework for expansion into 7 new countries. Built a SQL-based impact framework — shifting from vanity metrics to P&L metrics. Championed the migration from SFMC to Uber’s proprietary merchant stack.

Oleks quickly became a valuable part of Uber, initiating scalable improvements that benefit the broader business well beyond a single market. Calm under pressure, thoughtful in his approach, and genuinely easy to work with.
Ricardo Zertuche

Ricardo Zertuche

Director of Marketing Technology · Uber

Verify on LinkedIn
Combines strategic thinking with deep technical expertise and a systems architect’s mindset. His contributions added measurable precision and efficiency to our operations at Uber’s scale.
Kylee Smailes

Kylee Smailes

EMEA CRM Lead, Consumer & Earner CRM · Uber · direct manager

Verify on LinkedIn

Case 02 · Jul 2022 → Jul 2023

StuDocu First year in Amsterdam

European edtech serving 65M+ students. Senior CRM Marketer. Led the rebuild of lifecycle architecture and shipped one of the first production LLM personalization engines in CRM.

Users
65M+ students
Stack
Customer.io · Segment

What I did

  • Audited and rebuilt lifecycle communications end‑to‑end.

    Designed the first formal CRM strategy and experimentation roadmap, with Customer.io and Segment as the core stack.

  • Optimized lead → trial → paid funnel.

    +27% content‑loop efficiency, +19% subscription duration, ~+34% across primary funnel KPIs.

  • Shipped an LLM‑powered content engine.

    OpenAI‑based engine generating personalized study recommendations and CRM copy at scale. One of the earliest production deployments of LLM personalization in lifecycle marketing in Europe.

Oleks is a real CRM wizard, who probably has ALL the available knowledge within this domain. He keeps surprising me with the creative ideas and solutions he comes up with. A true inspiration to work with someone who is such a specialist and so passionate about his profession.

Martine Peeters

PR & Communications Lead · StuDocu

Before Amsterdam

Ten years building CRM for Ukraine’s largest operators.

I started writing copy at sixteen on freelance boards. A few years and hundreds of clients later, I was a top‑rated writer in the region, paying my way through university with words.

At twenty‑two I joined PrivatBank — Ukraine’s largest commercial bank, 25 million customers — first as a copywriter, then leading lifecycle marketing across the entire institution. I built the CRM department from two people to fifty. CRM channels eventually drove 8% of all credit card sales in the country — and 24% of all bank product sales. I also ran the bank’s first CLV/CAC analysis — cutting acquisition cost by an order of magnitude and more than tripling ARPU.

Over the next decade I architected lifecycle and CRM functions for many of Ukraine’s serious operators. ALLO — the country’s largest electronics retailer — where I integrated Microsoft Dynamics into the entire retail framework and shipped the country’s first CRM‑driven loyalty program. Ning, where I led 15 marketers across the US/EU SaaS market. Citrus, the Odesa electronics retailer, where I worked as a retained outside advisor rather than staff — the model I run today, years before I named it. apteka24, where I co‑founded one of Ukraine’s top‑3 online pharmacies, drove +158% YoY revenue, +81% ARPPU, and 4× lower CAC. DOC.UA, the largest healthtech marketplace in the country — still my client today as a senior advisor.

Then in February 2022 the war started. We relocated to Amsterdam in mid‑2022 — two yellow suitcases, a 12‑month visa, tourist‑level English, and the conviction that the same instincts that worked at PrivatBank would scale anywhere.

Within twelve months at StuDocu, the CRM I’d rebuilt was lifting the funnel by 34%. Within twenty‑four months I was at Uber’s EMEA headquarters, owning lifecycle for a quarter‑million merchants. Same instincts. Larger surface.

2013 – 2022 · Ukraine

The companies, in detail.

2013–2016 · Head of Lifecycle Marketing

PrivatBank

Ukraine’s largest commercial bank. 25M+ customers.

8%
of all UA credit-card sales · via CRM
24%
of all bank-product sales · attributed to lifecycle
2→50+
CRM team I built · people
25M+
customers · Ukraine’s largest bank

Plus the foundational data architecture and behavioral segmentation underneath it all — CLV/CAC‑based lifecycle decisions that more than tripled ARPU, and a single lending campaign that booked roughly ₴1 billion in loans in about 35 days.

See the signature case study: MasterCard VIP train‑trigger
An extraordinary personality with a non‑standard approach to tasks, advanced analytics, and a master with words. As Head of Communications, he was the Steve Jobs of marketing and communications — a benchmark for everyone working with copy or design.

Vladyslav Starushenko

Back‑end Developer · PrivatBank

2016–2018 · Head of CRM

ALLO

Ukraine’s largest electronics retailer.

  • —Integrated Microsoft Dynamics into the retail framework
  • —Wove WMS into the CRM data layer
  • —Launched Ukraine’s first CRM‑driven loyalty program
  • —Owned direct marketing strategy across nationwide campaigns
  • —Effie Ukraine 2017 — won with the marketing team
  • —The viral “change your name to iPhone” campaign — covered by The Washington Post
  • —CRM-automated comms drove 9%+ of monthly revenue; average check +10%; first-month churn −15%

2018–2019 · CMO

Ning Interactive

SaaS for US and EU markets.

  • —Led 15 marketing professionals — UX/UI, copy, analytics, PR
  • —Ran global campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit
  • —Solidified skills in global market strategy and performance marketing
  • —2.5× revenue, 100% CLV growth, 120k US/EU users
A great leader and the best marketer I’ve worked with. Understands every part of marketing and explains technical aspects so anyone can follow. Never tires of experiments.

Viktoriia Nikolenko

Head of Marketing · Kiss My Apps · direct report at Ning

2019 · CRM & marketing consultant

Citrus

Ukraine’s electronics retailer — my first retained advisory engagement.

  • —Brought in by a former PrivatBank colleague to level up the in‑house marketing team
  • —Advised on site in focused bursts — days at a time, not a seat on the org chart
  • —The retainer model — years before I gave it a name

2019–2020 · Co‑founder · CMO / Head of MarTech

apteka24

Co‑founded one of Ukraine’s top‑3 online pharmacies.

  • —+158% YoY revenue growth
  • —+81% ARPPU
  • —4× lower CAC
  • —Led digital transformation and retention strategy
  • —Ukraine’s first pharmacy loyalty program
  • —Launched the first nationwide COVID‑era delivery in the category
Together, we helped apteka24.ua recover from a Google YMYL penalty and grew traffic by more than 100%. Oleks is results-driven, ready to test any idea, and backs it with his vast marketing experience.

Maksim Misichenko

Head of Digital Marketing · Tabletki.ua

2020–2022 · Head of MarTech · still advising today

Active retainer

DOC.UA

Ukraine’s largest healthtech marketplace. I joined to build the lifecycle and CRM function from scratch — and never fully left. Currently retained advisor, ~5 hours/month.

  • —Custom CRM build, retention architecture, lifecycle redesign
  • —Cross‑border expansion work (Ukraine → CEE)
  • —Redirected resources to humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees during the war
  • —Ongoing strategic advisor since relocation

Earlier (2006–2013): freelance copywriter — top‑rated writer in the region. Hundreds of clients, foundational training in psychology of persuasion.

Reference

What I can actually do.

Architecture & Strategy

RevOps · MarTech & CRM systems design · Lifecycle strategy (Acquisition → Onboarding → Adoption → Retention → Win‑back) · GTM strategy · Omnichannel orchestration (Email, WhatsApp, In‑app, Push, SMS, Chat) · Budget forecasting · P&L‑focused CRM · B2B and B2C contexts.

Data & Experimentation

SQL (BigQuery, Snowflake, Hive) · Funnel & cohort analytics · LTV / CLV / attribution · Data quality & enrichment · Experiment design (A/B/n, holdouts, incrementality, MDE, guardrails) · Reporting (Looker, Tableau, Amplitude, Mixpanel).

Platforms

SFMC (deep) · Braze (deep) · Customer.io (deep) · Iterable · Klaviyo · HubSpot · Segment (deep) · Corezoid (advanced) · n8n · Zapier · APIs / Webhooks.

Technical

HTML / CSS · Responsive email · AMPscript · Liquid · JavaScript · Litmus QA · Jira governance · Git basics · dbt (working knowledge).

AI / LLM

LLM personalization in production · Prompt engineering at scale · LLM‑powered content engines · LLM agents in CRM workflows · OpenAI / Anthropic / open‑source model selection.

Ways of working

Cross‑functional leadership (Product, Engineering, Ops) · Stakeholder management · Playbook development · Structured thinking & complexity reduction · Mentoring · Clear technical writing (MECE, BSP).

Education

  • M.S. Business Economics, with Honors · Dnipro University of Technology
  • Computer Science / AI coursework · Harvard University (CS50, AI track)

Want to know how this applies to your stack?

Book a 30-min fit call o.kyryllov@icloud.com

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