Spire Associates

Principals

Wiebke "Veep-kah" Liu, Managing Director, San Francisco

Wiebke is a McKinsey-trained strategist who brings to Spire over 10 years’ experience in strategy, sales and marketing. She has direct experience with key vertical markets like high-tech, telecom, financial services, health care, hospitality and retail.

Wiebke’s expertise in implementing sophisticated marketing programs is in demand by leading global executives. She is particularly recognized for her abilities to identify core issues, to articulate and implement well-defined strategies and to inspire and motivate marketing teams.

At McKinsey & Company, Wiebke conducted industry analyses and established strategic roadmaps for Fortune 500 clients. She facilitated client strategy workshops and developed implementation plans. She also did primary research for the best selling book Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules (Harvard Business Press).

Most recently, Wiebke was director of strategic accounts for Digital Impact. There, she created e-marketing strategies and implementations for clients that included Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, SBC, Siebel and Target.

Alina Sanchez, Managing Director, Los Angeles

Alina brings to Spire 14 years of strategy, marketing and sales experience with companies that include AT&T, IBM, Microsoft, SBC, Sony, Verizon and Yahoo!

Most recently, Alina was a strategy consultant for Digital Impact, where she led marketing and analytics initiatives for Fortune 500 companies. She quickly established a reputation for generating dramatic results such as 10x increases in list growth and triple digit returns on investment (ROI). Alina continues to be a strong advocate of “customer experience marketing,” the science of using actual customer experiences to drive sales and revenue.

Prior to Digital Impact, Alina spent 11 years in a broad range of marketing and sales positions at AT&T and Verizon. She headed up Verizon’s Small Business Long Distance Marketing Acquisition unit, a $300 million division where she led the development and launch of products, promotions and partnerships. Under her marketing leadership, Verizon became the #2 provider in local markets – ahead of MCI and Sprint.