Suhail Pothigara

Webit Speaker, Head of consumer mobile development for Macy’s Inc. and Bloomingdales

Suhail Pothigara is a recognized expert in mobile technology and digital product strategy. He currently heads up consumer mobile development for Macy’s Inc. and Bloomingdales since 2011. In this capacity, He leads technical teams in innovation and execution of flagship m-commerce native and web apps. These apps generate over $20MM+ in revenue and have over 1MM+ downloads and are ranked in the top 50 and top 10 on the Apple and Google markets respectively. He has been instrumental for Macy’s success in the mobile marketing space with augmented reality, geo-fencing and scanning initiatives. He spearheads innovation pilots to create new ways for the customer to engage with the Macy’s and Bloomingdales brands in-store and on the go.

Prior to Macy’s, Pothigara started and led the mobile marketing program at Allstate Insurance. In that role, he directed design and technology teams of up to 50 people and coordinated with five creative agencies and two overseas IT teams. He managed Allstate mobile applications across three platforms and grew usage 120% over a six-month period. He managed a $7MM+ budget and administered full-scale projects in support of all mobile marketing programs for mobile applications, mobile websites, SMS, and other emerging mobile capabilities. As an inventor of a patent pending mobility sales solution, he evangelized innovation within the company and helped in the creation of an innovation framework which helped solved complex business problems from claims via mobile devices to insuring driverless cars in the future.

Pothigara previously has played roles in e-commerce execution such as analyst, designer and project manager. His experience spans numerous industries such as sports analytics, corporate travel, non-profit and education. He is a certified Product manager and has a B.S. in Management Information Systems and finance from DePaul University.

He was raised in Dubai, UAE and speaks a number of Asian languages. After moving to Chicago in 2004, he has recently made San Francisco his new home and lives there with his wife and son. He loves the outdoors, reading non-fiction and riding his motorcycle on scenic routes.