01
Enterprise Strategy & Value Creation
Strategic planning, portfolio priorities, business evaluation, scenario thinking, growth opportunities, executive decision support and strategy-to-action roadmaps.
Executive & Senior Leadership · Atlanta · Global
Johnathan Barhite
Complex work. Clear operating leadership.
I lead where strategy, story and execution have to meet — shaping customer and brand experiences from guest journey and physical environment through technology, fabrication, opening and operations, while building the teams, systems and commercial discipline that make them work at scale.
Customer / Brand / Physical ExperiencesEnterprise Strategy / Transformation / PMOOperations / Procurement / Capital Programs
01 — Executive Profile
Experience, operations and transformation leader with 25+ years leading businesses, teams, transformations and complex customer-facing portfolios across global brands, agencies, regulated programs, permanent environments and civic systems. I work at the intersection of strategy, story, people, technology and execution — shaping customer journeys and physical experiences, setting direction, building teams and operating models, aligning partners, making financial tradeoffs and staying close enough to implementation to know what will work.
02 — What Makes This Different
Leadership that stays close enough to the work.
My career has crossed brand-side, agency, independent, federally governed and civic environments — working across strategy, creative and customer experience, finance, operations, procurement, technology, facilities, risk and complex delivery.
I am comfortable defining the experience at the front end and protecting it through reality: guest journey, spatial flow, interaction, design intent, technology, fabrication, installation, operating handoff and the commercial decisions that determine whether the idea survives.
I lead with clarity, curiosity and accountability. The job is to set direction, make the hard tradeoffs, give specialists room to do great work and build an operating system that makes strong execution repeatable.
The strongest experiences are memorable for the guest and executable for the team that has to run them.
03 — Enterprise Leadership Range
02
Customer, Brand & Physical Experience
Experience strategy, guest journey, branded and built environments, interactive touchpoints, partnerships, commercial models and cross-functional market execution.
03
Operations, PMO & Transformation
Operating models, PMO governance, resource plans, process improvement, change management, multi-market scaling, performance systems and complex program recovery.
04
Commercial, Procurement & Financial Discipline
Business cases, budgets, forecasting, pricing, strategic sourcing, RFPs, SOWs, supplier governance, contracts, cost intelligence and value tradeoffs.
05
People & Multidisciplinary Leadership
Team building, talent development, creative and technical collaboration, staffing models, accountability, cross-functional influence and clear executive communications during growth and change.
06
Technology, Risk & Implementation
Interactive and experiential technology, AI-enabled workflows, dashboards and KPIs, capital/built environments, fabrication and installation, safety, compliance, crisis leadership and field execution.
04 — Where I Create Value
FTE
Enterprise & Functional Leadership
Lead a business, function, portfolio, transformation or complex enterprise initiative with responsibility for strategy, people, budgets, operating cadence, stakeholders, performance and execution.
Experience
Customer, Brand & Physical Experiences
Translate brand, IP and business objectives into guest journeys and physical experiences, then align creative, design, technical, fabrication, operator and commercial teams through opening.
Strategy
Enterprise Strategy & Transformation
Evaluate opportunities, build roadmaps and business cases, align leadership, design operating models and translate strategic priorities into measurable implementation.
Operations
Operations, PMO & Procurement
Scale complex delivery through governance, resource planning, sourcing, supplier strategy, financial discipline, risk controls, dashboards and continuous improvement.
Flexible
Fractional / Advisory / Complex Programs
Step into high-stakes work quickly: transformation, operating-model design, program recovery, capital/experience initiatives, senior production leadership or strategic implementation.
05 — Scale & Proof
$128M
Federally governed national campaign
3 pilot markets → 38 markets
$12M → $34M
Shared-services capability growth
~$22M incremental account growth
44 countries
Global operating and implementation reach
Brand-side teams + supplier ecosystems
$138M
Annual global Mattel portfolio
Brand experiences · showrooms · retail construction
25+ years
Experience from concept through operations
Brands · attractions · retail · live events · permanent
Global Portfolio & Capability Leadership
At Mattel, led an approximately $138M annual global portfolio spanning brand experiences, permanent showrooms, retail construction and international implementation while creating and growing internal capabilities and shifting significant work from an AOR/agency-led model into a more integrated in-house approach.
Experience-to-Operations Fluency
Career work spans branded environments, location-based and themed entertainment, interactive experiences, live events, product launches and permanent guest environments — from idea and journey through design partners, fabrication, opening and operator handoff.
Transformation Proof
Repeatedly built systems that scale — expanding markets, teams, capabilities and global delivery while adding governance, measurement, commercial discipline and accountability.
06 — Representative Brands & Organizations
Barbie / MattelPorscheCoca-ColaDisney
Macy's Thanksgiving Day ParadeGulfstreamMercedes-BenzBMWGeneral MotorsRivianHoneywellHot WheelsUniversal StudiosSonyPetersen Automotive MuseumFAO SchwarzOakleyDFS Duty Free
07 — Civic & Public Leadership
Public decisions are operating decisions, too.
Atlanta civic leadership includes service since 2012 with City of Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Unit W, including past Chair, and service since 2016 with Invest Atlanta’s Eastside Tax Allocation District advisory body.
That work adds practical exposure to redevelopment, land use, transportation, public investment, community engagement and government decision processes — alongside experience leading a $128M federally governed national program with audit, compliance and reporting requirements.
08 — Connect
Building an experience, a business capability — or changing how it operates?
Open to executive, director and senior leadership roles across customer and brand experience, operations, enterprise strategy, partnerships, transformation, PMO, procurement, capital programs and complex implementation — plus selective fractional, advisory and high-stakes program engagements. Based in Atlanta; available globally.
Email Reveal address
johnathan@johnathanbarhite.comPrivacy by design: this site loads no client-side analytics, advertising pixels, tracking cookies, local storage, fingerprinting or embedded social widgets.