Episode 383: Kitric Kerns

Million Dollar Decorating

Kitric Kerns is the President of Design Trade Service (DTS), an e-commerce website for professional Interior Designers focused on sourcing furniture and home furnishing products from industry leading manufacturers at better than typical to-the-trade pricing. Prior to DTS, Kitric was President of Kerns Consulting, LLC where he focuses on identifying opportunities of improvement for digital businesses of any type and size. Kerns Consulting advises and consults for digital organizations in need of improving and accelerating how they work. Clients included The Recording Academy (The Grammys), Madison Logic, Alcon and others. Kitric was previously at CNN Worldwide, where he most recently led an internal consulting team that identified improvement opportunities that positively impacted the bottom line. Prior, Kitric led Digital Product Development and Operations at CNN Digital where he was instrumental in unifying 5 product streams into a single vision while improving digital product development processes, execution measurement and maximizing consumer experience across all platforms that drive a combined 150 million daily unique visits leading to tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue. Kitric has over 20 years of experience in the technology field that began in San Francisco working with Velocity software where he produced the first network compatible multi-player game for the Macintosh - Spectre in 1992. He produced a number of software titles for Velocity which eventually led him to produce children’s software and hardware for Wonder Tools, a join venture between Compaq Computer and Fisher Price and then on to Lightspeed Interactive, an interactive agency in Mountain View, California where he oversaw operations while ensuring the successful delivery of numerous digital solutions for the likes of Oracle, Cisco Systems, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and more. By 1998 the Internet boom led Kitric to Bank of America where he managed BankofAmerica.com during the NationsBank merger transition and then on to Listen.com (eventually becoming Rhapsody) where he oversaw the successful launch of the business and strategic executions with key partners such as Yahoo, Lycos, AOL and Sony Music. After the Internet bubble burst in 2001 Kitric took an extended sabbatical where he worked in Grand Cayman as a scuba diving instructor and boat for Don Foster’s Dive and then as a snowboarding instructor at Snow Summit in Big Bear, California. With the sabbatical in his rearview mirror Kitric picked up where he left off and took a job at The Walt Disney Company, first in their Parks & Resorts Online division leading key technological development efforts and eventually transferring to ABC Daytime /SOAPnet where he built high performing product and technology development teams to re-launch SOAPnet.com as a new entertainment destination and new digital sites for ABC Daytime and The View. Later Kitric relocated to Atlanta where he led digital efforts at Cartoon Network and eventually moved on to CNN Digital. Kitric earned a BA in Communications and English Literature from Flagler College and was awarded the ABC Cable Network’s Digital Media Award for Leadership Excellence 2008. Kitric continues to reside in Atlanta with his wife and young daughter – deeply enjoying the food and music of the south as well as SEC football. Visit Design Trade Services Website here