Sam EckmanRésumé

One story.
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I bring teams together to solve complex problems and turn ideas into results.

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Sam Eckman.

Product leadership & operations

I bring teams together to solve complex problems and turn ideas into results.

At Nike, I help deliver planning tools and capabilities for teams around the world. Previously, I pioneered automation capabilities at Best Buy, leading the development of enterprise solutions for its call center, supply chain, and finance teams.

Senior Global Planning Capabilities Manager, Nike
Founder, Suleo Labs · Portland, Oregon

$30M+

Recurring annual value I helped realize
Nike · Supply Planning feature priorities

$20M+

Value across projects I led
Best Buy · enterprise automation

$10M

Worth of product able to reach the marketplace
Nike · fixes for unplanned product issues

50+

Point improvement in user Net Promoter Score
Nike · Supply & Inventory Planning

40,000+

Manual hours saved through automation I led
Best Buy · reships & chargebacks

37

Subject-matter experts across 9 business functions I partnered with
Nike · ATLAS, current role

Selected projects.

What we built, my part in it,
and what changed.

BEST BUY Reships & carrier recoveryAutomating replacements for lost packages.Connecting customer replacements with automated carrier claims.$10Mrecouped in the first year live30,000+manual hours savedRead case study

Product Manager, Automation Capabilities

November 2019–July 2021

Why we built it

When a package went missing, the customer needed a replacement and Best Buy needed to recover the agreed refund from the delivery carrier. Call center agents had to gather and consolidate the shipment data, then submit claims through carrier websites. The manual process made recovering those payouts difficult and time-consuming.

My part

I led the project, focusing on priorities and delivery. Our team connected lost-package tracking and replacement shipments with carrier recovery, building primarily for UPS, FedEx, USPS, and OnTrac. Each carrier had its own agreed refund amount and submission process.

How the automation worked

We used robotic process automation (RPA) to take on the data collection and submission work agents had been doing manually. Software robots fetched the required information, consolidated it, and submitted claims through the carrier websites so Best Buy could recover the payouts.

After launch

The workflow recovered carrier refunds while removing thousands of hours of manual data preparation and submission. We expected recovery value to grow as order and shipment volumes increased and more lost-package cases moved through the system.

BEST BUY Chargeback automationGathering evidence to contest chargebacks.Helping protect Best Buy from fraudulent disputes through automated evidence gathering.$7M+in annual value10,000+manual hours savedRead case study

Product Manager, Automation Capabilities

November 2019–July 2021

Why we built it

When a customer disputed a charge, a back-office team had to verify the sale, the condition in which the product was sold, and whether the package had been delivered. Banks and credit card companies required sales and delivery records to be submitted through their portals, often followed by more exchanges to determine whether the chargeback was valid.

My part

I led the project. Our team built an automated workflow to gather the sales and delivery data needed to contest disputes and prepare it for submission to banks and credit card companies.

Protecting against fraud

The goal was to help Best Buy challenge fraudulent chargebacks with evidence and avoid losing money on valid sales. Automating the manual verification and evidence-gathering work gave the team the information it needed for the dispute process; the final decision still involved Best Buy and the financial institution.

With the product in place

We expected its annual value to grow as the business grew and more chargebacks moved through the workflow.

NIKE Enterprise planningModernizing a critical planning system with ATLAS.Replacing an outdated, unsupported system used to manage Nike’s Supply Engine.339+defects resolved across testing cycles500+direct users expected at launchRead case study

Senior Global Planning Capabilities Manager

October 2025–Present

Why the change matters

The current system is outdated and no longer supported by its vendor, yet it remains critical to Supply Planning. Planners use it to change the settings that guide Nike’s Supply Engine, including lead times, timing offsets, factory controls, and other planning parameters.

Those changes affect more than Supply Planning. Sourcing, regional planning, and Demand Planning teams also depend on the resulting plans. Replacing this system is a substantial body of work with consequences across the planning process.

My part

I led all discovery work: more than three months of workshops with our cross-functional teams. I worked closely with technology teams on discovery and process design. Ownership of ATLAS was shared across teams.

I also led user acceptance testing and end-to-end testing. I partnered with 37 subject-matter experts across 9 business functions to validate critical planning workflows, supported validation of 54+ application screens, and contributed to resolving 339+ defects across testing cycles.

To prepare the business, I developed 30+ training assets, designed train-the-trainer programs, and facilitated 6 business sign-off sessions. I partnered with the adoption and change management owners and shared responsibility for communications.

What ATLAS is intended to improve

The new system is designed to give planners a faster, more reliable experience with a modern interface. ATLAS is also part of Nike’s broader planning modernization, which targets consolidating 70+ legacy tools and retiring 35+ databases, and affects 10,000+ spreadsheets.

After launch

I’ll own the adoption and success metrics to assess how well ATLAS delivers those improvements for planners.

The Best Buy projects above are included in the $20M+ total.

Suleo Labs.

Outside my Nike role, I’m building Suleo Labs to help artist teams decide where to tour.

Sam smiling on a boat at sunset

Outside work.

I grew up in Southeast Asia, played soccer through college, and still make time for travel, camping, and sports.

Get in touch.

If my experience fits what you’re hiring for, I’d be glad to talk.

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College

2013–2017

Business studies at Wheaton and Crown, with soccer throughout college.

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