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Mary Poulakis
Joint MD of Harrolds Luxury Retail stores in Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast. Passionate advocate for retail and businesswomen.
Professional Background
Mary Poulakis has established herself as a formidable and influential figure in the Melbourne business landscape over the last 25 years. Her extensive career is highlighted by her role as owner of Harrolds, a prestigious destination for luxury fashion that attracts global attention and showcases exquisite Australian designers. Her leadership at Harrolds has not only made the store a hallmark of elegance but has also affirmed Melbourne’s standing as an international retail hotspot.
In addition to her impressive work in luxury retail, Mary has held several high-profile roles dedicated to enhancing the vibrancy of the City of Melbourne. From 2002 to 2010, she served as the President of the Collins Street Precinct Group (CSPG), where she championed various initiatives aimed at bolstering the local retail community. Furthermore, Mary was the Deputy Chair of the Melbourne Retail Hospitality Advisory Board and held a position as a Board Member of the Australian Retailers Association, further underscoring her commitment to supporting Melbourne’s economic growth and cultural richness.
As a candidate in the upcoming Melbourne City Council elections in October 2020, Mary is driven by a passion for effecting positive change within the community. She strives to be the voice that represents the diverse needs of Melbourne’s small businesses, particularly within the retail and hospitality sectors. Mary's campaign is centered around her mantra of "Your Melbourne Team Getting It Done" alongside her colleague, Fiona Sweetman.
Education and Achievements
Mary's educational foundation was laid at St Monica's College, where she engaged in her Higher School Certificate (HSC). While specific details about her education may be limited, the skills and insights she accrued during her time at St Monica's have undoubtedly influenced her business acumen and community-focused approach.
Throughout her career, Mary has achieved significant recognition as a leader and advocate for Melbourne’s businesses. Her presidency of the Collins Street Precinct Group is a notable achievement that highlights her dedication to the city's retail sector, fostering collaboration and driving initiatives that benefit local entrepreneurs.
Achievements
One of Mary’s most remarkable accomplishments is her role in establishing Harrolds as a luxury retail destination. By attracting international buyers and attention to Australian designers, she has effectively contributed to placing Melbourne on the global retail map. Mary's strategic approach towards business growth, combined with her commitment to ethical and sustainable practices, has paved the way for continued success within the fashion industry.
Mary’s vision for Melbourne includes developing a comprehensive “Brand Melbourne” strategy aimed at revitalizing the Central Business District (CBD) and restoring its status as an economic powerhouse. Her emphasis on innovation and adaptability in developing new experiences demonstrates her willingness to meet the evolving needs of the community.
Mary appreciates the unique charm and multicultural makeup of Melbourne, and this understanding significantly informs her goals for the city. As she aspires to breathe life back into its precincts and historic landmarks, her experiences managing a successful business while maintaining family connections uniquely equip her with a comprehensive perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing Melbourne.
Mary Poulakis’s journey exemplifies dedication, passion for Melbourne, and an unwavering commitment to create a thriving community for everyone. Her understanding of the intricate balance between business growth and civic responsibility positions her as an invaluable asset for the City of Melbourne.
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Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.