# Zoltán Petres, PhD: Product Executive

> Zoltán Petres, PhD: product executive with 15+ years scaling marketplaces and AI-native platforms (Bolt Delivery, OLX, trivago, CEEZER). Available for CPO roles, interim and fractional mandates, advisory, coaching and talks.

**Availability:** Selecting my next CPO role · limited advisory capacity.
**Contact:** petres@gmail.com · https://www.linkedin.com/in/petres · book a call at https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/contact

## Selected outcomes

- €1.5B+ GMV run-rate taken to full profitability (Bolt Delivery)
- 30% lower unit operational cost with production ML (Bolt Delivery)
- 200M+ monthly active users on the platform led (OLX Europe)
- 400M+ recommendations served daily (Gravity R&D)

## Career

- **2026 · CEEZER, SVP of Product.** Repositioned a climate-procurement platform as an AI-native, tech-enabled services business. [Case study](https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/work/ceezer)
- **2022 to 2025 · Bolt, Vertical CPO, Bolt Delivery.** Took a three-sided food and grocery marketplace to full profitability at €1.5B+ GMV. [Case study](https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/work/bolt)
- **2019 to 2022 · OLX, Director of Product, Core Classified Experience (EU).** Called the classifieds decline early and moved the platform to transactions. [Case study](https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/work/olx)
- **2016 to 2019 · trivago, Head of Product, Hotel Search → Global Product Lead, User Profiling.** Built trivago’s first production personalization stack from zero in six months. [Case study](https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/work/trivago)
- **2014 to 2016 · liligo.com, Head of Metasearch Product.** Turned around a metasearch product to 80 to 120% year-over-year growth. [Case study](https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/work/liligo)
- **2009 to 2014 · Gravity R&D, VP Product & Strategic Business Development.** Took a research spin-off into the global top three in recommendation engines. [Case study](https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/work/gravity)
- **2004 to 2009 · Research & Ventures, Researcher, Project Lead, Investment Analyst.** Where it started: AI, robotics and building the investment case for a start-up. [Case study](https://zoltan.peaktopeak.hu/work/foundations)

## Operating principles

- **One filter for every investment.** Strategic differentiation for sustainable growth, and the shortest path to profitability. At Bolt Delivery that meant holding R&D to a 3x+ return bar.
- **Stop well-liked things.** Protecting unit economics and commercial focus sometimes means ending the projects people are proudest of. I have done it, and explained why.
- **AI in production, not in decks.** Generative menu building and a key-account agent for merchants, dispatch and forecasting models for couriers. Judged by cost-to-serve, not by demos.
- **Product speaks the language of the P&L.** Revenue per FTE as the organizing metric, roadmap investment tied to unit economics, product metrics connected to trading volume.
- **Leaders are measured by the leaders they grow.** Rated top of scale on coaching and development. PM career frameworks built and actually used, and handovers left complete.

## Education

- PhD, Computer Science & IT: University of Tokyo / Budapest University of Technology and Economics (2007, summa cum laude)
- MSc, Business Administration: Corvinus University of Budapest (2009)
- MSc, Computer Science & IT: Budapest University of Technology and Economics (2004, summa cum laude)

Languages: Hungarian (native), English (fluent), German (intermediate).