Experience

DIRECTOR - PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Yahoo!, Inc. - Sunnyvale, California
2003 - Present

Lead a team of highly-skilled and talented professionals to drive the creation and evolution of Community experiences across the Yahoo! network worldwide.

• Introduced Ratings and Reviews services to .com and int'l verticals to help users identify quality content, foster a sense of community, and build engagement and retention to the Yahoo! brand. Examples include: Yahoo! Local and Yahoo! Australia Movies
• Evolved the Yahoo! Groups business model, introducing targeted text advertising, removing invasive graphical ads, and launching a redesign to bring the service in line with the updated look and feel of the Yahoo! Network.
• Completely redesigned and rearchitected the Yahoo! Message Boards infrastructure, launching successful in-context communities and implementing more powerful knowledge exchange through 1) True Threading and 2) Community Moderation (ratings and filters). Examples include Yahoo! Avatars Message Boards and Yahoo! Anti-Spy Message Boards

As a co-founder of this Technology Solutions Provider, hold responsibility for product management, IT, financial management, technical sales support, and client relations.

• Architected and developed core software architecture and a set of proprietary, reusable components that provide a broad range of capabilities. Core architecture supports rapid development of robust client and corporate software solutions. Software components include: flexible, easy-to-use content management system; advanced ecommerce engine (product catalog, shopping cart, checkout, and order/inventory management); a full range of online community services; and job posting/human resources management.
• Bootstrapped company from a two-person website development firm into a cash-flow-positive, debt-free, award-winning, seven-person technology solutions provider in less than one year. Creation Chamber is now a Macromedia Alliance Partner, signifying the highest levels of expertise in development and management of ColdFusion, Flash, and Director technology.
• Provided technical sales support and consulted with clients to ensure that Creation Chamber solutions achieved client goals, utilized extensible architectures to anticipate changing needs, and delivered a strong ROI to clients' businesses.
• Planned and implemented parallel production and development environments, managing all aspects of server configuration, uptime and availability, and enterprise-level backup systems.
• Delivered world-class technology solutions for a broad range of customers, including Echostar, New World Restaurant Group (parent company of Einstein Bros Bagels and Noah's Bagels), Downtowndever.com, Signal Graphics franchisor SAMPA corp., Pumpkin Masters, Pikes Peak Community College, Dining Out magazine, and the Children's Museum of Denver.

As a member of the senior management team for this online automotive purchasing and research service, held oversight responsibility for all product lines in the DriveOff.com network (DriveOff.com website and strategic licensing partnerships, CarMiles airline miles auto program, Mature Advantage/AARP referral service, CarWizard.com, and LeaseSource.com). Was directly responsible for all customer-facing product management, call center product development, and strategic business development.

• Coordinated with President and Senior Management Team to prepare due diligence for acquisition by Microsoft Carpoint. DriveOff acquisition was completed on September 29, 2000. Served on Carpoint-DriveOff transition team. Supported technology and program integration across both companies.
• Spearheaded site, technology, and program improvements to DriveOff.com that resulted in 8X increase in customer deposits and contributed to 5X overall increase in vehicle sales. Developed plan to double these achievements in Q1 2001.
• Held responsibility for development of all Call Center technologies, including negotiating relationships and directing product development with Remedy, eGain, and internal solutions team.
• Served as strategic and technical liaison to senior-level executives with DriveOff's partners and prospective partners, which included Wells Fargo, Costco, USAA, AARP, and Hearst Publications.
• Approved and managed critical re-architecture of the DriveOff.com infrastructure. Ensured that strategic business needs were met while overhauling entire platform. Transition resulted in stable, highly-scaleable architecture that achieved 100% uptime since launch in Q4 2000.

Held responsibility for all product management and feature development, including E-commerce, personalization, and product technology, for this online greetings and gifts provider. Reported directly to CEO and served on twelve-person Executive Staff.

• Coordinated with CEO, CFO, Senior Staff, Board of Directors, Investment Bankers, and Legal Counsel to prepare S-1, prospectus, and road show for successful initial public offering. Egreetings went public on December 17, 1999.
• Managed a team of twenty product management, project management, and HTML-production professionals.
• Proposed and implemented new E-commerce strategy and partnerships, technology re-architecture features and timeline, and corporate reorganization.
• Supervised development of groundbreaking E-commerce strategy and partnerships. Developed E-commerce efforts from limited, arms-length partnerships into deep integration with Escalate, a full-service E-commerce provider. Partnership allowed Egreetings to recognize top-line revenue on gift sales and provided a foundation for lucrative sponsorships and advertising partnerships.
• Spearheaded product development initiatives to achieve traffic, registration, and customer-retention goals. New products included revamped navigation and personalization for core service, "My Favorites" personal memory features, and user-uploaded photo greetings.

PRODUCT MANAGER - EXCITE COMMUNITIES
Assumed responsibility for coordinating the launch of Throw, Inc.'s advanced communities technology on Excite. Throw represented a $20 Million acquisition for Excite.

• Developed and managed product strategy, marketing/distribution plan, and launch schedule for integration of Throw's technology into Excite service.
• Coordinated the efforts of engineering, business development, marketing, sales, technical support, and content editors to achieve the successful public launch of Excite Communities in September 1998.
• Excite Communities achieved 70% month-to-month growth rate in Q4 1998 and received positive reviews in Newsweek, PC Magazine, New York Times Online, Internet Daily, and Internet World.

• Developed business case and supporting P&L model for the acquisition of Classifieds 2000, the web's largest classifieds provider. Presented recommendation to Board of Directors and Excite senior staff. Acquisition of Classifieds 2000 was finalized in April 1998.
• Designed and launched the Excite Autos Channel. Within four months, the channel led all competitors in reach and became the second-most-valuable advertising inventory on the Excite Service (after the Intuit/Excite Business Channel).

Directed projects in strategy, product management, and Internet/intranet systems for this privately-held music reseller. Served on the Board of Advisors.

• Identified short-, mid-, and long-range product-line expansion opportunities. Created, presented to Board of Advisors, and implemented a new corporate structure to facilitate expansion. Developed business plan supporting new, Internet-based business model.
• Coordinated efforts of hardware, software, industrial design, manufacturing, and graphic design professionals to launch and market first interactive music retail product. Developed product's financial model, negotiated supplier and customer contracts, and launched product on time and on budget.

As a member of an eight-person start-up team, opened Birmingham, Alabama office for this outplacement-consulting firm.

• Supervised the research and development of client strategies and managed the implementation of all client campaigns. Trained and managed all consultants. Designed training curriculum, guidebook, and output review systems, dramatically improving consultant effectiveness.
• Initiated and created first annual budget and implemented strategies which reduced overhead expenses by 50%. Budget and strategies presented direction for sustaining growth and achieving solid profitability within second year of operation.

Education

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS - Stanford, California
MBA, June 1997

• Arjay Miller Scholar (top 10% of class)
• Member of the GSB High Tech Club
• Producer of the Student Talent Show
• Volunteer tutor for first year students
• Elected to the Career Management Center Committee

• Pre-IPO Business Plan for CDnow, a leading Internet music retailer
• Strategic Brand Analysis for Excite, a leading Internet portal

• 1st in class of the College of Music
• Dean's List all semesters
• National Merit Scholar
• Founder/Instructor School of Electronic Music
• Music Awards: Fiske Performance Award in saxophone and James M. Grossi Composition Award for electronic music
• Penney Prize Award in writing

Additional Information / Accomplishments

• First Degree Black Belt and instructor in TaeKwondo; registered with both the ATF and WTF
• Featured speaker: "Creating Stickiness in your Content to Drive Traffic to your Site" at IQPC's Web Site Content Management Summit, September 2000 in San Francisco, California
• Consulted with eBay prior to IPO on co-branding and distribution strategies
• Adept at front-to-back web development, including database design, ColdFusion, PHP, Active Server Pages, XML, HTML
• Expert in business-case modeling in MS Excel