| ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE; machine learning |
Since 2021 I have been working on artificial intelligence projects
with emphasis on machine learning; specifically, on spech and language
recognition, analysis and interpretation, AI search, and data solutions.
For the most part, my work involves collecting raw data and creating
metadata tables used for human intelligence, speech recognition and
machine learning algorithms which are needed in order to get validated
trained datasets used in the development of new AI technologies.
One aspect of my work is to moderate studies which assesses the human
interaction patterns with virtual assistants. As part of this, and as
dictated by each project, I also create and manage targeted web/print
ad campaigns and email lists which are used to identify, contact and
invite selected audiences to participate in AI-specific projects and studies.
With a diverse network of over one million data contributors, scientists,
and engineers, DataForce
(a TransPerfect company) is a worldwide data collection, labeling and
artificial intelligence data gathering platform that allows users to
design and manage simple and complex data structuring and categorization
of audio, image, video annotation, and transcription for customer experiences.
| PUBLISHING & ADVERTISING; newsprint |
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Newspaper and Business Directory
My career in the publishing industry began in 1989 in Edmonton, Canada where,
as a special projects manager, I spent my first ten years working for a large
weekly newspaper and two annual business directories.
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During that time I held a number of concurrent positions among which were
page composition designer and editor and, eventually, settling on managing the
development of special projects, all of which focused on the transition to new
production configurations, content management systems and digital publishing
platforms. As part of that, for eight years, I coordinated the activities of
multiple cross-functional and geographically-dispersed (USA, Canada, UK, Germany,
The Netherlands) teams of highly-specialized consultants and developers assigned
to these projects.
One such project was to
reconfigure the transition from manual composition to a fully electronic layout
platform. This project was divided into two components and lasted for five
years. During that time I managed the development of a fully electronic
pagination system which used Quark XPress and
Photoshop as the main hosting platforms. The
project's objective was to import raw data from a number of unrelated databases
into a custom-built relational database from where the reformatted information
was later fed to both the pre-press pagination systemand the content management
system used to deploy its content and the ads online
simultaneously (see full project description and case study).
The second module of this project
was to write a series of digital image processing routines that would instruct
Photoshop to automatically import raw images, process them [as in adjust
brightness/clarity, resample the images, crop them to the pre-specified
dimensions of a grid, format them as both four high-res CMYK color JPG (for the
printed newspaper) as well as their low res RGB JPG counterparts for the online
version; the cycle will end with naming each photo and saving it in the
appropriate sales person's/ad folder]. This is part of the project where I have
also done most of the actual script development. I would like to stress the
fact that other than selecting and initiating the right routine, there was no
human intervention in the process. When completed and installed in the
pagination room this fully digital image processing "mechanism" would prepare
about 400 images an hour, per configured computer. Each computer had a
different configuration which was dedicated to a specific ad type: classifieds,
real estate, autos, display ads, etc.).
Since 1990 I have been managing small and large projects which
required both the allocation of budgets and resourceas as well
as the coordination of the workflow of highly-specialized,
cross-functional and (often) geographically-dispersed teams of
contractors in the following industries:
PUBLISHING and ADVERTISING
DESIGN, PRINTING and WEB DEVELOPMENT
COSMETICS and PHARMACEUTICALS
FINANCES and BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
COMPUTERS and TECHNOLOGY
E-COMMERCE (LIFESTYLE PRODUCTS)
FASHION, HEALTH and BEAUTY
REAL ESTATE
ONLINE EDUCATION
This section is, actually, a note of special interest. Due to my both technical,
as well as business acumen, in almost all major career involvements, and in addition
to specific position responsibilities, I also performed direct supporting roles to
senior executives. Here are some of them:
2018 - 2020
Brown Harris Stevens, New York, NY
Executive Assistant to Broker, Client Relations Manager, Marketing Manager, Transaction Coordinator.
2016 - 2018
Corcoran Group / Halstead, New York, NY
Executive Assistant, Director of Operations and Transactions Coordinator (team/listing management).
2011 - 2016
Marbles & Marbles International, New York, NY
Director of Digital Operations and Executive Assistant
to the Editor-in-Chief & Publisher
(TWELV Fashion Magazine)
2013 - 2014
Graphis Annuals, New York, NY
Executive Assistant to the Publisher (temp/contract)
2012 - 2013
Ethis Communications, Inc., New York, NY
Project Manager / Assistant to the CEO (temp/project)
1986 - 1996
MacEwan University, Edmonton, Canada
Assistant to the Head of Library's Technical Services
1988 - 1998
Purple
Pages Publications / Trader Media Publications, Edmonton, Canada
Special Projects Manager and Assistant to the Editor.
(in 2000, these publications were absorbed by an international publisher).
(RE: 1986 - 1996. Yes, for ten years I did have two full time jobs which I loved.
During that time I worked 70-90 hours a week - until I got married...)
MacEwan University/Grant MacEwan College, Edmonton, AB, Canada (1987-1996)
As one of the first North American College to offer a dedicated computer graphics program,
as well as being one of the best Business, Public Relations and Journalism schools in Canada,
Grant MacEwan College was my employer for a period of ten years. In my roles of computer
assistant and faculty support staff, during that time I covered the operations of a number
of academic departments among which were the library and learning resources center as well
as the reference, research, computer, internet and information services. For a period of
four years I had the privilege to teach computer graphics courses for the outreach program
and administer/supervise exams in one of the first (anywhere) computer managed learning labs.
Before my ten year term contracts with the college, while employed as a part time student,
I also produced the college's international computer technologies magazine (TAC) which was
one of the first publications anywhere that was entirely composed electronically and, at the
time was being distributed in sixteen countries. Sorry, there was no commercial access to the
internet and no PDFs at that time, so we had to actually mail it everywhere... However, I still
have some of its amazing (and I, guess) historical-value hard copies.
This section is not about
any one single project. It's about what I do when working on, pretty
much, all projects.
Content Modeling is a strategic combination
of art and science. Content modeling is the ability
to present your content, or your business message in an
elegant, strategic,
and machine-readable format.
Elegant - the content has to be presented
to your audience, to those who consume, or absorb your message, in an
elegant, pleasant visual format. Your specific mission is to attract,
impress and convert your audience into loyal followers, buyers
or clients. And, the first impression your content makes is always a
visual one and, more often than not... crucial.
Strategic - because your content has
to comply with, reflect your overall business goals, its strategy, its
proposed sales target, as well as the long term proposal to achieve and
sustain a high level of performance.
Machine-readable - because, ultimately,
the content you create along with its attached, or imbedded intended
purpose (i.e., editorial substance, ad performance, etc.) are
executed by machines (computers), ad management systems, etc. that
interpret your instructions as a marketer (i.e. content optimization)
in order to achieve a proposed performance such as conversion rates, social
media popularity, etc.
Building a business presence
on social media is a demanding and intensive endeavor. So, before branding
your business there, try to understand these pointers.
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| PUBLISHING; fashion magazine, books; print/digital |
Front Page New York
In 2018 when I decided it was time to bring
all my major publishing projects under one portfolio, I created Padronius Digital Properties.
FrontPage.NYC is
a New York City focused digital magazine. Its mission is
to let the world know about all the wonderful things this great city of ours has to offer.
FrontPage.NYC and
FrontPageNewYork.com
are part of that portfolio and the second of three publications I created, fully financed
and managed in thirty years.
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TWELVny.com
is a made in New York City fashion, culture and lifestyles magazine
which (in 2011) I helped to create and launch together with styling
and editorial talents formerly nurtured at Condé Nast, Vogue
Italia and Paris Vogue.
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For almost seven years,
as Director of Digital Operations and Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief,
I was involved in every aspect of the magazine's print and digital
production, publishing, marketing and distribution cycles, as well as
its online advertising strategies and content modeling for its social
media channels. My contribution here these days is to monitor its
digital publishing accounts (hosting platforms, email servers, domain
names & registrations, etc.), and some of the creation and deployment
of its HTML email campaigns and monthly fashion stories.
Click here
to see the printed
version of the magazine's Fall/Winter
2012 issue looked like. Or, go to TWELV'S current online issue.
FASHION STORIES
While this is not the only magazine I worked on, it is the one I love the most.
BOOKS
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Stephanie's
Home Beauty Salon is a book which I researched, co-authored,
edited, designed and first published in Canada in 1996, then its
revised, second edition in the USA in 2008. It's a book on self
improvement - in essence, a collection of recipes on how to make
your own anti aging creams from organic products.
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I don't have time
to manage this book anymore but, at its (sales) pick, it bacame
known as "the little book that everyone wants"). The book
is still available so, if this is your thing, you may want to
check it out. You can get it in both print and digital formats
for all you reading devices from
Amazon.com (paperback/Kindle)
Apple Books (iPhone/iPad),
Barnes
& Noble (digital), as well as from over 4,000 independent
online book stores (you will find it when you search for it by its
title, or by my name).
Just as with magazines, this is not the only book I produced, but
it is the one closest to my ❤
and in which, over many years, I invested significant resources in
order to produce and market it through a number of e-commerce channels
and publishing platforms.
Real estate industry is an active
provider of advertising content. My interest in taking projects in real estate
is based on the fact that I love nurturing client relations and creating and
managing workflow processes and digital ad content; in this context - listings
and industry-specific technical services.
Since 2018 I have been (prodly) an active part of
Brown
Harris Stevens as a Marketing and Client Relations Manager and Transaction
Coordinator for a top producing team of twelve real estate brokers and agents
for whom I have been coordinating the flow of transactional documents, created
advertising content, and managed their listings' marketing campaigns.
The Corcoran Group, New York, NY.
As a Transaction
Coordinator and Director of Operations, my project's objective was to create and
organize the workflow of processing real estate transactions, and to model (industry-specific)
content in order to establish visible digital footprints on social media. In order to
reach the end goal, I coordinating the in-house operations of one of the agency'e top
producing associate brokers specializing in the luxury and investment properties in
New York City, London and South France. With an additional office in London, and someone
who belongs to the elite top 1% producers in the world, this broker has also entrusted
me with coordinating the entire deal lifecycles (from pre-listing to closing) of their
residential, commercial and investment portfolios. As part of my assignment, I created
the broker's first digital library containing every document required for a full-cycle
transaction; (have also edited outdate contract templates, etc.; managed the website's
upgrade to a responsive grid and laid out the broker's social media landscape and online
marketing campaigns; created a new, more efficient office workflow by introducing new
software and by organizing daily routines by scope, resources and priorities.
In suporting the project I would also: repare and coordinate the broker's exclusive, agency and
referral agreements; requests for commissions and deal sheets; conduct in-depth buyer and investor;
manage buyer/seller/investor offers, contracts and flow of communications; attend meetings with
other brokers, attorneys and clients; perform property searches; oversee all special projects
targeting new business development; create real estate listings on Corcoran's intranet and monitor
their content integrity and publishing schedules on its participating aggregator websites such as
Corcoran.com, NYTimes.com, StreetEasy.com, Trulia.com, etc.; manage the team's website, blog and
social media postings; design collateral advertising and marketing materials including and print
materials; schedule and manage the activities of, and payments to external contractors: article
and blog writers, photographers, designers, architects, programmers, and junior agents.
Private-Listings.com
(Vancouver, Canada) was one of Pacific Webcard Directory's parallel digital ad service
dedicated to the by owner (FSBO) real estate market. Its revenues ware generated entirely
by display ad space which was sold to brokers, agents, lending and mortgage processors,
private consultants, insurance companies, legal services as well as to private listings
covering BC, Washington and Oregon. In addition to being involved constatntly in client
relations, here I also managed the sales of online advertising, as well as ad pricing
and placement (based on content, location, demographics and other specific pageviews
metrics. At the time, this was a very popular and profitable operation as well as every
broker's love-to-hate dream.
| BUSINESS STRENGTHS; special skills |
Extensive experience coordinating the work flow of cross-functional teams (even if geographically dispersed) that are involved in simultaneous projects and complex environments.
Ability to communicate effectively with all levels of professional groups and personality types and to motivate the people I work, or interact with.
Possess an analytical mind and a passion to use data to create and guide strategy.
Ability to break down complex information and synthesize it in clear presentation formats.
Skillful at understanding customers' business goals and interpreting them into advertising features.
Advanced layout, design and photography skills and working knowledge of MS Office Suite, Adobe's (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop), QuarkXPress;
project management (37Signals Suite/Basecamp). Ability to hand code HTML/CSS.
Proficient in writing business materials and in creating compelling advertising content:
- business presentations, reports, research papers
- advertising and marketing copy
- legal documentation: contracts, terms of service, copyrights
- web content writing, social media posts, SEO implementations
- editorials and content modeling
Proficient with Google Suite of products (Sheets, Docs, Drive, Slides, Gmail, Calendar, etc., etc.) and its ad and publishing services (Analytics, AdWords, AdSense, Google Books, etc.).
Perform well under pressure and in high-pulse, deadline-driven environments. Exceptional ability to bring under control a chaotic workplace :)
Research, reporting and negotiation skills.
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| ADVERTISING; digital ad sales |
Pacific Webcard was an online
publisher and digital ad service which modeled raw business data into
advertising content for online deployment. It also published its own
business directory, a paid-for ad service. This was a business which I
created, financed and managed for eleven years (1999-2010) before moving
to New York City. Its directory was the launching platform for its clients'
online ad campaigns. It was a paid-for ad service offering twelve business
categories (pharmaceuticals, finances and investments, real estate, technology, etc.).
The master templates for the ads were developedin many formats from hybrid
Illustrator/Photoshop files to animated GIFbanners, flash and, in some cases
just straight HTML/JAVA scripts. Photographyand photo illustrations were used
at every step. The nature of the ads were:sponsor, private, syndicated, content
targeted Google AdSense as well as somehouse and experimental ad fillers. The
supported ad types were, basicaly, all that the technology at the time permitted:
classifieds, display (landscape, box, tower, banners), static,video, flash,
animated GIFs, webcards - a rolodex-like ad card attached as (an optional popup
abstract to an already existing ad; usually, text ad). During its "prime-time"
operational mode, Pacific Webcard Directory offered a full digital ad service
for businesses falling within its categories, as well as a highly-targeted real
estate private listings ad service which covered British Columbia, Washington
State and Oregon.
As Salesforce, Operative.One, DoubleClick For Publishers or any of today's
CRM and/or programmatic platforms did not yet exist at that time, all client
management relations and digital ad planning operations were scheduled and
managed using Excel spreadsheets from where the data were reformatted and
inserted in the directory's CMS for live publishing. (This process was, in fact,
an operating standard procedure for the publishing industry at the time.)
The result of all the web marketing efforts produced a strong internet footprint
for the directory which, in return, created a profitable, fully-sustained operation.
| BIOTECH & PHARMACEUTICALS; print/digital |
In 2012-2013 I had the
opportunity to work as a project manager at Ethis Communications Inc.,
a wonderful, Wall Street-based, highly specialized advertising
agency: EthisInc.com
Ethis Communications is an advertising agency which researches, creates and publishes
clinical content exclusively for biotech and pharmaceutical companies such as Baush &
Lomb, Essilor America, NicOx, Vistakon (Johnson+Johnson) and Alcon, among others.
Ethis also hosts webinars and deploys medical-specific advertisements for rich media
and digital channels.
The projects objectives were exclusively to support the launching of new drugs,
pharmaceutical products and specialized medical equipment. My main responsibility
there was to manage the projects workflow between writers, editors, designers and
outside contractors who, among other materials, produced medical print supplements,
white papers, research reports, interactive case studies, multi-point ad messaging
campaigns, industry-specific magazines as well as webinars and rich media and video
advertisements for online dissemination. As part of that assignment, I helped to
develop and test the initial phases of
MediklyOS,
a SAAS platform and conference space which provides advertisers with a digital marketing
platform which enables participants to capture and apply actionable physician intelligence.
In doing so, the platform helps medical marketers better understand physicians' behavior
and preferences through a "Preference Discovery Engine" which identifies patterns of
behavior, relationships and qualities across multiple touch points. The meetings data
is recorded live during physicians' web conferences, extracted, formatted and packaged
as research and marketing content.
COSMETICS
Still in the pharmaceutical industry,
this time in Vancouver, Canada, and just before moving to New York, I worked on
contract basis as project manager for Bellini Laboratories,
Dermamed™
Pharmaceutical Inc. and BioLytical Laboratories.
These are/were companies specializing primarily in skin care and anti-aging products.
My specific mission there was to ensemble and coordinate the activities of a team
of internet marketing experts along with managing the online ad campaigns and related
budgets: Google AdWords and Analytics. The exact target sales for the five year
project was in excess of $10M/yr. While there, I was also in charge with art directing
the design of the online ads, mini websites, technical books and trade show materials.
In parallel to the above, and still working on contract basis, for a period of two
years, I have developed a spectrum of micro websites (same template, nine different
languages) and managed the e-commerce operations and marketing campaigns
for Naor Skincare Inc.
This was a pharmaceutical company with business headquarters in Vancouver and production
laboratories in New York. My involvements with the above two companies stopped in 2010 when
I moved to New York City.
My involvement in the e-commerce operations
space spans over twenty years, a time frame during which I both helped in the develepment
of online stores and managed online sales. some of the industries I brought my experience
to were fashion and lifestyle, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, retail, real estate, law,
finance business consulting, publishing/self-publishing.
E-COMMERCE: BOOKS and MAGAZINES
For info on online sales of
books and/or
magazines please see center column on this page.
E-COMMERCE: TECHNOLOGY, E-LEARNING SYSTEMS
My first-ever e-commerce project was
at CANCoach Systems and Nortia Technologies in Vancouver, Canada (2000-2004) where
I was involved in both the development and operations of their online stores and
the content creation for their teaching software which was designed for schools
and sports coaches in the United States, Canada, UK and Australia (golf, volleyball,
basketball, soccer, tennis, etc.) The e-learning courses were available by subsctiption
at nortia.ca, while the training materials were sold
through their sister company (CANCoach Systems) on CD and DVD formats
at CANCoach.com
Prior to merging and shifting their operations to an entirely e-business development
consulting model, both companies transferred all their e-commerce operations to me
on a contract agreement through which I retained 80% of all sales. Within one month
after taking over, I cleared the entire inventory (thousands of CD/DVDs, including
more of which I need to produce in order to honor the backlog of orders). Shortly
after, the e-commerce domailns were replaced with the new corporate website.
E-COMMERCE: COSMETICS, BEAUTY, PHARMA
For e-commerce operations specialized
in beauty and cosmetics, please see the above section
on pharmaceuticals and
this section book sales.
E-COMMERCE: RETAIL, LUXURY, LIFESTYLES
More recently, I built and managed the
e-commerce operations for Hides-In-Shape, a luxury and lifestyle accessories retail
store, and a 555 Madison Avenue fixture for forty years (the store closed on April
2018 when the owner retired).
In my roles of digital business developer, web content copywriter, and online marketer,
for nearly three years while engaged in the project,
I created and managed the entire spectrum and life cycles of
the store's online operations: the company's e-commerce
websites and its Amazon and eBay stores for which I provided order
fulfillment (working extensively with USPS, UPS and FedEx), fraud
prevention (working with AMEX, VISA, MC) and customer
support (by phone, by email and, occasionally, while meeting them on the store's
display floors. In terms of online marketing, I maintained the store's blog
and its social media presences, while making use
of Google's AdWords/Analytics for web promotions and performance metrics.
The websites were hosted originally on PointShop Enterprise,
and later on BigCommerce (in parallel with an abbreviated
version on Shopify) and required extensive CMS, Excel,
AgileMail, Constant Contact and Photoshop work as well as heavy HTML hand coding (page
layout troubleshooting, email and newsletter templates, online advertisements).
• Résumé (PDF)
• Certifications
• Project Management Experience ( )
• Office Management Experience (PDF)
• Real Estate Experience ()
• Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities (PDF)
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