My career to date has been intense and diverse. Perhaps the easiest way to summarize my skills is to say that I am a techie, a creative, a marketer and a business person. While I began my career as a computer programmer, my first and best love is marketing, from research and planning to design and execution and review of the results which help to guide the next round of the marketing process.

I am driven by curiosity, a desire to learn how and why things work and very high standards for the work I do. These traits are the reason I have learned and achieved all that I have in my career. I also have a native ability to absorb a flood of information and find patterns and insights that fuel the marketing process. This ability has been fundimental to my success as a marketer and a consultant.

As a techie, I have always had a special love for computers and what they can do for us. Programming computers early in my career helped me to understand "first principles" of computer capability, an understanding that has been invaluable as I have tackled design and and productivity software and wrestled them into tools that allowed me to help my clients. With Chameleon Creative, it was I who first investigated any new design program and helped others figure out how to use it. I also made our individual computers, printers and other equipment behave like a network and wrote programs which facilitated all aspects of managing the agency. For clients, I have been the one to determine how to implement technology into the marketing, sales or operational mix. This understanding of technology has also been advantageous when working with companies whose business is technology: their engineers can speak "tech" with me and, since I understand what they're talking about, I can translate what they say into words for the rest of the world.

As a creative, I have a love for fonts, layouts, color, paper, good copy, excellent production values. I appreciate and strive for design that communicates, that reenforces the message instead of competing with it. Early on with Chameleon, I discovered that "design is the visual manifestation of marketing strategy", a principle I hold to this day. My role in creative has mainly been at the level of concept development and art direction but I quite often I have lent a hand as a production designer. These days, as a consultant and freelance designer, I work the entire process from concept to execution. It's been a lot of fun. I have also been very involved in the less "glamorous" aspects of design: Estimation, traffic management, process improvement, quality control and such. I have spent many hours with printers, photographers, illustrators, prepress operators, copy writers and others learn the crafts on which design and marketing depends so that I could get the best results. I developed computer programs, "best practices" and methodologies that helped to streamline the entire marketing process. I also developed account management practices and tools that facilitated the marketing process by ensuring that we perfectly understood our clients' needs and expectations. Great design is great design because it works: for the client, for the budget, for the timeline, for the marketing strategy, for the brand, for the audience.

As a marketer, I love the intersection of science and art. Where else do you see such an amazing blend of psychology, sociology, statistical analysis, engineering, business science and fine art as you do in marketing? I find unceasing challenge and wonderful opportunity in every marketing project. I can still whistle or sing ad jingles from twenty years ago. I love to look at a good ad or see the fruit of a marketing program that has really hit the mark. I can't read a magazine or watch TV without evaluating the ads. I'm fascinated by how much marketing touches our lives... and how much marketing touches every aspect of a business. I often hear people equate marketing with sales or advertising. Certainly, sales and advertising are a part of marketing but not all of it. No... the wonder of it is marketing also influences product development and pricing. Marketing can shape customer service and billing. Marketing is also the means by which a business both learns about its customers and communicates with them. And marketing is also an important part of the process of how a company decides to go "thataway". What great stuff!

When Chameleon was founded, my partner and I were simply trying to create a good design firm. It didn't take long for me to discover how unsatisfying the results of design could be without a firm basis in the marketing needs of the client. From that point until now, I have been the constant student and practitioner of marketing because it is my nature to look for the better solution, to have reasons for doing one thing verses another and drive towards the satisfaction of the larger goals of a project. "Integrated Marketing Communications" as a concept seems so obviously correct to me that I'm a little suprised that it was any other way. "Plan, Execute and Control" as the framework for strategic marketing or the importance of "Brand" and "Brand Management" seem obvious as well. My point is that I feel completely at home with every aspect of marketing. It's what I do.

As a business person, I have been fortunate enough to have started, and sold two sucessful businesses. I have helped found a third company. I have also helped startups get off the ground, existing businesses grow and larger companies start new divisions. I have helped companies fend off competition and recover from bad decisions in the past. While there is a lot of value in an MBA, I believe nothing can replace the experience of having to make payroll. I believe that my experience as a entrepreneur and consultant makes me a better potential employee because I have direct experience with the consequences of making good decisions verses bad ones. I truly understand the value of time and money, exceeding customer expections, efficient business practices and effective management. I've also had the opportunity to try things and make mistakes... and I've learned well from those mistakes. The bottom line is that I have experienced the gamut of running a business and I can truly appreciate the power and importance of my contribution within your business.

The other pages that link to this one summarize the skills I have acquired in my career. It's a lot but hopefully this introduction and the skill summaries help you to see the 360 degree picture of what I can bring to your table.