Hult International Business School

CESI Romania - The Center of Excellence in Visual Studies

University of Bucharest

Learning & Development Expert, MCIPD

As a learning & development consultant, I designed, delivered and/or managed learning programs for clients such as PwC Academy, Ascend Now, Education for Employment (EFE), Expo 2020, Ministry of Education, Canadian University in Dubai, GEMS Education, etc. 
•	Designed and delivered learning experiences of varying levels of complexity to diverse audiences: from refugees to CEOs, from primary school students to 65+ y.o., from graduate students to seasoned professionals.
•	Spearheaded innovative learning programs, with proven impact short-term and long-term.
Highlights:
•	License to Lead – PwC Academy & Emirates NBD
Facilitated in-person and virtual training sessions to experience people managers, as part of the leadership development program to fast-track their career development as coaches.
•	Design Your Future (Career) – EFE & HSBC & Zayed University
Career-readiness skills and innovation-focused virtual training program customized for young Emirati graduates. Achieved significant return on learning investment – 60% of program graduates were hired in less than a year after graduation.
•	Entrepreneurship Program – PwC Academy & Sharjah Business Women Council
Facilitated sessions and created content for training sessions for the female entrepreneurs enrolled in the program. 
•	Incubator – Canadian University in Dubai
Designed, led, and delivered the first entrepreneurship incubator for a university in Dubai. 
•	Innovation Bootcamp – Ministry of Education
Designed and delivered a Design Thinking & Innovation-focused 3-day bootcamp for exceptional Emirati Bachelor, Master & PhD graduates.

Grey Matter FZE LLE / Laura Toma Studio

Learning & Development Consultant

As the Global Strategic Forum & Development Manager, I design global external and internal processes and programs that support and enhance the leadership development journey of the members.
Innovative global leadership development products & programs
•	Designed and facilitated focus groups to gather data from external stakeholders (members) and make data-informed decisions regarding the launch of the project.
•	Developed a global learning product, Roadmaps, built on design thinking and micro-learning strategies. Created content for over 100+ micro-learning modules. 
•	Developed the toolkit (concept, leader’s guide, presentation and supporting documents). 
•	Accomplished high adoption rates since the launch of the project, in July 2022, proven by the higher than global internal benchmarks for OTR & CTR.
•	Received approval for expansion of the project for two more officer roles, based on the successful implementation of the current phase of the project.
Effective internal and external people development tools
•	Developed and facilitated SME sessions on topics related to the Learning portfolio as part of the onboarding process for new employees. 
•	Proactively created, piloted, and facilitated the implementation of a prioritization process, to support effective collaboration throughout the department.
•	Provided consultative services for the global committee meetings to use storytelling as part of the workshops focused on global collaboration between committees, regions, and chapters. 
•	Currently working on developing and implementing a post-mortem process to help the team work more effectively and serve external stakeholders better.
•	Acted as SME for designing the learning component of the global Change Management Playbook.

Global Strategic Forum & Learning Development Manager

As the Regional Learning Manager, I provided learning advisory services to members in MENA (Sep. 2018 – Mar. 2020), Canada & Northeastern US (Apr. 2020 – Mar. 2022), working with over 200 YPO members from 90 chapters in the three regions. The impact of the work done was exponential, addressing an audience of 7000 members and their families. 
Innovative regional learning programs
•	In partnership with the Regional Learning Officers, designed, consulted, and implemented YPO Canada Rising, a unique and first-of-its-kind in the Canada region (virtual) learning program. 
•	Successfully managed the partnership with the Royal Bank of Canada, finding common ground for relevant learning topics.
•	Delivered 25 learning experiences (workshops, events) from July 2020 – June 2021, with an average audience of 172 participants and an average rating of 4.24/5 (vs. the regional average of 4.11 and a global benchmark of 4.2).
•	Initiated and designed a framework for a global leadership development solution, Officer Collaboration Session, to complement and enhance the global Officer Education training program. Achieved 100% adoption rate from all regions.
Content development & training
•	Redesigned content for global leadership development programs, using the design thinking methodology.
•	Developed and delivered individual and regional strategic sessions with officers and Chapter Managers across all three regions.

Regional Learning Manager

Pathways to Employment is a program initiated by Education For Employment supported by Bank of America Merill Lynch aimed at increasing the employability skills of youth in the UAE through an online training program designed by Accenture.

My role as Program Coordinator/ Learning & Development Consultant included managing the relationship with the partner universities (Zayed University, American University in Dubai), communicating with trainees and partners involved in the project, facilitating training sessions on the platform.

Design Your Future (Career)  is a program initiated by Education For Employment supported by HSBC aimed at empowering young Emirati youth - especially women - to design the career of their choice by developing essential professional, 21st Century skills.

My role as a Learning Consultant included designing the learning program, the mentoring program, mentoring youth, training, pre- and post-assessment and data analysis, and creating additional materials supporting the operations of the program.

Education For Employment - Global (EFE-Global)

Learning and Development Consultant

The Improbable Agency is a communication and business strategy agency for challenger and disruptor brands - be them local startups or global companies. This is an agency for the companies that understand that effective communication is at the core of their business growth and, implicitly, of their innovation path. The Improbable Agency was nominated in the category Start-up Of The Year at the Arabian Business Awards in 2017.

The agency has been working with more than 30 companies from 3 continents and 6 different industries - ranging from e-commerce to IT and up to digital media and edtech. IKEA, Dubai World Trade Center, Sheraa, Axiell, Eventtus, TAKELEAP, TjDeed, LoadMe, QallOut or IKEA are among the disruptive brands the agency has been working with.

My role as Chief Path Creator involves working brands who are challengers in their field through brand & business strategy, media relations, content development and social media management.

The Improbable Agency

Managing Partner

The Coding Circle is a tech education company that offers an educational road map for students to develop expertise in programming: web, games and mobile application development. 

Reporting directly to senior management, my responsibilities include: 
Operations:
- establishing and managing partnerships with Dubai schools in order to set up after school activities. Working closely with Activities Directors from GEMS World Academy, American School of Dubai and Nord Anglia International School and preparing marketing materials, participating in fairs and students and parents assemblies
- managing organizing the classes from instructors' schedules to orders to suppliers
- managing the relationship with the company's partners: Facebook, Google, Uber, Cisco, Leap Ventures by involving representatives in the courses and organizing common events
- established and managing a reporting system for parents on class content in order to help tracking the learning evolution
- business development: managing the relationship with existing and potential franchises, from offering support on course strategy to distributing marketing materials
- HR responsibilities: posting job ads, pre-interviewing candidates, assigning courses to instructors and teaching assistants
- financial reporting (cash flow, income statements)

Marketing
- successful rebranding of the brand book and visual identity
- creating content for website and social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn
- managing the relationship with the parents and students
- established CRM system in the company - Insightly
- creating and editing press releases, interviews, advertorials

The Coding Circle

Director of Operations and Marketing

Actively involved in various projects across 3 departments: Customer Experience, Global Digital Marketing, and Academics. Enhanced knowledge about education by acting as a marketing consultant on a variety of programs, including online marketing content, CRM, marketing campaigns and materials etc.

•	Analyzed and redesigned a series of internal and external marketing materials: product catalogue (Academics), sales toolkit (Customer Experience), survey proposal (Data Analytics). Proposals already approved and under implementation.
•	Researched and created a strategy for an internal and external marketing campaign for Indonesia.
•	Advised on CRM direct marketing project for Russia and delivered content for a series of emails.
•	Proposed monthly themes and delivered high quality content for EF blogs in China, Russia and Indonesia. Been asked to continue working remotely.
•	Written academic papers and designed academic materials for schools.

EF English First

Internship in Kids& Teens Business Unit

Lead multi-disciplinary  teams (creative, strategy, design, DTP) and managed two Account Executives to deliver strategic solutions, branding and creative work for 4 clients and 6 brands (over 250K € in agency fees): Nestle – Maggi & Nestle Cereals, L’Oreal – L’Oreal Paris & Maybelline, Europa FM, Radio 21.

•	Hired as Account Executive and promoted after 6 months as Sr. Account Executive and then 3 months after as Account Manager.
•	Successfully delivered creative idea proposal for global internal competition (idea was chosen to be implemented globally – ongoing project).
•	Negotiated extra budget the first national original creative campaign of L’Oreal Paris, leading to 35% sales increase in key accounts vs. the same period a year before.
•	Coordinated the rebranding of the morning show for radio station, which led to a two-digit increase in audience and leadership on certain demographics.
•	Designed and delivered strategy and creative work for Maybelline Romania new tab on Facebook page. Goal of increasing brand association with fashion achieved.

McCann Erickson Romania

Account Manager

In charge of the educational projects of the 5M € CSR account of Petrom (part of OMV Group) – Andrei’s Country, leading a diverse team consisting of ATL, digital, BTL agencies, educational organizations.

•	Initiated and directed In search of Andrei, the first online video competition in Romania for school students. KPIs surpassed by 20%. Managed implementation and launch of website, online banners campaign, Facebook page
•	Revitalized and coordinated Andrei’s School, a 500K € project dedicated to bringing non-formal education to children in underdeveloped areas of Romania.  Resulted in 10% higher than initial KPIs. Managed implementation and launch of website, online banners campaign, for Facebook page
•	Managed PR & digital activities for other CSR projects in the platform: the rebranding of Andrei’s Country, the partnership with the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations.

Graffiti Public Relations, part of BBDO Group

PR Specialist

Hired after a one-month internship, aided and collaborated with PR Specialists and Managers in the agency on diverse accounts: Pepsi, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nestle (Nescafe, Maggi, Joe, Kit Kat), Renault, Dacia.

•	Modeled and implemented the media relations strategy for snowboarding tournaments 2 years in a row, resulting in 30 journalists reporting live from mountain tops and over 40 million media impressions.
•	Improved writing material for advertorials and blog, leading to 25% increase in media impressions.
•	Planned and organized the PR campaign for chocolate bar launch, resulting in over 10 million media impressions.
•	Pro-actively designed and proposed to Renault The Green Expedition digital project. Managed the implementation & launch of website, the strategy and weekly content of Facebook, Twitter and Youtube accounts.
•	Brought the first digital project in the portfolio of the agency for Bwin client: #bwinderby event, which became a top trending hashtag. Designed and managed strategy and implementation of Twitter and blogging campaign

Junior PR Specialist

Responsible for media relations, working as a substitute for the Manager while on maternity leave.

•	Administered press files and media requests, brands share of voice increased by 20% for 2008.
•	Successfully authorized and managed €50K payments of the department for events, photo sessions, launch files.