University of California, Davis

St. Francis High School

Head of Product at Producers Market

Project manage high priority, strategic business efforts such as high-profile partner projects, commercial proposals, POCs and pilot programs.

Develop and launch a Project Management Office to define, standardize, establish, and run business-critical planning and operational processes across the entire organization.

Work directly with senior leadership to understand the company's business strategy to ensure projects are strategically aligned, in addition to working directly with customers and stakeholders to understand their expectations, with Product to ensure the requirements and design specifications fit into our planning and delivery process, and directly with Engineering to ensure the system delivered meets all stakeholder expectations.

Producers Trust

Director of Project Management | PMO

Skills: Presentations · Program Management · Communication · Project Management

Program Manager

Oversee the line of business for the company's (then) flagship product, StoryBird. Launch commercialization by developing sales, account management and support programs from scratch with minimal resources.

President of StoryBird

Oversee the Product Development team, act as Product Manager, support CEO with investor demos and partner presentations.

Head of Product

Generally, oversee many high priority, organizational efforts and simply ensure that things get done efficiently and on time. Per startup fashion, my hands were in a bit of everything in this role. I worked day in and day out with our Executive, Product, User Management and Digital Marketing teams.

In more detail, this included the following:

- working extremely close with the Product team by recruiting new members, defining functional specifications, transforming external feedback into product specs, supporting product development sprints and engineering meetings, defining product marketing and heavily supporting sales efforts
- organizing and managing product pilot projects from proposal to execution
- managing various types of partner relationships (blockchain traceability, smart contracts, crypto currency, ag producers, ag buyers, etc.)
- supporting business development through demos, partner integrations and relationship management
- planning team and strategy summits
- introducing regular project reports across the board
- supporting fundraising through investor calls, demos and managing a digital vault
- ensuring efficient cross-functional communication throughout the company by evaluating, choosing and administering the most efficient and effective tools
- setup and admin internal tools such as G Suite, Slack, Asana, JIRA and HubSpot
- define scalable protocols and systems for internal and external communication and efforts
- supporting User Management through producer and buyer discovery calls, onboarding and protocol management
- attending producer and buyer site visits and managing their relationships
- write and review website, white paper, proposal and general marketing content
- contribute to company culture by introducing and writing internal team agreements, managing team calls and contributing to the company handbook
- co-managing payroll, contractor agreements and general accounting responsibilities
- reviewing various legal contracts

Chief Project Officer

Skills: Entrepreneurship · Business Development · Presentations · Communication · Project Management

Director of Project Management

Wear many hats across duties in project management (tools, processes, protocols, systems, etc.), operations, product management and development, recruiting, fundraising, partnerships and more. Work towards keeping the team organized, on track and always coming from a place of love to accomplish our high level goals.

Project Manager

Skills: Product Management · Presentations · Communication · Project Management

NuMundo

Primarily:
Consult and assist startups to SMB's with project management, overall organization, business development and sales, strategy, fundraising, negotiating, client meetings, general marketing, product marketing, online presence (websites, social media, SEO, etc.), expansion, sales, PR, recruiting, general admin, video production and various other areas of need.

Help in product management with all steps of the product lifecycle from inception to post-launch support: product planning (release schedules, sprints, QA, launch, etc.), product writing, UI design, client meetings, documentation, etc..

Sometimes:
Write and consult on website content, marketing and sales collateral, product descriptions and specifications, product planning, blogs, training content, independent film scripts, biographies, poems and short stories.

Rarely:
Produce podcasts (audio and video) and promo or trailer videos, primarily for web use.

Brotherbees

Freelance Consultant

Manage entire product lifecycle and roadmap, direct QA, run Business Development and work extremely close with Dev and Marketing on all efforts.

Create and host investor presentations, write functional specifications, administer JIRA (bug tracking) and SalesForce.

Write product copy for product itself, website, shareholder updates, investor presentations, videos and press releases.

Write and submit award applications (won Developer of the Year 2013 from Cloud Computing Awards).

Wear many additional hats, such as Project Mgmt., Customer Service, QA, Bus Dev, Marketing, SysAd, etc.

iSpaces

Product Director/Consultant

Sr. Marketing Manager:
Manage all external aspects of business: website, collateral, UI, online social presences, special events, trade shows, PR firm relationships, email templates

Responsible for budget related to all aforementioned tasks

Indirectly manage/work closely with UI/UX designers, web developers and UI developers

Act as main POC for various partner relationships

General utility man for startup: recruiting, sales, business development, cleanup crew

Company SalesForce, Redmine, ManyMoon and Google Apps administrator

Sr. Product Manager:
Create startup company product management plan with all product lifecycles for 6 months, including features and functions, required resources and development allocations, launch dates, collateral and sales projections

Create, launch, manage and complete Beta Test Program, internally and externally, ultimately recruiting testers to convert into customers

Create and manage product specifications, including graphic design, to iterate regularly through developer management and influencing backend technology enhancements

Create Competitive Analysis, backend crawler content category definitions and product certification program

ADSOVO / Contextual Media Group

Sr. Marketing Manager / Sr. Product Manager

Manage, design, name and specify new main online customer portal product, the ArkadinLounge, from concept through development to global customer roll out

Manage internally developed web conferencing product from less than .5M/yr to 3M/yr and consistently above budget

Manage complete product lifecycles including:
  - defining product vision
  - gathering customer requirements
  - writing specifications and test plans for R&D
  - prioritizing bugs and features
  - writing documentation for Marketing
  - writing license terms for Legal
  - training Ops, Customer Service, Marketing and Sales
  - assisting in product demos and sales meetings
  - setting global pricing in over 20 countries
  - creating competitive analyses

Manage global relationship with third party webcasting service provider by internally rolling out resold product offer and support to APAC and Europe and negotiating global contract

Arkadin

Product Manager

Sell radio advertising to local businesses. Wear a suit everyday and drive all over the SF Bay Area. Eat lunches and attend happy hours. Short-lived position.

CBS Radio

Account Executive

Prospect, close and manage audio and web conferencing accounts for small to Fortune 500 size companies in outside sales

Independently research local and US markets and demonstrate services to C level personnel to win business

Proactively manage accounts by training users and up-selling services to consistently exceed monthly quota from first month of employment

Member of internal CRM focus group

Short term project position

Managed internal Client Services and admin staff of approximately 10 people to carry out back-end contract processing and reporting

Provided reports and status updates to upper management

Worked with Marketing on business development

Maintained vendor relationships and consulted on Salesforce.com usage

Reported directly to COO

Spectrum Settlement Recovery

Operations Supervisor

Short term project position

Created and managed team of 20+ outside sales representatives from recruiting, hiring and training to selling and closing small to medium sized businesses

Sold individual accounts in excess of $100K and assisted team members with deals, resulting in over $1M in program revenue

Managed internal admins to process contracts effectively and efficiently

Reported directly to Small Business Director and COO

Worked on company wide CRM and back end processes with Legal, Client Services, Marketing and Upper Management

Territory Supervisor - Small Business Sector

Contacted, interviewed and qualified attorneys for potential membership

Closed deals with solo practitioners and law firms after online demo

Customized intrastate, regional and national coverage areas

Designed and implemented company-wide policies

Managed diverse team from appointment setting to closing level positions

Assisted in authoring training manual and techniques

Interviewed, hired and trained new employees


Accomplishments:

Promoted to Team Leader/Manager within 10 months

Trained approximately 6 allocation managers from appointment setters to closers

Spearheaded and implemented company's first successful trade show appearance

Remained successful during major growth and crisis phases

Solely developed and implemented company-wide Employment Law Program, including training video

Earned elite team status within first two months

Reached bonus level each month and hit top numbers for over one year

LegalMatch

Team Leader/Allocation Manager

Club Jazz Nuveau

Server/Bartender

Develop, update, and distribute weekly production schedules

Assist Account Executives in coordinating print and electronic media production

Reserve talent, act as talent, proof scripts and serve as Production Assistant

Develop and distribute traffic instructions and insertion orders. Reserve space in print media.

Develop budgets and proof billing. Hire and work with vendors. Facilitate ad changes.

Understand automotive advertising law. Provide creative concepts. Assist in new business proposal development.

Develop and maintain relationships with media reps and clients

Alex Karzag