Lead the creative department for MasterPieces, Inc. a privately held games, puzzles, crafts, infant accessories, and housewares company selling to the specialty, mid-tier, mass, and discount channels.I manage a team of 12 design and production professionals responsible for the development our proprietary and licensed products and packaging.Our licenses include the NFL, MLB, NCAA, and NHL for adult gaming, silicone housewares, and infant accessories. In addition we have partnerships with Coca-Cola, Scholastic, Hershey's, Audubon, the US Army, the Saturday Evening Post, Wizard of Oz, Polar Express, and Lionel Trains.Our products have won dozens of industry awards from Creative Child, Dr. Toy, Mom's Choice, Parents Choice, Tillywig Toy Awards, and Oppenheim Toy Portfolio.

Creative Consultant for online and traditional clients, providing creative services including product development, packaging, merchandising, catalog, and collateral development, proprietary sports product development and line branding, overseas sourcing and manufacturing.

• Established a new Home Décor division producing high-end products with retails of $50 to $400. Product lines included holiday collections, tableware, accent furniture, and accessories.• Developed over 650 SKU’s of home décor products in 15 months.• Awarded management/leadership of the core giftware/souvenir division, developing 1,000 new SKU’s yearly.• Traveled to Asia (China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia) three times a year to source new vendors and develop original product concepts directly with the manufacturers.

• Led a team of 11 in-house art directors, designers, editors, writers, and traffic managers responsible for developing the products featured in over 80 catalogs per year. Products included imprintable goods for the education, health and wellness, nursing, safety, recognition and customer service markets.• Managed freelance editorial and design resources of over 40 creative professionals. • Created over 1,500 new SKU’s per year for this $100M+ privately held company.• Developed nationally recognized programs in partnership with The American Cancer Society for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. • Partnered with the USDA to promote their national MyPlate campaign. • Produced over 40+ Men’s and Women’s Health, and Nutrition and Fitness for Kids campaigns per year. • Developed a comprehensive 12 module series of interactive employee health and fitness management kits for employer sponsored wellness programs that generated incremental sales of over $4M in the initial launch. • Responsible for the development and design of all packaging and photo art direction for catalogs and sales collateral.• Awarded patent# 29/568,599 for innovative tote bag design for the healthcare and wellness markets.

• Supplied creative consulting services for American Greetings, Hasbro Toys, Somerset Entertainment, and Positive Promotions, Inc. including:o New product development, packaging and merchandising innovationso Proprietary technology application and design for novelty greeting cards• Recruited by Designware, a $160M partyware consumer products division of American Greetings to: o Develop coordinated packaging ensembles for all primary party goods licenses.o Evaluate and update 1000+ packaging designs and revise for full CPSC/ASTM 4040 compliance. o Achieved 100% compliance for all packaging safety testing within three months of instituting new processes and procedures to assure the latest standards were met. o Designed an additional 400+ new party goods packaging SKU’s/year.

• Led American Greetings' Learning Horizons creative department, managing all design, production, and editorial staff.• Instrumental in expanding LH into licensing by securing partnerships with the top three educational properties in the United States (Nickelodeon, Sesame Workshop, LeapFrog).• Created a new brand identity for Parents Magazine educational product which penetrated 87% of US educational Mass Market category. Sales exceeded $5M in the first year of introduction. • Awarded patent #7080982 for novel flashcard format.• Spearheaded expansion into children’s book Mass Market plan-o-gram space which yielded incremental sales of $3M+.• Initiated bilingual program with top educational licensed properties creating over 1,000 bi-lingual pages and corresponding digital audio content within four months.• Achieved a 60% reduction in the development budget by sourcing new Indian design studios.• Established an Educational Excellence Review Board comprised of doctorate level education professionals to review and endorse all product lines.• Played a critical role in the sale of Learning Horizons by American Greetings to Evolution Partners, achieving 100% transfer of all licensing Agreements and retaining entire development team.• Selected by Designware division president in Spring of ’05 to serve as Product Development Leader to build and lead a product development team to create a unique retail concept for the Party Channel. Responsibilities included directing two product managers and a 16-person team of art directors, graphic and packaging designers, and editors from American Greetings’ design studio.• Formulated an experiential approach to merchandizing a 12-foot program by utilizing dimensional POP, floor graphics, and sound to maximize the shopping experience.• Led the team to concept, develop, and source a 142-SKU program within a six-month window.• Expanded partyware product category offerings by 600% with new SKU's priced from $1 - $100 at retail.

Selected by Designware division president in Spring of ’05 to serve as Product Development Leader to build and lead a product development team to create a unique retail concept for the Party Channel. Responsibilities included directing two product managers and a 16-person team of art directors, graphic and packaging designers, and editors from American Greetings’ design studio.• Formulated an experiential approach to merchandizing a 12-foot program by utilizing dimensional POP, floor graphics, and sound to maximize the shopping experience.• Developed a unified, branded packaging style to capture the essence of the “Princess” party theme.• Led the team to concept, develop, and source a 142-SKU program within a six-month window.• Expanded partyware product category offerings by 600% with new SKU's priced from $1 - $100 at retail.

Responsible for all product development of Enesco’s $18M Mass Market division and $8.5M Coca-Cola giftware/home décor/collectibles lines:• Managed 5 person teams responsible for creating over 500 SKU’s for Mass retail and 200 SKU’s for the Coke lines per year. • Developed innovative packaging displayers that became the standard for the Mass Market Christmas Trim industry.• Created unique 4 sided palette and ¼ palette programs of holiday SKU's for Kmart, Walmart and Target.• Selected by company president to personally develop new merchandizing system for the rebranding of the Precious Moments collectible line.• Frequent overseas travel (4X’s/year) to Asia—China/Hong Kong/Taiwan to oversee product development, generate new product concepts and source new vendors. Also responsible for showroom set-up for Spring and Fall retail buyer trips.