My role at Sigma Tax Pro is to ensure that the day to day operations of the company function at an optimal level. This involves ensuring our client’s expectations are met and exceeded as well as driving the team to exceed its annual growth goals. Sigma provides software and IT solutions to tax professionals across the United States. Due to the heavily seasonal nature of the industry it is essential to plan each new tax season in granular detail if expectations are to be met. All of the teams at Sigma are required to aim for excellence in their client interactions from our marketing partners, sales consultants and compliance agents to our IT specialists. Sigma leverages technology in every facet of our day to day operations to ensure a best in class service. From using Salesforce to track every detail of our client’s experience to Google Business Apps to seamlessly connect our global team 24/7. By looking at every new initiative in project management terms we are able to grow and develop quickly with minimal resistance from internal and external customers. Process improvement is also a key part of of my daily responsibilities, taking a prospective client from their initial inquiry to their most successful tax season ever is our goal. The only way to achieve this is to strive to continually improve their experience through sales, compliance and registration to finally installing and releasing their software. It is a high pressure role during tax time but extremely challenging and rewarding. The Sigma team has been able to quickly establish a name for itself among tax professionals nationwide and looks forward to continued growth and success.

As an Associate Director of Admissions at Kaplan University my role was to lead, motivate, train and develop a team of admissions advisors. For-profit higher education is one of the most challenging sales environments I have worked in due to the highly regulated nature of the industry. This is also makes it one of the most rewarding positions I have held in my career and one that I will look back on with gratitude for many years to come.It was an honor to be recognized as the advisor who enrolled the most graduates over a 5-year period at the annual commencement ceremony from a team of over 1,000 advisors nationwide. I was also fortunate to complete two master’s degrees and two graduate certificates while working full time at Kaplan and use my experiences to inspire others to achieve their own educational goals. My completion of the organization’s Six Sigma Whitebelt and Greenbelt programs led to important changes in the way that students' records are managed and taught me skills I will be able to leverage in many future roles.The highlight of my role as Associate Director was leading and developing the Self Enrollment project team. I took over the team with 3 advisors and grew the team to 11 advisors, we were able to increase lead conversions from 8% to 25% in our first year as well as increase retention from 68% to 85%. Our team generated more revenue per advisor than any other team at the university and consistently earned top ratings from customer feedback evaluations as well as Net Promoter Scores. By recognizing flaws in the way leads were being managed and improving the entire enrollment process my team was able to exceed all expectations that were set for us.

Online instruction and training has become an integral part of most organizations day-to-day operations. During the two years I spent working at Berlitz I gained valuable insight into how continuing education can be delivered through online platforms. I primarily taught business English to corporate clients in Japan including Google, Oracle and Ernst and Young. It was a fantastic experience and my students taught me a great deal about Japanese culture and business ethics. We used both the Adobe Connect and AT&T iClass platforms, which I have also used at Kaplan University to deliver presentations within the organization.

It was at Mercury International Group that I first had the opportunity to develop my business development, financial analysis and project management skills. We launched several successful start up ventures across a variety of industries including lead generation, nutritional supplements and entertainment distribution. The organization had many subsidiaries including Secrets of the Amazon, Mercury Entertainment Group as well as a real estate investment division. Mercury Entertainment Group was an urban entertainment label focused on producing and distributing CDs and DVDs. We produced our own DVDs and also acquired projects from other producers to distribute through our channels. Each DVD was treated as a project with a fixed budget, start date and launch date. It was my responsibility to analyze the budget for each DVD, manage the videographers, editors, graphic designers and other third party vendors to ensure the project was completed on time and within budget. The label grew from local distribution to an exclusive national distribution deal with Koch Entertainment. Our DVDs were sold in all major retail chains including Best Buy, Circuit City and FYE. The real estate investment division of Mercury was an important part of how the organization’s resources were invested. Our portfolio of properties included Section 8 rental properties, lease to own properties and new home construction. One of the projects I worked on exclusively was the rezoning and development of a five acre property for the construction of two single family homes. I was responsible for the planning, development and execution of the project. This involved getting the property appropriately rezoned, obtaining the construction financing and ensuring the construction company completed the project on time and within budget. I was responsible for providing financial reports to the principals on the status of all the company’s real estate investments.

Datatech was my first job after graduating from college. It was a start up telemarketing company and provided me with some great experience in sales management and direct mail marketing. I began as a sales representative and within a year was promoted to supervisor and finally sales manager. I was responsible for a team of 100 sales representatives and made all hiring decisions for the sales team. My role also involved working with the training, customer service and compliance departments to develop sales and customer scripts and FAQs. During my time as sales manager I managed to double the average sales per rep and increase productivity and efficiency across the organization.