Melanie Powell Email & Phone Number

Manage team assignments and attend creative launches for 300 plus projects per year for the Austin, Boston and NYC Creative Studios. Host a weekly Team Traffic Meeting. Meet with Creative and Strategy leadership to assign teams. Meet weekly with IP management to access upcoming project scope and to fine tune and improve IP/Creative interaction. Enter tasks/roles/dates into DelTek. Facilitate resource searches on a variety of resourcing requests from multiple accounts across GPJ NA.

Austin, Tx

Started as a Billing Coordinator. Helped to develop a Traffic position where I managed all studio projects and team assignments. Added an Account Executive layer to my position by taking on and managing the creative work for the 3M Hard Hat program.

Usa River, Tanzania (Near Arusha)

Rivertrees Country Inn was named one of www.tripadvisors.com 2013 Top 20 Best Small Hotels in Tanzania. I worked as an Operations Manager for a 3 month stint with General Managers Kimberly and David Setzermann. They taught me all aspects of running the hotel from reservations to sales and marketing to provisioning and more. I contributed by doing daily room inspections and organizing turndown services for the housekeeping team and well as supervising the night shift. I helped the restaurant team provide seamless meal service and together we warmly welcomed each new arrival to Rivertrees Country Inn. This is a fantastic hotel that has a lot of heart and I am very honored to be part of the team.

Holland America And Seabourn Vessels

In conjunction with Fidelio Cruise Software, our team developed and vetted Time and Attendance, a scheduling and time keeping software that complies with ILO (International Labour Organization) regulations and feeds to a shipboard payroll system. Our team installed this software on 15 Holland America Lines vessels and 6 Seabourn Cruise Lines vessels. We trained all crew members on how to use these systems - both from the management perspective and the employee perspective.

Oversaw, directed and managed a 120 room hotel. Assured optimum performance and continual improvement in guest service, employee performance, sales/marketing, property appearance, and profit/financial control. Coordinated the staff and everyday hotel operations to achieve profitability, guest satisfaction and efficiency. Greatest achievement was restoring 6 highly damaged rooms and returning them back into service which then allowed me to achieve occupancy of 90% and above every night.

-Directed the daily operations on the cruise ships MS National Geographic Endeavour and MS National Geographic Explorer-Led and directed a staff of 40 direct and 40 indirect reports; delegated responsibilities, evaluated performance, mediated conflicts and resolved human resources issues-Appointed as Interim Hotel Manager in absence of the Hotel Manager-Increased overall service and cleanliness of front reception desk, guest rooms, housekeeping, operations and logistics -Improved port clearance formalities, working with 2-20 foreign dignitaries, immigration and customs officials at any given port, communicating through a 3rd-party agent and complying with each country’s demands while in port-Prepared monthly staff payroll and disbursed staffs’ gratuities properly-Coordinated staff schedules and travel to and from vessel-Controlled the safe that averaged a $300K balance and contained a variety of currencies; forecasted cash requirements, requested deliveries, provided currency exchange -Kept accurate track of guests’ personal accounts and collected before completion of their stay; gathered financial information at the end of each excursion, outlined A/R, A/P, guest accounts and payroll amounts, put into report form and sent off to headquarters for review -Maximized customer service, ensuring everyone’s stay was pleasant, positive and unforgettable. Increased overall customer satisfaction through motivating and empowering team members -Conducted welcoming ceremonies as well as planned and coordinated activities and events on and off-board -Certified in the Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping (STCW)–appointed as Team Leader for property emergency search teams, evacuation, land/water search and rescue, fire control, bomb search, first aid and CPR-Maintained that each food and beverage area abided by hotel rules and regulations, including main dining areas, room service and café

Kept track of guest trips aboard 5-6 vessels-Took reservations and collected payments from guests via AS400. By phone or e-mail, I answered a variety of guest pre-trip questions regarding vessel layout, airline/hotel details, weather and packing queries -Outlined itineraries for both the guests as well as for each vessel, preparing official documents with guests’ passport, medical, diet and special requests information. Confirmed with guests and vessel once a voyage was set-On various occasions, acted as Lindblad Company Representative and escorted chartered groups to and from the ships, helping them board and acting as first point-of-contact, overseeing the welcoming reception

-Ensured guests were taken care of and provided superior customer service in every situation -Welcomed and checked in guests at embarkation-Oversaw the administration of guest documentation required by the custom and immigration officials at ports of call visited by the vessel-Coordinated guest on and off-board schedules and activities with the Expedition Leader-Ensured safe embarkation and disembarkation process of the guests using a fleet of Zodiac watercrafts and gangway-Consistently maintained the control and security of passports-Oversaw day-to-day financial operations of the front office, including buying and selling currency for both the staff and guests as well as daily totals for shop and restaurant -Presented and collect guest and crew shipboard accounts-Tracked crew payroll, gratuities and travel requests-Prepared spreadsheets outlining financial/accounting information as well as managed computer systems and databases-Assisted guests in every way possible by handling and resolving escalated issues and obstacles needing special attention-Worked with all types of guests from various cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, ensuring their requests were heard, understood and resolved while maintaining customer satisfaction on all levels

-Collaboratively worked with Outside Sales Representative in developing very beautiful 6-color hardbound travel magazines that are a guide-to-the-city, which are placed in luxury hotel rooms nationwide-Reps sold the ads to national advertisers as well as local retailers, restaurants and art galleries-Represented various cities, including Oahu, Washington D.C., Tampa, etc.; once ad was sold, stepped in and hammered out the specific details of each ad before sending to production for printing of the guide-Consistently achieved and scored high in completing on time publications without any late charges at the printing press; successfully awarded an incentive for producing the Oahu guide without those late charges, which was deemed impossible by management