Michael Upp Email & Phone Number

Sedona, Arizona, United States

President of non-profit artist group founded in 1996. The Artists’ Coalition is comprised of professional and emerging artists from the greater Sedona area representing a broad variety of mediums and processes. The mission of the Sedona Visual Artists’ Coalition (SVAC) is to create a supportive visual arts community which provides exploratory and social opportunities. The organization is fostering and inspiring interest in the visual arts by encouraging both artists and the community through education, exhibitions and the annual Open Studio Tour. One of SVAC’s core tenets is to provide in-depth learning experiences in the arts for both residents and visitors.

Sedona, Arizona

The Sedona Opens Studio Tour is celebrating its 22nd year with the launch of this year's tour which is the last week end in April. The tour has been expanded to the greater Verde Valley with over 30 studios and 55 artists involved representing a large spectrum of artistic mediums including; ceramics, jewelry, painting, glass, watercolor and sculpture. This is one of Sedona's premier arts events and draws attendees from all over the southwest.

Cornville, Arizona, United States

Ceramic Artist producing functional pieces for the home in a large studio. Major focus is on developing beautiful work we call "Art for Living" that people will use everyday, Consistently exploring and discovering new ceramic glaze processes to create an ever expanding color palette.

Small foot-print hydrogen fuel cell systems for the alternative production of on-site heat and power applications of the technology were designed for residential and commercial locations.Key Responsibilities:• Grew and managed worldwide marketing for this innovative leader in the fuel cell space which delivered disruptive new technology that enabled the distributed production of heat and power. • Development and implementation of the company’s strategic marketing plan.• Designing Return on Investment/Cost of Ownership models for the sales force so they could communicate the positive financial and environmental impact of the system to the customer.• Managed the trade show, industry events and seminar schedule, including personally delivering speaking engagements on an national and international basis.• Engaged a new “Clean Tech” public relations agency and delivered significantly increasing company/brand awareness and in educating the market.• Personally led a highly successfully Department of Energy (DOE) market acceleration project that resulted in a significant project award and 15 new commercial customers.• Implemented CRM system for lead collection, demographics, lead source ROI and for sales management

Video conferencing based security and marketing services – applications are focused primarily on large retail and restaurant organizations.Key Responsibilities:• Drove marketing and business development for this dynamic, pioneering start-up company providing remote interactive audio and video services and software, enabling clients to manage retail locations remotely.• Designed and orchestrated an “educate the market” strategy in developing a new technology and suite of services. Major focus was on developing major customer relationships and enlisting them to present their findings and experience at major industry events and in key industry publications. • Developed a suite of new video products and services for non-security applications that allow the sales team to penetrate target companies at the senior management level in marketing and operations. • Responsible for all aspects of marketing communications, strategic alliances, public relations, product management, business and strategic plan development, key customer management, budgeting and P&L ownership for marketing. • Conceived and implemented a highly successful “influence the influencer” marketing strategy to leverage positioning and raise market visibility through the endorsement of significant industry consultants and trade organizations.• Planned and implemented a highly successful “Compelling Value Proposition” program focusing on a systematic, in-depth “before and after” study clearly demonstrating financial return on investment. Program proved a validated “system payback” of less than ten months on a $25-30K investment per system installation.

Enterprise Network Management Software & Associated Consulting ServicesKey Responsibilities:• Drove the transition of the company from a traditional CAD and graphics systems vendor to providing a sophisticated suite of network management software tools.• Propelled Isicad to a leadership position in its top targeted markets – financial services, government, telecommunications and manufacturing – both nationally and internationally.• Established successful and lucrative strategic partnerships with key industry leaders including: HP Open View, SunNet Manager, Cabletron Spectrum, Cisco, NetLabs and Remedy.• Served on industry standards boards and implemented overall positioning strategies focusing on important industry editors and analysts.• Restructured and built a successful sales force by recruiting pre-sales and sales leaders with industry specific experience, resulting in the establishment of a highly qualified team that consistently overachieved targets.• Established high-level customer advisory board to engage key clients in the product planning cycle.• Customers included: Smith Barney, Paine Webber, Lehman Shearson, Solomon Brothers, Chemical Bank, Wells Fargo, Intel, NSA, FBI, US West, AT&T, British Telecom, Pacific Bell, Australia Telecom, and Telecom Finland