Entrepreneurial venture to create a luxury retail tea shop brand destination in Beverly Hills, California. Launched originally under the French name of "Le Palais des Thes" and then morphed into our own brands,"Le Palais Gourmet" and "American Tea Room" (www.americantearoom.com). Over the years, some of our marketing milestones included being honored on Oprah Winfrey's "O" list of her favorite things twice; won the 2005 Business Excellence "Innovative Practices" award by the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce (only one store receives it in the prestigious "golden retail triangle"). Designed and launched new products that appeared in both digital and traditional media. Successful brand positioning continues today attracting celebrity clientele, media moguls, titans of industry and even royalty.

Managed $50MM annual traditional and digital new media budget for the Home Entertainment Group while working with multiple business units (Motion Pictures, Theme Parks, Music, Consumer Products, Promotions, Television & New Media) on strategic integrated marketing initiatives. Member of global wide Media Council.-Contributed marketing efforts to record-setting first week sales of 8.5MM dvd & video units of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" starring Jim Carrey. Leveraged media budgets to maximized added-value media promotions resulting in billions of brand impressions.-Collaborated with Brand & Category Management teams on all media plans for both lead titles and catalogue.-Managed global advertising agency DDB Los Angeles. Conducted agency of record reviews and contract negotiations with executive team across multiple business units.-Presented media campaigns to sales force and key accounts at national sales meetings. Developed and customized "Media Alert" communication by brand to aid sales force in securing additional orders and surpassing goals.-Leveraged paid media spend with in-house publicity team to gain millions of additional brand impressions.-Launched year round trade advertising sell-in efforts for entire DVD catalogue.-Exceeded goals with the success of the "Jurassic Park Trilogy" dvd pack by surpassing 6.5MM units (a dvd sales record at the time).-Negotiated complex integrated media partnerships delivering massive clutter-busting impressions (both on and off air).-Utilized non-cash barter partnerships across multiple media categories including TV, print, digital, radio & outdoor.-Oversaw acquisition of consumer research data to support media strategies both internally and externally.-Embraced change-management adaptability and subsequent re-engineering of organizational structure during multiple transitions of Universal Studios ownership (MCA, Matsushita, Seagram, Vivendi ).

Instrumental media supervisor and strategist on pitching new feature film, home entertainment and media accounts. Competed against multiple national advertising agencies to win the national media planning & buying accounts of Paramount Pictures and NBC (over a $120MM in annual media billings at the time). Also secured media planning projects from Warner Home Entertainment. Recruited by VP Media at FOX who resigned in '86 to start this Entertainment division.

For the Feature Films Group, implemented all national multi-million media campaigns across multiple platforms with outside vendors and internal management. Later resigned as recruited by former FOX VP Media to DMB&B advertising agency to head new Entertainment Division.

Media Buyer on multiple national accounts including Sunkist, Carnation, Denny's Restaurants, Pacific Bell and others. Media Planner on Orion Pictures Account. Recruited from Foote, Cone & Belding by VP Media at Fox as Media Coordinator.