Robert Zick Email & Phone Number

Greater Seattle Area

This position required representation of WTBTS values, activities, and history to the academic and educational communities. My objective was to correlate organizational activities and history to fields of academic study and foster an open-door policy with qualified professionals. As Director, I managed activities in several subgroups of academic research and outreach. This included the publishing of scientific papers, journal articles, and books; the formulation and implementation of surveys and studies covering various sociological and anthropological perspectives; delivery of educational presentations; participation at and hosting of academic conferences, seminars, and round-table discussions; and the development of public museum exhibitions.

Represented WTBTS globally under its Director of Communications, and served as Assistant Deputy Director of Communications (while also serving as Director of Academic Initiatives). WTBTS organizational affiliation is about 20 million persons. I triaged media inquires from major US and International media outlets and formulated responses. Spokesperson response formats included media statements, email Q&A replies, telephone interviews, and on-camera interviews. I directed and participated in the production of pre-recorded training for international online monthly seminars. This was augmented with procedural manuals and in-person skills training classes. 917-340-4265 RobPZick@hotmail.com Bothell, WA 98021

Upon the inception of an entirely restructured web platform, currently the most translated and content prolific website on the internet (jw.org), I was invited to manage its Newsroom operations. Under the Editor-in-Chief, as Managing Editor I was tasked to design and manage a complete workflow system to support the rapid production of newsroom content. This included the following phases: concept review, story and photo acquisition, correspondent communications, writing, proofreading, formatting and conversion, SEO, editing and approval, legal compliance review, and posting notification. A high priority was placed on content accuracy and internationalization. Over 85 satellite news bureaus were eventually connected globally. The jw.org Newsroom supports content in more than 1,000 languages, and in multiple digital formats. It’s domain receives 258 million visits monthly, ranks #1 in its category, and #102 globally (see https://www.similarweb.com/ website/jw.org/#overview)

In charge of developing and managing Video News Release production for the WTBTS headquarters offices of public information. This leveraged my experience with video, broadcast, and CGI to create compelling and informative digital content to use with the media and public officials. During my relatively brief tenure before becoming Newsroom Manager, project topics included documenting WTBTs’ massive disaster relief efforts after the Japan Tsunami in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, showcasing key human rights cases, and the once-in-a-century sale of some of NYC’s most iconic properties with the move of WTBTS to upstate NY. The VNR featuring a human rights case out of Armenia was designed to target government officials and jurists. As a result of this and related legal efforts, the European Court of Human Rights handed down a favorable landmark ruling that effected military and civil service law throughout the European Union. Both it and the WTBTS move-out video earned Telly Awards.

Project lead for network-wide integration of MS SharePoint for enterprises. Involved setup and administration of multiple server clusters (front-end web, application, and back-end SQL) to support upwards of 6,000 users. This included transforming a hundred-year old paper-driven process to a custom-coded SharePoint document management system. Upon my departure from the team to begin work in public communications in 2012, this core project has since expand to include multiple branch offices worldwide with 10s of thousands of users as of 2023.