Valentina Kalk Email & Phone Number

Luxembourg City, Lu

Luxembourg

I lead the teams responsible for publishing, audiovisuals, the web, social media, marketing and corporate branding at the European Investment Bank.

Washington Dc

Restructured the Brookings Institution Press with the goal of increasing visibility of Brookings publications and make the Press self-sustainable. This included:• Redefining staff roles, creating a new editorial director position, reorganizing the marketing team, and changing distribution and representation in Europe, Asia and India. • Expanding the Press’s publicity activities, which ensured reviews in leading print media such as The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times, New York Review of Books, Atlantic, New Republic, and authors’ invitations to speak at NPR, MSNBC, PBS, Sirius XM, ABC and more.• Revitalizing marketing to include a mix of print and digital marketing, including direct response, social media, data-driven marketing and market research.• Strengthening connections with scholars inside Brookings and integrating with Brookings’ central communications department to leverage the institutional outreach abilities to promote books and other Brookings content.• Revamping the list through top author acquisitions in the fields of political science, economics, development and international relations and the launch of new series, including Brookings Classics, the Short Histories, and a series about geopolitics in the twenty-first century.

Transitioned United Nations Publications from a traditional print-based operation to a dynamic publishing program with a POD-based production, a rich e-book component, including iPhone and iPad applications, and an electronic collection of data and e-books for subscribing institutions and pay-per-view customers in less than two years.Remodeled the rights and licensing team from purely reactive and traditional to proactive and highly strategic. This led, among other, to the establishment of key new co-publishing relationships with University presses and leading scholarly publishers to enhance readership of UN research.Restructured a team of approximately 35 by closing an office in Geneva, outsourcing warehousing, customer service and fulfillment functions, and creating an acquisitions editors team and an electronic publishing team which previously had not existed.

Pioneered e-publishing initiatives and ensured optimisation of emerging technologies and associated new business opportunities.Personally facilitated the phenomenal growth of the online database services until it represented 50% of total publishing sales, growing authorised users of the service from nothing to 20 million and institutional subscribers from zero to over 1,200.Diligently pursued rapidly moving new technologies, in particular the Web 2.0 phenomenon creating representation on Facebook, and partnering with Google Books to offer free e-book previews which resulted in a 3% increase in business with zero investment.Developed strategic partnerships with publishers and secured new publishing and translation rights, primarily in developing countries (155 licenses in 19 different languages in 30 countries in 2008.) Acted as Sales and Marketing Manager in 2003 and initiated a split between 2 sales managers - one for book sales and one for online sales, which produced a 20% increase in overall sales.Expertly led teams between 5 and 15; managed budget in excess of US$ 4 million / year.Acknowledged as a voice for institutional publishers and as a board member of the Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers; frequent speaker at international conferences.

Set up an office in Washington DC for an Italian-based publisher to generate local partnerships. This was a greenfield operation that involved forming the company under United States law and acquiring premises. Being closer to the main sources of publishing meant exposure to new title acquisition opportunities more quickly than competitors.Secured four new major co-publishing partnerships with professional publishers and medical societies.

Successfully negotiated acquisition of international book and journal rights; advised editorial director on suitable titles for inclusion in the publications pipeline.

Europe's leading automotive and industrial design firmManaged relations with the media; wrote op-eds and speeches for the President.Conceived and managed the implementation of the first online communications strategy, including the launch of the corporate web site.Managed the media department's budget.

Master'S, East European Studies

Ba (Hons), Linguistics And German Philological Studies