SunAmerica Financial Group/
American General Life Companies
Houston, Texas
Associate Director, Corporate Communications
2005 to current

Developed, launched, and managed a comprehensive new brand for the country’s largest issuer of term life insurance. Overcame stakeholder objections by implementing a kit-of-parts approach to brand management that provided competing divisions flexibility while maintaining consistency.

Led communications strategy and planning for large projects, collaborated with client groups to define needs, guided overall experience strategy, planned deliverables, and executed to deliver on-time and under budget. So successful that what were intended to be short-lived projects continue to be maintained and used.

Researched and selected new marketing management system that allows for detailed tracking of workflow, time, budget and departmental workload status. Initiated and conducted communications effectiveness research and analysis.

Lehman Brothers
New York, New York
Senior Graphic Designer
2004 to 2005

Provided creative design and production for large volume of relationship-building and internal communications projects. High quality of both work and client interaction recognized with promotion within six months of starting.

Rational Creative
New York, New York
Principal
2004 to 2005

Launched freelance business in hyper-competitive NYC market that went from a cold start to completely replacing income from previous full-time position within one month.

Created identity systems, printed materials and websites for businesses in a wide range of industries, from construction to fashion, fine art to banking, for both domestic and international clients. Grew the business by providing high quality creative, reliable project management and effective client relations to the point of needing to hire additional capacity within six months.

Morgan Stanley (through Bowne/Custom Staffing)
New York, New York
Contract Project Manager/Senior Designer
2003 to 2004

Managed up to 50 concurrent projects by augmenting existing project management system to allow for real-time updating. Simultaneously led creative teams on high-profile projects.

Managed staff and projects by instituting innovative technology systems, including dramatically shortened turnaround time for a weekly corporate newsletter by instituting a database-driven development and publishing process.

Clearly defined and documented the company brand, worked collaboratively across business units to ensure brand consistency, content standards, and quality of user experience.

Douglas|Gallagher (now The Douglas|Group)
Houston, Texas
Designer
1998 to 1999

Changed industries, adapted to new processes and converted skills gained while working on personal sculpture projects in order to move into a position developing concepts, creating schematic designs, and producing construction documents at one of the country’s leading architectural graphics firms.

Texas Medical Liability Trust
Austin, Texas
Communications and Advertising Representative
1994 to 1998

Designed and produced Texas’ largest medical malpractice insurance company’s annual reports, advertising campaigns, exhibit booths, websites, multimedia displays, corporate identity, direct mail pieces, newsletters, specialty items, and routine forms and pamphlets with fast turnaround, high quality, and low cost.

Established the corporate identity including logo, stationery, website, and application forms for a new subsidiary based on a common style guide that maintained flexibility and consistency as the organization grew.

Additional Experience