I consider myself a fairly lucky person (professionally speaking) because I knew early on in life what I wanted to do. The inspiration, all be it bizarre, came from the 80s television series ‘Bosom Buddies’. The main characters in this show worked in advertising and more importantly the creative end of the agency business. As a kid I was really drawn to the fact they had the opportunity to be creative with their ideas and had fun doing it.
When it came time for college I was ready to begin my professional advertiser training. I enrolled at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in the Communications Media Department. After a few semesters I realized Comm Media was providing me with a good foundation in broadcasting, audio/film production, graphic design but wasn’t really covering a lot of ‘business’ oriented topics. So I started taking more and more marketing classes and eventually changed my major to Marketing. I eventually graduated with a dual major in both Comm Media and Marketing (that’s 172 credits if you’re counting).
While at IUP I participated in their internship program and landed a great opportunity at Engle, Fritts, Hanna & O’Neill (EFH&O) a full service agency located in my hometown of Erie, PA. This was a great experience for me because I had the opportunity to work on some great projects with some really talented people. During my stint as intern I had the chance to meet up with some of the folks from Lord Corporation’s Marketing Communications Department.
After graduation, I did some freelance work for the agency and was working pretty much full time at the music store I had worked at since I was 16. I did this for a month or so before Lord Corporation had a need for a Marketing Communications Specialist in their Mechanical Products division. This was a temporary job that eventually turned into a full time position. While at Lord I helped oversee the development of all trade shows, brochures and collateral material, photography, video and what was fairly new at the time ‘interactive’ media. Lord eventually relocated me from Erie, PA to Cary, NC where I worked until 1999.
Before I go into where I went after Lord Corporation, I should mention that since I was very young I always had a passion for computers and technology. My parents bought us a used Apple IIe in the 80s and I used it to write programs in BASIC and even stayed after school to start our Elementary School newspaper which was all done on a an Apple IIe. I even dumped all the money I made from my internship on buying a Mac LCIII.
While working at Lord I began to utilize technology in various aspects of Marketing Communications from Interactive Kiosks to Sales CD-ROMs and the internet. When the ‘Dot Com Bubble’ was inflating I went to visit a good friend of mine who had just started working for a Web Design firm. While visiting he urged me to go to their open house to see what they were all about. Not soon after my open house visit Judd’s Online offered me a job as a Web Architect.
Judd’s is probably most well known as the original developer of Martha Stewart Online. During my tenure at Judd’s I acted as lead on the majority of their large projects including Astronomy.com and Trains.com. Judd’s was acquired by Susquehanna Media in 2001 and I was immediately put to work on assisting their Radio group with a large scale web based direct marketing initiative. The next two and half years would be spent focused implementing a wide variety of projects for Susquehanna Radio Corp. (and I loved every minute of it).
I was eventually promoted to a position in the parent company Susquehanna Media which provided me with an opportunity to continue working closely with the radio stations and also with our cable organization, SusCom. For the next two years I had the opportunity to manage the development of diverse array of projects from podcasting to business intelligence to a help desk solution to an ‘elite’ client extranet. I truly enjoyed my career with Susquehanna Media family of companies and appreciated the quality people I with whom I’ve had a chance to work. So much so that after a brief stint with Boyds Bears in McSherrytown, PA we packed the famil up an moved back to Winchester for a return stint at Susquehanna Technologies (now SusQtech).
Although returning to below the Mason-Dixon line was not originally the plan (I’m a PA boy) I was very excited to rejoin the team at SusQtech for a second go of it. My main draw to return to SusQtech was the caliber of people and a firm belief in the new direction of the company set forth by its Partners. Since my return to SusQtech, I have had the opportunity to contribute in almost every capacity (Director, Consultant, VP or Operations and my current position of VP Marketing and Product Development. I really enjoy going to work everyday and the people I work with…and that’s what its all about.