Dana L. Schultze

646-329-0328
dlschultze@gmail.com
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Professional Experience

IAC Gifts.com, New York, NY May 2006 - Present

Manager “Guru”: PR & Merchandising for a unique dot com business

Aggressively explore means of growing an exciting and fun niche business into a recognizable, valuable brand. In other words, manage, identify, recommend, develop and implement strategies for strengthening awareness, integrity, consumer experience and product mix while producing increased revenue and recognition.

The Basics…

• Identify growth opportunities and track metrics/results, present action plans, manage implementation, communicate progress and findings to Executive committee
• Conduct tests, trend and profit analysis on a weekly/monthly/quarterly/project basis and present metrics, learnings, action plan, and provide forecast to President
• Collaborate with various teams on the redesign/branding of site content, marketing materials and facebook application
• Develop strategies, plans, materials for all PR initiatives; long leads, short leads, social media outreach, stunts, and sniping; manage PR budget
• Maintain strong conversion and compelling product mix from 200+ merchants for 3 overarching recipients, 12 personalities, over 1800 combinations of interests, categories, holidays, occasions and lists.

Results: grew my segments by 150% year over year; 95% lift in media impressions year over year; under my lead - 24 of top 50 best converting searches in 2007, #2 and #3 segments (conversion) in 2007, and #1 and #2 highest converting landing pages on the site in 2007, contributed to winning of 2007 People’s Choice Webby Award.

And Then Some

• Contribute a minimum of 2 blog entries per week
• Assist in the brainstorming and production of gift guides based on market trends, events and holidays
• E-mail campaign & strategy - design, write content, factor cost analysis of campaign
• Craft all press materials and respond to all press inquiries for online and traditional media
• Interview, train and manage temporary employees

New York City Teaching Fellows, Bronx, NY June 2005 – May 2006

Pablo Neruda Academy for Architecture and World Studies – English Teacher

Develop and deliver engaging, differentiated instruction to students at a New Visions, project-based, impact high school.

• Work with discipline, stream and entire faculty to develop a safe, successful learning community
• Design twenty 45-minute lessons per week
• Attend graduate classes pertaining to Secondary English Education at Lehman College concurrent to teaching full time

South Tampa News, Tampa, FL February 2005 – June 2005

Freelance Writer

Write public interest articles and shoot accompanying photos.

• Research information based on assignment from the editor
• Manage each article according to specific deadlines

South Ocean School, Qingdao, China August 2004 – February 2005

English Instructor

Provide an engaging atmosphere for classes of private boarding school students to learn oral and written English. Also, teach a three-hour business English course once per week.

• Write lesson plans for seventeen 40-minute classroom lessons per week for grades 2, 3 & 4
• Design original materials and activities to engage students
• Design weekly adult lessons on business etiquette, customs, grammar, sales and phonetics

Home Shopping Network, St Petersburg, FL February 2002 - May 2004

Assistant Buyer

Maintain a timely and precise level of excellence in choosing, ordering, receiving, selling, and balancing product mix year-round to produce the highest profits and sell-through, for a multi-million dollar business unit.

• Support buyer with open-to-buy, seasonal product selection, and show assortment
• Create merchandising strategy for specific events including media ideas, sales goals, objectives, key item identification, pricing strategy, and special programs
• Conduct market research relating to product info, competitive analysis and industry trends
• Write and review letters of intent, purchase orders and product descriptions
• Track the commodities market to ensure strong negotiating with vendors
• Create and maintain retail price comparison information including national retail survey
• Monitor and analyze sales, cost, margins, etc. on a daily, monthly, quarterly, and by event basis, write insightful recaps with future recommendations for growth to share with executives
• Work with marketing department to design promotional materials for external use from call-outs to mail- outs to on-line advertising on a regular basis
• Create seasonal trend boards six months to one year in advance for strategy
• Interface with multiple departments in order to congeal the overall image of each event, item and brand

Product Knowledge Specialist

Liaison between all pertinent business units and show hosts to ensure product and show information delivery in a timely fashion, enabling flawless on-air presentations.

• Design and facilitate engaging, individualized and group learning programs based on learning needs of the show hosts
• Educate hosts on individual products, event concepts, branding, trends and sales techniques
• Organize, facilitate and strategy meetings interfacing between multiple departments, corporate divisions and external vendors
• Work with marketing department for internal use promos such as branding boards and brand development; Connect and differentiate each brand/product/event to external trends making each a desirable and exciting new opportunity
• Attend print shows to see fabrications for upcoming seasons and assist in choosing prints for in house brands; attend trend-forecasting seminars to gain understanding of upcoming trends
• Instruct and guide all new Product Knowledge employees and act as team leader and liaison for the department; wrote training manual for the department
• Visit factories and assist in product mix selection
  

Kandid Kids Photography, Tampa, FL February 2001 – May 2004

Darkroom Manager

Keep projects and deadlines organized while maintaining a skilled, motivated staff and printing high-quality custom black and white photos.

Dana Schultze, Inc., March 1997 – Present

Model

Promotional, print, TV, film, spokesmodel and demo model for multiple agencies in Tampa Bay and Miami, FL. Hair/Demo model for Toni & Guy, FL 1997 - 2002. Demo model for Bumble & Bumble, NY 2005 - present.

Education

• Trinity CertTESOL certificate; Prague Schools, Czech Republic
• Bachelor of Arts; University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
• British Environmental Issues Certificate; Nottingham Trent University, UK

Certificates in: Internet Marketing - Blogs to Buzz @ NYU; Goal Setting; Conducting Successful Meetings; Project Management; Time Management; High Impact Communication Skills; Presentation Skills; Donneger Trend Seminars; Cotton trends; PrintSource seminars; Style Council Seminars.

Skills

Ominture; SiteCatalyst; ComScore; Photoshop; PaintShop Pro; RETEK; Dynacom; Show Planning Tool; Front Page design basics; Office Suite; Outlook; Word; Excel; PowerPoint; Mac and PC proficient. Some knowledge of HTML code and wordpress.