Atlanta born | Egypt and Indonesia raised | Washington, DC schooled and seasoned | Silicon Beach experienced | New York living. 

As an accomplished product leader, I have helped individuals, small businesses, startups and large organizations alike. I’ve worn the hat of lobbyist, patent reviewer, marketer, product manager, product designer, strategist, and producer while working at companies that include The Orchard (Sony Music Entertainment), ZEFR, Bloomberg, Global Automaker and State Department. I have proven experience providing the necessary tools to transform ideas into value, covering a full range of activities from ideation and strategic planning through design, development, marketing and launch. Experience working across cross-functional teams focusing on communicating with stakeholders to transform potential ideas into successful new products, service offerings and/or improved business capabilities. I am a data centric thinker who enjoys both using data to make better decisions and creating products that make it easy and intuitive for others to understand their data.

Vocational

Seeing an opportunity for personal and organizational growth, I made the case for the creation of a Product Design department within The Orchard. I was then promoted from my previous role of Video Services Product Manager where I led the definition and development of the product roadmap and customer experience for the Video Services business unit to Director of Product Design where I have established the Product Design department. The department serves as the  center of excellence for our user-centered design vision and standards across The Orchard suite of products. The goal of my department has been to champion the customer-centric vision, strategy and execution of the user experience design across the organization to ensure a consistent, compelling and evolving customer experience. The team handles interaction design, visual design and production of all designs across The Orchard. In this role, I also oversee the creation of design specifications and design standards in the form of user journeys, storyboards, interaction models, process flows, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes and UI/functional design specs to ensure each digital experience logically flows from one step to the next. Prior to The Orchard, I worked as the Senior Technical Product Manager for the startup, ZEFR where I led product life cycle management, set product strategy and create roadmap for ZEFR’s cross-functional suite of products, which enables digital marketers to advertise, monitor brand presence online, create and execute cutting-edge campaigns. Before then I worked as a Product Manager for Bloomberg Government (a startup within Bloomberg L.P.). Leading the Transportation and Infrastructure teams in building out business intelligence tools to provide sound data and information for organizations in the legislative, regulatory and contract spending sectors, identifying key issues and trends allowing them to make informed strategic moves.

Before making my way into technology, I focused on policy issues working as a Program Officer for the Department of State and as the Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Global Automakers in DC. This experience later afforded me the opportunity to work for Bloomberg Government when they started looking for policy experts with experience in specific fields of knowledge. Given my passion for technology, the transition, despite the challenge was a very welcome one.

Educational

I graduated with an MBA from the University of Maryland in 2013. My studies focused on international management, global micro- and macro- economics and entrepreneurial new product development. I graduated from George Mason University in May 2006, where I received a B.A Biology and minored in International Relations and French. During this time, I also served as historian for Alpha Epsilon Delta, a pre-medical fraternity. My younger years were spent overseas throughout Southeast, predominantly Indonesia and in the Middle East.

Hobbies and Interests

I have a diverse set of hobbies and interests including travel, running, learning new languages, technology, reading, photography, wandering aimlessly around new areas and googling almost anything I come across. On any given evening, I can be found walking around New York, doing some sort of tutorial, keeping up on industry news, listening to one of my many customized playlists, blogging or tinkering away on my portfolio site.