This is not a resume, but a chronological and detailed list of jobs I have held over my life, with my reflections. A copy of my resume can be found here.
My first summer job was in 1984 while at Brooks. I took the train from Darien to Manhattan each day. I worked in a mail room of ABC TV. Back in the 80′s they used your SS# as your ID number and put it right on the front. Times have changed.
1986 brought me back to New York, where I worked at Carnegie Hall in the Media Relations department.
1990-1994 San Francisco, California.
Upon graduating, and spending the summer in a very small car driving across America, I wind up in Berkeley, California with friends from Oberlin, looking for a job. Going for gold, I called up the Managing Editor for “Leonardo” – the journal of art and technology which I read during Oberlin as part of my studies, and asked him out for lunch. Roger Malina accepted my invitation, and I got a job as an editorial assistant. Showing up is 99% of life.
Here are a few samples of my writing from the journal LEONARDO.
In working for Roger Malina, it tuned out he is married to Christine Maxwell, daughter of Robert Maxwell – British media baron. I worked for her too – until their house burned down in a matter of minutes during the great Oakland fire. A month later, her father dies and creates a great deal of media attention. These were hard times for my employers – friends – and I set forth for new employment.
I worked as a temp (banks, hospitals, insurance companies), and at Starbucks Coffee shop in the financial district part time while I consulted for Weldon Owen on multi-media projects and helped start an interactive TV company called Telemorphix. Here is a brief example of what I did at Weldon Owen…
Almost at the same time I jumped onto the 90′s Californian garage start up boat. Telemorphix (TMX) even brought me back to Boston for live broadcasts on WMFP. The broadcast was done from the top of Beacon Hill at One Beacon Street in Boston.
Some articles about Telemorphix, mostly from the Boston market.
These were long days. And then, the call of graduate school beckoned, and I returned to Boston…in other words we ran out of money.
Immediately after graduating from the Ed School (Harvard), I went to work for Looking Glass Technologies, designing texture maps and compressing video for a game. My boss at that time, Greg LoPiccolo, went on to start Harmonix…I even had the chance to see him at a BUA open house recently.
After the product launched (Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri) I took another job at a start up company called Ledge Multimedia. Initially a small shop, we had a great array of artists, programmers and project managers…but were soon acquired by a larger firm called Dataware Technologies. Our biggest product was the complete archives of National Geographic on CD-ROM. As will happen when the small start up gets bought out, the culture changed and I went onto the dot com bubble.
Here is a description of the product…
And one of my job descriptions.
I had a number of different roles at JuniorNet, each requiring a massive learning curve and change of pace. Life at a start up. I started doing video compression and 8 bit custom pallets for art work – basically an engineer. However, I was able to work with the Art Director for the company, Marc Schlicting. As I lived in San Francisco before working at JuniorNet I was very aware of the Living Books CD-ROM series published by Broderbund. Marc was the creative genius and manager. I specifically worked with him processing our adaptation of Bear in the Blue House for JuniorNet – and attended different conferences with him around the country. However, they sacked him soon there after, and I went into sales and marketing for the company. I worked on a variety of direct mail campaigns and outbound telemarketing programs for the product – about 12 million spent in these channels and I really learned marketing. One day I came to work and my entire team had been let go…I was the last person standing as I had started to work on getting JuniorNet into schools – the only campaign which had results.
a couple of business cards from JuniorNet – they cost a fortune to make them like eggs.
With the end near, at about the year 2000, our relationship with PBS took on a strong relationship. On the educational marketing front, I was working with Sandy Welch. Here is a brief description from the Wall Street Journey about our new venture.
From my perspective I am amazed that I was able to connect with more senior people at each different part of the dot com game. Even though I had a new job on this PBS venture I walked away from it. I had been travelling enough, and did not want to work from home, so I went to volunteer at the Buckingham Browne & Nichols lower school – which was a five minute walk from my home in Cambridge….but it snowed and I left Boston to go skiing at Sugarbush (I’ve rented a house in Waitsfield for over 10 years). When I finally returned from the ski trip – the Technology Coordinator position at BB&N had just come open after a 25 tenure with Kathleen Devore…who also happened to be an avid skier and gardener (another of my passions). I got the job!
I was at BB&N for 6 years and was a part of a very intense community. I served on admissions teams, did playground duty (kindergarten), provided tech support and taught classes – sometimes 8 per week – at the lower school. I also served on the BB&N MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) steering committee. Robotics and LOGO were two of my favorite classes I taught. I was head chef for the school’s outdoor fifth grade adventure trip called “Project Reason.” Having 42 twelve year old children hungry for breakfast is a hard deadline and fun to meet. I enjoy hard deadlines.
I really enjoyed teaching iMovie and film production, which I taught with Mervan Osbourne, now Dean of Students at Beacon Academy – where I have also played a role..
After 6 years at BB&N I decided to push myself to a new venue. Having spent this time looking at how people get into a private elementary school I wanted to under stand high school and the college process. Boston University Academy had an opening for a technology coordinator – and it reported directly to the head of school – which is where I am now.
Life at the Academy was terrific. I ran all the systems, from email to desktops and have had the chance to teach photography and coach sailing over the years – and chaperon numerous field trips to Europe as well. Not only have I come to understand better the curricular dimensions of a high school – but also that of a major university. Working with Boston University has been amazing – such a breadth and depth of scholars and smart people.
I always said that if I did my job really well, I would not have a job… and that happened! IT consolidation eliminated my position.
Millbrook has been fantastic!