Production

Lyons Trail Communications – New York  2003 to present

Plan, coordinate, and execute TV and radio projects for ad agencies and clients including Kraft, Sears, Oreck, Cavit, and Lucille Roberts. Shoot and edit video documentary, training, and sales films.

The Tucker Partnership – New York  1996 to 2004

Managed all aspects of agency production. Negotiated celebrity talent, supervised all shoots, directed all post production for Quaker State, General Electric, Comcast, and others. Worked with Denis Leary, Leah Remini, Cal Ripken, ZZ Top, Tom Berenger, Kim Catrall, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie Johnson.

Derek Vanlint and Associates – Toronto

Executive Producer responsible for budgeting, managing commercial production, and handling promotion for seven commercial directors.

Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising – New York

Produced bilingual commercials for eleven Procter & Gamble brands, coordinating all aspects of production between New York, Toronto, and Montreal.

Creative

Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising – New York, NY

Wrote award-winning advertising copy for P&G Ivory Soap, Johnson & Johnson Tylenol.  Extensive recruitment of non-professional talent.

Education

State University of New York at Albany

Graduated cum laude with BS in Business Administration, with a core in Marketing. 
Languages: Spanish, German, and French.                      

Biography

It happened when I was a child. A fascination with commercials and an acute recall of jingles coupled with the hobby of collecting classic films set the stage for my adult career. With a university degree in Marketing and a book of spec print ads in hand, I landed a position at Compton Advertising. Being on the team that developed the agency’s response to the Tylenol tampering incident taught me a valuable lesson in candor and truthfulness; extensive work on testimonial spots with non-professional talent showcased the virtues of honesty and sincerity.

Despite having picked up a One Show award as copywriter for suggesting and writing lyrics for a spot commemorating Ivory Soap’s centennial, it was solving the production problem of rigging the key visual that inspired the move to production. I soon became Assistant Producer, and later Producer, on all eleven of the agency’s Procter & Gamble brands for English and French Canada. This led to weekly cross border travel and coordination, ego and culture management, and the P&G production discipline that still remains useful to this day.

It was perseverance that led to the move to Executive Producer at director Derek Vanlint’s new Toronto company, D.V.L.A. There, I was able to finesse interpersonal and sales skills, develop a keen sense of costing out jobs, and gain a perspective on production from the supplier side. I created the production solutions for “Porsche” and “Swimmers”, which went on to win Gold for Best Spot and Silver for Best Campaign of 1994 at Canada’s equivalent to the Clios,

The lure of home led me back to New York, and a stint at TV and feature film development. Working with a writing partner, I created “Sweat Sox”, a children’s series centered around the positive aspects of sports, plus screenplays ranging from “Downsizing”, a comedic look at the results of then-current employment trends, to “Tactic VI”, an eerie foreshadowing of terrorism on American soil.

I soon teamed up with The Tucker Partnership in New York, and went on to handle all of their commercial production work for the next seven years. General Electric needed to showcase their employees’ community service; and the “Local Heroes” campaign was born. The shoots in Albany, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Milwaukee won special praise from Jack Welch for their overall quality and cost efficiency. For Quaker State Motor Oil, I was instrumental in negotiation for Denis Leary, Tom Berenger, Leah Remini, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and Cal Ripken.

At long last, and with the birth of a child, I picked up a DV camcorder. Using this to capture a winning NASCAR team as they engineered their magic brought the idea of “Power By Design” to life. In addition to commercial work, I’ve directed and edited video shorts introducing C.E.O.s and PR campaigns, plus documenting the New York in-store appearances and fragrance launches of Jean Paul Gaultier and Narciso Rodriguez for my company, Lyons Trail Communications.

I continue my passion for production and for problem solving, and bring a wide range of skills and experience to make the production process as successful, efficient and pleasant as it can possibly be.