Strategic Communications Six Sigma

Dan Watson, MS, SHRM-CP

***************@*****.*** • 910-***-****

LinkedIn • Raleigh, NC, 27603

Professional Summary

As a strategic communications management professional, I use both corporate and US Embassy service experience to create high performing campaigns, manage complex projects, and excel in cross functional teams. My deliverables include a highly disciplined approach to procuring clientele, contract negotiation, creating strategic international relations, and administering projects from initiation to closure derived from my military service in US Special Operations Psychological Operations. I embody a sense of grit, creativity, and continual improvement.

Education & Certifications

Master of Science, Industrial & Organizational Psychology - Grand Canyon University

Bachelor of Science, Psychology - University of NC, Fayetteville State University

Associate of Arts, Strategic Marketing - Fayetteville Technical Community College

Lean Six Sigma SSGI – Certified /SHRM-CP - Certified /Microsoft Power BI - Ongoing

ACTIVE SECRET – Clearance /Ability to Obtain TS/SCI

Areas of Expertise

•Organizational Development

•Multilingual (Spanish/Portuguese)

•7+ Years International Relations

•Strategic Communications

•11 Years Operations Management

•8+ Years DOD/11+ GOVT

•8+ years Strategic Planning

•Project Planning/Controls

•Forecasting/Regression

•7+ Years Corporate Comms

•Data Analytics

•Power BI (Query, SQL, Data analytics)

•Stakeholder Management

•Strategic Planning

•Microsoft Office Suite

•IBM SPSS (Statistics)

•Information Systems Reporting

•Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud

•Cross-Functional Management

•JTF Joint Operations Planning

•JSOC/Counter PRC/SOCSOUTH

•Conflict Mitigation/Mediation

•Campaign Management

•Agile Project Management

•Microsoft Excel (Pivot, CSV, ETL)

• End-to-End CRM

•KPI analysis/Performance Review

•HCM Kronos/Ceridian/Workday

•Adaptable/Willing to Relocate/Travel

•Force Deployment Planning & Execution

•Monday.com/Asana.com

Career Experience

(GOVT) (Secret Clearance - Eligibility to obtain TS/SCI) US Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, NC

Psychological Operations/International Relations/Project Management/Embassy Talent Acquisition (8 years Nov 2015 – Nov 2023) (Honorable End of Service – SOCSOUTH Information Operations Support)

Trusted consultant of 8 years as in PSYOP and 6 years as a PSYOP planner providing strategic leadership communications plans, functioning in high degrees of opaqueness and ambiguity under Title 10 authorities, developing rapport in advisory relationships with key international stakeholders to ensure the US remained the partner of choice in policy, business, and military affairs. Established strategic international advisory relations with key individuals ranging from businessmen, international SECDEF equivalents, independent news reporters, military brass, music artist, international mass communications teams, etc. in “Great Power Competition” with PRC interests and Authoritarian State Actors in Latin America. Building footholds for the US government and Embassy partners to further its interests in the 5 countries supporting the larger regional initiative based on the National Security Strategy as well as strengthening the US international brand through Embassy cross functional teams. Repeatedly performed detailed target audience analysis of key individuals and large audiences withing our regions of influence to determine the best avenues of approach, the time needed to complete project life cycles and the congressional funding necessary to complete the project(s).

Data-Driven Management & Asset Sourcing: Spearheaded funding efforts by developing business cases to present to Congress appealing for additional funding from US Congress to support multi-million-dollar international projects U.S. partners in Guatemala, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and Honduras.

Interagency & Joint Task Force Operations Developed refined cell/informant processes and asset sourcing, assisted with asset “baseball card” management, asset training, NGO management in support of regional PSYOP programs, embassy messaging, and strategic image enhancement and counter enemy state actor campaigns supporting the National Security Strategy. Partnered with and advised Ambassadors, Defense Attachés, SOCSOUTH JTF Commanders, SOF MLO’s, CIA, DEA, HLS, NSA, etc.

Senior Executive Service & Stakeholder Engagement: Executed strategies for effective communication and public relations backing US political entities through the use of approved funds. Assisted with the campaign management and messaging campaigns of US political partners, increasing difficulty for PRC assets to gain inroads in AORs.

Strategic Communications & Behavioral Analytics (TAA) & Cyber: Directed strategic planning and execution of multiple long-term international behavioral augmentation campaigns, implementing metrics to track KPIs guiding data-driving decisions. Utilized social media metrics and surveys for project controls. Presented in-depth multicultural, anthropological and historical studies for country assessment and repeated PMT use.

Contract Management: Managed Several contracts with local providers, marketers, state media companies, shell media companies, and individual contributors, and negotiated their contracts fit within budget. Encouraged fair contract prices from several contracting companies by ensuring competition between bid prices.

Project Innovation & Synchronization: Implemented innovative project management tracking system for managing projects and ensuring completion. Managed scope creep, and deployed new software systems, curriculum development, and training to Command staff to increase system adoption and buy-in for the entirety of 1POB. Assisted 1POB in coordinating efforts in support of 1st SFC and USSASOC lines of efforts.

Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield & Public Relations: Generated strategic messaging across social media platforms, project dissemination plans national news media teams and brokered fundraising events through international partners. Instructed international partners on crisis response and how do deal with media questioning. Generated through PMESSII PT, CONOPs, and Center of Gravity (COG) baseball cards as foundational documents to support additional PSYOP plans in both countries. Coordinated need to know information with embassy assets.

International Relations & Public Affairs: Supported embassy PAO’s with information, storyboarding for local state-owned media, and regional initiative in CENTAM (Northern Triangle & Caribbean). Developed and pitched programs to Developed justification packets to support building relations with the stakeholders of discovered $130 billion USD worth oil deposits between Trinidad and Guyana through a 10-year campaign of just $298 thousand USD in collaboration with media teams. Partnered with several local radio stations to assist with organic Messaging.

(GOVT) (Polygraph) Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department, Cumberland County, NC

Crisis Response/Risk Management/Riot Squad/Incident Reporting/Investigations (3 years June 2012 – Oct 2015)

Served as a Crisis Emergency Response Team (CERT) member of CCDC with 800-1,100 inmates by managing officer safety on small team of 4 out of 40-50Implemented new safety programs, processes, and interdepartmental training.

Pioneered Crisis Response Protocols : Daily emergencies included responding to and the documentation of distress calls such as physical assaults, attempted murders, inmate suicides, minor riots, high-risk transport of inmates, and the recovery of unregulated and illegal substances.

Organized Crime Investigations & Training: Through the interception of inmate communications we were able to decode self-incriminating messages, intercept planned “hits,” and add documentation of our mapping of known gang members

CFT Interdepartmental Operations Training: Partnered with Patrol SRT teams in providing intel of high-profile inmates communications and links to larger criminal networks, physical training, and doctrine. Drastically decreased the amount of assaults on officers by rapid response and quarterly training of the 40-50 officers and enhances afety policies.

(CIV) BrandSafway, Atlanta Corporate Office, GA

Regional Human Resources Generalist (Aug 2023 – Present)

Standardized and streamlined regional human capital management processes in auditing, organizational design, training compliance, employee engagement, leadership development, HRIS management, union relationship management, investigations, etc. coordinating with several hiring centers across the US and internationally, spanning 35 countries. Implemented and formalized the onboarding procedures for the hiring centers to support company policy. Identified talent gaps and analyzed workforce development needs, implemented talent retention programs, and coordinated organizational development and restructuring to support corporate initiatives.

Process Optimization: Initiated projects reducing costs covering 6-7,000 of the 21,000 employees housed in North America. Modernized onboarding processes across several hiring centers in the US and Canada.

Contract/Regional Project Management: Reduced cost on municipal projects by negotiating for grants. Managed regional projects focused on process digitization, employee fitness-for-duty, email automation, retention, risk mitigation reducing incident expenditures using Monday.com and Power BI for measuring success.

Project Coordination/Change Management: Implemented quarterly auditing through coordination with project sponsors (VPs) to gain data, compliance, and oversight in gathering essential data/information through CFTs.

Project Controls/Reporting: Conducted both investigative audits and recurring audits reducing I-9 infraction and fine rates by 70% in under a year.

Regional Project Management/Policy Advisory: Managed several projects to aid in the standardization of several regions and their policies. Aided in policy translation for M&A’s limited to Spanish speaking. Offshoring services.

(Contract) Gypsum Management & Supply (GMS), Atlanta Corporate Office, GA

Human Resources Operations Manager (Jan 2023 – Apr 2023)

Developed and directed operational planning and the talent and succession strategy for over 6000 employees across 42 states and Canada. Fostered strong relationships with senor leaders to focus on organizational change, talent acquisition, succession planning, and recruitment strategies. Facilitated organizational design, development strategies, talent strategies, and leadership development programs to improve performance and drive business growth.

Talent Analytics & Strategy: Executed training program to improve utilization of UKG Kronos Dimensions processes organization wide to create uniformity in practices and processes post-mergers; significantly improving the auditing and reporting capabilities.

Customer Relations Management & Reporting Optimization: Improved customer relations with recently acquired companies, unified reporting processes that increased timeliness of response to issues, improved performance of proactive reporting and auditing functions, and reduced troubleshooting rate of complaint tickets from 90 to 20.

Retention & Employee Rewards Pilot Project: Cut truck driver turnover by utilizing Business Intelligence reporting to troubleshoot economic factors to enable data drive decision making, increasing retention by 3% by initiating employee development, career planning, and rewards and recognition program.

Managed Cross Functional Teams: Maximized staff performance through training and development, collaboration, evolution of waterfall process planning, data cleaning to prepare for an integration to Ceridian worth $7 million.

Organizational Development Intern – Carolina Hurricanes PNC Arena (2010)

Performed needs assessments and cultural evaluations to strengthen community relations, give the Carolina Hurricanes further exposure, and report the progress to internal stakeholders. The community relations team created a positive impact on educational retention rates in the Wake County school district and the Carolina Hurricanes Brand.

Recommendations

CIV CORP – Krystal Strickland (Supervisor) - 570-***-****

CIV CORP – Todd Godwin (Supervisor) - 404-***-****

PSYOP – LTC Anthony Somoza (Supervisor) - 910-***-**** *******.********@*****.***

PSYOP – SGM Joe Colobuno (Supervisor) - 910-***-**** *******@*****.***

PSYOP – MAJ Marquise Young (Teammate) - 570-***-****

PSYOP – SFC Alexis Morales (Teammate) - 910-***-****

PSYOP – SFC Brian Baltierra (Teammate) - 910-***-****

LinkedIn: Dan Watson, MS, Lean Six Sigma SSGI GB, SHRM-CP

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