Cynthia M. Sobieraj

CYNTHIA M. SOBIERAJ

** ******** • Rochester, NY *4618

Cell Phone: 585-***-****

Home Phone: 585-***-****

Email: *********@***********.***

MARKETING AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL

• Proven track record in developing and executing marketing and sales strategy.

• Expertise in every aspect of the marketing mix – integrated campaigns resulted in higher sales.

• Successful at building and maintaining relationships and negotiating deals.

• Strong marketing research background; highly analytical.

• Adept at managing change as well as initiating new ideas and programs.

Director, Career Services / Marketing Communications, 2007 - present

Bryant & Stratton College, Rochester, NY

Responsible for the ongoing management of the Career Services office of the College including developing and implementing strategy to ensure student placement, employer and alumni relationship goals are achieved.

• Created three distinct and targeted email newsletters to be delivered monthly to area employers, current students and College alumni with the purpose of establishing ongoing contact and interactive communication with constituents.

• Spearheaded an alumni relations’ initiative through telemarketing campaigns and direct mail to build an alumni network and an ongoing source for referrals with a goal of adding an incremental 10% to the alumni database.

• Integrated Career Services into the students’ academic experience through initiatives such as career core classroom instruction, skills workshops, employer presentations, mock interviews and portfolio preparation.

Director, Marketing, 2005 - 2006

Bryant & Stratton College, Rochester, NY

Responsible for creating, implementing and evaluating the overall marketing strategy for the Rochester market of this career oriented college. Worked in conjunction with admissions department to maximize revenue generation through recruitment initiatives and lead generation activities. This was a one-year only position.

• Completed a competitive analysis of the Rochester market and an assessment the current student population using survey research and focus groups.

• Developed and implemented a public relations plan to correct a perception problem in the short term and in the long term, create and sustain awareness of the brand.

• Retooled the overall marketing strategy to focus on other forms of lead generation besides direct response advertising and introduced innovative event, informational and viral marketing initiatives increasing the number of total leads generated by 25%.

Director, Sales and Marketing, 2003 – 2005

Team Cheer, Geneseo, NY

Responsible for providing vision and strategic sales and marketing direction for this catalog/e-commerce cheerleading apparel start-up. Supervised all customer service and sales operations including an inbound call center and inside telesales team. Responsible for the stewardship of the brand and for ensuring its strategic development, positioning and communication. Managed department budget and staff.

• Rolled out direct sales initiative and trained sales reps to build and cultivate their pipelines of approximately $250,000+ in revenue per rep. Developed performance measurements and incentives.

• Created an integrated event marketing and promotional strategy for lead generation. Generated nearly 3,000 qualified leads over a four-month period.

• Introduced a product management discipline to the organization. Responsible for product development initiatives within eight product categories and oversaw the creation of the merchandising plan.

• Developed and implemented a competitive pricing strategy, a member rewards program and crafted a reseller program for dealers.

• Launched an on-going online research panel to gather voice of customer research to aid in product development, merchandising and address overall customer satisfaction.

Director, Business Development Group, 2002 – 2003

Associated Press, New York, NY

Consolidated three, for-profit business units within this non-profit member cooperative. Managed P&L. Worked collaboratively in this matrix organization; managed a team of dotted-lined reports.

• Created the business plan to stabilize the newly formed operation that provides third party content distribution services via satellite and telecommunication networks.

• Determined new pricing and packaging strategies; developed marketing and sales plans and programs.

• Turned around several key accounts and retained approximately $2 million in revenue.

• Supervised testing and rollout of an Internet-based distribution platform and renegotiated multi-year agreements to include the new platform.

• Managed all existing client relationships (i.e., Bloomberg, Standard & Poor’s, The New York Times).

Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Digital Media Group, 1998 - 2001

Showtime Networks Inc. (A Viacom Company), New York, NY

Created direct to consumer marketing programs to generate new subscribers/users; successfully worked with other internal departments to coordinate these efforts company-wide. Developed and established co-marketing alliances with multiple partners. Created and implemented new revenue opportunities including advertising and sponsorship. Defined the online marketing strategy for the company. Oversaw department budget; managed a diverse staff.

• Secured sponsorship and advertising dollars delivering 110% of target revenue goal (in excess of $1 million) in first year of operation.

• Closed joint marketing initiatives/sponsorships with leading brands such as M&M Mars, Ford Focus, Unilever and USA Networks; established precedent for similar relationship opportunities in the future.

• Grew database of registered members by 154%; implemented opt-in direct marketing campaigns.

• Increased website traffic by 300% through implementation of integrated marketing and promotional campaigns; efforts contributed approximately one-third of the total increase in subscriptions for 2001.

Manager, Marketing, 1997 - 1998

Time Warner Cable, ParentTime LLC, (a Joint Venture with Procter & Gamble), New York, NY

Formulated and executed the marketing and distribution strategies for this parenting content website and Internet start-up. Planned and implemented all online and off-line advertising initiatives and event marketing activities. Developed, designed and launched monthly, integrated promotions to increase audience and generate revenue. Managed the design, layout, copy writing and production of all collateral materials. Supervised the third party agency regarding all public relation initiatives.

• Developed and implemented an original 20-city, grass-roots community development campaign to generate awareness, build the brand and community on the website. Secured sponsorship dollars.

• Negotiated and implemented the terms of strategic alliances with access (AOL), search (Yahoo!) and push (PointCast) technologies to create alternative distribution channels and co-branded content areas.

• Increased site traffic 30% through the management of online guerrilla marketing tactics.

Manager, Market Research and Strategic Planning, 1997

Softbank Interactive Marketing, (Softbank Holdings, a subsidiary of Ziff Davis), New York, NY

Managed the design, execution and analysis of various proprietary research studies and synthesized data for the development of sales strategies. Identified appropriate marketing information for presentation to advertising agencies/advertisers. Developed on-going client service initiatives and trained sales teams to sell Internet advertising. Planned and implemented annual corporate online and print advertising campaigns to the trade.

Vice President, Associate Director, Media Resources, 1992 – 1996

McCann-Erickson, Inc., New York, NY

Provided leadership for effective media and market analysis and presentation. Created and presented strategic points of view and recommendations to clients in response to their specific requests or needs including Coca-Cola, Nestle and McDonald’s. Managed McCann North America resource budget; negotiated all vendor contracts.

EDUCATION

Masters of Business Administration in Marketing, Fordham University, New York, NY

Bachelor of Science in Communications Management, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY

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