About Sean
Executive Summary
- Passionate, creative leader and multi-talented developer that balances analytics and evidence-based software architecture decisions and UX design with progressive creativity to create applications and interfaces that engage users and meet business goals.
- Educated at Appalachian State (B.Sc.), UNC Greensboro (MBA), and UNC Chapel Hill (Full Stack Web Development).
- Extensively skilled in Adobe Creative Cloud, and over a decade of experience with HTML and CSS. Skilled in JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX, Node.js, Express, React, and experienced with MySQL, MongoDB, and FireBase, among others.
- Hold multiple leadership certifications from the Center for Creative Leadership (LDP, FOL, ELDP). Wall Street Journal Award winner (listed in WSJ among the highest achieving MBAs in the United States), and published in the North American Case Research Journal.
- Over 18 years of developing technical requirements and standards, translating technical concepts for non-technical audiences, and leading and executing programming and development initiatives in an Agile development environment.
- Excited to delve-deep and develop across the front- and back-end to support the organization and work across the company and internal team to answer new challenges and bring new solutions to life.
Career
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION - TEACHING
I started my professional career in teaching as one of the highly competitive and prestigious North Carolina Teaching Fellows (NCTF) following my graduation from Appalachian State University with an undergraduate degree in Education - English, with concentrated minors in psychology and Latin.
ADVERTISING
After several years of teaching, I moved into the advertising and marketing fields as a result of a unique opportunity. Studying media buying and moving up the agency ladder, I eventually secured a highly competitive seat as a top-10 metro market media buyer for Mullen Lowe and as a contract buyer for the renowned agency Madison Avenue agency, LCI McCann Erikson.
GRADUATE EDUCATION - MBA
I invested in career by pursuing an MBA, winning the highest accolades offered to a graduating student upon completion of my Master's program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Awards included the Bryan Academic Honor Medal for outstanding academic success (equivalent of summma cum laude - 3.94 GPA), the Bryan Leadership and Achievement Award for outstanding academic achievement and leadership to the Bryan School of Business (UNCG), the UNCG MBA program, and the Greensboro community where I was actively involved as a loaned executive for United Way and a Board of Directors member for the Broach Theatre. I received the highest honor given to a graduating business program student - only one selected in a graduating class across the entire college and all graduating levels: the Wall Street Journal award. This recognition included being listed as one of the United States' "best-in-class" - highest achieving MBA graduates from an accredited business school.
CONSULTING
During my post-graduate studies, I served as a consultant in both operations and marketing for a number of companies including Gilbarco Veeder-Root, TE Connectivity, Banner Pharmacaps, and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, before graduating and quickly accepting a full-time position in web, ecommerce, and digital marketing at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) - a top 10 global provider of executive development and leadership training programs, solutions, and research.
DIGITAL MARKETING, WEB MANAGEMENT, ECOMMERCE
Over 5+ years at CCL, I moved from Sr. Project Manager - working with Scrum teams of full-stack .Net developers in an Agile development, to Online Community Manager - developing proprietary community portals as well as social presence on the public social communities we all know well, to eventually overseeing the global web and ecommerce business unit - with P&L and responsibility for all online, digital, web, and ecommerce initiatives across CCL's global footprint spanning APAC, EMEA, and the Americas.
DESIGN, CORPORATE EDUCATION, E-LEARNING
Across my progressive roles and tenure at CCL, I honed an advanced skillset in design especially user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, as well as broad mastery in digital and graphic art. I segued into a VP, Design Team Management role at BB&T (now Truist), designing learning programs and online digital learning software approaches to capability development.
MARKETING DIRECTION - TECHNOLOGY SERVICES
After a few years with BB&T, I took a role a little closer to home as a Marketing Director of Dynamic Quest - a Tech Services company in Greensboro, where I served in a dual role as a Strategic Account Director for its sister company Red Letter Marketing.
CONSULTING, AGENCY OWNERSHIP - DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT
Eventually, I set off on my own path - creating a small consultancy called Chart Room Creative providing digital marketing, design, UX, and front-end development for a small number of clients including the Center for Creative Leadership, for which I still engage in a paid consulting relationship to this day.
TECH START-UP LEADERSHIP
I also have taken an entreprenuerial post as COO for an early stage startup that is developing a 360-degree assessment and survey platform for the T&D industry.
NEXT STEPS: WHAT LIES AHEAD?
In the midst of global economic contraction and the Coronavirus pandemic, I have decided to hard-pivot to refine my core with a strong basis in programming. Though I've long held posts directing development and prioritizing work of developers, I've had a gap in front-end/back-end development which lacked formality and refinement that ongoing formal education could provide. In May 2020, I enrolled in a Full Stack Development program with the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I will graduate in late Octover 2020 with a post-graduate certificate in Full Stack Development.
My goal is lofty but should bring great value to the right organization and great satisfaction to me. I am passionate about creating useful technologies that people can interact with intuitively and that improve their lives and their experience with technology. I intend to merge a strong business background, with decades of experience in digital marketing, a mastery of digital design and UX, and a now-more-refined full stack development skillset.
OPPORTUNITIES
I am currently open to both contract and FT/PT-employed opportunities in which I can exercise a development skillset, while leveraging this merger of experience and skill. If you are interested in exploring how I can grow your organization and provide a uniquely high-value convergence of skill and experience, please contact me.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY...
Sean has a gift and passion for web design and it shows in everything he does. He's got a wonderful right-brain, creative design aesthetic, as well as left-brain, nuts and bolts, pragmatic sensibility. He's able to communicate the complexities of the web to lay persons, and is personable and responsive in the process...."
Sean is a first rate web strategist and manager. He's very knowledgeable not only on the technical aspects of the web but has his pulse on current web communications and eCommerce trends. Add to that an incredible work ethic and you have an individual who is a tremendous talent.
If you want creative action. Sean is your person. Sean is a person you want to get to know if you want help at the intersections of technology, innovation, and business performance. His work on innovations in CCL's web presence have been a terrific aid to piloting and making happen, new products and services that the world needs to see and play with on the road to full scale production. Through all of my interaction with Sean, I have witnessed service, creativity, and diligent action.
Sean digs deep. When you’re working with him on a project, you know he’s going to uncover a wealth of information and insights to inform the solution. He doesn’t just settle for a brisk Google session followed by banging out a few scattered observations. His office library was a source of envy for me — each book filled with notes and highlights....The man is a Rembrandt of the white board. I was always dismayed when his kaleidoscopic, multidimensional flowcharts and diagrams had to be unceremoniously erased to make way for the next meeting.
Sean is a high-powered, focused manager with a keen sense of thoroughness and attention to detail. He combines a strong analytical mind with a vision for future growth and viability of his projects....
Sean is a tireless worker dedicated to setting big goals and achieving them. His customer orientation focuses his energy in the right places while his analytical mind and dedication to measurement ensures he stays on target. He brings energy, a can-do attitude, and a solutions-focus to any challenge we face. Sean is a valued member of the management team and a trusted advisor....