About Joel

Experience:

2016 – 2021
DIRECTOR, MARKETING, COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT – Calgary Homeless Foundation – Calgary, Alberta

CHF is the CBO charged with guiding the fight against homelessness in Calgary, stewarding government and philanthropic funding towards innovative housing programs and system planning for Calgary’s Homeless-Serving System of Care.

Strategy:

• Create and execute stakeholder engagement, government relations, fund development, communications, social media, and marketing strategies
• Determine KPIs and leverage analytics and data driven approaches to achieve brand, marketing, and business objectives
• Develop and coordinate large-scale events, public consultation, and public relations initiatives
• Create and manage multiple complementary sub-brands to drive targeted engagement activities
• Build and advise on government and Indigenous relations strategies

Team & Project Management:

• Build and direct a cross-functional marketing and development team of 7
• Creation and management of a departmental budget of $1.3M
• Coordinate contractors, artists, videographers, photographers, print suppliers and technical engineers to deliver results on time and on budget
• Social Media and marketing technology & KPIs: SproutSocial, HootSuite, Google Analytics

Results:

• Spearhead a small but highly functional fund development team to create campaigns that provided a 75% increase over a 3 year period
• Redeploy web site and SEO strategy to increase Google impressions by 103% and average CTR by 130% annually over a 5 year period
• Lead a team of three specialists to increase social media engagement rates to: 1.7% on Twitter, 6.5% on Facebook, and 8.3% on LinkedIn

Technologies utilized: Adobe CC/CS3 Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, Premier), Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, Planner, SharePoint, OneNote), WordPress, Sprout Social, Google Analytics, MailChimp, CyberImpact.

2007 – Current
OWNER, CREATIVE & MARKETING CONSULTANT – Tangerine Leaf Inc. – Calgary, Alberta

As a contract gun for hire, I’ve collaborated with many high-profile clients (such as SAIT, ConocoPhillips, Graham Group, Sanjel, AVI Homes, Media Dog Productions Inc.), to help them succeed in their brand, communications, marketing, and business objectives.

• Provide creative direction through working with artists, writers, photographers, print suppliers and technical engineers to oversee and coordinate projects to deliver highly polished, final products.
• Create successful conceptual design solutions for communications and advertising campaigns, including branding, culture, digital, online and offline collateral.
• Recommend techniques, methods and media best suited to produce desired results and exceed communications and marketing requirements.
• Assist in the technical aspects of designing, developing and maintaining digital properties and strategies.
• Project management, budgeting, strategic planning and coordination of people and assets.

Technologies utilized: Adobe CC/CS3 Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, Articulate Storyline 2, WordPress, Joomla, Ingeniux, HTML, CSS, ColdFusion, Javascript, jQuery, MySQL, as well as traditional illustrative mediums such as watercolour, acrylic and ink.

1996 – 2008
FOUNDER/OWNER, CTO, MARKETING STRATEGIST, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, FULL STACK DEVELOPER – Media Dog Productions Inc. – Calgary, Alberta

One of the very first, highly successful web design and development firms in Calgary.

Strategy:

• Built a small but agile company from startup to a 3M valuation
• Developed unique digital brand and culture campaigns which fueled online and offline activities to provide quantifiable analytics
• Recommended technologies, methodologies, and approaches best suited to desired client outcomes
• Identified and implemented SEO, SEM, and social media tactics that delivered measurable results
• Created digital brand strategy for many client organizations, from small startups to large, senior corporations

Management:

• Responsible for all aspects of business from strategic planning, budgeting, finances, sales, and client relations to project management, design, development, and delivery of final products
• Managed 12 employees and directed a team of developers and designers to offer unique marketing and communications solutions
• Proposal, content, and creative writing for clients and core business

Design & Development:

• Prepared UIX layouts and online solutions that balanced technical limitations with client need and established core usability standards for use on the web
• Designed digital interactive sales and marketing collateral
• Developed database-driven browser-based applications for use in many sectors such as medical, dental, oil & gas, and professional.

Technologies utilized: Adobe Professional Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, WordPress, HTML, CSS, ColdFusion, Javascript, jQuery, Dreamweaver, Eclipse, Coda, Navicat, MySQL, MSSQL, IBM Net.Commerce.

Certifications: Adobe Coldfusion Certified, IBM Net.Commerce Certified.

1998
DAY CLASS INSTRUCTOR – WEB DESIGN – Alberta College of Art and Design – Calgary, Alberta

Instructed students at ACAD on the fundamentals of web design. In addition to the basics of HTML, I also illustrated the major differences in design approaches for online solutions as opposed to print, and how to engage and interact with the end viewer with good user experience and user-centric design.

1996
LEAD ILLUSTRATOR AND DESIGNER – Gravitec Systems Inc. – Calgary, Alberta

As Gravitec’s first full-time lead illustrator and designer, I was involved in all aspects of graphic design during the company’s original formation in Calgary. From advertising and design to illustrations for manuals and teaching tools, my time with Gravitec was highly creative and productive.

• Created detailed and highly polished technical illustrations for engineered fall protection system manuals.
• Developed a set of “characters” and illustrations for training manuals used by both instructors and students.
• In charge of developing a brand and character toolset which subsequently became the official look for the Canadian Standards Association handbook on fall protection at that time.

Education

1996       Visual Communications Major

Alberta College of Art and Design – Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Certification

2009       ICF Certification: Professional Team Building, Executive, Life and Relationship Coach

Demers Group – Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Volunteer Activities

2015 – 2018       Board Member – Membership Chair

Alberta Society of Artists – Calgary, Alberta, Canada

2013 – 2015            Board Member – Technologies Chair

Alberta Society of Artists – Calgary, Alberta, Canada