Simon Julian

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

> Over fifteen years working in digital media, advertising and publishing for some of the largest Brands in Australia, much of that in senior management roles.

> Strong business, project, program and team management skills with measurable and successful results. Advanced communication and team-building skills. I enjoy and am comfortable with working at a General Management level, managing teams of up to 40 people, with full P+L accountability.

> Excellent commercial acumen, well-versed in industry trends and a well-developed understanding of the various commercial models in both web and mobile spaces, underpinned by a high level of product and technical knowledge of web and mobile applications, content management systems, custom print publishing, CDRom and wireless/mobile technologies.

> Very experienced in sales, pre-sales support roles and tender and pitch writing/ development. Extensive experience in client and customer-facing and leadership roles. Experience managing and consulting to clients and partners, developing business cases.

> Expertise in and good understanding of issues surrounding Usability, Information architecture and information design for websites, content management systems and web/wireless applications. In-depth knowledge of the digital, advertising and publishing spaces and insight into community building, social networking and complex user-based publishing models

> Currently mentor to three mentorees, I enjoy and take pride in the mentoring role

> Honours degrees in both English and History from University of Sydney, Dip. Inf. Tech from Mercury Colleges in Sydney.

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Global Partnerships Manager: Lonely Planet Publications | Mar 2005 – Mar 2008

In this role I was responsible for a full Channel and P+L line that runs across three global regions (Asia/Pacific, EMEA and the Americas). This included full revenue and gross margin performance responsibility for the Channel and line management of three staff plus close liaison with a sales force of eight and a production team of over forty people.

FY’06 saw the B2B channel 39% up on budget and 103% up year on year. FY’07 saw the B2B channel 36% up on budget and 20% up YOY.

Major areas of focus included:

o Product strategy and new product development for all new products developed in the B2B product area (both digital and custom print) and significant input into both all digital and some print product lines developed for Lonely Planet.

o Direct report to the CEO, heavily involved in Lonely Planet’s digital strategic initiatives

o Global responsibility for efficient production and quality of all client work for B2B

o High level client relationship management and liaison

o Development of partnerships with major Global organisations such as Sony and Yahoo

o Development of new process and procedures for maximizing margin and increasing production effectiveness.

o Heavily involved in wider Lonely Planet initiatives, including:

• • Involved in World Away Day, presented ideas on the Lonely Planet of 2008 to over 400 people
  • Member of the Blue Review (LP’s work/life balance team)
  • Mentored project producers in Digital Production
  • Worked extensively with Production Manager on processes to streamline project production
  • Worked with Global Apps department on product development and application development processes

Senior Project Manager: Lonely Planet Publications | Nov 2003 – Mar 2005

· Product strategy and project management of WorldGuide 2 product (currently the core of the new Lonely Planet website) – including vendor management, contract negotiations and liaison with Daemon

· Conceived of and project managed upgraded XML content delivery methods for Ethyl database and many content deliveries to clients such as Yahoo, AOL, Canada.com, STA Global and others

· Custom print and website projects for AQIS – ‘And Back’ Series (13 booklets), Travel Tips Asia booklet

· ‘Citypicks’ mobile product for Optus, Singtel and Maxis

· Itinerary Builder mini CDRom for Optus

Creative Services Manager: Spin Communications | Sep 2003 – Nov 2003

· Accountable for Studio management, timely production and quality of all design completed by Spin (New Media, Print and Video).

· Managed a team of 9 creatives and developers, addition of print production management to portfolio

· Continuation of studio management and strategic responsibilities

Executive Producer: Spin Communications | Sep 2002 – Sep 2003

· Responsible for all aspects of the management of an eight person production team within Spin New Media, a division of Spin Communications.

· Responsible for budgeting, time and studio management, financial management of the new media studio, pitching and new business sales support, project briefing and functional specifications/information architecture for all Spin websites

· Senior Account management and strategy for clients such as Nike Australia, Buena Vista International, Disney and Carlton United Breweries, staff training and process implementation within the studio and integration with other verticals (PR, Marketing, Advertising and Event Management) inside the Spin Communications group.

Product Technical Manager: i7 Ltd/AOL|7 Ltd | Mar 2001 – Oct 2002

· Worked across the Content, Creative, Sales, Marketing and Technical teams

· Charged with ensuring the success of online products throughout the i7 Network and thence AOL|7.

· Set up successful processes to allow measurement of project success and ROI for all i7/AOL|7 projects.

· Successfully project managed over 25 projects through to completion during contract

· Developed Brand and product standards that were applied across the i7/AOL|7 network – applied to all new sites built during and since contract completed – these include ‘Home and Away’, ‘Seven News’, ‘Today Tonight’, ‘The Great Outdoors’, ‘Temptation Island’, ‘The Club’ and many others. Also developed brand style guide during this time and applied it to all i7 sites.

· Designed XML-based content management admin system for Today Tonight website, one of the highest trafficked Current Affairs websites in Australia. Successfully project managed TT project through completion and launch. Managed vendor relationships during development of website

· Successfully launched Commonwealth Games coverage website for Channel 7 – this site was more successful than the official Commonwealth Games site during the games, garnering 5.05% of total traffic at the height of the games.

Information Architect: SCAPE Pty Ltd, Melbourne | Dec 2000 – Jan 2001

Worked with senior management and teams at all levels to generate the information architecture and content structures for the second version of the site, then kept an overview of development of new SCAPE product offering.

Senior Project Manager: Razorfish Project Office | Feb 2000 – Dec 2000

· Most senior role in the Razorfish Melbourne Project office

· Full budgetary responsibility, responsibility for all timelines and deliverables for creative and development teams on 7 million dollar project

· Mentored and managed team of up to 20 team members on a day-to-day basis.

Senior Project Manager: Hothouse Interactive, Sydney | Apr 1998 – Feb 2000

· Responsible for the day-to-day running of jobs (from strategy to completion) for clients such as Vodafone, James Hardie, Tower Life, Central Television, GoCorp and others,

· Most budgets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars (total budget for all Vodafone project work was 1.5 million dollars)

Principal Consultant: Seijaku Productions, Sydney | Jun 1996 – Apr 1998

· Self-managed web strategy, content and technology consultancy

· Completed work for clients such as Telstra, OzEmail, Ford Australia and others

· Wrote content for and edited sites such as OzEmail Edventure and Stockwatch

Project Manager: Real Interactive, Sydney | Jun 1995 – Jun 1996

· Achieved success with projects for clients such as the Australian Rugby League (won an Australian Internet Industry Award in 1996), Getaway TV (nominated for an Australian Internet Industry Award in 1996) and Chaos Music.

· Wrote content for the Getaway website as well as much of the content for ARL and other sites, also developed highly-praised content strategies for these sites

Production Assistant/Designer: Real Interactive, Sydney | Dec 1994 – Jun 1995

· Developed and was involved in marketing successful Getaway website.

· Worked on production of Australian Rugby League website

MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

· Experienced in and comfortable with managing and developing diverse teams of up to 40 and mentoring team members with a view to helping them achieve personal and team goals.

· Full understanding of budgeting and financial management, business casing, HR and change management issues

· Experience in full project development cycle, from Business development and pre-sales through to completion of project. Initiative and ability to see best place to add value in any project

· Conflict mediation skills

· Have mentored more junior members of project teams and worked with them to foster both their personal and their professional development inside the organisation.

· Enjoy handling crises; able to quickly assess situations and offer solutions to problems, also able to lead teams and motivate when needed most.

FORMAL EDUCATION

· Diploma in Information Technology, Mercury Colleges Sydney, 1994

· B.A. with Hons, English, University of Sydney, 1993

· B.A. with Hons, History, University of Sydney, 1993

· Business and Marketing Writing, Swinburne University, 2004

· Key to Effective Editing, Swinburne University, 2004

· Key to Effective Proof Reading, Swinburne University, 2004

Lonely Planet Internal Training

· Equal Employment Opportunity training

· Giving and Receiving Feedback

· GROW methodology for effective communication