Consider this the background to my CV, which you can find here, or LinkedIn page, which you can find here. If you’d like to skip ahead to examples of my work you can find my journalism portfolio here and my corporate portfolio, which is available by request and includes work samples from my three corporate employers, here.
As a freelance reporter, I specialized in two primary types of outlets: business-to-business (B2B) publications, best illustrated by the commuter daily Metro and my later employer IT World Canada (ITWC), which involved covering announcements, research, services, and product releases from a variety of businesses for their target customers; and community reporting, best illustrated by my work with the Town Crier, which involved covering local announcements from businesses, residential concerns, real estate, and federal, provincial, and municipal government activities.
Both types of experiences have been valuable assets in my corporate career; in the former, I honed my research and audience engagement skills, quickly learning how multiple industries operated and what their customers were looking for. Meanwhile, the latter taught me how to not only connect with residents, business owners, and politicians, but professionals of all levels, from entry-level hires to senior executives and CEOs. You can find a complete list of the industries I learned about here, and learn more about my executive communications experience here.
In late 2015 I was hired by ITWC, first as a staff reporter, then later promoted to associate editor. There it was my job to cover enterprise technology from a customer’s perspective, explaining why various industries should digitally transform their operations. It’s also where I learned how to translate complex technical content into plain language, a skill I’ve used in every one of my corporate positions since.
Perhaps most importantly, ITWC is where I met my future manager at PR agency Porter Novelli, who in 2018 hired me to join the company’s technology team. There I supported a total of 10 enterprise technology companies during my three and a half years, my primary clients being financial services-focused analytics software developer FICO, accounting software developer Sage, and data centre and colocation services provider Equinix. (You can find a complete list of my clients here.) As a former journalist I was skilled at media relations, placed in charge of five client outreach campaigns which all met or exceeded expectations during my last year and a half. (I have a PowerPoint presentation which walks readers through my three most significant campaigns.) I also became the go-to writer for executive thought leadership, which you can read more about here.
My work for FICO and Sage in particular, which required me to know the financial services and accounting industries inside and out, eventually got me hired by Bank of Montreal as a Corporate Communications Manager, for a division that was later downsized. From there I secured what ended up being an 11-month contract position covering a medical leave with talent solutions provider Robert Half – but you can read about those last two experiences in my CV.
Since leaving Robert Half, I’ve developed this website to help identify my next opportunity. Should you happen to know of one, feel free to contact me!