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TOM COPPOLA
914.329.5469 • New York, NY • choreo73@me.com
whoistomcoppola.com • www.linkedin.com/in/tomcoppola
SENIOR DIRECTOR
CREATIVE OPERATIONS | BUSINESS AFFAIRS
Versatile, innovative, results-driven and performance-focused marketing professional, offering broad-based experience in business affairs & marketing communications management. Proactive and solutions-oriented executive; skilled at developing and implementing strategies that improve systems & processes to streamline efficiency.
Leadership | Strategic Planning | Project Management | Program Management | Relationship Building
Contract Negotiation | Team Development, Coaching & Mentoring | Vendor Management | Policy Development Advertising | Process Improvement | Budget Planning & Management | Event Planning
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
AKA NYC - New York, NY 06/2022–Present
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION
Directs full business operations for the creative department (key art design/production, creative content & digital). Reviews and rebuilds processes & procedures designed to optimize job flow and agency performance. Collaborates with CCO on hiring, staffing and assignment of projects to maximize resource utilization. Works closely with creative teams to define project goals, objectives, budget, staffing requirements and vision for success.
Built, grew and led the talent & business affairs department from the ground up including organizational structure, financial planning and business goals. Established agency as a signatory for SAG-AFTRA, generating additional income stream, and resulting in ~$450K annual revenue.
Reviews and rebuilds processes & procedures designed to optimize job flow and agency performance. Improved departmental efficiency by re-organizing daily check-in meetings to focus team discussion on client projects. Improved departmental efficiency by re-organizing daily check-in meetings to focus team discussion on client projects.
Leads and mentors content producers in full cycle production process. Implemented monthly project manager roundtable to discuss interdepartmental pain points and agency best practices.
Created a new vendor form to streamline vendor onboarding and provide tracking of new vendor account set-up, improving timeliness of accounts payable response time.
Restructured client workload between producers, allowing for clearer accountability on projects, more efficient workflow and clearer communication between departments.
Leveraged client/vendor relationship with a photography agency to pivot terms from a licensing agreement to a work-for-hire agreement per client’s request, coming in on-budget and meeting a last-minute and crucial deadline.
Party of Four - New York, NY 10/2020–06/2022
FOUNDER & CEO
Production and business affairs consulting for small business, non-profit and entertainment clients. Expertise included copywriting, video, audio and photography production, motion GFX, illustration design projects.
SpotCo | Freelance Business Affairs Manager (08/21–05/22)
Provided interim business affairs support to assist with influx of projects as Broadway work returned.
Frontier Communications | Full-Time Contract Position: Managing Editor, Content Marketing (12/20–05/22)
Designed & implemented a new process to improve efficiency of publishing articles, achieving 24 articles published to blog per month.
Party of Four | Founder & CEO (10/20–05/22)
Creative director and producer for marketing assets and UXP/B2B content for small business, non-profit and entertainment: copywriting, video, radio, photography production, motion GFX and illustration design.
SpotCo - New York, NY 02/2013–05/2022 EXECUTIVE PRODUCER | SENIOR INTEGRATED PRODUCER
Drove creative operations, finances and business affairs for concurrent projects (broadcast/video, radio, print, digital, OOH, social and collateral) with budgets up to $650K. Built & managed all budgets, production schedules and timelines from ideation to delivery. Constructed, led and oversaw a dynamic team of in-house producers, freelancers and interns.
Collaborated on 50+ projects annually, contributing to $1.5MM in agency billing.
Worked cross-functionally with division heads to seamlessly implement a new company-wide billing system, creating departmental billing and time tracking categories for accurate reporting.
Streamlined agency communication and increased content team productivity by creating & implementing agency-wide creative briefs and project management systems.
Optimized efficiency and productivity by 15% over three years through the development and implementation of workflows across social media and content departments.
Advertising Production Resources - Chicago, IL 04/2012–02/2013
JUNIOR PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR - WALMART
Oversaw full onboarding process of 3rd-party vendors, adhering to policies and best practices. Supervised production projects for retail marketing divisions with budgets up to $250K.
Negotiated production contracts and advocated on behalf of the client to obtain best value for production dollars.
Ensured compliance of client policies and best practices for Walmart accounts.
Administered cost savings by leveraging production efficiencies and monitoring invoice auditing.
Tracked projects in a proprietary database to discover trends across all media productions.
FCB Global - Chicago, IL 09/2010–08/2011
PRODUCTION BUSINESS MANAGER - SC JOHNSON & KMART
Directed all business affairs for domestic and off-shore TV commercial (budgets up to $850K) and radio production (budgets up to $20K).
Prepared triple bid estimates for client review and approval, including review of production and post production bids.
Executed all SOWs, MSAs, production contracts, agreements, releases and invoices.
Secured 3rd party licensing of music, footage and photography.
Worked cross-functionally with the talent department on appropriate SAG/AFTRA talent estimates and residuals.