Good afternoon. I am very interested in this opening. The restaurant is amazing and I believe I would be a perfect fit.
James Ontko
Frank Felix Miranda #15 Dept 601 1-809-224-8799
Ensanche Naco
ontkojames@gmail.com
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
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Work Experience
Elements for Women LLC Miami, Florida
Feb2008-March 2009
Corporate Operations Coordinator/Project Manager
• Implemented operating procedures for international franchise corporation. Sourcing legal, financial, and retail organizations for each new franchisee and company owned operations.
• Handling AP/AR and filtering through our accountants detailed financial information for each business transaction taking place within the corporation.
• Interviewing prospective candidates for international and domestic sales, creating corporate and franchisee operating guides, provided detailed corporate training as well as for single locations.
• Opening new corporate owned clubs from start to finish and acting as liason between vendors, attorneys and construction with President of elements.
• Oversaw acquisition of $3.5 million dollar competing franchise chain with 19 locations within the Florida market.
• Recruited operations team to take over the newly acquired fitness chain and provided company training, implemented sales goals, detailed salary and benefit information.
• Assisted president in determining the proper branding methods for the company.
• Launched a companywide international organic supplement line.
South Beach Estates Miami, Florida
April 2007-January 2008
Office Manager
• Daily operations of luxury real estate office in South Beach, Florida. Duties include: interview process for new agent candidates, maintaining escrow accounts and business accounts, handling all new development projects from inception, daily input and maintenance on MLX, weekly meetings for all agents and management along with education classes for new realtors, property showings, property management for clients, payroll and disbursement checks to agents, marketing projects for the agency and website maintenance.
Little Switzerland , Tiffany and Co. Miami, Florida
July 2006-October2006
Visual Director/Store Planner CONTRACT
• Visual Manger and educator for 28 Caribbean and Alaska boutiques.
• Creating and executing visual designs and promotions for each boutique and rebranding Little Switzerland to bring them up to date with the current visual merchandising trends and strategies.
• Hiring and training a visual delegate in each location and preparing a visual handbook.
• Visiting each Little Switzerland boutique on a consistent basis and maintaining the structure of the company.
• Opening and remodeling of new and existing stores; eg. hiring architects, contractors, local companies and/or local government throughout the Caribbean and Alaska to ensure the opening in a timely manner. Managing remodel and new store budgets exceeding $3 million.
• Personal liason for our parent company Tiffany and Co. and working with executives to plan and open their individual boutiques in our stores.
• Worked with the buyers for fine jewelry and watches and prepared seasonal buys and launch promotions daily.
Kaiser Permanente Denver, Colorado
August 2005-December 2005 CONTRACT
Visual Director/ Project Manager Optical Division
• Planning and executing a new visual concept for 11 Kaiser optical clinics throughout the Colorado region
• Traveling to each optical clinic and creating an interior design for the remodel
• Managing a budget for fixtures and signage, as well as managing vendors and individual contractors so that each clinic was completed on a timely basis
• Researching the competitors within the region and working with marketing and advertising to create promotions and branding signage and visually bringing the clinics into more of a retail store atmosphere
• Locating individual vendors to provide fixtures for each of the individual optical clinics.
• Held presentations to the heads of the company in order to obtain funding for each of the clinics.
• Leading training seminars with each clinic and its staff to ensure that the visual standards implemented would be carried through.
The Furniture Room Denver, Colorado
January 2005-April 2005 CONTRACT
Visual Director/ Project Manager and Consultant
• Redesigning and implementing visual displays and floor planning for a 40,000 square foot warehouse showroom.
• Creating departments and individual vignettes for each collection of furniture and accessory
• Consulted the owners with buying strategies and timelines to maximize sales and profitability of incoming merchandise and working with each individual vendor to optimize sales as well as stay within store budgets.
• Travel to tradeshows and obtain vendor information and pricing while using my expertise in style and design to create a buying strategy for the company.
• Hosted seminars for staff of 30 employees to the basics of visual display and placement of merchandise, as well as created a prototype visual manual as a backbone for the company as new stores were to be opened
Starboard Cruise Services Miami, Florida
October 2003-October 2004
Visual Manager/ Project Manager Carnival Cruise Lines, Radisson, Seven Seas, The World
• Create world-class displays for interior walls/fixtures, promotional displays, launches, and windows for the designated departments.
• Develop communication packages to disseminate the visual merchandise display strategy to all 32 ships within my territory.
• Visit all ships on a rotating basis worldwide as required to ensure consistent application of visual presentation standards, and full roll-out of all departmental visual merchandising strategies.
• Over saw the set-up and design of shops within a new ship prior to launch.
• Coordinate the alteration of visual merchandising programs and visual directives as ships shifted between geographic itineraries.
• Facilitate a complete interior remodeling of 3 Carnival ships including managing budgets of no less than $775,000for complete remodel and/or build out of retail shops within ships, purchasing of merchandise with a 150,000 sku inventory and working with each individual vendor, hiring contractors and working with architects to maintain the timeline which was determined, store planning, overseeing the delivery and execution of each shop from start to finish.
• Lead a task force to redesign Carnival’s luxury fleet with the goal of maximizing sales within onboard shops. Detailed plans including each individual fixture and display were created to optimally present all merchandise.
Education
Pennsylvanian State University Wilkes-Barre, PA
Industrial Design 1991-1993
Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
Industrial Design 1993-1996
Special Skills Microsoft Applications
French, Spanish
