James Ellis

Current

• Web Director at Wisconsin Alumni Association

Past

• Web Producer at Wisconsin Historical Society
• Web Specialist (Senior) at Wisconsin Department of Transportation
• Web Designer at eGarden

• PolyMedia Developer at Dancik International

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Education

• University of Phoenix
• The University of Texas at Austin

Recommended

10 people have recommended James

Connections

106 connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• My Website
• My Company

James Ellis’s Summary

Geek-turned-manager, a web warrior with an MBA, who lives in the space between ROI and RSS, databases and design. As both a manager and strategist, I see the big picture and the details, using iterative advancements and bold vision to achieve transformational goals: increasing traffic at one site by 500% in three years or increasing engagement by 20% in one year at another. I am always looking for new challenges, especially in Chicago.

James Ellis’s Specialties:

Strategic Planning, Project Management, Web Marketing and Promotion, Brand Development and Repositioning, Web Analytics, Social Networking/Emergent Web Technology, Vendor Relationship Management, Staff Development and Motivation, Presentations and Training, Information and Workflow Design and Metaphor Creation.

James Ellis’s Experience

• Web Director

  Wisconsin Alumni Association

  (Non-Profit; Higher Education industry)

  October 2006 — Present (3 years 2 months)

  Conceptualized and managed web and social networking strategy for increasing traffic and engagement, creating more than 40,000 new connections in one year
  
  Increased raw traffic by 63%, visit times by 56% and decreased bounce rate by 48% in 12 months through a combination of increased content, targeted marketing and other incremental changes based on findings from analytical tools like Google Analytics and 4Q/iPerceptions
  
  Managed annual budget of six figures, negotiating a 31% decrease in project cost and 10% decrease in hourly rate from vendor with faster response times
  
  Recruited staff and supervised more than 180 people working on web-related projects
  
  I am an instigator, evangelist, co-conspirator and mad scientist in one amusing package

• Web Producer

  Wisconsin Historical Society

  (Education Management industry)

  January 2003 — October 2006 (3 years 10 months)

  Designed and implemented strategy that increased traffic by more than 500% over three years through complete WHS web redesign, integrated with brand repositioning project
  
  Initiated and managed e-commerce solution for WHS
  
  Introduced and expanded blogging as internet tool (MovableType), designed first content syndication project in the state using RSS (1,000 extra visits/day)

• Web Specialist (Senior)

  Wisconsin Department of Transportation

  (Government Administration industry)

  June 2001 — January 2003 (1 year 8 months)

  Managed and designed WisDOT Corporate University and intranet
  
  Advised on development of WisDOT internet redesign (1,500 pages) and trained web managers

• Web Designer

  eGarden

  (Internet industry)

  August 2000 — January 2001 (6 months)

  Consulted on and developed internet e-commerce and content management strategy
  
  Initiated Vendor Demo Pages project to bring in more clients

• PolyMedia Developer

  Dancik International

  (Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

  October 1998 — June 2000 (1 year 9 months)

  Created and administered dynamic intranet/extranet using Lotus Notes back-end
  
  Produced, installed and maintained web presence

James Ellis’s Education

• University of Phoenix

  MBA , 2004 — 2006

• The University of Texas at Austin

  BA , Political Science, focuses in Studio Art and Speech Comm , 1990 — 1994

Additional Information

James Ellis’s Websites:

• My Website
• My Company

James Ellis’s Groups:

•    Texas Exes/University of Texas at Austin
•    Content Management Professionals
•    Wisconsin Alumni Association
•    The Content Wrangler Community
•    Wisconsin Alumni Group
•    YNPN Chicago
•    Fans of Mashable
•    An Event Apart
•    UW-Madison Alumni Group
•    Social Media Today
•    Web Strategist
•    Web Standards Design + Development
•    NonProfit MidWest (US)
•    Ashley Ellis
•    Social Media for Nonprofits

James Ellis’s Honors:

Co-wrote Content Management Systems: Tools of the Trade (Peer Information , 2002)

Silver Award for Best New Alumni Program from CASE V in 2008, Webby Award 2004 from the Wisconsin Library Association for “Best” and “Coolest” website, won Lyman Draper Award from Wisconsin Historical Society in 2004 and 3 DBM Administrator’s Awards at WisDOT in 2002

Guest lectured on web at UW-Madison – February 2004, March 2005 and November 2006

Wrote articles on web strategy and blogging for A List Apart and WebReview.com

James Ellis’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch