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Take a minute to get to know us.
Richard Maranta
VP, Design and Technology My StoryI guess you'd say I am a liberal arts kind-of-guy trapped in a technology-geek's body. After doing my Masters of Arts degree in English Literature at the University of Waterloo studying self-destructive American authors like William Faulkner, I decided to lighten up and go to teacher's college and be a secondary school teacher. After teaching for a while, the lure of technology was too much, leading me to take a job at Nortel Networks as a Technical Training Specialist and Technical Writer. As the Internet emerged, I helped push our organization toward implementing web, multimedia and eLearning. Some of the things we accomplished were pretty innovative at the time. We were the first to use streaming media in the company for technical transfers and training events. We used emerging technologies to create excellent marketing CDs, on-product demos, web applications, and eLearning courses. We were like a little rebel base inside a large Galactic Empire. At least that is how we saw it. I moved from Nortel to manage the eLearning development business for a niche consulting company specializing in helping Fortune 100 companies do requirements analysis for mission critical projects. I learned a lot there about the importance of getting solid requirements and having a measurable repeatable process for projects. I developed a suite of eLearning courses that taught best practices for requirements elicitation targeted at Business Analysts and Systems Analysts. I also developed competency exams, tutorials, web-portals, and an on-line accreditation management system used by companies for tracking employees progress toward a designation. Now I am here and enthused about helping companies with their diverse and challenging training needs. My ContributionI oversee the design and development of the eLearning that we produce. I help pick the best and most appropriate technology for your training requirements and the needs of your users. How I learnI play. I research. Then I play again.
Nancy WoinoskiVP, Operations and Client Services My StoryRobert Frost wrote about the road not taken as a metaphor for the choices people make in life. Looking at my own career, it sometimes feels like I've travelled every road (and hit every pot hole) to get to where I am today. I've worked for large, medium and small companies and on accounts that cover virtually every aspect of the business world — advertising, document management, finance, photography, pharmaceuticals, transportation, technology, telecommunications, and government. I started out writing about alternative transportation fuels well before global warming was on the radar. I did a stint as a Communications Officer at the Ministry of Correctional Services where I interviewed, photographed and wrote about the "guests" of the province. Talk about learning by fire how to deal with all types of people. My career took a shift when I joined Reuters as a Marketing Manager and built an international customer base for a global securities lending system. It turned again when I joined a small software company as a Documentation and Training Manager where I learned the importance of customizing training to customer needs. It was then on to Nortel where I led the documentation and training team that Rick describes as a rebel base. After Nortel, I took a role as a Director of Professional Services with a services company where I managed all aspects of custom web development to ensure the successful completion of customer projects. My ContributionAt Pinched Head, I lead our efforts to innovate the way we plan and deliver work for our clients. How I LearnIt is true that people learn in different ways. In high school, a teacher once told me that he measured the success of his class by whether or not I was engaged in the lesson. He's lucky I was ever engaged because I learn best by trying things out for myself. The classroom is not my thing (even though I spent a lot of time in one). I think one of the biggest challenges in implementing effective elearning is to figure out how to reach people in a way that they will learn without breaking the bank trying to do so. Contact us today.
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