Scott Axelrod

ScottAxelrod579@gmail.com

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

(954)-461-4760

DIRECTOR ONLINE OPERATIONS, COMMUNITY

Member Acquisition & Retention / Member & Employee Engagement / Optimal User Experiences
Strategic Content Programming / Innovative Products & Online Events / Knowledge Management

A proactive, dynamic, and dedicated professional with over 15 years of Online Operations and
Community Management experience.
While at AOL, successfully turned the AOL Sports Channel Community into the #1 interactive sports
destination.
A career of proven ability in content and community management, successful team motivation and
leadership, goal definition and achievement, product development, agile development processes, and
partner integrations.
Accomplished, results-driven, business leader who is focused on the implementation of successful
engagement strategies to increase membership, drive site traffic, and ensure optimal member experiences for
maximum retention.
Proven ability to strategically design programming content and manage internal and remote teams to
success.
Solid history of undeniable success in content management, product development, partner integrations, site
redesigns, member communication, goal definition and achievement, and team motivation and leadership

Community Operations Strengths:

Internal and Remote Staff Management

Team Development and Coaching
Site Engagement and Social Media
A/B Testing and Agile Environments
Certified in Gamification

Content Acquisition and Creation

Expert Communication Skills
KPI and Goal Definition
Social Business Software
Retention Strategies

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Vistage International - San Diego, CA

2011 2014

Senior Community Manager

Recruited for the development of the companys virtual business community (start-up product.) Played a key role in website
upgrade and redesign.
Lead as product owner of online community and member-engagement strategy for Vistage International (a
CEO network).
Created dynamic content library consisting of business Best Practices and podcasts.
Developed and executed employee and member engagement strategy.
Proven ability in identifying and implementing process improvement leading to improved efficiency
and productivity around communication and execution resulting in increased member conversion-rates.
Handled daily involvement with platforms, such as: JIVE, SalesForce, WebEx, Drop Box, and Google
Drive.
Accomplishments:
Effectively lead the internal process to define product strategy, roadmap, and priorities for Vistage
Connect Community, successfully launched in 2011.
Redesigned company newsletter open rate up 75%. Facilitated the development and delivery of content
and call-to-action items. Identified/developed content spaces (text, audio, and video) within online community.
Was central participant to the development and launch of national partnerships with Bank of America
and ECP Interact.

Led and managed the development of Best Practices library sites with the most active content. Forged
relationships with 25+ speakers to develop Best Practices and monitor their material for questions on site.

Open Sports Deerfield, FL

2008-2011

Director of Content, Community, and Syndication

Led site programming, content development, and delivery to drive the development of an interactive community while facilitating
all facets of a start-up operations raising $14M from the private sector and forging a working alliance with FOXSports.com.

Played a key role in launching OpenSports.com developed/established programming experiences focused

on major events and news stories; drove specification of new social constructs across all products and services.

Worked with numerous high profile sports personalities to develop compelling content for users, including:
NFL analyst Sean Salisbury, Fantasy Sports expert Rob Shaw, and national radio broadcaster Sid Rosenberg.

Recruited and managed an editorial team with 9 members; created strategy and directed staff workload.

Strategically focused with exceptional leadership skills and the ability to build high-performance teams.

Provided comprehensive oversight and technical consulting involved in all facets of business operations.

Deeply experienced in working with business models across all platforms (digital, mobile, and social).

America Online (AOL) - Dulles, VA

1996 2000

Director of Community
Led and oversaw successful merger of The Grandstand into the AOL Sports Channel and vitally enhanced member experiences,
grew community, and maximized member retention. During tenure at AOL, the Sports Community doubled in size to over 1
million unique accounts and the AOL Sports Channel doubled in size to over 10 million unique accounts.

Spearheaded team of 13 direct reports and hundreds of community leaders. Held responsibility for
daily programming of AOL Sports Channel and development of Fantasy Sports Center.

Leveraged a combination of marketing and technology expertise to ensure an optimal user experience.

Conceptualized AOLs Grandstand Fantasy Sports products; created Internets first live automated
drafts/scoreboard, and developed database to use with the products to drive optimal member experience.

Successfully grew community leader program and used our model to develop AOLs internal community
manager program, which was leveraged to manage communities across the platform. Developed a
compelling content and programming model used to build successful communities for other AOL channels.

Led all member-engagement initiatives for AOL Sports; owned the roadmap for strategic planning.

Improved partner relationships under stressful situations to ensure goals and deadlines were being met.

Deeply experienced in managing partner relationships and integration efforts; collaborated with Real
Fans, The Motley Fool, STATS, Inc., Athlete Direct, and SportsLine.com to generate interactive content.

Management recognized for increasing revenue and site usage through "Fan Centrals" with coverage of
20+ annual major sporting events. Moreover, increased revenue and site usage through "Fantasy Sports"
with the development and management of cutting-edge games that were, at launch, industry-leading.

The Grandstand Sports Services - Coral Springs, FL

1986 1995

Director of Online Operations

Orchestrated the development and launch of this leading-edge interactive online sports community prior to there being an
online industry. As an information provider with a service called Quantum-Link (for Commodore owners) this was the very
first network and was eventually knows as America Online (AOL) and a model for Sportsline.com and ESPN.com
The Grandstand was a pioneer in playing of Fantasy Sports online industry leaders and visionaries years
before ESPN, SportsLine, and Yahoo entered the business and Fantasy Sports became a billion-dollar industry.

Established, grew, and managed Community Leader Program comprised of 100+ community leaders.

Directed all aspects of sales including: strategic planning, business development, and client management.

Sold company to America Online (AOL) while holding full accountability for overall online operations.