Frank Stinga: New Product Development Manager/Creative Director in Cape Coral, FL

Build and lead the product development department for the new owner of a Coastal Lifestyle giftware wholesaler with the goal of expanding upon the 70+ year history of success by launching new markets. • Started new Home Décor division to produce high-end products with significantly higher retails of $50 to $400. • Awarded additional management/leadership of the core giftware/souvenir division (1500 SKU’s) along with the building of the home décor business. • Developed over 650 new SKU’s of giftware products and 200 SKU’s of home décor products in 5 months. • Frequent travel to Asia (Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Indonesia) to source new vendors and develop original product concepts.

Head the product development department for a leading promotional consumer products company that develops, manufactures and distributes imprintable goods to the education (pre-school through college), health and wellness, nursing, safety, recognition and customer service markets. • Concept and develop all new products for company including office tools and desk accessories, flash drives, photo frames, key chains, lapel pins, mugs and tumblers, silk-screened and embroidered apparel and textile products, plush learning toys, books, greeting cards, posters, stationery sets, calendars, planners, bookmarks, and stickers. • Create over 1,500 new SKU’s per year for this $100M+ privately held company. • Responsible for the development and design of all packaging. • Partner with Sourcing department for the transmission/review/approval of all products from initial concepts to production samples from domestic and Asian manufacturers. • Lead a team of 8 in-house art directors, designers, editors

Hired by world-class companies, including Hasbro Toys, American Greetings, Somerset Entertainment, and Positive Promotions to supply creative consulting services, including: • Product development • Packaging and merchandising innovations • Proprietary technology application and design Recruited by Designware, a $160M partyware consumer products division of American Greetings to: • Develop coordinated packaging ensembles for all primary licenses. • Evaluate and update 1000+ packaging designs and revise for full CPSC/ASTM 4040 compliance. Achieved 100% compliance for all packaging safety testing within 3 months of instituting new processes and procedures to assure the latest standards were met. Designed 400+ packaging SKU’s/year.

Led the new Learning Horizons in all aspects of traditional and digital creative development: • Played a critical role in the sale of Learning Horizons by American Greetings to Evolution Partners, achieving 100% transfer of all licensing Agreements (Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, LeapFrog) and retaining entire creative team and freelance resources. The staff consisted of an editorial manager, assistant art director and 3 designers. Relationships with all independent design and editorial talent (40+ regular developers) were maintained as well. • Achieved a 60% reduction in the development budget by sourcing and contracting new Indian graphic design studios. • Successfully interpreted experiential learning trend to create dynamic new product and packaging formats and updated educational teaching approach for existing product lines. • Established an Educational Excellence Review Board comprised of a half dozen doctorate level education professionals to review and endorse current and new product lines. Director, New Product Development - Learning Horizons /American Greetings, Inc. (5/04 – 3/07) Awarded responsibility for whole department management of cross-functional creative team and strategically restructured team and freelance talent pool to support and streamline the creative process. • Increased product development volume by over 180% yielding 35% increase in revenue ($5M+). • Played a leading role in securing LeapFrog license for 2006 and led team to deliver original content, formats, and packaging for LF product in less than 3 months time to meet 2006 BTS (Back-To-School) product demand. • Developed an integrated 12 foot planogram of branded merchandise featuring the top 3 educational properties in the country alongside Learning Horizon's proprietary brands. • Spearheaded expansion into children’s book plan-o-grams with unique quality formats which yielded incremental sales of $3M+. • Anticipating demand for Spanish language product, initiated bilingual program with top educational licensed properties and created over 1,000 pages and corresponding digital audio product within 4 months to meet 2006 Back-To-School product demand. This yielded $2M+ in additional sales. • Achieved a $500,000 cost savings by partnering with Global Sourcing department to develop new vendors. • Product lines consistently won prestigious awards for excellence in educational product, with over 30 awards in 2006-2007. • Awarded patent #7080982 for novel flashcard format. Additional: Product Development Leader - $160M Celebrate It! Group “Own the Occasion” Team (Designware partyware division of American Greetings) Selected by division president to build a creative team to develop a unique retail concept for the Party Channel while still managing the Learning Horizons creative department. Management responsibilities included directing 2 product managers and a 16 person team of creative directors, art directors, graphic and packaging designers, and editors from American Greeting’s design studio. • Formulated an experiential approach to merchandizing a 12-foot program by utilizing dimensional POP, floor graphics, and sound to maximize shopping experience. • Developed a unified, branded, packaging style to capture the essence of a “Princess” party. • Led team to concept, develop, and source a 142-SKU program within a 6-month window. • Expanded product category offerings by 600% with new SKU's priced from $1 - $100 at retail. Art Director - Learning Horizons/American Greetings, Inc. (9/00 – 5/04) • Increased product development volume by over 250% (created over 2000 pages of original content). • Created new branded packaging look for LH 3-D manipulative product lines. • Developed all new branded signage for planograms and all temporary displayers. • Successfully developed brand identity for Parents Magazine educational licensed product which penetrated 87% of US educational mass market category. Sales exceeded $5M in the first year of introduction. • Played a key role in securing new licenses (Nickelodeon and Sesame Street).

Director of creative department of $18M Mass Market division and of $8.5M Coca-Cola giftware lines: • Managed 5 person teams responsible for creating over 500SKU’s for Mass retail and 200SKU’s for the Coke gift line per year. • Developed innovative packaging displayers that became the standard for the Mass Market and Christmas Trim Industry. • Created unique 4 sided palette and ¼ palette programs of holiday SKU's for Kmart, Walmart and Target. • Selected by company president to serve on management planning committees for company-wide growth and promotions initiatives; commissioned to personally develop new merchandizing that strongly contributed to the rebranding of the Precious Moments collectible line. • Frequent overseas travel to Hong Kong/Asia to oversee production, concept and source new product opportunities, and oversee showroom set-up for Spring and Fall buyer trips.

Within first year, met company’s strategic goal of establishment within the Mass Market Channel. • Expanded mass market line from $2M to $18M by developing 3 core Disney properties. • Continuously achieved highest company sales in Mass Market category.