Introducing New Globonders that have joined recently

Stefan Pagacik

Stefan Pagacik provides guidance and innovative thinking to organizations looking to solve global problems. Working with senior executives, Stefan helps generate and implement ‘outside-the-box’ strategic thinking and converts new ideas into actionable plans. He also links executives, partners and stakeholders with high-level influencers and experts, and if appropriate, with potential investors.

As an independent consultant, Stefan has worked with start-up and early stage businesses. He guided founders of Salesnet.com on fundraising and business strategy development (Salesnet.com has now raised more than $30M in venture capital), and co-founded—and currently serves as adjunct member of—an angel investment group, Bay Angels, L.L.C., on Cape Cod, MA.

More recently, Stefan co-authored a feasibility study for the creation of a technology incubator in Southeastern Massachusetts. The Regional Technology Development Center of Cape Cod began operation in January 2007. Stefan helped procure project funding, designed key study parameters and built relationships with influencers and key individuals in government, academia, venture capital and the business community. He also identified early-stage companies to reside in the Center.

Prior to establishing GreenPoint, Stefan worked for Adams Media Corporation, an educational and small business software company, where he started and built its software division. He also opened the Boston office for Chicago IT consulting firm Eclipse Information Systems (later acquired by Century Services of Washington, D.C.) and served in account management and information systems roles with PixelDance Communications and Lavastorm. Stefan graduated from Harvard University.

John Canning

John Canning is a Los Angeles based Globonder who wears a variety of hats, some of which are the executive producer and videographer for Green Living Project, video game consultant for the Monitor Group, digital media consultant for Disney and Sr. Director of Business Development for Mary-Margaret Network, all under the aegis of his firm Media Sherpa Consulting and Productions. Media Sherpa draws on John's many areas of expertise as well as his vast experience, and allows him to focus on his two passions: Media production in the area of travel and sustainable causes and Cross-platform creation and distribution of interactive media.

John Canning has worked in the Media and Entertainment Industry since 1987 when he worked in the Interactive Television division of Scientific Atlanta. He spent his 10 years there in jobs ranging from Applications Architect/Systems Engineer to Project Manager while simultaneously earning a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Information Design and Technology from Georgia Tech. Since then, his career has spanned media production, delivery methods and multiple platforms.

In 1997, John joined Microsoft as a marketing manager for Cable. He was then made Product Manager for the TV division where he led the integration of VOD, interactive services, conditional access and billing for the Microsoft TV product line. John moved on to be Technical Evangelist at Microsoft's newly formed eHome division. There he led external evangelism for eHome applications and services, and worked with partners in media distribution, content, games and whole home control.

While at Microsoft, John also expanded his proficiency and began freelancing on the creative side of media. He worked as a producer, videographer, photographer and reporter for MSN, MSNBC and Slate.

In 2005, John moved to Yahoo! as Director of Content Distribution. In this role he was field Producer/reporter, Photographer, and 3rd Party liaison for the Richard Bangs Adventures series and was a producer for Yahoo Games and Entertainment.

Throughout his career, John has continued to expand his knowledge, his abilities, and his experience while excelling in his work. As part of that paradigm, he has developed skills and connections in Electronic Gaming, learning how to manage the media delivery life cycle from content creation and transmission to presentation platforms for Media and Games.

John is a sought-after speaker and industry representative who has delivered presentations to audiences all over the world on products, company strategy and industry trends in the areas of Interactive Media, Game Strategy, the Games Industry, Content Creation and Delivery. Such groups as the Canadian Government have called on him to represent the American games industry.

In his "free time" John has a wide range of interests: photography, adventure travel, martial arts, computer gaming, armor making, hiking, camping, whitewater rafting, sea kayaking, improve acting, reading, skiing, rally sports, scuba diving, mt and road biking and caving. He can be reached at john@mediasherpa.net and his website is http://www.mediasherpa.net/

Jan Crocker

President, Jan Crocker, LLC.

Jan is a collaborative leader who brings together creative people into high performance teams that create fun, engaging, and frequently high-profile exhibit projects. Her best-known exhibition projects are Secrets of Aging, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination, Leonardo da Vinci: Scientist, Inventor, Artist, and Quest for Immortality: The Treasures of Ancient Egypt.

Jan has many years of experience in project management, team leadership, traveling exhibition selection and negotiations, and the nuances of the process of exhibition development. During her years at the Museum of Science, Boston, she worked with senior leaders of the organization on institutional committees focusing on mission and operations. She is highly skilled in external relations and business development: past successes include establishing a successful relationship with Lucasfilm Ltd., developing a funding partnership with the National Geographic Society for the creation of a major traveling exhibition, and initiating a creativity-training program with Pixar Animation Studios. She has negotiated with major organizations such as Bose Corporation, AARP, Fidelity Investments, Daimler-Benz, The Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and The Hermitage.

Jan is a former dancer with the Ipswich Moving Company and this past summer was a pilot gig rower at the Gloucester Maritime Museum.

Laura Tapley

Rockport, Massachusetts-based Globonder Laura Tapley got her first job as a commercial artist (jewelry illustration) right after graduating from high school. She began college as an art major but was more attracted to academic studies. She was happily ensconced in a solid liberal arts program—German, French, Poli Sci, Literature, History, Chemistry, Trigonometry—when she got married. Laura planned to continue her education after getting married but that was not to be the case: Laura had her first child that year and became a busy mom. She started taking various freelance commercial art assignments—logo and ad design and set designing for a local community theatre, both of which she learned by doing. Laura had another child and began home-schooling her oldest when she was in second grade. She had read books about education in general and home-schooling in particular by John Holt but was thought of as a maverick by friends and peers for engaging in something so "revolutionary."

Laura had to work with school and elected officials to gain acceptance of this now popular alternative educational method. Home-schooling allowed her to take advantage of all the wonderful learning opportunities in the San Francisco Bay area. She served as a volunteer in the Discovery Room at the Academy of Sciences (museum) in San Francisco and her daughter served alongside her from the age of 8 to 10 years old. Mother and daughter both got to interact with various research scientists working in the labs behind the scenes at the museum. Other research projects were completed with the help of librarians. They had a blast talking with ambassadors, legislators, authors, artists, and historians. Laura began home-schooling her son as soon as he was ready for structured learning. Her daughter re-entered school in 7th grade as an honors student (even though some school officials were skeptical about her ability to succeed—she blew their socks off). She and her husband had their third child and soon after moved east, first to Colorado, then to Massachusetts. All her children were in public school in Rockport until, at the superintendent’s recommendation, her oldest daughter finished her high school Junior and Senior year home-schooling (the Superintendent had reviewed a paper she wrote on her home-schooling experience and was intrigued). Her daughter's experience settled the arguments of skeptics once again: she was accepted into Tisch School of the Arts at NYU based on her independent home-based studies.

Quite happy to let her other two children finish their education in public school, Laura remained a very active and involved parent, serving on the Excellence in Education ad hoc sub-committee of the School Board; on a drug and alcohol prevention committee with other parents, faculty, and students; and assisting the Elementary School Librarian. She also helped with school theater sets.

Finally, when Laura’s son was in high school and her youngest daughter was in third grade, she returned to college. She studied history and loved it, studied geology and loved it even more. She finished two years at the top of her class as a Presidential scholar. Laura worked as a tutor (for geology and history) and a TA for history, and was also the assistant to the Clerk in the Biology Department, while taking a full load of classes and maintaining a 4.0. She was given the incredible opportunity to help two geology professors with field research in Wyoming and Montana one summer. She also participated in a state-funded research project, gathering data and measuring light transmission and chemical content of water samples from Chebacco Lake. A divorce took its toll however, and Laura found herself once again having to pull out of school to work full time (her son was getting ready to attend college). She has had to work full time ever since, while putting her son and younger daughter through college.

She taught herself banking processes and regulations while working the first time at Rockport National Bank—initially in the Operations department; then in the Loan Administration department. Laura was then offered a position at the Boston Company in Boston that doubled her salary, but six months after moving to the Boston Company it was absorbed by Mellon. She was offered another position there as an Executive Assistant, but it was mind-numbingly boring. Her kind boss then offered to help her find another position which would more effectively utilize her skills.

Serendipity stepped in and Laura met a member of the Board of Rockport Chamber Music Festival on the train. The woman told Laura they were looking for a General Manager and she ended up being offered the position. She found herself again eagerly learning new skills and the language of non-profits and the music world. In each of her positions, starting at Rockport National Bank, Laura had been picking up technology skills. The IT departments at Boston Company and Mellon loved her because she asked questions, was eager to learn, and would trouble-shoot problems on her own. At the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, she taught herself Microsoft Access because they needed a relational database and couldn’t afford an off-the-shelf one. She had loads of fun designing and using a powerful database that tracked donations, members, musicians and ticket sales.

While working at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Laura was asked by former colleagues at Rockport National Bank to consider coming back to work there. She was perceived as someone who willingly accepted any challenge, liked learning anything new and taking on major projects. She eventually accepted their proposal to return to work as an officer there, writing her own ticket in terms of what she did. She became the manager of Information Technology and designed their entire Information Security program, which included an Info Security Policy, Business Continuity Plan, Pandemic Preparedness Plan, training for employees, and annual risk assessment of tech systems.

Laura is now starting her own company to focus on her passion for organization and design . She firmly believes that beauty, order, and efficiency must co-exist, and loves helping her clients discover their own path to orderliness. Guiding them toward good design, and helping them develop routines they can follow naturally to maintain order, she witnesses an increase in their productivity and efficiency that results from an environment that is both beautiful and organized. She is happy to work within any budget and incorporates green products and processes whenever possible.

Laura has volunteered in Rockport, on the Town Arts Committee (now defunct) the local Cultural Council and in the schools. She currently serves as Treasurer of seARTS (Society for the Encouragement of the Arts). She has taught Sunday School and has helped Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts earn their geology badges. She also taught a two-day class in geology to Freshmen biology classes at Rockport High and conducted short enrichment classes in geology at the Rockport Elementary School and a elementary school in Salem. She likes to draw and paint and continues to enjoy reading and learning.