James Burk
www.jburk.com

Objective: To change the world by creating incredibly awesome user experiences using the latest web technologies.
My only boundaries are family, ethics, and karma.

Work Experience:

Microsoft Corporation – Lead Program Manager, MSN Channels / Health & Lifestyle Publishing Group (2004-Present)

Highlights:

· Managed a team that shipped major releases of Tech & Gadgets, City Guides, Real Estate, Careers, and the Microsoft unified Privacy Policy, while at the same time supporting all production properties of MSN Channels and driving the 100+ active bug count to zero & holding there, which had never been done prior. (2004-6)

· Shipped several of the first sites on the Bedrock 3 publishing platform including MSN Real Estate v1.0 (Sep 2005) and MSN Tech & Gadgets v4.0 (Oct 2005). Gave talks on best-practice examples of building sites on Bedrock.

· Won two Gold Star Awards and a Cross-Team Collaboration award for MSN Lifestyle/BEET collaboration (2007).

· Among a v-team who won a 2006 Trustworthy Computing Award for the unified Microsoft Privacy Policy.

· Supported the MSN Lifestyle product from 2006-2008 through several releases. The product had significant growth of revenue and traffic, in part due to BEET solutions and community-focused improvements.

· Supported MSN Tech & Gadgets through two major redesigns from 2005-2006 which resulted in it becoming the #1 most trafficked site for Tech news and opinions. With the v5.0 redesign, rolled out a series of message board & blog integrations that were widely recognized for their innovation.

· Currently PM for the MSN Food launch with an external partner and the MSN Advice product launch.

Microsoft Corporation – Program Manager (CSG), Member Platform Group / Subscription & Commerce Group (2003)

Highlights:

· Managed a database cleanup team that was responsible for service uptime and Tier-3 support of MSN’s Subscription offerings (Hotmail Premium, DSL partnerships with Verizon & Qwest, WebTV, and other properties)

· Successfully executed over 200 cleanup operations, mass-refunding credits to customers, fixing problems with multiple accounts, and improving performance and code readability.

· Acted as Lead PM, developer, and tester at various times.

· Overhauled a major Sharepoint portal which was actively supporting a 200+ member product group.

Other Jobs:
Bellevue Community College – Instructor, Technology Certification Program (2002)
Various Dot-Coms – Lead Web Developer, CTO (1999-2001)
Microsoft – Program Manager, Office (1998-99)

Education: BS, Computer Science and Business Administration (Dual Major) – University of Florida, 1997.

Interests: Ancient History, Space Exploration, Conspiracies & Secret Societies, Karma & Metaphysical Studies.