Paul Cordick

pcordick@gmail.com

ROLES
Project Manager, Producer, Development Manager, Production Manager, Art Manager, Outsourcing Manager

PROFILE AT A GLANCE

  • 10 years of industry experience, 7 years of project management experience
  • Project manager for some of the world’s largest publishers/developers of games and animated films, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Rainmaker/Mainframe
  • Diploma in 3D Animation from Vancouver Film School
  • Bachelors degree in Fine Arts, Visual Arts
  • Project management, from design to delivery, using industry standard tools and methodologies
  • Managing outsourcing for large projects
  • Managing budgets, planning, reporting, and tracking for multiple projects simultaneously
  • Leading large teams to complete a common goal on time and on budget
  • Team building, including interviewing and hiring artists and developers
  • Ability to work under pressure, within tight deadlines, while maintaining a sense of humor, tact, and professionalism
  • Creative problem-solving, multitasking, and troubleshooting skills
  • Excellent written, verbal, and persuasive communication skills
  • Highly organized and process driven, while remaining flexible to production needs
  • Experienced working with teams that use Unity 3D development tools

PROJECT MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

  • Managing large, cross-functional teams
  • Skilled in needs analysis, scope vs. capacity and timeline management, risk assessment/management, and scheduling and task management
  • Managing balance of quality, creativity, and scope vs. capacity issues
  • Identifying roadblocks with dependencies outside the team, then facilitating timely solutions
  • Coordinating with internal partners and outsourcing vendors to ensure timely delivery of quality assets
  • Maintaining regular communication between teams, business units, and external partners, including timely, relevant reports on the status of projects
  • Establishing sign-off process for assets, ensuring stakeholders are satisfied
  • Collecting and analyzing data to identify trends in development requirements
  • Providing feedback on and adding to the requirements for proprietary asset management tools
  • Ability to understand technical and design implications
  • Experience with SCRUM and Waterfall methodologies

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE

  • Proven success leading large, geographically distributed teams to complete a common goal on time and on budget, including motivation and blocker management
  • An advocate of leadership by example: modeling through my work ethic, knowledge of craft, project focus, and dedication to quality
  • Career mentorship, to foster individual development
  • Experienced 1:1 manager and mentor
  • Establishing leadership syllabus and mentoring for direct reports
  • Collaborating and maintaining regular communications with the team, supervisors, and executives
  • Guiding team members through challenges and opportunities to help individuals reach their potential

BUSINESS CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

  • Proven skill negotiating sales contracts with retailers and distributors in the US and Canada
  • Researching, identifying, establishing, and maintaining relationships in new markets for existing products
  • Creating and maintaining client-facing relationships
  • Analyzing and creating modern, effective corporate branding, including marketing materials, websites, and catalogues to support product deployment and sales
  • Formulating and implementing guerilla marketing campaigns leveraging social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and forums, and grassroots marketing campaigns working with local retailers, businesses, and organizations
  • R&D to determine workflow and pipeline requirements for development
  • Collaborating to produce high-level and low-level design documents
  • Sourcing and evaluating materials, hardware, and software

ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE

  • Diploma in 3D Animation from Vancouver Film School
  • Bachelors degree in Fine Arts, Visual Arts from the University of Victoria
  • Managing art outsourcing for large projects
  • Managing teams of artists
  • Extensive portfolio of published works in various magazines

JOB HISTORY – KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Instructor, 2010 to present
VanArts, Vancouver, BC

  • Teaching students in the VFX program about the methodologies and tools of production management
  • Instructing methods such as mind mapping, task breakdown, bucket accounting, and scope estimates

Producer, Ayogo Studios, April to June 2011 (Contract)
Vancouver, BC

  • Working with a small cross-functional team to build casual mobile platform games
  • Overseeing the design, scheduling, tracking, client management, and delivery of the game
  • Sourcing, and providing requirements, for outsourcing vendors

Independent Management Consultant, 2008 to present
Vancouver, BC

  • Working with a variety of businesses to research, plan, and implement business plans and strategies
  • Planning, overseeing, and implementing growth and development processes
  • Working with companies involved in: mobile motion capture service, motion capture software and the development of a first person shooter game to be used as a training aid for a government agency
  • Established client facing relationships with companies like: Mustang Survival, Lockheed Martin, Governments, Nike, and Arc’teryx

Production Manager//Project Manager/Art Manager, 2008
Action Pants/Ubisoft Vancouver, Vancouver, BC

  • Hiring and managing a team of artists and software developers to deliver AAA-quality assets for Pure Fotbol
  • Building relationships outside the core team, including the stakeholders, to ensure the successful completion of the project
  • Collaborating with production managers, art directors, software engineering leads, and executives to ensure assets and functionality are delivered as expected

Development Manager/Project Manager/ for Fusion/Artworks, 2007 – 2008
Electronic Arts Canada, Burnaby, BC

  • Managing, leading, and mentoring a team of 28 artists to deliver AAA-quality artwork for multiple game titles
  • Establishing the workflow, approval process, delivery schedule, and integration process for outsourced assets
  • Creating initiatives outside the project team, such as developing a leadership training program for my direct reports, which included establishing a syllabus and delivering the training

Rendering Supervisor/Lead Render Technical Artist/Lighting Artist/Compositing Artist/Project Manager
2004 – 2007
Mainframe Entertainment/Rainmaker Animation, Vancouver, BC

  • Moving from entry-level to lead/supervisor in three years
  • Filling a number of roles, including artistic and managerial
  • Responsible for the first and last (thus far) production to score 100% from external QC vetting company
  • Creating a shot-tracking procedure and trackable workflow
  • Designing and implementing an error-tracking process to identify problems in the workflow
  • Strategic planning and risk assessment, which included preventing several productions from missing ship dates, thereby saving the studio hundreds of thousands of dollars

Web Developer/Graphic Artist/Project Manager, 2001 – 2002
iChance Technologies, Vancouver, BC

  • Planning and executing change management for more than 200 client websites
  • Standardizing tools and templates for the entire team
  • Establishing a change process for all clients, ensuring next-day changes

Producer/Project Manager/Designer, 1999 – 2001
Inphinity Interactive, Vancouver, BC

  • Managing large cross-functional teams of more than 50 artists and developers at three different companies
  • Saving a floundering project from the brink of disaster, and ultimately delivering a high-quality product on time and on budget
  • Defining features and functions of products to create requirements specifications for online games

EDUCATION

  • 2007, EA University, Electronic Arts Canada, “Power-Up for Managers” and “Managing within the Law”
  • 2002 – 2003, Vancouver Film School, 3D Animation and Visual Effects for Film program, with a concentration in animation
  • 2000, Simon Fraser University, Project Management and Team Building
  • 1990 – 1996, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts from the University of Victoria, with a concentration in digital media, photography, screen printing, and sculpture

INTERESTS AND HOBBIES
Reading, photography, cooking, watching films, SCUBA diving