Ms. Alice Zakian possess 18 years experience in a variety of senior management and consulting roles in the telecommunications industry, including broadband, responsible for technical project management, new product development, business development and turnaround management. Alice recently assisted Northpoint Communications, a NASDAQ listed company in the launch of its new joint-venture with Sprint Canada to establish DSL service in Canada. Alice holds three Masters degrees in diverse fields and is ideally qualified to assist complex and cross-border start-ups, high-growth technology and troubled firms in a variety of strategic and tactical roles.

 PRIOR EMPLOYMENT

• Triad Systems 1988 - 1992, Senior Program Manager
• AT&T, 1987-1988 Staff to VP, Marketing

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  E-Systems, 1986-1987, Telecommunications Manager

• Cellular One, 1982-1984, Vice President for MRTS, a partner
• Westat, 1980-1982, Senior Project Manager

M.B.A University of Virginia

Ed.M. Statistics, Harvard University

M.P.H. University of California, Berkeley

• Directed implementation phase of international project for new product "rollout". Direction included overseeing IT, Customer Service, Engineering and Marketing groups.
• Managed large-scale projects in software and telecommunications. Negotiate contracts in excess of $10M for software and hardware features such as NPA conversions and local access.
• Co-lead in QA and alpha testing measurements for functional tests and user acceptance testing.
• Ensured marketing functions were tested and ready for production with the execution of a new software release.
• Direct product launch successfully of point-of-sale and EDI major product releases; awarded Special Recognition for Excellence in On-Time Project Performance.
• Manage product launch from product definition including requirements, specification, development, manufacture and shipment phases. Products managed include: PC-based product using CD-ROM, EDI product for United Kingdom, point-of-sale register and major software releases.
• Managed, using MS Project, all the marketing projects having an impact on the company’s ability to launch start-up service. Streamlined tasks creating better utilization of resources.
• Identified and resolved issues with an impact on processes and system interfaces with other organizations.

• Negotiated partner "turn-ups" for international venture, including contract negotiation and development of business opportunity analysis.
• Prepared business case analyses for new products, designed financial analysis for selling new product concepts to Executives including pricing of new telecom products.
• Lead competitive assessment/strategic analysis of fiber optics used by MCI to enter new market of TDS/DDS bulk fiber services, including network engineering facility plans and manpower requirements

• Directed all phases of market research for entry into new, international market. Designed the focus group screener and topic guides as well as directing the sampling design and survey instrument development.
• Managed the market plan development for international venture. Directed the pricing strategy for foray into the market as well as forecasting methodologies for business and consumer products. Plan design also included channel distribution strategies as well as industry influences and competitive research.
• Acted as Project Director of national market research surveys. Developed questionnaires and topic guides used in telephone, mail and in-person survey techniques. Designed sampling strategies including systematic random sampling and other sampling strategies. Worked with former Deputy Director of the US Census Bureau to develop estimates of MSA characteristics.
• Manage data analysis of both parametric and non-parametric results. Provided written, analytical reports to staff and executives; also presented key findings in briefings to senior level executives.
• Hired and managed group of 15 professionals and support staff.
• Co-developed national sales strategy of customer buying behavior used successfully to predict technology-buying behavior of major customers.
• Designed national market research in telecommunications. Developed computer modeling that became cellular industry’s initial standard for market demand in demographic markets.
• Directed a cross-functional team to develop functional requirements for new product offerings.
• Managed cross-functional disciplines to deliver complex, time sensitive projects. Led team developing business rules to determine customer lifetime value as well as relationship management triggers for churn and acquisition. Lead market penetration research for new long-distance company based upon ethnicity, calling patterns and sales channels.