James W. Meng

Home/Resume/CV -- VLNLAB -- Projects -- Abuse by the US Government -- Writings

I maintain this site in lieu of a LinkedIn page. Most people are better served by standard communication channels, chiefly, by e-mail and by telephone. LinkedIn provides little of value to anyone other than corporate HR departments and Western governments, who use it primarily as a data collection and surveillance device. This site was put together in raw HTML in a few minutes' time. Say what you want about this as a stylistic choice, but it is many times faster to render and respond to input than LinkedIn on any device.

I have a wide-ranging background in highly technical, complex business development, strategic marketing, sales and account management concerns. I am well-versed in finance, economics, and law, and am enthusiastic about working through complex business development and analysis challenges in any industry. I have a consistent track record of combining analytical breakthroughs with substantial business results, and have extensive full-stack development/design and technical project/product management experience. I am also a former notary (Nassau County, New York) and an experienced Windows/Linux/BSD/IBM zOS systems administrator, full-stack web developer & data analyst in Python, R, SQL, Tableau, and Excel PowerBI, and am available for IT consulting work privately. Beyond that, I also dabble in lobbying governments. Call (leave a message and I'll return your call) or e-mail me to get in touch. Please note that if you do not announce yourself at the prompt and/or leave a message, I will NOT call you back.

Experience      
2020-2021     Nassau County Board of Elections (New York, USA)
      Poll Coordinator
     
  • Coordinator for Westbury, NY polling sites
  • Verified personal data to check voters in; set up/troubleshooted voting machines; secured premises; carried out all standard polling site processes
2020     U.S. Census Bureau (Nassau County, New York, USA)
      Census Enumerator
     
  • Carried out household interviews for the 2020 U.S. Census in the greater Nassau County area in English, Russian and French
  • Canvassed vacant and partially-built residential buildings to clarify and update address information for Census databases
2019-2020     Teleperformance (Montréal, Québec, Canada)
      Operations Supervisor
     
  • Supervised the call center for the UK operations of American venture-backed peer-to-peer car rental platform TURO
  • Managed support requests from car hosts and renters, resolving their problems throughout various functional areas of the client organisation and its commercial partners using their CRM systems
  • Oversaw the activities of a team of call center agents; managed a wide array of commercial issues for the client alongside the personnel management duties associated with the agent team
  • I was highly proficient as a supervisor and agent; customer satisfaction metrics and team morale were consistently ranked the highest globally
2017-2019     Linguist & Translator (Moscow & Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
     
  • While living in Russia as a political refugee, I worked as a freelance linguistic specialist in a range of contexts. This included work as a client manager, teacher, translator, and writer in English on behalf of various Russian companies. I also produced the first English-language translation of the Russian Federal Migration Service's Russian History & Culture material used for the government residency and citizenship examinations. Additionally, I assisted the Moscow State Archives and various international musicologists on a project to publish a recently-discovered manuscript for a viola and piano work by Dmitri Shostakovich. Other clients included the following:
  • Grand Capital, Client Manager, Saint Petersburg
  • IELTSnow!, Teacher, Saint Petersburg
  • Cryptouniverse, Translator, Saint Petersburg
  • Federal Foreign Language Center, Teacher, Saint Petersburg
  • Vostock Capital, Translator, Saint Petersburg
  • Enjoy Camp, Teacher, Moscow
2015-2019     VLNLAB (Seattle, Washington, USA & Moscow, Russia)
      Founder
     
  • Designed & patented the first concert-quality 3D printable violin & viola
  • The design is available as freeware, can be produced for less than $50 on inexpensive Fused Deposition Modelling 3D printers and, if assembled properly, provides the sound quality of a professional concert instrument
2016-2017     miPS Labs, now part of Curi Bio (Seattle, Washington, USA)
      Marketing Director
     
  • Executed commercial strategy and digital marketing for the launch of the first personal stem cell cryopreservation and cultivation service
  • Launched out of the lab of Dr. Deok-Ho Kim at the University of Washington, miPS Labs was created to more effectively facilitate future regenerative medical therapies for serious diseases from diabetes to Alzheimer's through the preservation and cultivation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)
2012-2015     Sotheby's (Palm Beach, Florida, USA)
      Regional Business Development, Florida
     
  • Ran Sotheby's Florida regional office as their sole employee in the region
  • Procured works of art for global sales, handled business development, contract negotiation, and relationship management functions for private collectors and the trade
  • Exceeded targets substantially each year, producing over $29 million in fine art sales during my time at the firm
  • Transformed the Palm Beach regional office into the firm’s most profitable by the end of 2014
2011-2012     Media Ingenuity Ltd. (London, United Kingdom)
      Business Development Analyst, Life Insurance & Mortgages
     
  • Handled all major technological project management and troubleshooting for the Life Insurance and Mortgage sections of TotallyMoney.com, working directly with the development team on various projects within assigned product verticals
  • Ran regular marketing quality analyses & handled client-facing account management tasks
Education      
2011     London Business School
      M.S., Management
      Diploma (reprint) Diploma (original)
       
2010     University of Florida
      B.A., Business Administration & B.A. Russian Language & Literature, summa cum laude
Summer internship at Morgan Stanley, Boca Raton (Operations & Compliance)
      Diploma #1 Diploma #2
       
      International Equivalencies
Professional Certifications & Continuing Education      
2022     Dartmouth University & Institut Mines-Télécom
      Professional Certificate, C Programming with Linux
       
2020     IBM Corporation
      Professional Certificate, z/OS Mainframe Practitioner
       
2015     Microsoft Corporation
      Professional Certificate, Querying with Transact-SQL
      Professional Certificate, Excel for Data Analysis & Visualization
       
2015     Duke University
      Professional Certificate, Data Visualization & Communication with Tableau