Resume
Sara E. Wood
Email: saraewood AT gmail DOT com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/saraewood
Summary:
Results-oriented and hands-on. Broad experience in product management and business development. Extensive international experience.
Highlights:
- International Management
- Over ten years experience as an executive manager for non-profit, for-profit, university and large multinational organizations.
- Experience includes program development, product strategy, media planning, brand development, research and public speaking.
- Social Media and Publishing Expertise
- Almost twenty years in the publishing industry, fifteen of those working in web development.
- Solid experience designing systems for large-scale publishing and data operations.
Experience:
- Public Library of Science – San Francisco, CA [08/09-present]
Director of Product Strategy and Development
Member of executive core team with staff management and budgetary responsibility. PLoS is a non-profit publishing and internet organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. Help define the strategic priorities for PLoS. Own the product roadmap to support overall goals and strategies. Oversee branding and reputation of PLoS products, conduct market research and develop business plans. Define needs and develop user requirements and business cases for new products and features. Represent PLoS in a number of diverse settings. Evaluate partnership or product opportunities to create new revenue streams and/or expand the use of OA content. Write funding proposals for new initiatives. - Flickr (Yahoo!) – San Francisco, CA [05/08-08/09]
Director of Product Management
Defined product roadmap for one of the largest online photo & video sharing applications in the world. Contract negotiation and implementation with partners such as Google (Mail, Maps, iGoogle, etc), AOL (Mapquest) and Getty Images. Over 35 million registered users, second most used API on the web, over 3 billion photos and videos, averaging 3-4 billion page views per month localized into 9 languages. Flickr is one of Yahoo!’s premier product offerings along with Yahoo! Mail and Search. - Swivel – San Francisco, CA [03/07-05/08]
VP & Chief Data Officer
Swivel has two main products: a social media website for open data and a powerful web-based business intelligence and data analysis suite for private data. Ensured that products and features were meeting expectations based upon industry best practices and user/partner needs. Responsible for many aspects of business development, marketing, sales. Served as the public face for Swivel through regular international public speaking engagements, authoring research articles and writing the corporate blog. - Harvard School of Public Health/Partners in Health – Boston, MA [08/05-03/07]
Director Product Management
Recruited from WHO to serve as a member of executive management team through a grant from Larry Ellison. Transitioned into working under the direction of Paul Farmer and Jim Kim. Defined strategy, research and business requirements for the development of complex health data and policy systems as well as electronic medical records systems. - Lead strategic direction and planning for all aspects of information management and communication activities, which included all web related activities and global branding.
- Defined ways in which systems should support the collection, storage, analysis and dissemination of key heath data.
- Kayak.com Consultant – Boston, MA [11/06-03/07]
Content Management Product Consultant - United Nations Consultant – New York City, NY [06/06-03/07]
Product Manager
UN System Influenza Coordination
Senior Product Analyst
UN Secretariat, Department of Management
- World Health Organization/United Nations – Managing Director (Chief of Unit P5), Geneva, Switzerland [2001-2005]
Built and managed core team of 20 for corporate internet activities. Overall responsibility for strategic direction and coordination of WHO web sites, software applications and products, including; internal and external communication strategies, relations with departments, regional and country offices, daily production schedules and content in the 6 official UN languages, CMS development, implementation and training, data standards, client support, resource mobilization, program evaluation and monitoring.- Oversaw global activities across 192 WHO member states, including political and legal implications of using technology across disparate sets of data/content and geographical locations.
- Responsible for many large-scale corporate projects.
- Salon.com – San Francisco, California [1999-2001]
Vice President of Product, Creation Engines (2001) Played a key role in the establishment of CE as a Server Appliance builder and software provider.- Identified and defined and developed appropriate strategic partnerships.
- Designed feature set and associated UI for main products.
- Responsible for ensuring product UI was developed according to customer needs.
- Key member of executive management team.
Director of Production, Salon.com (1999-2001) Director of major department within Salon.com which was responsible for company-wide production needs.
- Served as liaison between all departments of Salon.com and with external partners.
- Oversaw all technical and specialized aspects of producing online content.
- Established technical guidelines for online media production.
- Employed technical skills in a hands-on manner to accomplish project goals.
- Designed business and functional specifications for in-house publishing software for content management.
- MetaDesign/MiX Media – Director of Production, San Francisco, CA [1998-1999]
A design and development consultancy, which aimed to solve information management problems through identity, interactive and systems design.- Responsible for all aspects of managing a department, including budget allocation, project tracking and administration.
- Conducted hands-on web development employing a variety of programming languages.
- TRAC/Tides Foundation – Program Manager / Web Developer, San Francisco, CA [1997-1998]
Responsible for TRAC project development, communications, fundraising, administration and outreach. - Center for Study of Responsive Law – Policy Analyst, WDC [1996-1997]
Worked for the Consumer Project on Technology on a variety of international issues including intellectual property, trade, health care, anti-trust and digital technology.
Education:
- Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts [2006]
Internet & Law coursework, Berkman Center - School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont [1995-1997]
Master of Arts, International Management/Communications - University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia [1992-1993]
- University of Hawaii, Manoa, Oahu, Hawaii [1990-1991]
- Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana [1989-1992]
Bachelor of Arts in English, Minor in History and Anthropology
Boards & publications:
- Technical Advisory Board, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation / Gates Foundation & University of Washington
- Advisory Board, Swivel
- Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Volume 85, Number 10, October 2007, 733-820
- Learned Publishing, Association of Learned and Professional Publishers, Draft document, publication date not set
Other skills & interests:
- Fluent in English and Spanish. Working knowledge of French and Italian.
- Extensive international work and travel experience.
References available upon request






Tobias Tweets