Christopher J. Benz |
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| Profile Experience Professional Contributions Awards and Honors Undergraduate Education Software/Language Knowledge |
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Profile |
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Over twenty years of experience in management, technical and corporate communications, and training, including:
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Experience |
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Director of Consulting and Information Design |
InfoPros (was Horizon Interactive, Advacon), Durham, NC, 2001–present Provide consulting, information design, and project management for clients of this national technical/business documentation and training development consultancy. Primary responsibilities include designing, managing, and contributing to multi-million-dollar client projects; identifying and meeting with prospective clients; developing project proposals and statements of work; and managing more than a dozen local and remote staff members and contractors. Direct clients have included:
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Operations Director |
e-Publishing Corporation, Durham, NC, 1999–2001 Directed the Southeast U.S. regional office of this multinational technical/business documentation and training development consultancy. Responsibilities included developing project proposals and statements of work; managing projects; strategic planning; managing more than $6M in annual revenue and 25 local and remote staff members and contractors; and overseeing all aspects of the regional office, including purchasing and contracts. Direct clients included:
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Manager of Documentation |
Möbius Group/CheckFree Investment Services (now Informa Investment Solutions), Research Triangle Park, NC, 1997–1999 Headed the documentation department for this investment and financial-planning software developer. Responsibilities included managing a five-member department; overseeing content development and maintenance for nine commercial software products, a commercial Web site, an intranet, a quarterly newsletter, multimedia marketing projects, and a biennial client conference; developmental and copy editing; technical writing; documentation and software design standards development and maintenance; and documentation process development and improvement. |
Lead Documentation Specialist |
HealthPoint (now Allscripts), Durham, NC, 1995–1997 Served in a variety of capacities to help this GlaxoSmithKline spin-off create commercial-ready point-of-care medical software, end-user documentation, and training collateral. Accomplishments included serving as team leader and senior editor for a five-member documentation team; helping design and implement a single-source documentation-development process; developing documentation and graphical-user-interface standards; coordinating documentation and training content; performing business analysis; developing software functional specifications; helping develop the company’s intranet; and providing expertise on documentation-production issues. |
Founder and Principal |
Intelligent Publishing, Rochester, NY and Carrboro, NC, 1990–1995 Ran a consultancy providing curriculum-development, computer-training, writing, editing, desktop-publishing, and computer-maintenance services. Authored six retail-market books in IDG Books Worldwide's For Dummies series and Ziff-Davis Press' How To Use series. Other clients included:
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Author, Curriculum Developer, Trainer |
Logical Operations/Ziff-Davis Education (now Element K), Rochester, NY, 1991–1993 Authored three books in Ziff-Davis Press’ best-selling PC Learning Labs Teaches series, developed and supported the development of classroom curricula, and taught computer applications in Logical Operations/Ziff-Davis Education’s and Eastman Kodak’s training centers. |
Manager, Communications Office |
Greater Rochester Metro Chamber of Commerce (now The Rochester Business Alliance), Rochester, NY, 1987–1991 Managed a four-person office, produced a variety of journalistic and public-relations publications, worked with local media representatives, supported all departmental projects and events, maintained all departmental computer equipment, and served as staff liaison and administrator for the Chamber’s Small Business Council. |
Professional Contributions |
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Co-Founder, Advisory Board Member, Certificate in Technical Communication Program, Duke University, 2003–present Instructor, Course Developer, “The Business of Technical Communication” and “Tools of the Trade,” Certificate in Technical Communication Program, Duke University, 2004–present Director, Society for Technical Communication (STC), 2000–2003 Vice President, President, Immediate Past President, STC Carolina Chapter, 1997–2000 Public Relations Manager, STC Carolina Chapter, 1995–1997 International Technical Publication Competition Judge, STC, 2001 International Online Communication Competition Judge, STC, 2000 Online Communication Competition Judge, STC Carolina Chapter, 1997, 1998 Presenter, DITA/TechComm Conference, Raleigh, NC, 2008; Influent InfoStrategies Conference, Washington, DC, 2001; STC Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA, 1998; STC Carolina Chapter’s Summer Conference, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, Chapel Hill, NC, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000; and dozens of other conferences, events, and meetings in the US, Europe, the Middle East, and online Peer Reviewer, Technical Communication (journal of STC), 2000–present Article Writer for dozens of STC publications worldwide, 1995–present |
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Awards and Honors |
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Associate Fellow, Society for Technical Communication (STC), 2004–present Best of Show, International Technical Publication Competition, STC, 1995 Distinguished Chapter Service Award, STC, 2001 Award of Distinguished, International Online Communication Competition, STC, 1999 Pacesetter Award, International Chapter Achievement Competition, STC, 1999 (awarded to the Carolina Chapter for my term as chapter President) Award of Distinguished, Online Communication Competition, STC Carolina Chapter, 1998 Award of Merit, Technical Publication Competition, STC Carolina Chapter, 1997 Visibility Award, STC Carolina Chapter, 1997 Award of Excellence, Technical Publication Competition, STC Carolina Chapter, 1996 Award of Excellence, Online Communication Competition, STC Carolina Chapter, 1996 Award of Distinguished, Technical Publication Competition, STC Carolina Chapter, 1994 |
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Undergraduate Education |
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BA in Communications/Management (magna cum laude), St. John Fisher College, Rochester, NY, 1986 Semester of study abroad, Richmond College, London, England, 1985 |
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Software/Language Knowledge |
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Adobe: Acrobat, FrameMaker, Illustrator, PageMaker, Photoshop CorelDRAW! eHelp/RoboHELP HTML, XML, DITA Linux, UNIX Lotus: 1-2-3, Ami Pro/Word Pro, Notes Macintosh OS Macromedia: HomeSite, Dreamweaver Microsoft: Access, DOS, Excel, Outlook, FoxPro, FrontPage, Internet Information Server, PowerPoint, Project, Publisher, SharePoint, Visio, Visual SourceSafe, Windows, Windows Server, Word OS/2 Paint Shop Pro WebWorks Publisher WordPerfect Plus a host of diagnostic, communications, screenshot, data-compression, and other computer utilities |
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| Last updated February 19, 2009 | |