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Background: In 1999 I was picked as the Red Bull Student Brand Manager for the Oregon State University campus. Red Bull was still relatively young, so the role was open to some interpretation.
Impact: I put four cases of product into the hands of OSU students, staff and faculty each month. This resulted in accelerated public awareness in Corvallis and some very wired friends. I also organized a major Red Bull sponsored event, OSU's Sibling's Weekend Professional Skate Demo.
Background: In 1997 I joined the Boy Scout's Explorer program which included lectures at the Jones Farm Intel campus in Hillsboro. My work with that group served as a recommendation to join the company as a high school intern in 1998.
Impact: My work doing complete quality assurance testing as a teenager was recognized and I was one of the first former high school interns to be asked to return to Intel. During my summer break from OSU I performed testing of gigabit-over-copper hardware and DSL modem installation software.
Background: I began work on a Computer Engineering degree in the Fall of 1998 and immediatly immersed myself in student life. I was an on-air radio DJ for KBVR for five years and served as an officer in a number of student organizations, including a social responsibility and human rights club I co-founded.
Over the course of my four years I served as a student member of the faculty senate and two elected terms on the OSU Bookstore board of directors. These experiences helped me reach the elected office of Vice President of the OSU Memorial Union.
Impact: During my term in office, I helped ensure consistently great historical student events and co-founded a new event called the Free World Music Festival featuring world renowned reggae artist, Eek-A-Mouse.
I was subsequently awarded E.C. Allworth Leadership Award for my leadership and service to the student union's committees, programs and projects. As a board member for the bookstore, I helped shape the planning of a six million dollar redevelopment of Bookstore property.
After graduating with a BS in Computer Engineering and a minor in Computer Science, I created an academic scholarship for any full-time undergraduate who has worked at or volunteered at the OSU Memorial Union.
My transition from college to the professional work-force was a topic in an article titled "Real World 101" published in the OSU Alumni Association's Fall 2006 print edition of the Oregon Stater. There's a great story in there about my stay in a hostel in Barcelona, Spain.
Read the article "Real World 101"
Read more about the Robert Banagale Scholarship
Background: I began work for Mentor Graphics in the summer of 2003 working on the lead qualification for an inside sales team. In 2005, I switched gears to become more customer experience focused, developing software manuals and learning products for our most sophisticated integrated circuit design tools.
Impact: Lead Development Specialist: Beyond my expected duties, I worked to develop the foundation of the new telebusiness group at Mentor. I performed on-site college recruiting and interviewing of several people who have gone on to be promoted into the organization. I worked directly with the CRM software design group to increase the productivity of call center workers.
Technical Writer: Beyond document design, I installed and trained our team to use a wiki to communicate around software releases, during a difficult management transition, I put together a cross-functional team to coordinate information on software version updates.
Background: I was admitted to F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business in the Fall of 2007. The two year MBA program has been ranked #1 in entrepreneurship by U.S. News and World Report for 16 consecutive years.
Echoing my work at Oregon State, I immersed myself in extracurricular opportunities to make the most of my academic experience. I acted as a class and section (cohort) representative to the program management, gave two presentations for the Entrepreneurship Club and became active in the Babson Energy and Environmental Club (BEEC). In 2008 I was elected co-President of the BEEC and selected for the Babson MBA Ethics Team at Baylor University's Business Ethics Challenge.
Impacts: My largest impact at Babson was creating and executing on projects that positioned the school in the Cleantech space. For more information see Energy and Environment in the top level menu of this portfolio.
Outside of Cleantech, I repeatedly worked to represent Babson and grow the college's brand. I served on the 2008 Babson Ethics Team, moderated a panel on student life for prospective students, coached Babson undergraduate students and engaged in my own entrepreneurial enterprise.
Visit the Babson Energy Entrepreneurial Expo website
I've consulted from traditional energy at Irving Oil to cutting edge biofuels at Feed Resource Recovery.
Most recently I've been doing business development work for Northern Power, producer of the 100kw Northwind 100 community scale wind turbine.
Please contact me directly for more information about my work for each of these companies.
Background: NStar Electric and Gas awarded me a student scholarship to attend the 2008 Northeast Energy Efficiency Summit titled "Clean, Lean and Green Growth."
More recently, I was asked to return for the 2009 NEEP Summit taking place on May 27th and 28th.
Besides gaining exposure to panels of energy policy heavyweights, I participated in a mentoring session with local municipal and private utility business leaders.
The Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships is a nonprofit organization made up of major utilities and policy makers in the Northeast who are tasked with investing in energy efficiency policies and programs.
View the NEEP 2008 Conference webpage
Background: I was asked by the office of the British Consulate to staff a booth for the United Kingdom Trade and Investment group at GreenBuild 2008. My work in support of the UKTI's trade mission was to explain the services available to sustainable building in the UK and connect delegates from Britain with partners in the United States.
Background: In 2008, I was selected for the Cleantech Forum XVIII Volunteer Corps in Washington, D.C. The Cleantech Group is focused on providing research and industry connections that foster greater investment in clean technology. I had the opportunity to directly support a panel session that included Jason Grumet, the lead energy-policy advisor for Barack Obama's presidential campiaign.
A photo of me and Obama Advisor Jason Grumet
Cleantech represents three different major themes: "providing superior performance at lower costs, while greatly reducing or eliminating negative ecological impact, at the same time as improving the productive and responsibile use of natural resources."
Background: I co-authored a proposal for a residential-scale wind turbine on the Babson College campus. The proposal included site assessment, permitting, regulation, marketing and technology options. After it was accepted by the Babson facility department, I also assisted in project management including contractor selection and event planning.
Background: I was elected by my peers as co-president of the Babson Energy and Environmental Club for the 2008-2009 academic year.
In this role I perform strategic management of the club, working to implement organizational changes and manage programs that grow our organization and ensure financial sustainability.
Impact: I authored a proposal for a new course at Babson titled the Green Management Consulting Field Experience (MCFE). This three credit course seeks out three objectives:
- To simulate as closely as possible the experience of working for a green management consulting company.
- To position students to graduate with careers in the green technology (energy) community.
- To teach the basics of management consulting, green technology and energy issues.
This course began Fall, 2008 with 25 graduate students.
My deep understanding of software features and interface comes from my personal involvement in some of the best software launches of the past few years.
I was a first round beta user of Writely, which was later acquired by Google and shaped into Google Docs. As a Pho List member, I applied for and received a beta invite to Joost from Fredrik de Wahl when it was still called The Venice Project. I joined Flickr in April 2005, and immediately recognized the simple brilliance that helped define what Web 2.0 is today. I am an active beta user, offering feedback on my experiences.
Along the way, I've tested a myriad of other web applications such as Jumpcut which have helped me understand what it means to deliver great features through a web browser. Currently, I am a beta user of Aviary, a new software as a service that offers a suite of graphic and video editing tools.
I interact with and use many traditional software applications and platforms every day. From the Linux install that keeps my dedicated server humming to QuickBooks to community-contributed Firefox extensions. I look for and make use of the right tool for whatever job I am working on at the moment.
In August of 2006 I climbed to the top of Uhuru Peak on Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. The six day adventure followed the Machame Route. The climb was not only an experience of a lifetime but a great example of my sense of adventure and willingness to take on tasks and challenges well outside my everyday comfort zone.
I began writing about the steps necessary to prepare for a marathon in a technical writing class at Oregon State. Before I knew it, I was actively training and completing the Portland Marathon in 2000 and 2001.
These days in the sports world, I keep a pretty low profile, hitting up Mt. Hood for powder whenever I have an opportunity, and competing in the occasional road race in New England. However, my successful completion of the marathon is symbolic of my willingness to pursue a challenge all the way to the finish line.
Resume: Download
vCard: Download 
Email: rob at banagale.com
Blog: banagale.com
Background and Technical:
I first created WeeklyDavespeak.com in the winter of 2004 as a Dave Matthews Band fan email newsletter. Realizing a need to create web destination to send traffic to, I initially designed and implemented my own custom content management system and began publishing news, and content related to DMB.
Over time I established a community using the vBulletin forum software product and the site eventually grew to need a more flexible content engine. After some research I settled on the open-source CMS, Drupal. To keep the branding of the site in place, I created customized PHP/CSS theme template to match the original look and then performed a transition to the Drupal's database-driven solution.
In managing Weekly Davespeak, I've also had to cope with changes in internet best-practices. For example, when strict new measures were taken by ISPs regarding spam reports I needed to transition my sizable email newsletter list from the GNU-licensed mailing software running on my server to a professional mailing solution, Constant Contact.
An increase in traffic also required me to scale my hosting solution, meaning I had to migrate the site from a shared to a dedicated server. I currently maintain all technical aspects of my server, occasionally upgrading or tuning Apache, Linux, PHP and MySQL to get the features or performance I need.
Creating and Managing a Virtual Team:
Weekly Davespeak is run by an active staff of 13 volunteers. With little exception, all grew out of the community I created and I personally trained over the web to handle their new roles. I now manage a senior moderator and a content editor who control day-to-day operations freeing me to concentrate more on strategic planning for the website and valuable industry relationships.
Adsense, Adwords, Funding and Costs
In the early days of the website I ran Adwords campaigns to fill out the newsletter subscription list and generate traffic to the site. Simultaneously, I ran adsense campaigns inline with my content to help pay for the hosting costs, software licenses and some promotional materials. When it became apparent that I would need a dedicated server, I shifted the monetization model to an annual $3000+, month-long fundraiser. With staff and funding in place, the website is now completely self-sustainable and does not run advertisements anymore.
Dave Matthews Band Facebook Application:
I recently wrote and released a Facebook application (pictured above) that allows fans to display the DMB shows they have attended on their profile. This was my first application for the Facebook platform, and is written in PHP/MySQL. See my blog entry below for more information.
Press Credentialing and Concert Photography:
One of the greatest rewards for the hundreds, if not thousands of hours I've put into creating this website is a relationships I've established. I regularly apply for press credentials to concerts and festivals that are in the AAA-format or common musical genre that Dave Matthews Band falls under. I've been credentialed at Farm Aid, Bonnaroo and several Dave Matthews Band dates.
I took the above photo at the Dave Matthews Band performance at the Las Vegas MGM Grand Arena. The photos were released under the Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. I subsequently used some of my photos in the my DMB Facebook application, finding it a great way to tie two my services and content together.
May 2009 Site Statistics:
- 119,444 Visits
- 46,638 Absolute Unique Visitors
- 4:37 Average Time On Site
- 4,880 double opt-in email newsletter subscribers
- 30,830 registered forum members
- 9,631 Facebook Application users
View my work:
- View Weekly Davespeak
- View my Dave Matthews Band Facebook Application (blog entry)
- View my Dave Matthews Band Concert Photos
Podcastinople began as a concept developed with my good friend, Dave Peixotto over pancakes one morning. Living as roommates at the time, we had been wanting to begin a new web application project for the summer.
The application offers a streamlined solution to the sometimes awkward task of posting podcasts online. Dave developed the web application in Ruby on Rails, and our .Net client was developed by Dan Broschart. As product manager, I made decisions on all aspects of the product planning including user interface, layout, and feature complement.
We developed the website to full functionality but ultimately decided to focus on different projects. We had overestimated the demand for podcasting solutions, and watched as direct competitors such as Odeo and Wild Voice found their traffic going flat.
Interesting Project Facts:
- Used Professional development environment
- Subversion, TRAC, Tortoise SVN, instant deployment
- Windows-based .net client communicates via web services
- We're all still friends, even though it didn't work out
- A private login to test the application is available upon request
View the Podcastinople website
My colleague, Doug Britt and I decided we wanted to create a best-in-show video for the Babson MBA follies in the fall 2007 semester. Doug and I worked together to find and handle our talent, script and shoot the film. I handled all aspects of the editing and music selection for the film. The video was a huge success.
My production tools included:
- Sony Vegas: Video editing, post-production visual effects
- Sony Soundforge: Audio editing
- Sony DVD Architect: DVD Authoring
- Adobe Photoshop: Still image editing
- Adobe Flash: Web conversion
- A Canon HV-20: High definition video camera
Watch "The Package"
I worked with two other graduate students on behalf of the Babson Energy and Environmental Club to create and pitch a wind turbine project to Babson College. I created the Babson Magazine mock-up pictured above as part of the marketing plan portion of our written proposal.
We pitched the project in December of 2007 and it was subsequently accepted. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on March 27th, 2008 where our school was awarded an official citation from the Massachusetts State Senate.
The Babson Wind Turbine's serves as a symbol of Babson College's ongoing efforts towards sustainability seeks to connect the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business with the burgeoning cleantech industry clustered around New England.
The installation of the turbine was a big step for Babson College puts the school on a short list of institutes of higher education with wind power on their campuses.
Our team strongly believes that demonstrating a commitment to sustainability now is in the long-term best interests of Babson College, the surrounding community and greater Boston area. The Boston Globe agreed, and featured an article about the project in their February 24th print and online editions.
The above photo of the actual Fall 2008 Babson Magazine, illustrates how I can work as part of a team to turn a marketing vision into reality.
For more information:
- View Coverage in Boston Globe
