Curriculum Vitae - Résumé

JET PAGES

John Edward Tisdall

In USA - Arlington, VA


In Latin America - Caracas, Venezuela.

Go to Venezuela Film Production Company Wild Track Productions for quality, pioneering documentary film production services of exotic flora, fauna and Amazon Ethnic groups such as the Yanomami Indians and all manner of Latin American footage, regardless of extreme situations or out of the way, never before filmed, locations in Venezuela's Andes Mountains, Amazon Jungles, deserts, Gran Sabana(Angel Falls) or Marlin laden coastal waters and unspoiled beaches. We are experienced in shoots throughout Latin America and over the years have developed exclusive relationships with out of the way fishing-wildlife camps and the last of the stone age peoples, deep in Amazon and as far south as Pastagonia. Since Google Search missed the page but found this one when Venezuela Film Production was the search term, I have preceded the resume undergoing a major edit with this link. Yahoo had us number 1 a few months ago and Google has this outdated resume 11th with the same search. Go there directly for contact information and description of services.


Send mail by clicking on one of the addresses below
jtisdall@earthlink.net, checked daily, jtisdall@capaccess.org (daily) or jet1@compuserve.com(overseas so at times delayed but checked regularly)


Education

1994

Passed the written Foreign Service Officer Exam of the US Department of State for the second time establishing candicacy (the first time in 1976 as an undergraduate just 5% passed the initial written exam, I note this only because many are unaware of its difficult and highly competitive nature).

1989-1990

Georgetown University. Washington, DC
Graduate course work in Latin American Studies. 3.25 gpa. I have enough credits for an MA due to my participation in a BA/MA Program at Penn, not enough earned at Georgetown itself to fulfill their degree requirements.

1974-1977.

University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia , PA.

BA, International Relations, 1977. 3.25gpa. Withdrew from Masters program due to accident and took the BA Graduate work in Intl. Law and Organization and Latin American Studies.

Also attended Temple University (Honors Program), St. Joseph's,, Haverford College, Friends World College(by traveling across Asia after compiling an in depth journal at Athens University with photgraphs and the first results from the later published study of the 5 year status of clients of the Probation Dept. of Phila.'s Drug Unit. While in Radnor High School took college credit courses at Villanova University in American History and volunteered at Haverford State Hospital in the Unit housing the most severly impaired as an adjunct to ongoing Psychology Courses. Member of Student Coucil- Corresponding Secretary, active in after school and evening workshops and courses. Basketball, Football. Wilderness Survival Camping.


Work Experience

I include here only those jobs that are pertinent to my present search or where time spent and or accomplishments warrant their mention.


1992-present(August ,2000) See below for Computer background.

I am currently (August 2000) consulting for a Venezuelan Construction Company-Ivan-Kov C.A., El Saman, Tumero, Estado Aragua, Venezuela on prefabricated solutions to the long standing housing shortage that has plagued the country, made all the more pressing in the light of the catastrophe that hit Vargas State and Caracas in the form of mudslides that buried 30,0000 souls at least according to estimates since the unfathomable tragedy occurred this past December, a few days before Christmas, 1999.
Suffice it to say that years of effort, not all together altruistic before the Mudslides and related Disaster, have been stymied by political and not economic or quality considerations. See Addendum * When not in Venezuela on a specific job but consulting on small issues from DC, I have most recently taken over the management and expansion of an NT 4.0 Client/server IP LAN and associated web presence, database management and integration for a local medical practice. We are working with the eventual goal of offering a web based patient management and data collection module for use with any specialty medical practice. Government funding is a possibility as we wish to advance research in many fields by tracking patient lab work and web based form responses over time and mining data from procedures that heretofore have not been used for the type of long term data collection new technology makes possible.
Prior to these past two years actively involved consulting for Ivan-Kov and mostly just representing and not producing for Wild Track Productions (a Nature Documentary Film Production Company I have worked with since its founding 10 years ago) in the States, I was involved in computer consulting and installations on a variety of projects in Venezuela and the States. Film Production, Production Management, Website design and maintenance for Wild Track Productions among others. Contracts designing and installing computer workstations, upgrades, Internet training. Worked for Soza and Co. developing courses for the US State Department on Hostage negotiations and other security issues and supervised their translation into Spanish, developing a Spanish version for visiting South American delegations of students. Translated Immigration documents for INS litigants, conducted bilingual interviews, and managed a number of Latin American legal document translations (Privatization Law). Consulted on NAFTA, Venezuelan Public Housing Development, and Venezuelan Trade Issues. Consulting/Sales (market research on penetration strategies) for importers of agricultural products from Mexico.
Oct.-December, 1995. Consulting for ISI Telecommunications, Wash. DC on their Web Presence.
August, 1995. Creation of Bilingual (Spanish/English) HTML documents for the World Wide Web-(Documents created for access with the Web "browser" applications such as Netscape and Mosaic on the "Web" portion of the Internet. Managed Website (ftp to server, maintenance, etc.) Contracted by Mercator Genetics of Menlo Park, California to design their HTML Computational Biology Web Gateway Research Page. Consulted with Vlahos Interactive on Web Site projects using HTML coding and digital image manipulation( many early web authoring Tools and graphics programs used).

1983-1992

Independent contractor of technical and managerial services to various film production companies, chiefly based in New York. Location Scouting, Grip, Propman, Electrician, Video Operator, Still Photographer, Soundman, Production Coordinator, Production Manager. Two of the more memorable events (as opposed to endless product commercials) were work for the David. H. Sawyer Company on the 1984 Walter Mondale presidential bid, and a request from a friend at the Venezuelan Exterior Ministry to assist a National Geographic Production of the Gran Sabana region of Venezuela, including Angel Falls, gold mines and spectacular landscapes

1982-1990 Independent contractor.

Stage technician/talent Manager on various tours for international artists, studio and "in house" work for Radio City Music Hall, S.I.R. Studios, The Power Station and the Beacon Theater. Benefits for a variety of organizations chief among them Amnesty International Events at the UN in New York and domestic preparation for and participation in overseas events. Agent and Tour Manager on American Tour of Recording Artist. These experiences developed my resourcefulness, organizational skills, intercultural understanding as well as production and technical expertise.


1980-1981 The Shimek Group , Anchorage, Alaska.

Manager. Hired to build a record/electronics store, literally from the ground up. Built store interior, hired employees, ordered product, developed inventory control system, initiated and directed advertising strategy, directed employee training and development, negotiated with suppliers. The store made a profit the first month and drove two competitors out of business within a year. Business sold more "catalog" recordings than any other in the country, according to a major supplier in a trade journal. Left position as there was no imminent advancement in a job that I enjoyed but wasn't interested in making into a career.


1977 Quito, Ecuador- Cuzco, Peru.

Production Manager. Hotel Colon International- Renovated sound and light systems for a beauty pageant and concert at the hotel for Chip Monck which led to work as a Production Manager- Interpreting and coordinating with the Spanish speaking crew on shoots for Charles Ellis, Inc., an early hanglider who merged this then novel phenomena with Video-Film skills to produce various thirty-second spots for Fanta of Ecuador and Peru and Levi's of Ecuador.


1972- Philadelphia, Pa., Boston, Mass. And Athens, Greece.

-work/study at Friends World College as a Probation Officer-Researcher in the City of Philadelphia. Research on the Sociology of Drug Addiction published (Journal of Addictive Disease). Work in Fine Art (Wood sculpting) at the Boston Museum School and Athens, Greece.


Other jobs or enterprises -not a complete list.


Additional Skills, Interests, and Abilities

Fluent Spanish, comprehension of Portuguese, Italian and early conversational ability in French and German.
Computer literate with PC diagnostic and repair skills. Network Administrator on small NT TCP/IP based ethernet network with WinRoute and NT Server, file and printer sharing, multiple net access from one connection, Net Folders for mail in Outlook 2000 with IMAP and POP as well as SMTP servers, etc. Familiar with the development of XML and its effects on B to B, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. 10 years of Internet experience and have witnessed the evolution of net formats and protocols like FTP , Gopher, W.A.I.S, IRC Telnet, etc. to the Web And HTML, Shockwave, Real Audio and Video, Bilingual HTML authoring and Web Page design. Trained personnel in Internet access and tools, Windows 95, Web Page Construction and design with HTML editors (HTMLed32, Hot Dog to Net Objects/Fusion , Front-page, Dreamweaver and HomeSite, etc.), and various Web graphic programs from Photoshop to Kai's PowerGoo. Working knowledge of most Internet search tools and applications. Familiar with many online services, software applications and shareware and freeware alternatives. DOS, UNIX,` Linux, Palm OS, Windows Operating Systems. Project File Management, Multimedia, DTP, Internet Research skills.
Highly developed cross cultural interpersonal communication skills and project organization ability.
Ham radio operator experience. Morse code 10 wpm.
Hobbies include photography, short-wave, computers, piano , travel and camping.
Extensive travel/study in the USA, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

* Venezuela Projects cont., In the past few years we have worked to change the standard to which public housing in Aragua is held, providing larger and more humane designs without cost increases that incorporate ventilation techniques, new materials, and common sense design methods to produce a far more habitable and community oriented low cost dwelling. Trying to introduce prefabricated solutions that further improve on comfort and efficiency with a local factory to provide long term employment and further ease housing shortages has been hampered by the prevailing construction "culture" which produces solid homes but as opposed to the forward thinking company I work for is very different. It sees prefabrication as an inferior , labor antagonistic, and ultimately dangerous technique when opposed to their traditional skill sets and conceptions of the home, and many countervailing commercial interests who are not easily persuaded by our ability to bring in housing at 30 to 50 per cent less and more depending on the scale of the project whith an in country factory with Venezuelan operators and owners if it means loss of sales or market share in building materials or jeopardizing labor intensive techniques that ease dangerous unemployment pressures. With the rejection of two free cargo ships filled with bulldozers and assorted Aid unless they were driven and commanded by Venezuelan uniformed troops , I am afraid President Chavez erred very greatly. at least.iscern from my seaadbuilding machines in addition to food and clothing Aid from the famous US Army SeaBees and Army Engineers Corps, Presidernt Chavez sent a clear signal and passed up legendary emergency and grand project experience by refusing them to be used by uniformed soldiers unless under Venezuelan command. Six months later this past Spring Ivan-Kov donated 4 bulldozers for a few months and they and others were still swamped by the magnitude of the slide and progress was hard to discrern, at least from my seat on the tour. The immediate future will be one of tension in US-Venezuela relations, despite their status as our largest source of oil. Perhaps in the near future my personal crusade for more inventive , lower cost Venezuelan housing projects will meet with enthusiasm as the old techniques prove costly and slow.For the moment I have put it on the back burner as Ivan-Kov pays for things that benefit them and my enthusiasm , though well received by many, is currently regarded as properly diminished as we see politics play out in this potentially unstable but so far comitted democracy, a rarity in its region. So using the Internet, my translation skills, as well as stateside contacts going back to my Father's life long experience with building materials, I have also provided many services to Ivan-Kov and other General Contractors from planning and acquiring their equipment needs. for a realized bid on infrastructure projects growth.
Among routine duties are researching points of import-export law and regulations, identifying Stateside subcontractors and suppliers of foreign goods on large projects from Public Housing and Highway Construction( infrastructure projects like small bridges, storm and sewage systems, etc. amongst other projects) to security perimeters on bank installations and attendant computer surveillance and security technology imports. From small business startups to long term strategy for growth in general, I am the only fluent English speaking employee that is also fluent in Spanish, and in a sense, the conduit between and interpreter of developments economic, technological and political across the cultural divide between the two spheres of influence I am most familiar with in this world. It is a fascinating, at times hard to decipher, experience on extended trips South, but not as financially rewarding as my age and eventual retirement with dependents must make it be.

References

available on request.


at jtisdall@CapAccess.Org


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