Carl Strecker
Carl Strecker
Design Management
Team Leadership | Creative Workflows
Los Angeles, CA
Design Management
Team Leadership | Creative Workflows
Los Angeles, CA
Summary
Carl Strecker is Vice President of Design Management at Max and has 20+ years of experience in design, marketing, operations, and project management leadership delivering process efficiencies at scale.
Your amazing key art, promos, title treatments, backgrounds, brand logos, endcards, pre-roll, and photography create a spectacular emotional connection, and it's my job to be a guardian and advocate for your work so that it gets to the right place at the right time for the right customer, and allows the incredible movies and series behind that creative work to shine.
As the Vice President of Design Management at Max, the streaming service of Warner Bros. Discovery, I currently lead a 50-person team that oversees the operational execution of campaign design tickets across the full funnel of digital marketing verticals, and the publishing and QC of all platform key art images on the service. With more than 20 years of experience in creative operations, project management, and people leadership, I have built and managed high-performance teams, developed tools and processes, and tracked OKRs and data trends for some of the world's leading entertainment platforms.
At Max my team is accountable for completing 1,000 design tickets per month and publishing 250,000+ key art images on the streaming platform.
Previously, I led a creative operations team at Netflix, responsible for the deployment of artwork for 700 Netflix original and 14,000 licensed titles from 2015 to 2017. I also spearheaded the release of the 2.0 version of Netflix's proprietary artwork digital asset management system, which also managed localization in over 20 languages.
My mission is to drive creative excellence and workflow optimization to achieve high quality and high efficiency at scale.
Qualifications:
- A proven track record hiring and managing teams, building roadmaps, and delivering creative.
- Passionate about hiring, leadership, and team success.
- Founding member of Max, accountable for completing 12,000+ design tickets annually across multiple digital marketing verticals, in addition to publishing 250,000+ key art images on the streaming platform since launch.
- Creative operations lead at Netflix overseeing the deployment of artwork for about 700 Netflix original and 14,000 licensed titles from 2015-2017.
- Spearheaded delivery of 2.0 version of Netflix’s proprietary artwork Digital Asset Management (DAM) system which managed assets for every title including localization in over 20 languages.
- Increased Netflix's required artwork assets from studios which drove user engagement by improving artwork A/B testing and personalization results.
- Produced and edited a feature documentary, short film, and web series pilot.
- Expert copy writing and producing of sales presentations, C-level keynotes, strategic sales accounts, summits, conferences, and nonprofit powerpoints to achieve marketing objectives including strategy.
- Generated cumulative $90M+ in ad sales revenue; multi-winner of President's Club.
Personal and Professional Attributes:
- Proven strategic storyteller and strategic thinker.
- An ideal balance of pragmatism and common-sense with a flair for innovation.
- Energetic, ability to work in a fast-paced environment with cross-functional teams, manage multiple projects and deliver on deadline.
- Passion for entertainment, education tech, e-learning, SaaS, design thinking, resonant leadership, customer empathy, training, and collaboration.
- Ability to use software application tools and SaaS solutions including Jira, Asana, Monday, Airtable, Slack, Tableau, Salesforce, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere, Clearslide, Evernote, Box, Dropbox, Google Apps, Google Analytics, PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Adobe Cloud.
- Certified Professional Scrum Master (PSM I) and Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO I).
Carl's greatest strength lies in his ability to lead individuals.
— andrew reming
I moved across the country to join carl's team! it's a decision I'll never regret.
— Brittany Hicks
Carl has a true gift for hiring the right people at the right time.
— tracy pope
Carl Strecker is a Rock Star!
— Mike Mezzanotte
Carl loves to make things better. And he makes things, and those around him, better. He's a guy you build teams around.
— Thaddeus hanscom
I'd highly recommend Carl as a leader in any fast-moving environment.
— levi downey
Carl is an excellent manager with a personality that makes people want to come to work.
— Danielle Lee
Carl is a great leader and manager and would be a tremendous asset to any company.
— Zack Snow
Carl is a great manager that effectively balances when to provide instruction and when to empower and give freedom.
— Vivian Lin
I was always inspired by Carl's qualities of judgement, courage, and leadership.
— Nils Norsell
Carl has a contagious enthusiasm that makes him a true pleasure to work with.
— Yassi Sabahi
PROFESSIONAL Experience
Max, Warner Bros. Discovery
Vice President, Design Management Oct 2024 - Present
Los Angeles, CA
Sr. Director, Design Management Dec 2020 - Oct 2024
Los Angeles, CA
Director, Design Management June 2019 - Dec 2020
New York, NY
- Build 50 person team overseeing creative operations and project management for the Performance & Engagement Design group, responsible for the operational execution of 12,000+ design tickets annually across multiple digital marketing verticals, in addition to being accountable for 250,000+ key art images published on the Max (formerly HBO Max) streaming service to date.
- The team is built on several key pillars: creative guidance (feedback and best practices), infrastructure (tools), and project management (requests and resourcing) supporting a broad portfolio of performance and engagement verticals including retention, lifecycle, paid media, social, email, push, dot-com, CRM, in-app editorial, digital distribution partners, platform imagery, international, live news, and live sports.
- Expert knowledge in project management, image specifications, design, DAM, and workflow tools.
Netflix
Systems Team Manager, Product Creative Mar 2017 - Dec 2017
Los Angeles, CA
- Managed Program Managers focused on tool innovation and localization workflows, advocated for creative automation by authoring a strategic cost-benefit analysis and securing buy-in from VPs and Chief Product Officer, and oversaw expansion of the Netflix preferred creative agency program.
- Drove knowledge sharing between machine learning engineers and creative team to understand challenges of creativity at scale.
Netflix
Operations Team Manager, Product Creative Apr 2016 - Mar 2017
Los Angeles, CA
- Managed a team of 16 high-performing Program Managers, Project Managers, Specialists, and Coordinators, overseeing internal tool innovation development, Jira management, roadmap backlog, and feature rollouts, and ensuring timeline and successful launches of Netflix Originals with high quality image assets.
Netflix
Creative Team Manager, Creative Services May 2015 - Apr 2016
Los Angeles, CA
- Hired and managed 8 Producers who oversaw the team’s relationships with global movie and television distribution companies, show producers, and talent, and led meetings with engineering, legal, buyers, finance, data, and globalization to share cross-functional creative initiatives and innovations.
- Managed image asset delivery requirements for A/B testing and personalization, increasing assets required per title by 60%+ boosting subscriber view share performance across all titles.
- Represented the Creative Services team at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show, presenting design philosophy, A/B testing findings, and personalization strategy.
EAP Creative
Business Development Sales Consultant 2013 - 2014
San Jose, CA
- Developed and supported new business strategy for storytelling and video production services for clients, including Yahoo, McAfee, Vudu, Marriott, and Addy Awards.
- Services include corporate videos, motion graphics, music, photography, writing/creative development, keynote presentations, PR/Sales sizzle reels, event recording, TV spots, casting, voice over, and custom packages.
PowerGive
Founder 2011 - 2014
Los Angeles, CA
- Established 501(c)(3) non-profit to provide presentation services for non-profits and promote communication best practices to the philanthropic community. (Company dissolved in 2023.)
- Provided marketing support and drove positive exposure for a Sri Lanka rural empowerment non-profit’s fundraising event in Los Angeles that received $150K+ in donations.
- Published helpful tips including "Less Dread, More TED" guest blog post.
Typecasting Films
Producer & President 2008 - 2011
Los Angeles, CA
- Wrote and developed independent film screenplays, television pilots, and mobile app concepts, including award-winning feature film documentary Becoming Family, a tsunami relief documentary shot in Sri Lanka and distributed by Cinevolve Studios – available now via streaming on Amazon Prime, via DVD on Netflix and Amazon.com, and via occasional broadcast on select international TV networks. (LLC closed in 2019.)
- Winner Top Applause Award 2007 at the International Family Film Festival for “Becoming Family.”
Carl Strecker Consulting
Copywriting and Strategy Expert 2005 - 2007
Los Angeles, CA
- Clients included Walt Disney Studios, Disney Home Video, Warner Home Entertainment, Variety, DVD Exclusive Magazine, and Video Business Magazine.
Video Business Magazine (sibling publication of Variety)
Account Executive 2000 - 2005
Los Angeles, CA
- Maintained industry-leading $10M annual advertising sales revenue and 75% advertising market share, and 2x winner of President’s Club for being elite performer among 100+ publications.
my Tsunami Relief Documentary - Watch the Trailer
Written & Directed by Carl Strecker
Watch the entire film on Amazon Prime.
Visit the Official Website.
CULTURE
What do you think of Netflix's Freedom & Responsibility culture?
Netflix Culture
In 2013, Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg said the Netflix culture deck "may well be the most important document ever to come out of the Valley." Read about Netflix Culture and let me know what you think.
Video pRODUCTION
Highly recommended service!
Introducing EAP Creative
EAP Creative is a Silicon Valley based digital media agency that focuses on building relationships between you and your audience.
Education
Coursera.org
• Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society (Wharton) - certificate with Distinction
• Organizational Analysis (Stanford) - certificate
• Inspiring Leadership Through Emotional Intelligence (Case Western) - certificateSkills
Leadership
Hiring and Coaching
Creative Operations
Project Management
Relationships
High Performance
Honors & Awards
President's Club (x2)
Top Applause Award at the International Family Film Festival
Let's chat!
Carl Strecker's LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/carlstrecker
© Copyright Carl Strecker 2024