Michelle E. Messina is president of the Global Direction and Strategy Agency, LLC. The company provides strategic marketing and revenue-focused consulting services to international companies launching into the U.S. market and has specialized expertise working with government-sponsored business acceleration programs.
She is active in the international entrepreneurial community as an advisor to TechBA, the Mexico – Silicon Valley Business Accelerator for over 2 _ years. Michelle is a board member for SAGE, Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship, focused on advancing youth entrepreneurship and community service around the world. She is also a Fellow at the Larta Institute, a professional services firm providing entrepreneur training, commercialization, and technology transfer services for governments, companies, and universities.
Michelle is co-founder of the French Business & Innovation Accelerator (FBIA) that launched February 2007 with Microsoft France as a co-sponsor and sponsorship by the government of France and the participating companies. The program will accelerate 10-12 French technology companies into the US market for sales, partnership and strategic alliance purposes over the course of 1 year with new companies selected for the program each quarter.
During the last 2 years, Michelle has worked in Mexico, Hungary, France, Estonia, Costa Rica, Chile, Germany and Peru evaluating companies and training entrepreneurs in market expansion preparedness. She has entrepreneur clients from India, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Michelle has over 19 years sales and marketing experience with emerging technologies and companies including E-commerce and internet applications, VoIP, computerized robotics, biotechnology, and enterprise services and software applications. Her senior and executive level positions have included responsibility for marketing strategy, lead generation, product management and marketing, revenue generation ($10M Western US region), creation and execution of global marketing plans, establishment of European marketing operations and pan-European PR campaigns.
She has served as a Vice President Sales, Vice President of Marketing, Business Development Director, and Business Unit General Manager holding senior positions with Befree, Moai Technologies, Open Market, and Quarterdeck Corporation.
Michelle is a published photographer and author based in Silicon Valley, California. She is fully bilingual in English and Spanish with a working knowledge of French and Italian.
Michelle E. Messina, President
Explora International, LLC
mmessina@explorainternational.com
Skype : michellemessina
Mobile: +1 408.981.4801
Office: +1 408.956.1699
Interview with Sabrina Braham – How to Move from the Corporate World to Being an Entrepreneur
