A Day in the Life of Senior Director of Product Solutions Gaylene Galliford

• Gaylene Galliford is the Senior Director of Product Solutions. 
• Gaylene starts each day with her son before she gets into the office where she spends a good portion working through conversations with people regarding what needs to be done in relation to the business process development for student-facing educational programs, internal software supplication needs and curricula across the organization.
• Gaylene walked through a typical day for her.

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Gaylene Galliford, Senior Director of Product Solutions has a busy day.

Working out of the corporate office in Irvine, California, Gaylene joined Online Trading Academy in 2009 and has been responsible for the development and distribution of curricula. In addition to this role, she has been integral in business process development for student-facing educational programs and internal software application needs across the organization. She has worked closely with Information Technology, Marketing, and Operations to analyze and develop programs that support sales, customer satisfaction and engagement, as well as improving center efficiency across the franchise network.

“I start each morning getting my son out of bed and ready for the day,” says Gaylene. “At this point in the day, he takes priority.” Gaylene then checks emails making sure that things on the East Coast or other sides of the world have been addressed. She also likes getting a jumpstart on what’s happening, before she heads to the office.

“Sharing information with my team, checking in with them, and seeing what's going on in their world is an essential part of what I do and is extremely important in the efficient execution of any plan,” says Gaylene.

Gaylene is responsible for the distribution and delivery of OTA products. This means delivery in a variety of different ways such as online delivery, and on-location delivery. Now with Gaylene’s help, OTA is moving into an on-demand scenario, where people don't have to necessarily engage directly with an instructor or go to a class at a specific time.

“It is about convenience,” says Gaylene. “It's taking the model of education on our time and making it education on the student’s time.”

“It is also about innovation and technology,” she adds. Gaylene interacts with the franchise network on CliK implementation. She works closely with the CliK development team, getting an understanding of what that technology is, how OTA is going to distribute it to centers, putting together a rollout plan and strategy, and executing that strategy.

CliK is one of many of the OTA initiatives Gaylene has been working on. “This past year has been consumed with a lot of innovation around the technology that we're using inside the classroom,” says Gaylene. “We have so many products I help to nurture and give life to. It’s exciting.”

Gaylene’s nurturing skills are not confined to OTA. They are also in full use at home as she balances work with life.

“Balancing work with being a mother is almost like building a patchwork quilt,” says Gaylene. "It's like, okay, I found a little nugget of time here to go do this, and a little nugget of time here to go do that."

“When my son's calling me, "Let's go play soccer," I go play soccer in the backyard for the next half hour or so. Then I pop back in on my laptop and check emails, and maybe make sure that I get that slide done for tomorrow's presentation.”

“I am not hooked on the idea of the workday only being from eight to five,” Gaylene explains. “I don't think that people who are driven do well with those time constraints.”

After sending out the slide, Gaylene may head out to take her son to soccer or climbing lesson, or they might hang out with the neighbors. Gaylene is very connected to her neighborhood. Her neighbors have been a huge support for her and her son. Just recently, they attended a graduation party at the house next door to her. The next evening, she and her son had some friends over from another house in the neighborhood.

“I feel very grateful,” says Gaylene.

This year, Gaylene will be celebrating 10 years at Online Trading Academy. If you see Gaylene walking through the halls, make sure to wish her a Happy Anniversary and thank her for her continued hard work and dedication in helping to make OTA what it is today.