Bio: Gisela McKay

Gisela McKay is the not-so-secret weapon companies deploy to reach their internet marketing goals.

As Chief Mastermind and President of pixcode Inc., Ms. McKay heads up the development, maintenance, and marketing of their internet properties such as NaturalHealthcare.ca, BusinessPartnerships.ca, and CanadaEventsCalendar.ca. She also oversees new initiatives such as the spin-off of the workplace wellness projects into the separate brand, Wellergize, plus the attendant sites, EmployeeWellness.ca and WellnessFair.ca.

In addition, her expertise is highly sought after by organizations with substantial web initiatives that require an understanding of the entire process, from development through tracking, analyzing, and improving the results.

Background

Gisela has a solid background in technology and business practices, and comes from a long line of entrepreneurs.

Early on, she was Administrator and Operations Manager for her mother's answering service, (one of the earliest to be completely computerized). This entailed overseeing the installation and maintenance of all related telephony systems in-house and at client sites. This experience heightened her ability to listen to the challenges and frustrations expressed by small business owners and to match their needs with the right technology.

While at the University of Toronto (studying Philosophy and Film Theory) Gisela took on a part-time assignment with a management consulting firm reorganizing their filing system. When they learned that she could apply the same skills to their file server, they asked her to stay on, and she worked her way through various positions including Practice Assistant, Technical Writer, Graphic User Interface Design, Database Administrator, and Developer. It was also here that she first put her web development skills to business use.

Later positions saw her designing and overseeing the development of three different Content Management Systems, designing two pieces of Internet directory management software, and envisioning and helping to create the social networking software that runs Business Partnerships Canada.

Past positions include: Chief Technology Officer of a Canadian new media corporation, Associate Director of the byDesign eLab at the McLuhan Program (University of Toronto), and founding Member of the Women's Power Cocktail Hour team, coordinating and promoting events related to equality and the rights of women;.