RESUME

Ulla-Maija Kivimäki                                                       
Bedford, NY, USA 
Email umk@umkcreative.com
Website ullamaijakivimaki.com

SUMMARY

Ulla-Maija is a creative and marketing pro who consults businesses, coaches personnel, and produces websites, email marketing campaigns, photos, videos, audio, multimedia presentations, and more.

She has recognized organization skills and for-profit and non-profit management experience.  She is adaptable, comfortable in many cultures and milieus, and enjoys a collaborative working environment.

She is known as "Ulla-Maija" (her Finnish birth, first name) in the international fashion and wedding couture industry.  She is the founder of the "Ulla-Maija, Inc." couture company and luxury brand based in New York, NY, USA.  She is known as "Ullamaya Ma" in India.

EXPERIENCE

Owner at UMK Creative
umkcreative.com
 2010 - Present

UMK Creative is Ulla-Maija’s business consulting, marketing, website design, graphic design, multimedia, social media and email marketing entity. 

Based in Bedford, New York, USA, she is available for collaboration on projects locally and globally.

Executive Director and Music Producer at the Foundation & Society for Universal Sacred Music, Inc.
https://tinyurl.com/ynvpm2pz
2004 - 2010

Society for Universal Sacred Music was a New York non-profit organization that promoted and commissioned new sacred music from composers worldwide and presented it in concerts, festivals, music albums, and videos. During her tenure, she had hands-on involvement in all the affairs of the Society.

•Managed the Society’s expansion in both administrative and artistic areas, managed the annual budget of $600,000, oversaw all operations and programs, and recruited personnel.
•Organized and oversaw the Society’s first two 2-day Festivals of Universal Sacred Music in Manhattan in 2005 (at the Ethical Culture Society) and 2006 (Merkin Concert Hall). Collaborated with a festival producer and staff and with artists and performers to put together festival concerts and programs.
•Executive-produced two 30-minute documentary films about the festivals and the Society’s aims and activities.
•Produced two live concert albums and one studio album.
•Commissioning Program: Placed program announcements worldwide and organized the work of the judging committee.  Assisted the selected international composers in bringing their work to be premiered at the festivals.
•Collaborated with and contracted the work of music directors, composers, performers, venues, festival producers, staff, volunteers, sound people, and film crews.
•Supervised offices and an office manager.
•Collaborated with lawyers, accountants, and bookkeepers, prepared budgets, and managed banking and insurance.
•Set up fundraising together with a development specialist.
•Designed publicity materials.  Redesigned the website.  Started, designed, and wrote e-newsletters.
•Collaborated with PR companies, web designers, and graphic designers.
•Reported to the board of directors.
​

Consultant at Yoga Society of New York, Inc.    
www.anandaashram.org
2002 - 2004

Ulla-Maija was a full-time student, resident, and volunteer at Ananda Ashram, the spiritual and educational center of the Yoga Society of New York, Inc., the 60-year-old non-profit organization in Monroe, New York. There, she began her studies of Indian classical music with several celebrated Indian masters, including vocal & instrumental studies, history, theory, composition, and the Indian notation system, and afterward continued her studies for a decade in both New York and India.

During her two-year residency, she consulted the Yoga Society in several areas, including:
•As an advisor to the Board of Directors.
•Initiated and collaborated in the renovation and design of seven building interiors.
•Created and implemented a strategic plan for communications in order to make the organization better known, and recruited and managed volunteers for those purposes.
•Initiated a gift shop, merchandised products for the shop and online store, and designed brand-name articles.
•Collaborated in formalizing regular music school programs, program planning, organizing concerts and workshops, artist relations, promotion, design, photography, and fundraising.

Designer, Owner, Founder at Kivimaki, Inc.
2002 
In 2002, Ulla-Maija started a successful new company and organized the manufacturing of wedding and evening wear based in Guangdong, China. Please contact for more information.

Designer, Owner, and Founder at Ulla-Maija, Inc. & Ulla-Maija Madison Avenue
1980 - 2000 

Ulla-Maija has a long experience in many areas of the international fashion industry. Starting as a fashion model in Lapland, Finland, at age 15, she was soon 'discovered'​ and started working in Paris, France, at age 17.  She became known as an international model at age 19, lived in several countries, and constantly traveled around the world on assignments for 10 years while studying fashion design at the same time.

Her familiarity with the world of fashion and her design, entrepreneurial, and organizational talents manifested into an internationally known fashion design business and a luxury trademark under her Finnish first birth name. She began the "Ulla-Maija"​ fashion brand in 1980, opened a shop and a couture atelier on Madison Avenue in New York in the mid-'80s, and by the ‘90s, was well known for her elegant evening and bridal designs for the New York society. She incorporated it as Ulla-Maija, Inc. in 1993 and expanded the bridal design segment of her work to major retailers, such as Bergdorf Goodman, 12 Saks Fifth Avenue stores, 18 Nordstrom stores, Neiman Marcus, and many other fine stores nationwide and the United Kingdom.

She developed a recognizable design style and became known worldwide for her signature couture wedding designs, which continue to be sought after today.

In the process of growing a profitable and prestigious wedding couture company, her hands-on responsibilities were many in all areas of the business, including finance, design, marketing, PR, sales, and branding. She set up manufacturing in the US and China and fabric and embroidery development in the US, Italy, and India. She financed the company personally and with a small bank loan. Much later, she acquired capital investment for the expansion of the business.

Her design work has been featured in countless magazines, and she has been interviewed by international publications since the 70’s. ​​View video.

She is the founder and was the owner, president, designer and creative director. After securing investors, she became a shareholder, a board member, and the licensor of her trademark "Ulla-Maija". 

Contact for more information.

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