Dilmun Burial Mounds
Mark Downing
SEO & LLM Answer Engines
Marketplaces & eCommerce
+ armchair anthropologist, eschatologist & cosmologist
Expertise
SEO
Award-winning & recognized thought-leader
GenAI & LLM Answer Engines
Have been following Artificial Neural Networks Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence since I had asked Prof. Geoffrey Hinton—the “Godfather of AI” and now Nobel Laureate—for help on a paper back when I was in grad school
eCommerce
Beyond professional work experience, I have been selling stuff online since 1999
Strategy & Consulting
While at Big Blue and and boutique consulting firm
Work Experience
Dell
SEO Management
Nearly 20 years of eCommerce & SEO
Spent most of my time in China supporting Asia-Pacific
eBay
Marketplace Management
Grew the Collectibles categories with strategic partnerships with Crown Corporations, major museums, leading trade shows and top auctioneers
IBM
Web Consulting
Pioneering the Internet
Technology Solutions Canada
IT Management Consulting
For a Big Bank & Passenger Rail Company
Education
Regularly attend engineering & business school events: networking, book launches and debates, and the Creative Destruction Lab’s Reading Group, currently focused on AI.
Languages
French
French Immersion Program. Most of my schooling was in French.
Mandarin
Completing HKS 4
Japanese
Beginner, Genki I
Middle Egyptian
Took two courses at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Passions
Astronomy & Cosmology
- Decade-long member of the the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
- Space Place Canada volunteer, bringing back a planetarium to Toronto
- Own Celestron Nexstar 9.25 & Lunt 60 mm Solar Telescopes
Scuba
- Advanced PADI Scuba Diver
- Memorable dives: Dahab, Koh Tao, Ambergris Caye’s Blue Hole, North Malé Atoll, Roatan & Borocay
MMA Training
- Muay Thai (considered blue shorts, but untested)
- BJJ (considered a blue belt equivalent)
- Weightlifting
Culinary & Arts
- George Brown College Culinary Arts Certificate: 23 full continuing education courses; most recently Advanced French Cooking, WSET Beer 1 & WSET Wine 2 (current)
Interests
Magazine Subscriptions
- L’actualité
- BBC Music Magazine
- Archaeology
- Foreign Affairs
- Scientific American
- Scuba Diver
- Sky & Telescope
- The Economist
- World Archaeology
Music Subscriptions
- Toronto Symphony Orchestra
- Canadian Opera Company
The Great Courses Plus Subscription Courses completed:
- Radio Astronomy
- Introduction to Astrophysics
- Understanding Modern Electronics
- Understanding Multivariable Calculus
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Physics & Our Universe
- The Evidence for Modern Physics
- Palaeontology
- Meteorology
- Nuclear Physics Explained
Online University Courses completed:
Where I’ve Lived
Dalian, China
#manchuria
Lived in the North East of China for quite a while. Learned Mandarin Chinese.
Grenoble, France
#capitalofthealps
Spent a summer on exchange living with a family to improve my French.
Hong Kong, SAR
#hkust
Spent a semester on exchange to the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and took Cantonese.
Toronto, Canada
#toronto
My home.
Carthage, Tunisia
#punicports
Worked on a UNESCO project associated with Archaeometry pioneer Prof. Ursula Franklyn and her mentee Prof. Vanda Vitali. Supplemented improving French with basic Maghrib Arabic.
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