CIO / IT EXECUTIVE
C-LEVEL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & BUSINESS SOLUTIONS EXECUTIVE
Strategic Analysis & Planning • Best Practices • Sarbanes-Oxley • Scalable Infrastructure Development
Budgeting • Cost Control • Vendor Relations • HRS • Systems Integration • Project Management
Valued for in-depth understanding of the role of Information Technology in the modern enterprise – built and maintained an IT organization for a billion dollar commodity company and enabled IT to grow from a perennial problem child into a well-run support organization that has made crucial contributions to enable top line growth.
Excellent internal/external relationship management skills and a strategic as well as tactical talent for structuring bottom-line focused cross functional teams – rebuilt and stabilized the staff of an enterprise data center and implemented PeopleSoft HR in a highly complex for a Fortune 50 firm – eliminated the risk to company infrastructure and major business applications.
Strong relationship management skills – a mentor able to attract, develop and retain top talent. Fluent in German, working knowledge of Spanish, some knowledge of French and Russian.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
ENERGY SERVICES COMPANY 2002 – Present
Chief Information Officer
Report directly to the CEO. Direct all aspects of IT. Transformed IT Department from its nascent stage into a disciplined organization by applying best practice principles of IT management. Infused IT with a strong business focus and achieved an important shift from largely reactive behavior to a proactive and strategic approach.
• Influenced the leadership team to move the company from a largely ad hoc business approach to a culture of disciplined execution.
▪ Introduced the fundamentals of disciplined IT operations and governance with a focus on a systems development life cycle methodology, clearly defined communication channels, as well as documentation, measurements and metrics.
• Established an Executive Steering Committee to prioritize strategic IT activities at the highest level of the company; gained the trust of the business by creating joint success experiences.
▪ Spearheaded a joint operations/IT initiative to make business processes more efficient; cut cost per bill 50% over three years.
• Built a scalable systems infrastructure as a necessary prerequisite to support explosive growth in the commodity line of business; revenue increased from $300 million to $1 billion over four years.
• Reduced the second year IT budget by 20% and kept it flat in subsequent years.
• Delivered all major projects on time and budget.
• Contributed directly to top line growth with initiatives that produced significant competitive advantage – the company was able to dominate the Long Island and Cape Cod electricity markets, accounting for 100% of the net operating income after taxes in 2005.
• Implemented PeopleSoft Financials to support three deregulated energy companies; enabled the consolidation of the Finance group as a shared service, reduced monthly closing time from 2 weeks to 3 days with an accounting staff trimmed to 50% of its original size.
• Re-negotiated the lease for company facilities achieving a savings of $1million over five years as the head of Administrative Services.
• Reduced risk; enabled Sarbanes- Oxley certification without extraordinary efforts.
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IT CONSULTING COMOPANY 2001 – 2002
Global IT and engineering consulting firm providing services in Microsoft technologies like .Net and Java, ERP solutions like SAP, PeopleSoft and Oracle and Data warehousing projects, with large Fortune 500 clients.
Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
• Introduced structured management practices and fundamental elements of a development life cycle methodology to this fledgling consulting firm.
FORTUNE 50 INSURANCE COMPANY 1997 – 2001
Provider of Life Insurance, Annuities, Mutual Funds, Long Term Care, Real Estate and Retirement Services.
Vice President HR Systems, 2000 - 2001
Managed operational support as well as all major initiatives of Human Resources Systems. Oversaw an annual operational budget of $14 million and a staff of 120. Helped guide the department in a significant role in the preparation for demutualization.
• Implemented PeopleSoft International for non-US divisions of the company.
• Implemented a web-based benefit enrollment system; reduced the cost of the annual enrollment campaign by $2 million.
• Designed and implemented a web-based compensation system, and provided seamless and reliable support for all HR, benefits and payroll processing.
• Implemented systems solutions for the Prudential Stock Option Plan – a critical path for demutualization.
• Determined systems requirements in support of the strategic decision by Prudential to outsource all Human Resource processing functions to a third party provider.
Implementation Manager for PeopleSoft HRMS, 1997 - 2000
Headed this 36 month $68 million project that replaced several legacy systems by merging their functionality into one fully integrated PeopleSoft HR, benefits and payroll application. Volunteered as technical project manager for Phase One and was subsequently promoted to overall project manager for Phase Two. The project was implemented on time and on budget.
• Led the IT contingent in the selection process for an implementation partner.
• Determined systems architecture and technology platforms.
• Kept staff turnover below 5% during a time of very high demand for expert PeopleSoft resources.
• Determined all technical and operational standards for programming, technical infrastructure, change control, help desk, and operational support for the finished system.
• Built partnerships with all affected business, operations, and technology areas in the company to minimize the risk of external dependencies.
• Completed all project activities on the Friday prior to the Monday go-live; both day-1 operations and the first payroll run went smoothly as in prior tests.
Director HR Systems, 1997
Prepared the HRS team with the structure and discipline necessary for major new systems initiatives.
FORTUNE 100 HEALTHCARE COMPANY 1994 – 1997
The nation's largest health care management services company, with expected annual revenues of more than $8B and more than 40 million enrollees in a wide variety of programs providing health care services and products.
Director UNIX Data Center, 1996 - 1997
Challenged by the CIO to stabilize the UNIX support team and significantly reduce the growing risk to the company infrastructure. Completely rebuilt the team, and installed a successor within eight months.
• Repaired the broken lines of communication with the IT application community.
• Mounted an aggressive campaign to hire fresh talent to fill the resource gaps, and improved morale via team-building activities, workload leveling, and organized cross training.
• Introduced fundamental structures in support of work queue management, project management, operational support and help desk functions as well as quality assurance.
• Determined long term strategy and helped structure a limited outsourcing agreement with UNISYS.
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Director Technology Assessment, 1995 - 1996
Reported directly to the CIO. Managed the architectural integration of three distinct IT units with roots in METLIFE, THE TRAVELERS and UNITED HEALTHCARE.
• Determined tactical and strategic components of a common systems architecture.
• Determined the major strategic computing platforms.
• Developed and implemented high level standards across all units.
• Developed and managed a model for technology assessment based on a virtual organization to utilize the expertise of IS professionals throughout the company in a cost effective manner.
• Built and maintained relationships with major vendors of technology.
• Led the assessment of major technology investments.
Systems Manager / Project Leader, 1994 - 1995
Led a dedicated work team in the design and implementation of a client server application to streamline data entry for medical claims.
• Rolled out the application nationwide in record time; enabled $10 million in operational expense savings during its first year.
FORTUNE 100 Insurance Company 1983 – 1994
Financial services company with core products that include homeowners, auto, boat, life, annuities, and IRA's.
Programmer Analyst / Technical Manager
EDUCATION
BBA, Computer Systems, Valedictorian, Northeastern U.S. Major Business College 1983
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
Member, Executive Board, The Society for Information Management
Mentor, Program for advanced degree students at an Ivy League School
PRESENTATIONS & PUBLICATIONS
Presented at the 3rd annual Marcus Evans CIO summit in December of 2005
Invited to present at the 13th annual CFO conference featuring Jack Welch as the keynote speaker
Guest lecturer at several colleges, including Ivy League
Author of a chapter on strategy for a for profit book produced by major publisher |
