Dear Executive Recruiter;
Do your clients need a results-driven leader to assure that IT works FOR the business? I am a high-energy, business-oriented, senior manager with broad experience and a record of delivering innovative solutions to business challenges.
My background provides the unique fusion of technical and business perspectives required to successfully align IT strategy with that of the business. Capabilities and accomplishments include:
• As Vice President of IT, managed software engineering, quality assurance, networking/telecomm, and offshore organizations.
• Delivered mission critical applications and 24x7 production support to companies generating revenues in excess of $775 million.
• Consistently identified and exploited emerging business trends and technologies to create new competitive advantage.
• Advanced organizational capabilities by establishing standards, metrics, processes, and methodologies for business and technical functions.
• Deployed full life-cycle product development processes from initiation through delivery and support. Integrated PM, development, quality assurance, configuration, and issue management processes increased quality by a factor of 10.
• Provided key leadership during corporate strategic redirection and restructuring.
• Proven capacity to assimilate complex business and technical issues, resolve ambiguity, balance strategic goals with tactical realities, and create clear solutions.
• Consistent record of fostering excellent working relationships and exerting positive influence at all levels to facilitate teamwork, communication, and conflict resolution.
• Deep experience leading system architecture, analysis and design, application development, and project management teams.
• M.B.A. and both undergraduate and graduate engineering degrees.
I look forward to applying my energy and expertise to achieving your clients’ operational and strategic goals.
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Business Focus
• Definition and alignment of business and technology processes
• Defining effective, cross-functional strategies
• Strategic utilization of external resources
• Budgeting & Program Management
• Regulatory compliance
• Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
Technical Focus
• Secure, reliable operations
• Cost-effective, scaleable infrastructure architecture
• System & Application architecture
• Product development & support processes
• Quality Assurance & Measurement
Business-Oriented Senior IT Manager
Dynamic, results-driven business leader with extensive experience managing application development and information systems operations for companies from startups to Fortune 50.
Demonstrated analytical capacity to assimilate complex business and technical issues, resolve ambiguity, balance strategic goals with tactical realities, and create concise, executable plans.
Established record of building excellent working relationships and exerting positive influence at all levels to understand stakeholder needs, develop high-performance teams, resolve conflict, and drive successful change initiatives.
Focused on cross functional collaboration to develop and deploy mutually reinforcing business and technical strategies that create adaptive organizations capable of driving industry-leading rates of innovation.
Experience
Blue Skies Unlimited, Atwater, MN
Provider of strategic management and IT consulting services
Principal (2004 – present)
Disaster Recovery Architect responsible for development of disaster recovery (DR) capabilities for Best Buy. Moved disaster recovery capability forward through uncertainty during transition of Best Buy’s IT operations to Accenture.
• Created DR policies and standards for guidelines, plan contents, supplemental documentation, test plans, and training for this major Accenture DR engagement.
• Created frameworks to assess risks and direct and indirect impacts of downtime.
• Worked with owners of business critical applications to determine appropriate RTO and RPO.
• Presented alternative architectures appropriate for different recovery timeframes.
• Changed approach from DR as a “bolt on” consideration to incorporation of DR as a normal part of requirements, design, implementation, and operations.
• Coordinated with project management to integrate DR as another component within the project and configuration management framework.
• Established standard for test plans to assure they only set up (simulated) failure scenario and record effectiveness of exercising stand alone recovery plans.
• Revised recovery plan strategy by working across application development, architecture, operations, security, and networking functions to develop separate but coordinated recovery plans for each area reflecting how recovery strategies would actually be executed (previous plans were monolithic and did not provide for coordinated, parallel activities performed by separate groups).
• Coordinated with operational areas to understand implications of current backup strategies and establish steps to assure that RTOs and RPOs were achievable.
• Provided linkages from DR to BCP planning.
Sinex Aviation Technologies, Duluth, MN
Provider of software allowing airlines to automate tracking of heavy aircraft maintenance. Optimization and tracking of maintenance workflow reduces airlines’ maintenance costs up to 22%. Hired by Sinex President and CEO to establish processes for software development and technical operations and to re-energize dispirited engineering organization.
Vice President of Engineering (2002 – 2003)
Managed and matured software engineering, quality assurance, and networking/telecomm departments that build, test, install, and provide 24x7 production support for products at four major airlines in seven locations supporting 5,000 users. Responsible for all Sinex infrastructure including support for remote users, software development and testing environments, and operation and recoverability of remotely hosted deployments.
• Deployed full life-cycle product development processes from initiation through delivery and support. Integrated PM, development, quality assurance, configuration, and issue management processes.
• Utilized ability to lead and influence without positional authority to create cross-functional teams involving Sinex and customer stakeholders. Resulted in improved collaboration, communication, and customer satisfaction.
• Established and chaired Change Control Board and defined processes for change management and determining release content. Reduced conflict among stakeholders through uniform processes and communications.
• Reorganized quality assurance function and established best practices for QA and testing.
• Rejuvenated technical staff through leadership and resolution of difficult issues in human resources, regulatory compliance, and migration to new technologies.
• Within one year in a highly dynamic and resource constrained environment, the cumulative effects of the above initiatives vastly improved morale and collaboration, increased quality by a factor of 10, and established the capability to reliably define and deliver frequent software releases to demanding customers in remotely hosted installations at airline maintenance facilities.
Berkley Information Services (BIS), Sioux Falls, SD
Provider of software and information processing services to regional insurance companies producing revenues of $776 million. Parent is W. R. Berkley Corp., a $2.7 billion insurance company (2002 numbers). Hired by President of BIS to execute key business and technical projects, establish development processes, and redirect CMM implementation efforts. Scope later expanded to include key responsibilities for major strategic redirection working directly with CIO and CTO of W. R. Berkley.
Vice President of Systems Development (2000 – 2002)
• Executed major initiatives including consolidation of multiple legacy policy processing systems and successful development and deployment of new billing system representing company’s first use of object-oriented (OO) technologies.
• Improved collaboration between regional insurance companies and development organization by designing a decision framework to maximize the value of software delivered in a resource-constrained environment. Ability to lead and influence without hierarchical authority was key to success.
• Increased the maturity of the development organization. Established software configuration management, defined effective software development methodologies, processes, and standards for legacy and OO technologies, and established company standards for technical architecture and development tools utilizing industry standards to maximize vendor independence.
• Provided interim leadership to quality assurance function. Guided development of QA processes and transformed heavyweight implementation of CMM into well accepted, scalable processes crossing development, QA, and project management functions.
• Created continuous learning environment for technical staff by establishing special interest groups (SIGs) for OO technologies, relational database, and project management (PM). Utilized PM SIG as a lightweight PMO to standardize and deploy consistent PM practices.
• Created continuous learning environment for executive leadership team by establishing “The Breakfast Club” where we would periodically meet early mornings to review and discuss how to apply significant concepts from my M.B.A. studies. These concepts played a key role in successfully managing through corporate redirection and restructuring.
• Collaborated directly with CIO and CTO of W. R. Berkley to conduct technical assessment of third party’s enterprise application architecture in support of corporate strategy change from building IT applications to buying. Lead to partnership involving tens of millions of dollars with the third party to acquire and convert our new billing system to J2EE and establishing BIS’s first offshore venture.
• Accountable for full life-cycle of offshore venture including comprehensive RFP development, evaluation of proposals from CMM level five vendors, contract review and negotiation, architectural and technical reviews, and project execution.
• Held key responsibilities for managing through difficult reorganization as a result of corporate strategy change, dissolution of BIS, and integration into new W. R. Berkley technology organization. Resulted in successful transition to new structure where even people who were to be downsized commented on the professional manner in which the reorganization was handled.
Compuware, Bloomington, MN
Large IT consulting and software development organization headquartered in Detroit
Principal Architect (1997 – 2000)
Consultant to Unisys on AirCore, Unisys’s next-generation e-commerce environment for airline reservations and operations. Utilized distributed, open-system, component-based design and industry standards to create a service oriented architecture supporting 24x7 operations and high transaction rates.
• Lead architecture team that modeled the multiple, complex subsystems that comprise AirCore. Included all aspects from requirements gathering through creation of tool and technology independent UML models. Expectations for reuse were set at the framework level to allow high-level business concepts to be modeled and expanded into multiple application domains.
• Guided the evaluation and selection of technologies and tools to develop and support AirCore over its anticipated 20-plus year life.
Fourth Generation, (FGI), St. Paul, MN
Provider of IT consulting services
Consultant (1996 – 1997)
• In an adversarial atmosphere, successfully defined and negotiated delivery of application interfaces to 3rd party accounting package allowing it to integrate into FGI’s project. Demonstrated commercial value of public interfaces and was invited to address the 3rd party’s senior staff on the design of viable public interfaces.
• Re-engineered Torrens property recording system for major metro-area counties to move from manual to automated processes and eliminate over 10 months of backlogged work.
Keane, Rochester, MN
Large IT consulting and software development organization headquartered in Boston. Client was IBM.
Principal Consultant (1992 – 1996)
• Redesigned an internationally distributed, mission critical tool for analysis of AS/400 memory dumps. Although not considered possible, the allowable dump size was increased by a factor of 100, the off-line storage efficiency was increased by 100%, and the execution speed was increased by a factor of 10. During the project no software defects were delivered to the field.
• Awarded Keane’s first object-oriented engagement because of intensive preparation in object-oriented theory, methodologies and languages. Exceeded IBM’s project expectations and introduced them to new design concepts that were rapidly adopted by the software industry. Was subsequently involved in primary design efforts and, although IBM had never before outsourced key technical positions, became the project’s technical lead.
• Received Keane’s highest consulting award in recognition of efforts to help IBM move to higher levels of object-oriented expertise and for significant improvements to the design and execution speed of IBM’s project.
IBM, Rochester, MN
IBM’s Rochester lab designs and manufactures the AS/400.
Staff Engineer (1984 – 1991)
• Lead development team for a central processing unit (CPU) simulation environment that resulted in the first functional CPU ever achieved on a first design iteration. Increased test case throughput and debug efficiency by a factor of 10,000 and accommodated new processor designs in under a week vs. months required previously. The simulation environment was used for over 10 years.
• Project manager for the team performing the CPU simulation on a critical timeline. Team met or beat every delivery date. Was awarded a Technical Achievement Award for this accomplishment.
SimuFlite, Dallas, TX
SimuFlite provides flight training services for business jet pilots using sophisticated flight simulators.
Senior Development Engineer (1983 – 1984)
• Established SimuFlite’s engineering processes and standards.
• Used knowledge acquired from recently earned Lear-Jet pilot’s license to assume responsibility for supervising the simulator manufacturer’s teams that implemented the simulation of all aircraft systems. Fidelity of the simulation allowed SimuFlite to win a fierce battle with an established competitor to have the first business-jet flight simulator certified to the FAA’s Phase II standard.
• Selected and led an engineering team that designed and installed the first system to simulate background radio transmissions heard on air traffic control radios.
Collins Radio, Cedar Rapids, IA
Collins designs avionics for airliners, business-jets, and turbo-prop aircraft.
Design Engineer (1979 – 1983)
• Designed the input/output processor and wrote a real-time operating system that adapted easily to varying sensor configurations for the first all-digital electronic flight instrument system on a critical-path schedule demanding a flawless design cycle.
Education & Certification
2005 PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP)
2000 M.B.A.
University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management
Beta Gamma Sigma
1991 M.S.E.E. with minor in Computer Science
University of Minnesota Graduate School
1979 B.S.E.E. with Distinction
University of Minnesota Institute of Technology |
