Accomplished IT Leader with expertise in mentoring people, mitigating risk, and managing technology to drive innovation
Greater New York City Area
- Current
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- Vice President, IT Operations at ARGI
- VP, IT Operations & Information Security at ARGI (Automated Resources Group)
- Committee Member at NJCSDA
- Director, Family Life Ministries at First Newark SDA Church
- Board Member at First Newark SDA Church
- Director, Technology Services at First Newark SDA Church
- Past
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- Founding Member at Life Rebuilders, Inc.
- Solutions Architect & CTO at BrainWave Consulting Company
- Director, Server Operations & Global Information Security at Warner Music Group
7 more...
- Education
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- Atlantic Union College
- Greater New York Academy
- Recommended
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68 people have recommended Andrew - Connections
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500+
connections
- Industry
- Information Technology and Services
- Websites
Andrew Baker’s Summary
See: http://bit.ly/ConnectRules
Andrew S. Baker is a business-savvy leader of high-performance technology teams, with hands-on expertise in the design, deployment and maintenance of secure environments for enterprise computing.
An avid open networker and social media enthusiast, Andrew creates competitive advantage for organizations through effective IT leadership: Mentoring people, streamlining process, and managing technology.
Since the late 1990's, Andrew has exhibited thought leadership on a variety of technology and business topics, including contributions to over 20 published magazine articles. He serves on a number of boards and committees for non-profit organizations, and within the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Andrew has delivered solutions to solve critical business problems, meet key business initiatives, reduce costs, and mitigate risk for variety of public and private organizations, as both an individual contributor and IT leader.
(Sweet Spot: Mid-sized companies in Publishing, Internet, Media & Entertainment, and Financial Services.)
KEY CONTRIBUTIONS INCLUDE:
• Reduced costs by over 20% and improved service delivery and flexibility of a hosted Windows-based application environment using server and storage virtualization technologies.
• Implemented service level objectives that improved IT operations by over 75%, including system and application uptime, help-desk response time, and tickets resolved per week.
• Chief architect of a global Active Directory 2003 infrastructure supporting 4000 users across 35+ countries. Led the NY-based team that performed the user migrations and supported the teams that subsequently rolled out Exchange 2003.
• Built a comprehensive Information Security program for a global organization to significantly mitigate security risk for the business, and support regulatory compliance initiatives.
• Developed technology roadmaps and managed annual operating budgets of up to $5.5 million.
Andrew Baker’s Specialties:
Team Building, Staff Mentoring, IT Operations, Technology Management, Information Security & Compliance, SOX, PCI DSS, IT Risk Mitigation, InfoSec, Disaster Recovery, Data Center Migrations, Strategic Planning, Change Management, Project Management, Vendor Management, Governance, Budget Planning, Enterprise Monitoring, Capacity Planning, Technology Integration, IT Infrastructure, Server Virtualization, Storage, SAN, Network Architecture & Design, Internet Hosting, LAN, WAN, SaaS, NJ, MD
Andrew Baker’s Experience
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Vice President, IT Operations
ARGI
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
2007 — Present (2 years )
Led a team of six (6) technology professionals in managing the desktop, server, networking and information security infrastructure of a 24x7 hosting environment supporting solutions on the Windows and HP3000 platforms.
• Responsible for the management and strategic direction of ARGI's technology infrastructure, including server, desktop, network, telecom and data center facilities.
• Built a high-performing IT Operations team, and led them in modernizing ARGI’s server and network infrastructure using virtualization technologies (server, application and storage) from major vendors (Citrix, Microsoft, VMWare, StoneFly) in order to reduce the time required to provision new environments for both development and production.
• Implemented a new support project/task tracking system at ARGI, and integrated it with SalesForce.com, to improve resource allocation across the technical and business teams.
• Substantially upgraded the network bandwidth for corporate and customer facing applications, and modernized the networking infrastructure to lower costs and facilitate growth in ARGI's Montvale, NJ datacenter facility, allowing ARGI to deploy a next-generation subscription fulfillment system for our client base. -
VP, IT Operations & Information Security
ARGI (Automated Resources Group)
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
2007 — Present (2 years )
Led a team of six (6) technology professionals in managing the desktop, server, networking and information security infrastructure of a 24x7 hosting environment supporting solutions on the Windows and HP3000 platforms.
Responsible for all of the technology infrastructure at ARGI, including the data center facilities, and for operational information security and compliance initiatives. -
Committee Member
NJCSDA
(Religious Institutions industry)
2006 — Present (3 years )
Since 2006, I have been selected to serve on various committees within the New Jersey Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (NJCSDA).
2006-2007 -- Technology Committee for NJ SDA Schools
2007-2012 -- Strategic Committee
2009-2012 -- Camp Meeting Planning Committee
2009-2012 -- Finance Committee
The Technology Committee is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction and implementation for technology in the NJ Conference school system -
Director, Family Life Ministries
First Newark SDA Church
(Religious Institutions industry)
2005 — Present (4 years )
My wife and I are co-leaders of the Family Life Ministries at the First Seventh-day Adventist Church of Newark, NJ. This ministerial department of the church is responsible for providing information, guidance and nurturing to families in the local church and the community.
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Board Member
First Newark SDA Church
(Religious Institutions industry)
2005 — Present (4 years )
Participating member of the governing body of the local church congregation (First Seventh-day Adventist Church of Newark, NJ), responsible for all fudiciary and legal activities within the church, and for recommending various actions to the church membership as a whole.
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Director, Technology Services
First Newark SDA Church
(Religious Institutions industry)
2005 — Present (4 years )
Manage the technology services for the local church, including Internet Access, Wireless Connectivity, Security Services, Remote Connectivity, Printer & Copiers, Projection, and oversight of Audio Visual functionality. Work with a small team of volunteers to handle weekly audio visual needs, and plan for local event broadcasting and recording.
• Deployed secure wireless connectivity, high-speed copying and remote printing capabilities for the membership.
• Installed servers and desktop systems to provide computing resources for various church ministries. Employed virtualization technologies for local and remote access.
• Installed surveillance cameras and upgrading the security alarm system for the main church building.
Additional Information
Andrew Baker’s Websites:
Andrew Baker’s Interests:
Social Media, New Technology, Technology Architecture, Designing Technology Solutions, Securing Enterprise Networks, Building and Mentoring IT Teams, Business Strategy, Solving Business Problems, Family Life Ministries, Reading, Basketball, Bicycle Riding, Outdoor Camping, Chess, Computer Games (RPG and MOORPG), Strategy Games, Social Networking, XeeSM
Andrew Baker’s Honors:
• Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)
• GIAC Security Leadership Certified (GSLC)
Andrew Baker’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
