Robert Marston

Current

Mortgage Production Risk Analyst at Bank of America
Consultant at Samara Business Development

Past

VP, Enterprise PMO at Countrywide Bank
Business Development at Prevailing Wind Power
Manager, Business Transformation Group at Countrywide

Operations Consultant III at Countrywide Bank
Systems Analyst at Countrywide Home Loans
Systems Analyst / Release Manager at Countrywide Home Loans
Release Manager, Web Solutions Center at Countrywide Home Loans
Systems Analyst / Web Release Manager at Countrywide Home Loans
Web Administrator at Wescom Credit Union
Founder / Editor / Director at Community Wire Service
Instructor at Glendale Community College
Business Development at Glendale Community College
Owner/Operator at Corporate Kiosk Systems (Sole Proprietorship)
Network Consultant at CS First Boston
Network Consultant at CCH Computax
Account Representative at General Networks Corporation
Network Engineer at Radiology Management Systems
Sales Associate at Computerland - Glendale, CA
Account Executive at I-Protect, Inc.

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16 more...

Education

Grantsmanship Center
University of California, Berkeley
Pepperdine University

Recommended

3 people have recommended Robert

Connections

410 connections

Industry

Banking

Websites

Robert Marston’s Summary

Visionary business executive with a technical background: technical strategist, data analyst, application developer, networker, business promoter.

Helping businesses to exploit web 2.0 and Software as a Service (SaaS) to streamline sales and marketing processes, improve sales, preserve/create jobs, win new business quickly (bids, contracts, qualified leads, donations, grant funds).

Experienced with enterprise social networking (enterprise 2.0), social media (Facebook, YouTube, etc.), business mashups, agile development, ideation/IP, human resources, community development, economic development, workforce development.

15+ years experience in project and program leadership, change management, SDLC, sales & marketing, team building.

Seeking opportunities to generate sales, expand businesses, create jobs, seize new opportunities, speed the economic recovery.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/techstrategist

Robert Marston’s Specialties:

marketing, SEM, change management, SDLC, process improvement, rapid application development, mashups, Business Intelligence, content management, scorecards & dashboards, enterprise 2.0, corporate social networking, Enterprise Social Networking

Robert Marston’s Experience

Mortgage Production Risk Analyst

Bank of America

(Public Company; BAC; Banking industry)

August 2009 — Present (4 months)
Consultant

Samara Business Development

(Management Consulting industry)

March 2009 — Present (9 months)

Leading development of web-based marketing campaigns and data-driven websites for clients to streamline their sales/marketing processes, produce highly-qualified leads, improve closing ratios, track and monitor trends, identify trends and outliers, replicate successes. Creating a platform for nationwide cause-marketing campaigns: converting Community Wire Service (cwire.com) to Joomla, using social marketing and external software (SaaS) to provide content, RSS feeds, and functionality to expand the service range from 5 cities and dozens of sources to 5,000 cities and unlimited sources (crowd-sourced). Using Spot.Us and pluck.com and meetup.com for themed content. In keeping with principles of corporate social responsibility, creating partnerships between businesses and social causes, Samara serves clients in a wide variety of industries: clean tech, renewable energy, banking & finance, manufacturing, retail, real estate, and nonprofit (NGO).
VP, Enterprise PMO

Countrywide Bank

(Public Company; CFC; Banking industry)

March 2008 — March 2009 (1 year 1 month)

Demonstrated foresight and strategic thinking through the development of simple and flexible systems with solid architecture. Drove execution on the development of EPMO New Project Registration system. Executed monthly project portfolio reporting and executive scorecard reporting. Provided ad hoc queries and reports for Audit and for Bank of America transition.
Business Development

Prevailing Wind Power

(Renewables & Environment industry)

February 2008 — November 2008 (10 months)

Instrumental in opening Ventura County to small wind turbines. Directed contacts with media and with local permitting agencies and state regulatory agencies, earning print media coverage. Used social media to uncover opportunities, deliver product information, and empower customers and prospects to local permitting agencies.

Prevailing Wind Power is Southern California's full service wind power installation company, selling and installing custom residential, agriculture and small commercial wind (and hybrid solar/wind) systems.
Manager, Business Transformation Group

Countrywide

(Public Company; CFC; Financial Services industry)

2005 — 2008 (3 years )

Selected to lead critical enterprise projects spanning corporate silos, to identify obstacles, negotiate consensus, and drive organizational change.
• Far-exceed departmental goals, achieving annual targets in first quarter.
• Strategized the EPMO’s response to urgent regulatory reporting demands while reducing manual workload by 75%, allowing the EPMO to avoid adding staff, and saving over $1 million over 3 years.
• Designed Countrywide’s Project Portfolio Management (PPM) system through which divisional COOs tracked project KPIs and remediated at-risk projects.
• DBA for Unacceptable Vendors List database; provided analysis, troubleshooting, and ad hoc reports for UVL team
Operations Consultant III

Countrywide Bank

(Public Company; CFC; Financial Services industry)

2004 — 2005 (1 year )

Project manager for Data Integrity initiatives across Loan Administration dealing with loan servicing, portfolio analysis, mortgage insurance, flood insurance, address validation, document imaging. Team leader for the Data Integrity business rules development team.
• Managed a multi-divisional team to build an Address Validation Web Service and Property Tax Estimator Web Service System.
• Streamlined business and IT processes to achieve cost savings of over $1 million annually.
• Represented Countrywide in a coalition of the seven largest Mortgage Insurance (MI) partners. Led a successful pilot EDI project with MGIC to exchange MI coverage data, identify/queue/resolve discrepancies. The project set new MISMO (Mortgage Industry XML) standards.
Systems Analyst

Countrywide Home Loans

(Public Company; CFC; Financial Services industry)

2003 — 2004 (1 year )

Release manager and client liaison, translating rules engine change requests into technical requirements, creating test plans, conducting unit/regression testing and User Acceptance Testing.
• Devised methodologies for agile development of rule changes, decreasing re-work more than 50%
• Improved test plans, test data gathering, and overall throughput by more than 50%.
Systems Analyst / Release Manager

Countrywide Home Loans

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; CFC; Financial Services industry)

2003 — 2004 (1 year )

Joined a large team working on a custom-built rules engine (DDI) that spanned 5 platforms and connected to several systems and data marts across the Loan Servicing and Loan Production enterprise. Analyzed rule requests and translated them to technical specs, crafted test plans and specs for test environments, provided QA test environments and brokered UAT sign-offs with dozens of clients. Improved service, reduced the need for re-work, offloaded analytical and QA work from "top gun" programmers so they could use their best skills and cross-train within the group. The improved efficiency and coordination allowed for a 50% reduction in turnaround time for both urgent requests and routine change requests. Learned eSQL in order to write technical specs, reconstruct rule sets, and perform automated end-to-end testing.
Release Manager, Web Solutions Center

Countrywide Home Loans

(Public Company; CFC; Financial Services industry)

2002 — 2003 (1 year )

Client liaison for Customer Contact unit, gathering and clarifying user requirements for the high-traffic customer websites, leading unit testing and UAT, scheduling releases.
• Co-developed diagnostic web pages to troubleshoot a bank of 6 web servers behind BigIP, leading to improved practices and policies which became standard throughout Loan Administration.
Systems Analyst / Web Release Manager

Countrywide Home Loans

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; CFC; Financial Services industry)

January 2002 — 2003 (1 year )

Helped the web team supporting the customer-facing website to release updates and to launch private-label websites for business partners. Learned the proprietary waterfall SDLC, evaluated alternative SDLCs and IDEs, provided QA test environments, managed releases.
Web Administrator

Wescom Credit Union

(Banking industry)

2001 — 2001 (less than a year)
Founder / Editor / Director

Community Wire Service

(Internet industry)

1994 — 2001 (7 years )

Launched a "community network" -- the first web-based directory of clubs and organizations for the Glendale-Burbank community for 400+ local clubs and organizations (http://cwire.com). Developed a collaborative community calendar, ad-management system to rotate banner advertising and ad-copy, guest book, censored dynamic op-ed section (early "blog" site). Managed development of 20,000-page website with up to 30 writers/editors/programmers. Generated over 50,000 pages of static local content through the efforts of over 150 novice interns/volunteers and experienced contractors, generating up to 30,000 monthly visits. Led the development of in-house content management system for syndication of articles by email, fax, and web; dynamic refresh/rotation of articles; distribution of press releases; dynamic newsletter/directory layout.
Instructor

Glendale Community College

(Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Higher Education industry)

1997 — 1999 (2 years )

Adjunct faculty member. Covered "Intro to the Internet" for a professor on leave, enjoyed it, and continued. Also taught the Computer Science 101 lab.
Business Development

Glendale Community College

(Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Professional Training & Coaching industry)

1997 — 1998 (1 year )

Advanced the 3-D Animation vocational-ed and adult-ed program for GCC in Glendale, CA, helping attract computer animation professionals from the Glendale/Burbank area to teach, lecture, and develop curriculum for college's state-of-the-art computer animation lab. Collaborated with the USC Tech Transfer Center (TTC), other Los Angeles County vocational-ed programs, local and state government, and various investors attempting to secure Real Estate for an animation academy.
Owner/Operator
Corporate Kiosk Systems (Sole Proprietorship)

(Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

1993 — 1997 (4 years )

Began as "Interactive Data Systems" with an Interactive Voice Reponse (IVR) and fax-on-demand service bureau based on Dialogic hardware and TRT software. Developed "online" fax-back product catalogs and hosted applications for commercial clients. Began experimenting with posting free public-service information such as flyers, business directories, restaurant menus, and eventually a community calendar. Experimented with touch-screen technology and prototyped public kiosk systems. Eventually, the popularity and prospects of the Internet and World Wide Web became much more compelling, and CKS (providing information by telephone and kiosk) eventually gave way to Community Wire Service (providing information over the Internet).
Network Consultant

CS First Boston

(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; CS; Investment Banking industry)

June 1994 — September 1994 (4 months)

Worked in Los Angeles office (Wells Fargo Tower) with IT groups from Chicago and New York; reported to San Francisco office. Migrated LAN to a networked MS Windows platform; provided desktop support; rotated tape backups, etc. An interesting experience working in downtown L.A. for the first time.
Network Consultant

CCH Computax

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; WLSNc.AS; Computer Software industry)

June 1993 — September 1993 (4 months)

Short-term contract with an IT support group; evaluated software and hardware products (Citrix 1.0, Dialogic hardware, IVR systems); provided analysis and presented recommendations to staff; helped to restructure the LAN while the company was downsizing. CCH is now a subsidiary of Wolters Kluwer.
Account Representative

General Networks Corporation

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Networking industry)

January 1992 — June 1993 (1 year 6 months)

Sales of Novell network software, network hardware, maintenance contracts (Novell Platinum Authorized); network montoring, diagnostics, and troubleshooting; client support; network consulting.
Network Engineer

Radiology Management Systems

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

1990 — 1992 (2 years )

Setup and installed PC LANs for RADMAN, a small software company providing medical office management for radiology practices. I had zero experience with hardware when I started... but I was trainable. Here I was again, working for a doctor's side-business. Within a few weeks/months I could unbox, setup, burn-in, and cable a PC network, run diagnostics, troubleshoot, swap-out faulty components, box everything up, and ship it via UPS to the client. In those days, it was not uncommon for 1/3 of the components (monitors, cards, motherboards, etc.) to be faulty right out of the box. Sometimes I'd have to fly to the client destination to setup their LAN. We used modems to transfer the software and administer the network remotely. What a kick for me -- I got to travel a little and got great hands-on experience.
Sales Associate

Computerland - Glendale, CA

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

1988 — 1990 (2 years )

Walked into my local computer store asking for a job, figuring they'd teach me what I needed to know about computers. And they did. Received sales training from Compaq and Apple, as well as hardware training from HP, IBM, Epson, and others. Got basic software training in word processing, accounting, database applications. Exposed to retail, catalog distribution, franchise operations, corporate training, product development, spiffs and commissions, corporate sales. Apple Authorized sales and service: sold Macs to City of Glendale employees. After working there only a couple of months, I received my first request to do in-home computer consulting work on the side ("Geek Squad" style) at 3 or 4 times my regular pay. I couldn't believe it. Great people.
Account Executive

I-Protect, Inc.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

1987 — 1988 (1 year )

Managed sales and distribution of leaded-plastic radiation filters to retail computer stores (Computerland, MicroAge), large corporations, and some mail-order. It was a small side business for a friend's father, a doctor, who got the idea from the plastic barriers used in radiology (X-ray) offices. I had no boss, no mentor, and no idea what I was doing. I didn't like driving to LAX everyday to sit around shuffling the inventory. So I created a route for myself and drove Southern California, meeting my accounts ...and asking them how to do my job. I bought a Toshiba laptop, ACT! Contact Management software, and some accounting software, figuring that would be helpful. It was an adventure, but I didn't think it was helping my career. And having recently been married, I got up the nerve to quit, get a job closer to home, and get some real sales training.

Additional Information

Robert Marston’s Websites:

Robert Marston’s Interests:

process improvement, Enterprise 2.0, marketing 2.0, scorecards, dashboards, mashups, widgets, new media, SEO, SEM, business intelligence, social networking, data management, KPO, green business, social enterprise, triple bottom line, microcredit, alternative energy, community networking, smart mobs, small business

Robert Marston’s Groups:

Grace Community Church, Mainstream Fellowship, YMCA, AKL, Alpha Kappa Lambda, Kiwanis Past President (12-yr member), Kiwanis Club founder, Operation Gratitude, Military Monday Promotions

socalTECH
NetSquared
Content Management Professionals
On Startups - The Community For Entrepreneurs
Renewable Energy Business Network/Clean Economy Network Foundation
Consultants Network
eMarketing Association Network
TopLinked.com (Open Networkers)
Big Ideas @ Berkeley
Bank of America Associate & Alumni Network
Marketing 2.0 Technology (Over 3400+ Members)
thinkLA
Innovative Marketing, PR, Sales, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators
Southern California Venture Capital Community
Social Media Marketing
Cal Alumni Association | UC Berkeley
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY NETWORK
Tweeple
Community 2.0
Countrywide IT Alumni Network
National Fraternity of Alpha Kappa Lambda
Software as a Service (SaaS) Group
Financial Crime Risk, Fraud and Security
twitter innovators Innovation & Creativity Network of Tweeters
Global Coral Reef Alliance
Web 2.0 for Nonprofit Organizations
B2B Social Media
Mortgage Fraud Prevention, Detection and Investigation
Sales and Marketing Professionals Promoting HighTech and Technology in Los Angeles and its Vicinity
Friends of LinkedIn
Military Monday Promotions Steering Group
FB Business
Facebook for Nonprofit Organizations
Web 2.0 Webinars for Nonprofit Organizations
Friends of Operation Gratitude
CSRA Innovation