management consultant and author
Greater Seattle Area
- Current
-
- Board Advisor at Page Ahead
- CEO at Peak Portfolio, Inc.
- consulting at Microsoft*
- Past
-
- vice-chairman, Board of Directors at Page Ahead
- manager, Retail Technology at Starbucks Coffee Company
- project manager, Strategic Operations at Gateway
- systems manager at MacroCom
- Education
-
- Project Management Institute
- Recommended
-
5 people have recommended Allen - Connections
-
170
connections
- Industry
- Management Consulting
- Websites
Allen Eskelin’s Summary
For the first 10 years of my business career, I managed information technology projects for Fortune 500 companies. My job was to execute a project within the time, cost, and scope constraints handed down to me, not to question why we were doing the project in the first place.
As my career progressed, I moved up the ladder and gained exposure to how people, technology, projects, and vendors were really selected. To my surprise, they were often selected for the wrong reasons. This led me to my focus for the next 10 years, how to master the art of selection in order to achieve the business strategy.
This is the mission of my business and blog: Helping executives master the art of selection.
Bio
I’m a management consultant and author with over 18 years of experience working with Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft, Starbucks, and Gateway.
Notable accomplishments include leading the effort to launch the Starbucks Card (resulting in $2.6B in revenue in 4 years), leading the effort to deploy broadband networking to 3000 stores in 10 months (the largest private DSL network at the time), and saving over $10M annually by negotiating several strategic IT vendor relationships. I’ve held the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification with the Project Management Institute (PMI) since 2006.
From 2003-2006, I served as vice-chairman of the Board of Directors for Page Ahead, a children’s literacy non-profit that has placed 1.7 million new books into the hands of 550,000 at-risk children in Washington State. I also chaired the Board Development Committee. I am currently serving Page Ahead as a Board Advisor.
I’m also the author of Technology Acquisition (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001) and several articles on the topic of technology vendor selection and negotiation.
Allen Eskelin’s Specialties:
technology planning, project portfolio management, vendor portfolio management, program management, project management, vendor selection/negotiation
Allen Eskelin’s Experience
-
Board Advisor
Page Ahead
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
January 2009 — Present (7 months)
-
CEO
Peak Portfolio, Inc.
(Management Consulting industry)
December 2006 — Present (2 years 8 months)
Management consulting - helping executives select people, technology, projects, and vendors.
-
consulting
Microsoft*
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; MSFT; Computer Software industry)
April 2005 — Present (4 years 4 months)
Provided portfolio management and technology delivery services to Microsoft through 9 consulting engagements.
-
vice-chairman, Board of Directors
Page Ahead
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
April 2003 — August 2006 (3 years 5 months)
Provided leadership to a children's literacy non-profit that has placed 1.7M new books into the hands of 550K at-risk children -- www.pageahead.org
-
manager, Retail Technology
Starbucks Coffee Company
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SBUX; Retail industry)
May 1998 — April 2005 (7 years)
Led a team of project managers and provided leadership to several global retail technology initiatives, including the Starbucks Card, broadband retail networking, and networked store security. Saved over $10M annually by negotiating several strategic IT vendor relationships.
-
project manager, Strategic Operations
Gateway
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; GTW; Computer Hardware industry)
May 1992 — May 1998 (6 years 1 month)
Project manager in the Call Center Strategic Operations group, selecting call center outsourcing vendors, negotiating technology relationships, re-engineering business processes, and delivering technology solutions.
-
systems manager
MacroCom
(Telecommunications industry)
May 1991 — May 1992 (1 year 1 month)
Managed IT systems for a 200-person telecommunications consulting firm.
Allen Eskelin’s Education
-
Project Management Institute
Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) 2006
Additional Information
Allen Eskelin’s Websites:
Allen Eskelin’s Interests:
Publications: Technology Acquisition (Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001) and several magazine articles. Enjoyed a 17-year hockey career, achieving the semi-pro level (Jr A tier II).
Allen Eskelin’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- expertise requests
- business deals
- getting back in touch
