
CTO, Change Round-Up; Senior Software Engineer, Davis Vision; Software consultant and information guru
Albany, New York Area

CTO, Change Round-Up; Senior Software Engineer, Davis Vision; Software consultant and information guru
Albany, New York Area
Since 1996 I have had the pleasure of working with small businesses and international corporations alike, helping them achieve their goals in getting the most out of their technology infrastructure. I've designed and implemented aspects of enterprise systems for IBM, Xerox, Global Crossing and Davis Vision. I spent over three years as webmaster and technical lead of one of Gannett's larger newspaper websites, seeing 8 million page views and hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each month.
I am active in my local development community, as well as the global technology community. I participate in user's groups and well-known technology and news forums, as part of my efforts to keep abreast of the fast moving tech world.
My expertise and experience are available on a consulting basis. I am also available to present on .NET and SOAs for local and regional user groups and development community events.
Software consulting, requirement discovery & analysis, cloud and grid computing, SOA (Service Oriented Architectures), WCF, .NET 2.0/3.0/3.5, SQL Server, ASP.NET, distributed computing, mobile computing (WinCE/Windows Mobile), Agile education, social networking and social media consulting.
(Internet industry)
March 2007 — Present (1 year 5 months)
Change Round-Up helps raise money for charities by utilizing a service oriented architecture (SOA) to create a virtual spare change jar for merchants, allowing shopping cart, billing and subscription customers the opportunity to "round up" their purchase amounts. This "spare change jar" enables e-tailers to give their customers the opportunity to make a donation to a charity of their choice. Retailers are able to set various defaults to customize the experience to best suit their business model and customer base.
Role spans technical, managerial and entrepreneurial aspects.
Oversaw migrations from .NET 1.1 to 2.0, 2.0 to 3.5. Introduced WS-* and OASIS standards. Introduced cloud computing.
Researched, made contact and met with venture capital and investment firms as part of funding process.
(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Insurance industry)
September 2006 — Present (1 year 11 months)
Working to integrate a third party insurance claims management application with legacy mainframe and .NET remoting systems. Working to abstract service architecture away from disparate data and various clients. Working to improve quality of codebase and team styles and standards.
• Helped revive code review process, review and renew team coding styles/standards.
• Worked to implement Test Driven Development (TDD) with NUnit/nMock/NCover.
• Worked to introduce and educate about Scrum and Agile practices.
• Introduced a wiki to aggregate and share knowledge.
• Began “Lunch.NET,” a lunch-time get-together of the .NET development group and testing, release and other groups the .NET team interacts with. This helps promote a culture of community, and aids to build the team.
• Mentored mainframe programmers, new hires and a junior .NET developer.
• Interviewed candidates for development, DBA and QA roles.
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)
1996 — Present (12 years)
Higher Efficiency, Inc. solves complex problems through innovative use of technology. Higher Efficiency, Inc. can help your business develop a comprehensive technology platform, taking cost-effective advantage of the wide range of hardware and software available in today's marketplace. Higher Efficiency, Inc. can also help your business harness the power of social media and social networks (socnets like Twitter and Facebook, social news sites like Digg, reddit, Propeller, blogging). Let us lead you forward into Web 2.0, Web 3.0 and beyond!
(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2008 — April 2008 (1 month)
Along with the president of Tech Valley User's Group (.NET), and a number of local and national sponsors, I've worked to bring the first Microsoft Code Camp to Tech Valley. We expect 80+ attendees, with sessions covering topics from WCF to XNA.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; XRX; Information Technology and Services industry)
February 2006 — September 2006 (8 months)
As part of Xerox Global Services' Software Development Initiative, performed requirements analysis, system design and implementation of a SQL Server 2005, ASP.NET, C# (.NET 2.0) cycle-time reduction application, with projected cost savings on the order of millions of dollars annually, and time reduction on the order of months per lead/sale turnaround. Development took place adhering to the Scrum development methodology.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; GCI; Newspapers industry)
November 2002 — December 2005 (3 years 2 months)
Worked at a Gannett newspaper as part of the New Media department providing technical, administrative and managerial skills, services and input on a variety of processes involved in both print and online publishing. Initially role consisted of technical ColdFusion, ASP, QuarkXTensions, MySQL, XML and SQL Server work to support content management for majority of newspaper and Insider website content, as well as to produce press-friendly content for print publishing of specialty and weekly publications. Role grew to include managing several affiliate content and/or cobranded products, including online classified advertising and obituaries system, AccuWeather weather pages, AP news, Cars.com, Apartments.com and others. Role included oversight, training and support of personnel, both internal and extra-departmental, in the use of various publishing and content tools.
(Machinery industry)
October 2001 — November 2002 (1 year 2 months)
Originally hired as consultant to produce company’s wireless-integrated web application and presence, role grew to fulltime, on-site. Administered and supported the company’s 35 employees and 15+ computers, with one direct report. Large part of time was spent working with out-of-state providers of custom software and hardware interfaces used to control shop tools, and with wireless vendor. Technologies and applications utilized include Java, MS SQL Server, JavaScript, HTML, MySQL, Access, QuickBooks, Excel, Transact SQL, ASP.
(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Computer Software industry)
October 2000 — October 2001 (1 year 1 month)
Originally a three month subcontract to work on a large circuit (OC3, DS9, etc.) order and disconnect sales and reporting system for Global Crossing, Inc., extended into a year-long position. Other projects included a web-based DB management interface, and a Flash Generator Macromedia Flash content producer. Technologies utilized included VB6, T-SQL, Windows NT4/2000, SQL Server 7/2000, and ASP3.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; XRX; Information Services industry)
April 2000 — October 2000 (7 months)
Provided web development and scripting support to the East Coast Operations publishing division. Provided Flash scripting support to multimedia designers, provided Jscript scripting of ASF media to TV/film production crew as part of digitizing existing archives and producing new training and corporate relations/internal broadcast/webcast content. Carried out JavaScript, HTML and VB6 work to produce assessment tests for new technicians.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
August 1999 — April 2000 (9 months)
Web developer producing ecommerce, print-on-demand and ”paperless” office applications for clients in a variety of industries. Utilized ASP, VB COM, Access and SQL Server 7.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Medical Devices industry)
1994 — 1997 (3 years)
Performed manufacturing and QA duties at a medical device manufacturer. Visually examined high-precision multi-lumen plastic extrusions and braided material for defects. Performed QA analysis with pin gauges, calipers, roll gauges, video microscopes. Introduced spreadsheets to replace lengthy, error-prone, hard-to-audit scientific calculator processes for statistical QA calculations. Reduced error rates and turnaround times significantly.
IT 1997 — 2006
Attended RIT on a mostly part-time basis while working in the field in Rochester, NY. Awarded Presidential Scholarship, National Merit Scholarship. Crucial in transforming Reporter magazine from institutional mouthpiece to a true news reporting entity. Lead initiative to bring publication online.
Car performance modifications, timed driving events (rally, autocross, 1/4 mile track, etc.), sci fi (books, TV, movie, games), Windows Mobile devices (Pocket PCs, Smartphones)
IEEE, Software Contractors' Guild, Tech Valley .NET User's Group, Twitter, Meetup.com, Facebook, Digg then Twitter, Family, Spock, Meetup.com, Tech Valley Code Camp, LION
Microsoft MVP nominee -- Device Application Development