Darius (Chris) Dunlap

Current

• Principal at Darius Consulting (Self-employed)
• Board President, co-Founder at Square Peg Foundation

Past

• Customer Support Program Manager at OQO
• Support Programs & Services Consultant at OQO
• co-Founder, Executive Director at Square Peg Foundation

• Owner/Principal at Dunlap Consulting (Self-employed)
• Manager, Strategic Partner Programs at Network Appliance (NetApp)
• Marketing Manager, Demand Services & Spares Services at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
• Senior Member of Marketing Staff at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
• Global Business Management at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
• Manager, Global Account Support at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
• Support Team Manager, Senior Support Team Manager at Silicon Graphics (SGI)
• Product Support Engineer, Senior Support Engineer at Silicon Graphics (SGI)

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Education

• University of Nevada-Reno

Recommended

8 people have recommended Darius (Chris)

Connections

250 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

• My Company

Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Summary

I'm currently consulting: defining and implementing a developer program for a technology company in Silicon Valley.

My ideal work is in an influential customer- or partner-facing role in a great company. Whether you call it management, marketing, business development, or program management doesn't matter to me. I want to be challenged, learning, and in the thick of your company's business. I can build and manage your technical support team, or negotiate global services agreements with your biggest customers. My experience is diverse, but always facing the customer, always working with partners and always working with new technologies.

Most recently, I worked at OQO in San Francisco, developing their service strategy, implementing new programs and managing partner relationships. It was a challenging and fun position with pace, scope and influence in a great team of people. Unfortunately, the company downsized.

I also spent a wonderful three years building Square Peg Foundation, where I'm now serving as Board President. I'm looking for the kind of company that understands this important work as deepening my professional career, rather than thinking that I was "taking time off".

Summary of my experience:
• Specialist in customer support and service management with global scope, including strategic partner management, channel programs, and developer programs

• Effective general manager in all areas of P&L management, marketing, planning, operations, and outsourcing

• Start-up and Fortune-100 experience

• Successfully started several new support programs and organizations, plus founded a successful non-profit corporation as chief executive

• Highly technical foundation in networking, operating systems, and computer hardware


Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Specialties:

Customer support, technical support, developer programs, community programs, outsourcing, partner management, authorized service programs, new product introduction, computer systems, networking protocols, computer hardware, computer graphics, video systems, general management, global service programs, support operations, staff development, organization development.

Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Experience

• Principal

  Darius Consulting (Self-employed)

  (Self-Employed; Myself Only; Management Consulting industry)

  May 2008 — Present (6 months)

  Business process and program consulting, specializing in customer-facing programs and technical support in the computer and internet industries.

• Board President, co-Founder

  Square Peg Foundation

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Individual & Family Services industry)

  February 2004 — Present (4 years 9 months)

  http://www.everyonefits.org

• Customer Support Program Manager

  OQO

  (Privately Held; Computer Hardware industry)

  January 2008 — May 2008 (5 months)

  Customer Support strategy, program implementation and operations management.

• Support Programs & Services Consultant

  OQO

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Hardware industry)

  August 2007 — January 2008 (6 months)

  Consulting with OQO on several projects related to scaling their service capabilities and defining future services.

• co-Founder, Executive Director

  Square Peg Foundation

  (Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Individual & Family Services industry)

  February 2004 — February 2007 (3 years 1 month)

  • Conceived and launched the organization, defined its purpose and all aspects of the vision and priorities
  • Implemented and managed all functions, including finance, tax and legal, budgeting, lease negotiations, marketing, development, and fundraising
  • In just over two years, received confirmed 501(c)3 charitable status from the IRS, doubled our program, hired staff, developed volunteer programs, leased a facility, and secured cash-flow positive funding for the organization from a variety of private and foundation sources
  
  http://www.everyonefits.org

• Owner/Principal

  Dunlap Consulting (Self-employed)

  (Self-Employed; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

  February 2002 — December 2003 (1 year 11 months)

  • Independent consultant for customer care and service business development
  • Clients ranged from specialty resellers to internet companies; projects included service process refinement, international expansion strategy and parts depot outsourcing

• Manager, Strategic Partner Programs

  Network Appliance (NetApp)

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; NTAP; Computer Hardware industry)

  September 1999 — April 2001 (1 year 8 months)

  • Created and implemented the Registered Support Provider program, signing 18 partners including six considered strategic to the company's success. This program closed FY2001 at over $1.1 million revenue, and at a run rate exceeding $3 million per year, and with total support systems sales exceeding $50 million
  • Negotiated contracts and managed comprehensive service deliverables for several critical service relationships, including IBM Global Services support of Network Appliance systems in a Microsoft Exchange environment

• Marketing Manager, Demand Services & Spares Services

  Silicon Graphics (SGI)

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)

  February 1997 — September 1999 (2 years 8 months)

  • Increased spare parts sales from $4 million to $5 million per year
  • Successfully consolidated all non-contract service business as Demand Services for total business responsibility of $23 million per year - this consolidation brought focus to key self-service market segments such as Government, Systems Integrators, and Energy
  • Developed a detailed profitability model for the time-and-materials repair business
  • Defined the Legacy Software strategy and implemented operations for continued support and availability of software required by OEM and government contracts

• Senior Member of Marketing Staff

  Silicon Graphics (SGI)

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)

  May 1996 — February 1997 (10 months)

  • Led the definition of the next generation customer membership database to support all membership-based customer access websites in the company
  • Defined the engagement delivery methodology and reporting for Technology Services, a suite of repeatable consulting services focused on product and technology implementation and performance tuning

• Global Business Management

  Silicon Graphics (SGI)

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)

  March 1994 — May 1996 (2 years 3 months)

  • Created and implemented Authorized Service Provider programs in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle-East, to address support capacity and capability requirements where SGI had no direct presence
  • Assisted local subsidiaries in Europe and Asia with regular business planning, financial projections and objectives, marketing and business development programs, and outsource strategy and negotiations. This work included detailed support load modeling and analysis of staffing requirements, service contract capture rates, revenue projections, inventory level projections, and capital budgets

• Manager, Global Account Support

  Silicon Graphics (SGI)

  (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)

  March 1993 — February 1994 (1 year)

  • Established and managed a global account management team in customer support to provide direct contact and both technical coordination and account management to support SGI's major accounts and global accounts

• Support Team Manager, Senior Support Team Manager

  Silicon Graphics (SGI)

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; SGI; Computer Hardware industry)

  April 1989 — February 1993 (3 years 11 months)

  • Hired, developed and managed a mixed-expertise team who supported customers directly, managed escalations to engineering, and represented support on new product development teams
  • Managed the primary technical relationships with product design teams and manufacturing for all mid-range and high-end products, operating systems software and development environments
  • Defined and implemented a new organization structure, performance measurements, and technical team process which achieved a 20-1 staff-to-management ratio and reduce staff turnover by 50%, while delivering industry-leading, award-winning technical support
  • Defined and managed staff development courses: “Advanced Telephone Skills” and “Handling Difficult Customers”
  • Implemented and managed the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system
  • Defined and implemented the company's first comprehensive customer call statistics and managed all operational processes and metrics for technical support and escalations

• Product Support Engineer, Senior Support Engineer

  Silicon Graphics (SGI)

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; SGIC; Computer Hardware industry)

  June 1986 — March 1989 (2 years 10 months)

  • Primary escalation engineer for all Irix (Unix) operating system, networking, computer systems hardware and peripherals/interfaces problems
  • Supported TCP/IP, NFS, sendmail and related network protocols, tools and interfaces
  • Supported graphics hardware, systems hardware, interface cards, and peripherals
  • Supported the Irix (Unix) operating system, a multi-processor OS, including performance tuning, device drivers, crash analysis and administration
  • Represented customer support in the development team for two consecutive new product introductions

Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Education

• University of Nevada-Reno

  Electrical Engineering and Math - Computer Science 1980 — 1985

  Activities and Societies:

  Delta Xi chapter of Sigma Nu

Additional Information

Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Websites:

• My Company

Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Interests:

Cooking (and eating), Music, Guitar, Piano, Backpacking, Skiiing, Go, Entertaining at home, and horses. I am co-founder of Square Peg Foundation. I co-founded the Palo Alto Acoustic Music Open Mic, which ran for two years at Cafe' Verona and have helped some great musicians with their demo CDs and other recordings. I've traveled all over the world, sometimes in a business suit and other times with a backpack.

Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Groups:

World of Warcraft Guild Veteran: We Know on Eitrigg - Docadus - lvl 69 Rogue
San Francisco Horseman's Association, San Mateo County Horseman's Association

•    Obama for America
•    Inside CRM Expert Group
•    Ex-SGI

Darius (Chris) Dunlap’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch