Chris Garrigues

Current

Contractor at JobCannon

Past

Senior System Administrator / Security Officer at SteepRock, Inc.
Founder at Trinsic Solutions
Managing Partner at VirCIO

General Partner/Chief Technologist at VirCIO
Executive Committee Member at West Austin Neighborhood Group
Owner at Deep Eddy Internet Consulting
System Administrator at Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC)
Unix Administrator at Dell
Programmer at CCI/Triad
Sales Engineer at Auspex, Inc
System Manager at Schlumberger
System Manager at Schlumberger Technologies
Software Support Engineer at Symbolics, Inc.
Senior Programmer at Asta Computer Services (Sole Proprietorship)
Contract Programmer at Systems Results
Host, Writer, Performer at Emperor Norton Science Fiction Hour
Contract Programmer at Apple Computer
Contract Programmer at MJB Coffee
Sales at Computerland of San Francisco

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16 more...

Education

San Francisco State University

Recommended

21 people have recommended Chris

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

Chris Garrigues’s Summary

IT professional looking to apply my experience in a customer-facing role as part of an exciting, dynamic team that offers a product or service about which I can feel passionate.

In recent years, I have run several businesses and would like to focus on the client side of your business, preferably in a pre-sales technical role.

My experience in running businesses makes me uniquely positioned to explain your value proposition to higher level executives as well as managers in all areas of influence.

In a 2008 survey of those I've worked with including managers, peers, subordinates, and clients, 75% cite my communication abilities (especially of technical information to non-technical people) as my greatest strength. Other areas in which I was highly ranked include dependability and crisis management.

My focus on client satisfaction has a record of generating a remarkable degree of client loyalty.

Chris Garrigues’s Specialties:

Small Businesses, IT Management, IT Operations, Networking, Unix Administration, Client Relationships, Customer Service, Trust, Friendship.

Chris Garrigues’s Experience

Contractor

JobCannon

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

September 2009 — Present (3 months)

Funny Story here:

During my job search, I decided to try a tool called "Cardboard Resume" to assist with my job search. A few days later, I sent a tech support email in and as a result got a phone call from the founder of the company saying "We've met; I didn't know you were looking for work. How would you like to have lunch tomorrow."

By the following Monday, I was on board as a contractor helping with a rebranding effort to create what today is JobCannon.

The moral of this story is that the best jobs are found through personal connections. This is what many people call the Hidden Job Market. As it happens, JobCannon is a tool to help you work your personal connections and find those unadvertised positions. As I like to think of it, JobCannon turns that messy pile of business cards into a network of Job Champions.

Today I am still working as a contractor and am still exploring other possibilities, but if all goes well, my expectation is that JobCannon is where I will be for the foreseeable future.
Senior System Administrator / Security Officer

SteepRock, Inc.

(Pharmaceuticals industry)

December 2008 — August 2009 (9 months)

Hired as a Sr. System Administrator; in my first month, I restructured portions of the infrastructure to plug a number of security holes. In my second month, I defined the role of Security Officer and took it on in addition to my other responsibilities. By my fourth month, I moved into a management role in charge of IT systems.

All this while learning the company's product and developing new skills in MySQL and Python.
Founder

Trinsic Solutions

(Information Technology and Services industry)

January 2004 — November 2008 (4 years 11 months)

I founded Trinsic Solutions to continue the work developed at VirCIO and take it in new directions. Our focus was on proactively handling our client’s IT needs so that we could solve issues before they become problems. We did this by monitoring our clients' networks remotely and handling potential issues as soon as we were alerted, frequently before the client was aware anything was happening.   

Our motto was:

"Your Trusted Friends in Proactive IT Management"

Accomplishments included:
• All aspects of starting up a corporation.
• Built technical infrastructure and re-implemented core technologies carried over from VirCIO.
• Extended VirCIO technologies to also support VoIP systems.
• Led marketing effort to define corporate identity.
• Managed employees, both technical and sales.
• Managed finances.
• Presented at open-house, networking and sales events.
• Developed an extensive professional network which will continue to serve me for years.

I sold my client base to Diamond IT at the end of 2008. Recognizing the value of their acquisition, Diamond IT subsequently changed their name to Trinsic Technologies.
Managing Partner

VirCIO

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

January 2003 — December 2003 (1 year )

In 2003, I became the managing partner for VirCIO while retaining responsibility as Chief Technologist. Through restructuring and cost-cutting I brought the business out of the red and into profitability. I then sold my portion of the business to my partner and started Trinsic Solutions.   

Accomplishments included:
• Solved financial crisis by identifying and eliminating unnecessary expenses, pursuing uncollected invoices and paying off outstanding debt.  
• Managed staff and contract employees.  
• Continued to maintain back-end software.
• Continued to manage resolution of client issues.
General Partner/Chief Technologist

VirCIO

(Information Technology and Services industry)

February 1999 — January 2003 (4 years )

I was a co-founder of VirCIO. We were an IT services company with a focus on remote management of Windows and Mac desktops. During our first 4 years, I served as the CTO and developed our back-end software for managing our client's networks. This software included:

• An LDAP database from which all other data was derived.
• A mechanism to auto-configure Unix servers from bare metal to match the configuration in the database.
• A mechanism to update live production Unix servers safely and reliably without downtime.
• A network backup system for incremental backups of Unix and Windows servers to a large RAID array with a secure web based interface for file recovery.

Our managed systems included Firewalls, Fileservers, Webservers, and development systems and were engineered from the ground up to be secure and reliable. By 2003, the technology was fully mature. The Perl library in the Trinsics version was up to 16K lines of code by 2008.
Executive Committee Member

West Austin Neighborhood Group

(Non-Profit; Civic & Social Organization industry)

1991 — 2000 (9 years )

I served on the board of WANG for a number of years and held various positions including Treasurer and Chair of the Membership Committee.

I continue to host WANG's web site and email on my servers.
Owner

Deep Eddy Internet Consulting

(Information Technology and Services industry)

March 1995 — December 1999 (4 years 10 months)

Founded a one-person company which did a variety of computer related consulting with a focus on Internet and IT contracts. Extensive client base included MCC, Austin Ventures, and the State of Texas as well as a large number of startup companies.
• Worked with several ISPs to help build their infrastructure in Austin and elsewhere in Texas.  
• Taught courses on Unix, Perl, Tcl/Tk, Unix Networking, and other areas. for Resource Development Academy, RAS Group, Motorola, and Tivoli both locally and across the country from New York to California.
• Built firewalls and fileservers and managed servers running Solaris, A/IX, HP/UX, Linux, Windows, MacOS and other operating systems.
System Administrator

Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC)

(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Research industry)

January 1994 — March 1995 (1 year 3 months)

• Provided technical support for diverse research on both Unix and Macintosh platforms.
• Installed and supported MIME based electronic mail tools.
• Implemented MIME display code for Brent Welch's exmh mail program in Tcl/Tk.
• Brought up new wide area network services including FTP, HTTP, and WAIS while maintaining the security of the corporate network.  
• Developed web site and taught research staff how to present data on the web using HTML.
• Worked with International Liaison Office to convert data into a form presentable on the Web using HTML and WAIS using scripts written in Perl.
Unix Administrator

Dell

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

January 1993 — January 1994 (1 year 1 month)

• Configured and installed ORACLE servers in Germany for technical support databases.
• Installed routers linking offices in the United States, Ireland, and Germany.
• Maintained Internet gateways and a variety of Sun and SVr4 ORACLE servers for production and development databases.
• Authored portion of corporate security policy relating to account and password security.
• Restructured domain name system as part of effort to internationalize the corporate network.
Programmer

CCI/Triad

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Computer Software industry)

March 1992 — January 1993 (11 months)

• Redesigned and reimplemented communications substrate increasing data throughput by twenty times.
• Brought company onto USENET and installed productivity tools.
Sales Engineer

Auspex, Inc

(Computer Hardware industry)

January 1991 — March 1992 (1 year 3 months)

• Provided pre-sales and post-sales technical support while the company tripled the installed base.
• Product was an Ethernet/TCP-IP/NFS based file server sold into the technical market.
System Manager

Schlumberger

(Public Company; SLB; Oil & Energy industry)

January 1989 — January 1991 (2 years 1 month)

• Designed computing resources for $3 million Computer Science research laboratory in Austin, TX using combined resources from Palo Alto, CA and Ridgefield, CT. New Lab capabilities resulted in increased efficiency and reliability and 30% reduction in systems staff salary costs.  
• Precise planning enabled the lab to be fully operational in two weeks time.  
Instituted master plan to continually upgrade the lab's technological capabilities, thereby keeping the environment state-of-the-art.
• Redirected international computer network away from proprietary DECNET solutions towards standards-based TCP/IP solutions.  
• Provided orientation, training, and support in computer networking for offices in America, Europe, and Japan.
• Did SunOS (Unix) support in addition to Lisp Machine and MacOS support with a focus on the email system.
System Manager

Schlumberger Technologies

(Public Company; SLB; Semiconductors industry)

September 1987 — December 1988 (1 year 4 months)

• Provided technical support for diverse research staff in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine vision, visual modeling, mechanical simulation, and chip-level debugging on Symbolics and Macintosh platforms.
• Identified and eliminated bugs from environment which caused repeated information loss in namespace system.
• Expertise in symbolic processing resulting in combining responsibilities thus reducing support staff by 50%.
Software Support Engineer

Symbolics, Inc.

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

September 1984 — August 1987 (3 years )

• Designed and implemented system to dispatch customer bug-reports, using the email system as a substrate.
• Supported customers in all system areas via telephone and email with occasional on-site visits.

Note also that Symbolics was the first registered .com in 1985, and I was there!
Senior Programmer
Asta Computer Services (Sole Proprietorship)

(Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

1984 — 1984 (less than a year)

Developed software for Real Estate Applications.
Contract Programmer

Systems Results

(Information Technology and Services industry)

1980 — 1983 (3 years )

• Developed software for Credit Union accounting applications.
• Maintained and upgraded accounting software for wholesale toy business.
• Developed tools used in-house for software development and maintenance.
Host, Writer, Performer

Emperor Norton Science Fiction Hour

(Performing Arts industry)

1980 — 1983 (3 years )

Hosted, wrote, performed, conducted interviews, operated camera and did many other things for a weekly public-access television show.
Contract Programmer

Apple Computer

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

1981 — 1982 (1 year )

Wrote demonstration software for the educational market.
Contract Programmer

MJB Coffee

(Food Production industry)

1981 — 1982 (1 year )

Developed software to analyze coffee and tea commodities.
Sales

Computerland of San Francisco

(Retail industry)

1979 — 1981 (2 years )

Part-time job during high school and into college.

Chris Garrigues’s Education

San Francisco State University

BS , Computer Science , January 1980 — August 1985

I took 5 1/2 years because I was working part time as a programmer or lab TA most of the time I was in school.

Activities and Societies:

President of the student ACM chapter. Our team placed 3rd in the Northern California programming contest right behind the two teams from Stanford and ahead of UC Berkeley (who placed 5th).

Additional Information

Chris Garrigues’s Websites:

Chris Garrigues’s Interests:

My primary interest other than my work these days are my two daughters, Carina and Aniela.

Chris Garrigues’s Groups:

TexChange, National Business Exchange, Bootstrap-Austin, Choose Austin First, Metropolitan Breakfast Club, Austin Independent Business Alliance, Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, EA, GiG