James Polhans, MBA

Current

Lead Adjunct Professor, Energy Institute at Houston Community College
President at Brandy Creek Board of Directors
Global Technical Support Manager, Project Manager and Escalation Manager at Attachmate / NetIQ

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Past

Project Manager at The Gardens HOA
Support Lead, QE and Administrator at Scalable Software
Director of Technical Services at PolyVista

Beta Administrator and Head Lab Manager at NetIQ (Mission Critical Software)
Technical Lead - Enterprise Administrator, Data Security Officer at Equilon Enterprises, LLC

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2 more...

Education

Houston Community College
University of Houston-Clear Lake
University of Houston, C.T. Bauer College of Business

Microsoft Technical Certifications

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1 more...

Recommended

9 people have recommended James

Connections

288 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

James Polhans, MBA’s Summary

Over 10+ years of leadership and original thought from fortune 1000, non-profit, public sector and start-up companies. Department architecting includes building and developing global Development, QE and Technical Support resources for engineering and support groups, managing multiple-tiered direct report positions, and dotted line contractor teams for permanent and project-based tasks. Extensive budgeting responsibilities include P&L for simultaneous budgets over $1M+.

Key accomplishments include expanding expertise in process efficiency and improvement, extensive project management and liaison experience for global process design projects, and leading product-design recommendations for engineering. Broad writing tenure; including corporate policy creation, public relations releases, product documentation, standardized documentation for governmental and compliance documentation (EEOC), staff reviews and 750+ published technical and knowledge base articles.

James Polhans, MBA’s Specialties:

SECRET Security Clearance,
Effective and Efficient Leadership and Mentoring,
Productivity and Solution Implementation,
Process and Procedural Design,
Escalation and Resolution Management,
Budgeting Review and Controls,
Quality Improvement and Design,
Talented Negotiator

James Polhans, MBA’s Experience

Lead Adjunct Professor, Energy Institute

Houston Community College

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

August 2006 — Present (3 years 5 months)

As the leading Adjunct Professor for Houston Community College's Energy Institute, I improve the educational process by personally expanding the current coursework through various delivery methods, including Hybrid and Distance Education (on-line) environments. My personal areas of specialty include Energy Sector and Refining topics such as Process Technology, Safety, Health & Environment and Principles of Quality using practical experience, additional research material relating to pipe-line support, OSHA claim processing.

In addition to my instruction, I take great care to educate and advise students regarding careers in process industries, encourage recruitment for cross-rubric courses for maximizing education and increase semester enrollment
President

Brandy Creek Board of Directors

(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)

December 2005 — Present (4 years 1 month)

One of my primary duties includes the creation, maintenance and P&L responsibility of $250,000+ annual budget for this 90 unit Home Owner's Association. I also manage and provide authorization for all property expenditures, repairs and improvements (Chair committees, review\approve bids, management of 10+ contractors, etc) and lead documentation efforts for standard documents and correspondence such as personally chairing the Rules and Regulations revision committee and originating\scheduling content for community newsletters.

Another primary focus is closing working with the HOA management company to optimize property improvements, increase Board member and resident\tenant presence, enforce Rules and Regulations and most importantly, foster community spirit and safety.

I have worked to settle previous Association litigation, prioritized property improvement projects and personally lead maintenance efforts to improve the community involvement and property appearance.
Global Technical Support Manager, Project Manager and Escalation Manager

Attachmate / NetIQ

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

March 2004 — Present (5 years 10 months)

NetIQ and Attachmate offers ever-expanding products for enterprise monitoring solutions and process automation.

Designed and architected the integration of Technical Support and Professional Services departments to build a true Technical Services organization for $400 million organization. Steps include cross-training various teams for delivering all ranges of consulting services, support coverage for 10+ products covering Windows and UNIX platforms, and designing the delivery of a remote administration solution saving the company $800K+ annually. Other tasks include weekly participation within Critical Product Team meetings for Development, QA and PRD Reviews representing global regions, company-wide CRM solution projects, custom (internal application) product management, DRP process collaboration, Developmental and QA product assignments and full KB content draft\technical validation\publication authorization. I have also improved the Maintenance Renewal process, increasing maintenance renewals by $100,000+ quarterly in a shortened collection cycle from 9 months or more to a 3-6 month process.
Project Manager

The Gardens HOA

(Real Estate industry)

May 2003 — December 2003 (8 months)

Managed all aspects of maintenance; prioritization, time allocation among project phases, resource allocation for various projects and budget compliance. Analyzed and prioritized all maintenance projects, phased-replacements for upgrades: designated new products compared to required city code, ensure safety compliance, process and project planning for major projects within budget.
Support Lead, QE and Administrator

Scalable Software

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

February 2002 — March 2003 (1 year 2 months)

Designed, tested and implemented patch-application customized deliverables, completed the “automated demo environment” process for Sales and optimized the corporate network. Other duties included local and national customer upgrades\implementations, customized documentation and managing the product migration process for Windows 2000 upgrades.

• Engagement Manager providing company-wide Escalation Management for Technical Support\QE and “on-site” software implementations\upgrades
• Delivered testing documentation\process for the following areas: beta process, software patches, release-candidate and custom enhancements, reducing release\testing time by 10%+
• Architected, redesigned, mapped and implemented complete corporate Active Directory and performed Remote Access testing for company-wide “work from home” project
Director of Technical Services

PolyVista

(Information Technology and Services industry)

February 2001 — February 2002 (1 year 1 month)

Planed company growth projections and implemented staffing for all technical departments (QA, IT, Technical Support, Professional Services, Training, Development and Information Development). Developed and managed the global QA process. I also designed and directed implementation of corporate network standardization, developed\documented Technical Support\QA\QE processes and maintained final decision of cut-out for company logo, website and brochures.

• Designed and managed global QA and Tech Support process for SQL\OLAP product from scratch (Bug reporting process, priority definitions, troubleshooting procedures, etc.), including company staffing policies, guidelines and projections
• Architected, designed and implemented corporate Active Directory infrastructure and COE standards, including designing the Disaster Recovery Policy, network planning and implementation of security policy and planning and managed Infrastructure upgrades\installations
Beta Administrator and Head Lab Manager

NetIQ (Mission Critical Software)

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

March 2000 — April 2001 (1 year 2 months)

While managing 5 team members, I Implemented the Beta Software process for customers to apply and access newly released software. Developed and directed a standardized test lab restoration procedures and documented results for future planning of multiple products. Managed product escalation procedures and documented issue resolution for product documentation, KB articles and managed various product teams Established the role of Technical Support Department Liaison for all company-wide departmental collaboration while mentoring and training Product Specialists for product support and KB publication, increasing company-wide information flow by 20%. Developed and executed complete lab environment for 2 separate support teams of 20+ servers for use of global support, increasing Support Department efficiency 25%+.
Technical Lead - Enterprise Administrator, Data Security Officer

Equilon Enterprises, LLC

(Oil & Energy industry)

October 1997 — March 2000 (2 years 6 months)

Directly managed and coordinated national projects and help-desk services for 10+ contractors, providing 4th level support on all infrastructure projects and tasks and co-authored Staff\Department Procedure and Policy Creation and performance evaluations. Transportation Liaison\Project Manager for departmental and company-wide projects; spearheading the design and direction of national multi-site hardware\software upgrade project using Active Directory with 5 enterprise domains and 3000+ users. Provided 24/7 support as 1 of 3 global Data Security Officers.

James Polhans, MBA’s Education

Houston Community College

Associates in Science , Chemical Laboratory Technology , 2003 — 2005

Activities and Societies:

Lifetime member - Phi Theta Kappa Honors Fraternity
University of Houston-Clear Lake

MBA in Public Administration , Coursework in MIS and Health Care Admin , 1994 — 1996
University of Houston, C.T. Bauer College of Business

BBA , Management and Marketing, Minor in Psychology , 1991 — 1994

Activities and Societies:

Houston Alumni Organization - Life Member
Microsoft Technical Certifications

MCSA, MCSE+I, MCDBA (SQL 2000)

Additional Information

James Polhans, MBA’s Websites:

James Polhans, MBA’s Interests:

efficiency, process improvement, creating solutions, tackling projects, teamwork, documentation

James Polhans, MBA’s Groups:

Executive Suite
University of Houston Bauer College of Business Alumni
The University of Houston Alumni Association
Application Virtualization
Global Worker
Information Security Community
Startup Houston
Houston Technology Professionals
University of Houston Clear Lake
Attachmate-NetIQ
Software Testing & Quality Assurance
Adjunct Online Faculty
Customer Experience Professionals
Contact Center Operations & Management
University of Houston Alumni
Worldwide Contact Center Professionals - Largest Network for Call Center Professionals
Customer Experience Management
Shell Information Technology International
Call Center Professionals
University of Houston Alumni - All Campuses
Quant Finance
Active Directory Administrators Group
Higher Education Professionals
NetIQ Alumni Group
Customer Experience Management Professionals
Software Professionals
Loyalty and Rewards Expo
Higher Education Management Group
Enterprise Systems Management
Group Owners Group
Online Higher Ed Network
Technology-Using Professors
Mission Critical Software
Houston Community College
CallCentre Search
Able Adjuncts
Adjunctpreneur
Adjunct Faculty Directory
For-Profit Education Industry Group
Teaching For Success
Equilon Enterprises Alumni
Quant Linked Group (QLG: Wall Street Quants)
Houston Community College Alumni Association
Linked Local West Houston TX