
VP/Dir of IT, BPM/BPR, Strategy, Applications, DW, CRM & BI for Corp, SMB, Startup, Consulting. MBA,Six Sigma,ITIL,P&L
Greater Chicago Area

VP/Dir of IT, BPM/BPR, Strategy, Applications, DW, CRM & BI for Corp, SMB, Startup, Consulting. MBA,Six Sigma,ITIL,P&L
Greater Chicago Area
Experienced and open to new opportunities across industries, with special interest in the Defense / Intelligence, Strategic Management Consulting, Aerospace and Finance industries.
Division and Entrepreneurial IT Executive, Program/Product Manager and Strategic Management Consultant with over 10 years in Division CIO/CTO/COO/VP leadership roles managing +$10M IT budgets & 5-100 personnel globally. Nearly 25 years total international experience in technology & business. Dual MBAs in Finance & International Business. Proven expertise in corporate and IT strategy, IT & business process analysis & redesign, organizational transformation (M&A, business & systems start-up and integration, market expansion), applications development, and change control.
In-depth experience in the Finance (Securities, Banking, Insurance), Defense and Strategic Consulting industries, as well as broad experience across Legal, Transportation, Retail, Manufacturing, Logistics and more.
Former United States Marine Corps. CLEARABLE.
WILLING TO RELOCATE and overseas travel (will consider overseas assignments).
Noted as an adaptive, creative, solutions-oriented, customer-focused and collaborative leader. Experienced in creating, building and leading IT organizations and systems, client and vendor management, business development, board level and public presentations, team building and mentoring. Proven ability to quickly adapt to changing environments and assimilate and integrate new information into overall plan. Known for strategic thinking, tactical delivery, creative and wide-ranging analysis style, and consistently providing successful solutions to large and complex business challenges.
*Strategic IT Executive, Program/Product/Project Mgmt, PMO
*Organizational, Business & IT Process Transformation Optimization
(Lean Six Sigma, DFSS, DMAIC, BPM/BPI, SEPG, CAP, TQM, IT SWOT, "as is"/"to be", value stream, ITIL, Scorecard, Kaizen, Kanban)
*Start-ups/SMB
*Applications Development, Systems Integration
*M&A (due diligence, restructure, integration)
*Client & Vendor Mgmt
*Data Warehousing / CRM / BI
*Cross-Discipline Analysis, Synthesis, Problem Solving
*IT Audit & Compliance
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
March 2009 — Present (9 months)
JobAngels.org is a grassroots, volunteer-driven community that asks each member to simply help one person find a job. What began less than two months ago with a single message on Twitter now boasts more than 6,500 members (and growing). In this short time, JobAngels has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and over 150 online and offline forums, blogs, publications and podcasts. JobAngels firmly believes that one person can make a difference, and this pay-it-forward commitment has already aided hundreds of job seekers in their quest for employment.
It is my privilege to assist the JobAngels Leadership team as their new Volunteer Chief Information Officer (CIO) and new Board Advisor. Specifically, I am advising the team on technology strategy, and by developing technology, process and services roadmaps that will ensure that the JobAngels organization can become a fully operational and highly successful non-profit entity that connects real people to real jobs – one person at a time.
Cascading from a simple idea - "What if each person helped just one other person get a job?" - JobAngels was born in Jan.2009, when over 1000 people in one week accepted that challenge to help at least 1 person! And you can too!
If you are willing to be a mentor in any way to someone in their job search, with resume/cover letter advice, career counseling, job leads, company information, job search tips or more, let us know!
Or, if you are a job seeker in need of assistance, connect with us!
Follow us on Twitter: @JobAngels
You may also join us here in LinkedIn Groups (JobAngels), or on Facebook.
Coming Soon: www.JobAngels.org
(Marketing and Advertising industry)
March 2009 — Present (9 months)
Providing analyses, recommendations, documentation and implementation of enterprise-wide business processes, including sales cycle methodologies; client proposal standards, processes and templates; client and investor presentations; target marketing / strategies; and other special projects to get this firm operational and productive with its first clients.
Worked with President to re-brand organization's specialized services to better its target market, from internal employee/candidate services to a more full-featured branding firm to "Empower the voices that shape your brand™." This included leading brainstorming sessions that resulted in evolution to new company name (Vocii™) and branding statements, brand protection and process re-engineering (to include delivery of new expanded technology and services).
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Online Media industry)
July 2007 — Present (2 years 5 months)
Author for CIO Magazine's online site, CIO.com, on senior and executive IT job search strategies and methods.
(Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2003 — Present (6 years 8 months)
Interim CIO Services:
Provide strategic technology, management & business transformation professional services to SMB & Entrepreneurial firms, including: IT program/project mgmt, IT & process audits, enterprise systems (applications development, architecture, integration), M&A (strategic analysis, due diligence, integration), business creation & expansion, organizational & process re-engineering, & leadership training.
(Avg Engagement: 12-18 months)
Industries: Technology (Commercial Software, Internet, Telecomm), Finance (Banking, Insurance, Investments, Mortgage Banking), Defense, Manufacturing, Logistics/Supply Chain, Marketing, Consumer Goods, Health Care, & Restaurants.
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Executive Advisory Board Member:
Advise on business & technical strategy, including market / brand / website enhancement, technology design & use, & business development leads to several firms in the IT software, IT consulting, & executive recruiting industries.
(Management Consulting industry)
April 2003 — Present (6 years 8 months)
Invited conference speaker, trainer, author & mentor on broad range of technical, business management, & executive leadership topics, including:
* "Business Process Management",
* "Continuous Process Improvement",
* "Executive Management Mentoring",
* "Job Search Project Planning" & more.
Recent speaking engagements include:
* 2008-now - Partner with CyberLifeTutors.com providing courses on Executive Job Search Tactics, LinkedIn, networking, etc
* 2008-now - Monthly Speaker & Mentor for Marine For Life & Wounded Warrior Brigade. Also working with M4L leaders to build exposure to corporate sponsors & within USMC of M4L's successes.
* 2007-now - Frequent Speaker for Career Renewal Group (Deerfield, IL)
* May 2008 - Speaker at ISSSP Annual Leadership Conference (Phoenix AZ)
(International Society of Six Sigma Professionals - ISSSP.com)
* May 2008 - Judge for Women In Technology International's "IT Leader of the Year" award
(Management Consulting industry)
November 2008 — December 2008 (2 months)
Led project team as Program Manager, Enterprise Architect & IT Strategist in re-evaluating entire project after major scope changes made less than 30 days before planned implementation.
In beta testing, users loved new online access & accuracy of critical information. So division decided to expand project's potential user base, with greater requirements for security, stability, scalability, compliance, SLAs & documentation. Project leaders needed to quickly update designs & timelines to meet these new demands.
For this project realignment, I led the team's efforts in quickly re-architecting the NOC to meet new security, stability & scalability requirements, & move to 3rd-party secured hosting vendor. I also worked with project manager to rebuild project plan, & with all team leaders to refocus their efforts to their new tasks. And team's owner followed recommendation to add a technical specialist with the detailed technical skills & experience needed for new project's goals.
(Information Technology and Services industry)
July 2008 — September 2008 (3 months)
Tasked with evaluating existing global IT business systems and personnel, and crafting new global IT strategy for this $1BB firm's business systems. Grown through numerous acquisitions, this firm had nearly a dozen IT teams spread across 30 sites around the world. Major project considerations were to document existing systems and skills, and then identify options and recommendations to unify the IT teams and their skillsets, and convert/simplify/integrate the dozens of major enterprise systems into a single, cohesive, efficient organization. This included 10+ major ERP/MRP systems in place (including SAP & Infor), dozens of varied HR, financial, manufacturing, shipping and sales systems, and over 1200 custom internal applications.
(Health, Wellness and Fitness industry)
February 2008 — April 2008 (3 months)
High-profile health care technology firm providing customized, automated online surveys & results to meet new Medicare reporting requirements.
• Midwest Venture Summit Award Winner
• Chicago Innovation Award
Accomplished several priorities in very short time:
• VC Funding - Assisted in developing presentations.
• Systems & Security Assessment - Led team to deliver documentation & recommendations for all hard & soft systems.
• IT Strategy – including 18-month BPR & prioritization plan to support national expansion.
• HCAHPS Strategy – Helped create strategy & formal certification application.
• IT Best Practices – Implemented solutions to focus IT on S6 methodologies.
• Reporting & Analysis Systems Redesign - Initiated redesign to new web-based data warehouse & BI systems.
• Director of Technology - recruited & mentored new head of IT.
Described as “very thorough”, “client focused”, “process oriented” & “hard working” by executive team.
(Non-Profit; 201-500 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
February 2008 — February 2008 (1 month)
Led division's care & counseling senior management in review & evaluation sessions, in enterprise-wise business process re-engineering effort of all internal processes and systems.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Defense & Space industry)
September 2007 — November 2007 (3 months)
Small arms design & manufacturing firm to Dept of Defense & NATO allied militaries
• Designing integration of financial, Inventory Control (IC), Warehouse Management (WMS), contracts, procurement, shipping & CAD/CAM systems to improve scalability, and reduce costs & waste.
• Immediate savings seen after implementing improved Bill of Materials & inventory tracking processes.
• Assisting in patent processing for new manufacturing processes and weapons designs.
(Banking industry)
February 2006 — September 2007 (1 year 8 months)
Member of executive team that successfully founded new mortgage division, reaching profitability in 3 months, to $40 MM / month in 12 months, and sold in less than 18 months.
** Mortgage Division sold to Greystone Financial, and moved to Arizona - Sept 2007
** Platinum Bank sold to Taylor, Bean & Whitaker - October 2008
* Saved over $600,000 by negotiating vendor contracts, implementing new NOC, centralizing data/voice/voip/security, & converting to ASP model.
* Grew to 4 offices nationally despite severe industry downturn.
* Co-developed all business plans, budgets & operations. Created & led branch expansion plans. Led enterprise application system evaluations & implementations. Architected national MPLS WAN/LAN network. Assisted in M&A due diligence to successful acquisition. Chaired Information Security Committee, and managed all information & IT-related security audits. Improved security and cost efficiency of all bank systems, networks, equipment, software, vendor management, & technical support. Managed multi-state teams of developers, DBAs, security, tech support & voice/voip support personnel.
(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Religious Institutions industry)
1998 — 2007 (9 years )
Responsible for $2M non-profit Christian Lutheran church and school, with approximately 2000 congregation members and 200+ school attendees.
* Eliminated over $1.85 million in total debt (nearly a 70% reduction) and raised over $200,000 in new capital. Envisioned, championed and successfully implemented multi-year financial strategies to sell non-essential land assets, restructure remaining debt loads and infuse organization with new donations. Streamlined annual budget & audit processes.
Continue to volunteer in a number of positions - Sacristan, Usher, Sunday School Teacher, Youth Leader, Choir, etc.
(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Environmental Services industry)
February 2005 — February 2006 (1 year 1 month)
National technology and management professional services firm.
Successfully turned around two failing consulting divisions to $2.1-$3 million revenue by strategically focusing on financial industry.
• Grew billable team by 55%; Improved new sales to 80%; Partnered to build new M&A practice; and Created new profitable practices (Financial & ERP Systems, Security & Compliance). Divested unprofitable practices. Recognized as “client-focused”, “decisive” and a “team-builder”.
• Full P&L and strategic development responsibility for both divisions.
• Sample Projects: Financial systems and fraud detection systems design for high-volume ecommerce retailer; M&A IT due diligence for national and international clients.
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Insurance industry)
2004 — 2005 (1 year )
National 24x7, high volume ecommerce multi-line insurance brokerage firm.
Re-Architected all IT systems & processes, significantly improving security (375%), reliability (125%) & speed (45%), while simultaneously reducing IT staff & support costs, fueling largest single-year revenue gain (63.9%) to $15.9M.
• Increased in-bound calls & applications per agent (23.1%) with new web-based customer service call center & predictive dialing system.
• Led IT integration of $13M acquisition of major competitor.
• Responsible for all IT teams, systems and processes, as well as internal auditing requirements.
• 2007 Note: Original 3-year network upgrade plan completed, providing further improvements in speed (nearly 400%) and reduced downtime (nearing 99.5%) across entire high-transaction, high-call volume network.
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)
2001 — 2003 (2 years )
International internet communications & multi-media software & services firm.
Designed and delivered multiple, first-to-market, award-winning commercial software products & services from prototype to full commercial delivery using rapid iterative development methodologies.
• Dramatically improved system security, reliability (215%), efficiency (415%), and customer satisfaction/retention (151%), while reducing costs (-35%) & downtime (-300%) by implementing TQM & standardized operating procedures, and integrating IT & Delivery.
• Multi-layered security protocols recognized by Dept of Defense. Finalist for the 2002 Chicago Innovation Award. Successful client growth into over 50% of Fortune 200 as well as US defense and legal industries.
• Developed IT and delivery strategies. Responsible for all aspects of technology, service delivery, product R&D, and customer support for this venture backed technology innovator. Created and presented IT vision to clients, partners & investors.
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
2000 — 2001 (1 year )
International CRM, Business Intelligence (BI) and Direct Marketing software and professional services firm.
Created and implemented growth strategy across 13 states, resulting in increased sales (nearly 600%), staff (425%) and clients.
• Awarded “Center of Excellence”. Noted as “passionate” team builder.
• Established and trained all consulting teams and managed all client accounts. Integrated solutions with enterprise financial, ERP & DW systems for Fortune 200 clients. Partnered with sales in all presentations & proposals.
(Public Company; DSGX; Computer Software industry)
March 1999 — July 2000 (1 year 5 months)
Created ‘first-to-market’ international eLogistics software and services system that enabled international clients to receive vendor-neutral real-time quotes, and then to order and track shipments via the Internet. Initially as Strategic Technology Consultant, and later as their CIO/CTO, this position founded the Technology and Operations Divisions and established all major technical processes and initiatives for this e-commerce firm. This included managing IT budgets of over $10M across multiple offices and 50+ personnel. Assisted in company’s dramatic growth, leading to acquisitions of both subsidiaries (iLink Global and CanTRACK) as well as the parent company.
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
April 1998 — December 1999 (1 year 9 months)
• Partnered with Sales VP of boutique consulting firm to create and lead strategic expansion plan into financial servicies industry.
• Successfully increased consulting revenue by 687.5% to $11M (>$20M annualized) in only six months. This resulted in back-to-back acquisitions, first by CMSI, and ultimately by Computer Associates for $1.12 Billion.
• Managed 40+ consultants across multiple locations, industries (investments, insurance, banking, international trade, retail) and projects (application development, data warehousing, web site design, retail, ecommerce, EAI, system integration).
(Public Company; CNA; Insurance industry)
1995 — 1998 (3 years )
AVP – Data Warehouse Development, Commercial Lines
• Managed development of division's cornerstone multi-terabyte data warehouse and business intelligence systems. Eliminated $14M annually from legacy systems. Resolved network scalability bottleneck with migration to enterprise SAN systems. Member of national Strategic Management team. Successfully improved division’s overall profit margins.
Director – Financial Information Systems, Personal Lines
• Designed and implemented division’s new multi-level financial analysis, data warehouse and business intelligence systems. Successfully championed agency-level data accuracy across corporate systems. Architected new financial data mart design, then standardized for entire DW strategy. Acted as team’s functional DBA. Team’s innovative reporting & querying solutions were later included into a release of Business Objects Corp.’s software.
(Partnership; 10,001 or more employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
1994 — 1995 (1 year )
• Founded Global Version Control Task Force, reducing abends (-79%) and overtime (-65%).
• Managed 15 programmers & analysts in developing all financial reporting systems for firm’s custom ERP & GL DW system, supporting all 50,000+ personnel over 300 offices worldwide. SME for internal & special projects DW, data mart & BI.
(Public Company; ALL; Insurance industry)
1989 — 1994 (5 years )
Supervised and developed custom investment, investment accounting, reconciliation, reporting & DW systems. Technology liaison to all investment departments. Led business requirements and user testing sessions to build user consensus and acceptance, using JAD/RAD & TQM methodologies.
• Developed and led training courses for investors and executives.
• Member of Allstate’s Malcolm Baldrige Award Application Team
(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Building Materials industry)
1987 — 1989 (2 years )
Supervised team supporting all financial systems. Reduced A/P errors by 20%. Promoted 3 times.
(Government Agency; 10,001 or more employees; Military industry)
1983 — 1989 (6 years )
Selected for US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD to specialize in Intelligence. Gun Leader. Expert Rifle. Expert Pistol. Numerous Meritorious Mast awards.
(Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Insurance industry)
April 1983 — November 1987 (4 years 8 months)
Improved efficiency of frequent statutory changes 20-50%.
• Promoted 5 times.
1 year , International Commercial Intellectual Property Law , 1992 — 1993
Completed first year toward Juris Doctorate.
Ranked in top 5 of class.
Internship as Legal Clerk for DePaul University's Center for Church-State Studies (1989) (http://www.law.depaul.edu/institutes_centers/ccss/)
Dual MBA , Finance, and International Business Management , 1990 — 1992
Completed dual MBAs.
Ranked in top 10% of class.
2 Masters internships in Marketing, both with GAMS Communications (http://www.gamscom.com/).
BS , Business Administration , 1984 — 1986
Computer Science 1981 — 1983
US Marine Corps, US defense, US intelligence, BPM and PMP certifications, my family, IT management, strategic consulting, M&A, systems integration, professional networking, running, international travel, international politics, gourmet cooking, science fiction, sci fi, 'Ender's Game' - Orson Scott Card,
Pay-It-Forward, Silicon Prairie, IT Strategy & Conference Speaker, Women in Technology International, CIO and former US Military, On Startups, LinkedIn, Hot Gigs, Illinois Technology Association, Blogs, IL-BS, Twitter
CERTS & TRAINING:
* Watchguard Security Certified (sales)
* Process Improvement - Six Sigma (Green), BPM/BPR/BPE, CPI, TQM
* Pgm/Proj Mgmt - SDLC, Iterative PM, Method1, CMM (initial), James Martin, MS Proj Mgr & custom tools
* OO Pgmmg
* Online mktg, website design, e-commerce
* CRM (several, eg, Epiphany's AP, RA, CM, IP & RP)
* BI (Bus.Objs, Cognos, Crystal Rpts, Essbase, etc)
* Data Warehouse, Data Mart & Data Mining
* Oracle DB
* DB2 Technical Instructor
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HONORS & AWARDS:
Women In Technology International (WITI) Excellence in IT Leadership Awards Judge 2008
Eagles Club Award (team leadership & mentoring)
Infor Epiphany - Center of Excellence Award
United Way - Emerald Award; Citation of Achievement; Communications Award; & Community Spirit Award ('90 & '91)
United States Marine Corps - Honorable Discharge - 1989
Several US Marine Corps Meritorious Mast Citation Awards
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Two(2) patent applications in Logistics web tracking technology