Mark Nielsen

Current

Sr. Manager - Interactive Products Research & Development at Valassis
Owner at EqualLife LLC

Past

Advisor at Sonian Inc.
Sr. Manager - Enterprise Architecture and Security at Valassis
Technical Enterprise Architect at ADVO Inc

Sr. Network Engineer at ADVO Inc
President at EmailAndMore.com (Sole Proprietorship)

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Education

Central Connecticut State University

Recommended

5 people have recommended Mark

Connections

307 connections

Industry

Marketing and Advertising

Websites

My Company

Mark Nielsen’s Summary

A Manager of Enterprise Architecture with is a blend of over 13 years of industry experience in the fields of network engineering, app development and information technology. Mark possess a sound business acumen working with the business owners, managers and stakeholders in various engagements over the years in transforming their business visions into technological artifacts and leading those efforts to provide robust, extensible and scalable architecture and design frameworks. Champions the idea of aligning technology with business initiatives and had been a catalyst of change in bringing the technology and business teams together.

Mark enjoys to collaborate with business leaders, visionaries and stakeholders at one end and the technology teams on the other to transform the business vision and processes into architecture and design artifacts, mentor and guide the technology team for sucessful implementation of these initiatives. Solid communication, organization and leadership skills capable of communicating with staff in all departments and at all levels.

My core passion is focused on systems management and administration specializing in messaging and collaboration. In the new Web 2.0 era, this passion has carried to focus on social networks and virtual teams.

In addition, I love to research emerging communication technologies, conversing with companies, journalists, industry analysts, business bloggers and other influencers.

Mark Nielsen’s Specialties:

Network Architecture, Novell GroupWise, Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory and eDirectory, SharePoint Portals, Infrastructure Design, Oracle ERP, Change Management, Data Modeling, Business Process & Governance, Strategic communication planning and execution, social media, communication technology, Web 2.0, employee communication, corporate identity and branding, communication skills coaching, social networks, virtual communities.

Mark Nielsen’s Experience

Sr. Manager - Interactive Products Research & Development

Valassis

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; VCI; Marketing and Advertising industry)

September 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)

Hand-picked to help identify and develop the creation and implementation of an interactive digital strategy and business development. Tasked with bridging our traditional print media into existing and future digital assets.

Responsibilities include overseeing a wide range of Interactive advertising executions, including strategic media planning and execution, cross media integration, search engine marketing, developing creative concepts for the online medium, mobile initiatives and other digital productions.
Owner

EqualLife LLC

(Internet industry)

December 2007 — Present (2 years 1 month)

EqualLife Credo:

Vision
I help define the future and evangelize this vision so that others feel it, expand it, and own it. I ensure that there is a defined execution plan that realizes this future. Each step that moves me closer to the realization of this vision extends my view into the future. Because I can see the invisible, I can accomplish the impossible.

Innovation
I will learn the customer and do everything in my power to understand and fulfill their unmet and unrealized needs. I am alive with new ideas and programs that can change the world. Celebrating wins and learning from defeat are essential to this spirit of innovation. The future is within me.

Leadership
I mentor and provide a positive example to those I lead through deed and word. I create a culture of respect and equality. Direct reports feel that they work with me, not for me. The team is not mine, it is ours. Individual respect comes from being – not from titles or compensation. I never succeed alone.
Advisor

Sonian Inc.

(Internet industry)

2007 — 2009 (2 years )

Finalist in the 2008 Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge: http://aws.amazon.com/startupchallenge/

Sonian offers hosted email and file archiving services in the cloud. The Company leverages a mixture of Web 2.0 frame works, open source components, proprietary intellectual property, and grid computing utility infrastructure to deliver competitive hosted services at a fraction of the cost of other current vendors.
Sr. Manager - Enterprise Architecture and Security

Valassis

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; VCI; Marketing and Advertising industry)

March 2007 — September 2008 (1 year 7 months)

Manage enterprise architecture engagement - business, information, applications, infrastructure using TOGAF framework. Communicate architecture to management & IT. Assume Chief Enterprise Architect position, plan & build enterprise architecture function. Significant transformation planning of Infrastructure and Oracle ERP package. Infrastructure implementation and deployment, Oracle 10g, Oracle RAC, Virtualization, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity with SAN Deployments.
Technical Enterprise Architect

ADVO Inc

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; AD; Publishing industry)

December 2005 — March 2007 (1 year 4 months)

Prepared and reviewed, infrastructure designs and cost estimates for a variety of Information Technology projects up to $120 million. Managed data center with over 100 Terabytes of storage.
• Created Application Portfolio measuring IT investments and identified applications that actually had a negative ROI, building a Portfolio Management system at the same time
• Assisted in design and rollout of our company’s ERP system based on Oracle 11i
• Identified areas of server consolidation opportunities for centralized data repository and VMWare ESX.
• Lead Architect for Tivoli Provisioning (using ITIM and ITAM) solution
Sr. Network Engineer

ADVO Inc

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; AD; Publishing industry)

March 1997 — December 2005 (8 years 10 months)

Lead on various projects over the years. Have been the Primary Engineer for services such as electronic messaging, DNS/DHCP, LDAP, RADIUS and content filtering. Backup engineer for other NetWare, Windows, UNIX and Cisco functions.
President
EmailAndMore.com (Sole Proprietorship)

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

January 1999 — March 2005 (6 years 3 months)

Founded the organization to focus on third party solutions and consulting services in the messaging space for platforms such as Novell GroupWise, Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. Lead in design and programming phases of all products.
• Written articles for CNET’s ZDNet and Novell Cool Solutions and cover story for Advisor Media’s GroupWise Advisor Magazine

Mark Nielsen’s Education

Central Connecticut State University

Computer Science 1993 — 1997

• Designated the Webmaster for Computer Science pages of ccsu.edu for two years
• Head of NeXTSTEP UNIX System for two years

Activities and Societies:

President of the Computer Club

Additional Information

Mark Nielsen’s Websites:

My Company

Mark Nielsen’s Interests:

Gadget Enthusiast

Mark Nielsen’s Groups:

NEPUG at MIT, Open Source Applications Foundation, Electronic Sales Distributor Union, Novell Brainshare Alumni, IASA - International Association of Software Architects

Blue: The DallasBlue Business Network (25,000+ members)
Enterprise Architect (Sparx Systems) User Group
International Association of Software Architects
Helping Friends Career Network (LI2HF)
KIVA
Marathoners
SHiFT! - TURN PROSPECTS INTO CUSTOMERS by Harnessing Trigger Events
Enterprise Architecture Forum
HYPE (Hartford Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs)
SharePoint 2007 - 2010
National Information Security Group
Online Advertising Professionals
ThoseinMedia
Young Entrepreneurs of America
Sr level Internet Marketers Group, Internet Marketing Professionals Only.
Cloud Computing
Central Connecticut State University Alumni Group (1,000 strong and growing every day)
A User-Centric Enterprise Architecture
INTERACTIVE GROUP
Direct Mail Group
INTERACTIVE & DIGITAL MEDIA GROUP
Gartner Enterprise Architecture (Xchange)
ADVO Alumni
CT Technology Network
CT Digital Media
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