Nelson Spessard

Current

President-Owner at Knottwith, LLC

Past

Director of IT at GROUP DENTAL SERVICES, INC./COVENTRY DENTAL
Member Board of Directors at Group Dental Services of MD, Inc
Manager-Global Shared Services Operations at Gate Gourmet International

Principal/Senior Solutions Architect at Orion Scientific / SRA
Technical Manager at AOL
Manager-Technical Programs at Orion Scientific Systems
Senior Member Technical Staff at Global One
Senior Programmer at SAIC
Programmer / Chemist at Dames and Moore

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Education

Hood College
Western Maryland College
Middletown

Recommended

14 people have recommended Nelson

Connections

206 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Websites

Nelson Spessard’s Summary

Dynamic and accomplished IT Executive with extensive international background in business transformation and alignment, IT governance, team building, software development, and process improvement. Proven ability to turnaround underperforming organizations, develop effective teams, manage corporate IT infrastructures, facilitate acquisitions and divestitures, establish best practices, reduce costs, and streamline operations. Excellent leadership, problem solving, and service delivery skills.

Nelson Spessard’s Specialties:

IT Operations • Strategic Planning • Budget/Cost Control • Transition Management • Process Improvement
Global Management • ISO/SAS/SOX/HIPPA Compliance/Accreditation • Infrastructure Management
Technology Integration • Solution Development • Consolidation • Restructuring • Shared Services

Nelson Spessard’s Experience

President-Owner

Knottwith, LLC

(Information Technology and Services industry)

September 2006 — Present (2 years 11 months)

Established and directed IT services and strategy consulting company. Served as Virtual CIO and Interim Director of IT for clients. Prepared companies for SAS70 audits, implemented SDLC methodologies, created SOPs and IT documentation. Re-engineered networks to increase capacity and security levels.
Director of IT

GROUP DENTAL SERVICES, INC./COVENTRY DENTAL

(Insurance industry)

August 2007 — February 2009 (1 year 7 months)

Senior IT Executive & Acting CIO. Support main operations center and remote data center. Supervise 7 direct reports and 15 contractors. Manage software development, project management, IT strategic planning, audits, data security, and contracts/agreements. Administer $2.5M budget.

Realigned IT organization and improved IT operations. Established IT Service Desk, IDS, proactive issue monitoring, IT strategic plan, and budget. Reduced project load from 99 to 9 in 1 year and cut development costs 50% by contracting with offshore development teams.

Stabilized IT infrastructure. Implemented monitoring of IT performance. Resolved legacy phone and network issues. Re-engineered phone system to maximize VoIP utilization. Increased capacity to minimize network saturation. Attained SAS70 compliance and prepared company for ISO27K and SOX audits. Formed IT Steering Committee to lead company’s IT direction. Currently spearheading IT transition following company’s acquisition.
Member Board of Directors

Group Dental Services of MD, Inc

(Insurance industry)

September 2007 — April 2008 (8 months)

Subject matter expert and technology advisor for Board. Actively involved in budgeting, strategic planning, and business project management. Provided recommendations relating to IT and performed IT due diligence during acquisition process.
Manager-Global Shared Services Operations

Gate Gourmet International

(Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Airlines/Aviation industry)

April 2005 — September 2006 (1 year 6 months)

Directed architecture and global infrastructure for $3B company. Coordinated >120 independent IT departments. Managed $30M zero cost center and 4 data centers. Oversaw vendor selection, RFPs, contract & SLA negotiations, and IT service provider review. Supervised 26 internal and contracted employees globally, with matrixed responsibility for 25 more. Member of Global Technology Council and Architecture Design Team. Chair of Infrastructure Steering Committee.

Established shared services center, disaster recovery & business continuity procedures, IT governance, global change management, and more. Saved $960K/yr. by consolidating SAP instances into global landscape and reducing datacenter footprint 25%. Cut costs by consolidating offices into global MPLS network. Reduced service providers from >40 to 10. Created secure unified Citrix desktop environment. Improved service reliability from 70% to >99.99%. Cut expenses $240K/yr. and increased security by consolidating internet access.
Principal/Senior Solutions Architect

Orion Scientific / SRA

(Information Technology and Services industry)

May 2001 — April 2005 (4 years)

Managed professional services teams for $30M federal services contractor. Oversaw development, business process analysis, systems engineering, and intelligence analysis. Supervised team of 6. Marketed products and services to DoD, DoE, EPA, and state / local governments. Assisted with contract negotiations. Served as Technical Lead and Project Manager.

Grew $600K software development/support contract to $1.6M ongoing contract. Team Lead for $15M /year in projects, supervising matrixed teams up to 45 persons. Directed transitions from CMMI Level 1 & 2 to CMMI Level 3 for internal organization. Successfully led critical development and architecture projects in counter intelligence sector. Involved in due diligence during acquisition by $1.2B organization, and maintained 100% employee retention during transition period. Improved performance by implementing best practices project management processes. Earned awards for CMMI Level 3 certification project and superior customer service.
Technical Manager

AOL

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; TWX; Internet industry)

October 2000 — May 2001 (8 months)

Managed deployment of new systems for online advertising group. Supervised project teams of up to 40 persons. Directed 4-person technical team that developed, deployed, and maintained systems in UNIX/Sybase environment.

Reduced order entry time from 12 hours to 1 hour in Asian client reservation system. Enhanced efficiency by developing and deploying online statistical package for performance data. Earned Star Award for delivery of new product features to advertising marketing team.
Manager-Technical Programs

Orion Scientific Systems

(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

October 1998 — October 2000 (2 years 1 month)
Senior Member Technical Staff

Global One

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Telecommunications industry)

June 1995 — October 1998 (3 years 5 months)
Senior Programmer

SAIC

(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

November 1991 — June 1995 (3 years 8 months)
Programmer / Chemist

Dames and Moore

(Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Environmental Services industry)

December 1990 — November 1991 (1 year)

Additional Information

Nelson Spessard’s Websites:

Nelson Spessard’s Groups:

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Information Systems Audit & Control Association (ISACA)
Board of Directors for several non-profit organizations
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