Salman Azhar

Current

Executive Consultant at Eike Consulting, LLC
Advisor (2008-present) & VP Engineering (2006-08) at DecisionStreet
President and Executive Director at BayAreaChess

Past

Program Director and Associate Professor at University of San Francisco
Executive Consultant at SoftWeb Corporation
CEO & Founder at SoftWeb Corp.

Associate Professor at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Senior Management Consultant to the VP of Development at ADP-Probusiness
Consultant> Senior Management Consultant to CIO- served as ASP Deployment and Executive IT Director at i2 Technologies
Consultant> Executive Consultant & E!Now Worldwide Manager at Hewlett-Packard
Consultant> Executive Management Consultant to CEO at On Your Mind Inc., Mountain View, CA
Consultant> Senior Management Consultant at ADP
Consultant> Senior Management Consultant at Western Digital
Principal Engineer, Principal Operations Analysis Manager at Eaton Corporation
Assistant Professor at North Carolina A&T State University
Visting Professor at Lahore University of Management Sciences
Co-Founder at Swans International
Carl Friedrich Gauss Instructor of Computer Science at Duke University

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Education

Duke University
Wake Forest University
St. Anthony's College (and High School)

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Recommended

24 people have recommended Salman

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Computer Software

Websites

Salman Azhar’s Summary

• Successful Engineering Leader: proven track record in recruiting, mentoring, inspiring, and managing people in 100+ projects and 50+ teams across diverse industries in 13 countries
• Entrepreneur: founded or co-founded several ventures, included 8 start-ups that scaled to 10+ employees.
• World-Class and Versatile Experience: former clients and employers include HP, Oracle, ADP, i2, Agilent, Western Digital, Thomas Weisel, UPS, and Eaton. 9 published papers and numerous invited talks.
• Academic Pedigree: Ph.D. in Computer Science from Duke. Created new programs at Duke and Rose-Hulman. Regularly invited lecturer at the Stanford MBA program. Reputable community leader with excellent references.
• Passionate and Driven: the most prolific amateur chess organizer in the US and the most prolific overall organizer west of Texas with 20+ major (100+ player) tournaments and California State Chess Championship (1000+ players). Sponsors 17 chess enrichment programs.
• Recognized Professional Career: Duke University’s Honored Alumnus (2003) for professional achievements.

Salman Azhar’s Specialties:

technical leadership and executive management

Salman Azhar’s Experience

Program Director and Associate Professor

University of San Francisco

(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Education Management industry)

2005 — 2007 (2 years )

Launched Information Systems and Security program and turned around the Masters and Bachelors programs in Information System.
Executive Consultant

SoftWeb Corporation

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

2003 — 2006 (3 years )

Continued working on strategic level with major projects at SoftWeb while I recharged my batteries in academia. Established offshore development facilities for two clients.
CEO & Founder

SoftWeb Corp.

(Information Technology and Services industry)

1998 — 2006 (8 years )

Executive Consultant (2003-06), CEO & VP Prof. Services (1999-2003), Director Engineering (1998-99)
• Assembled a diverse team of 40+ experienced engineers with 95% retention in a job seekers’ market.
• Accumulated a portfolio of 23 clients in the first year, comprised of established companies, such as HP, Oracle, ADP, Western Digital, and i2, as well as mid-size and start-up companies.
• Recruited, groomed, inspired, and coached the core team, formed subcontractor networks, and developed client relationships to get repeat business from 19 of first 23 clients. Representative client engagements are below.
Associate Professor

Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

(Non-Profit; 501-1000 employees; Education Management industry)

2003 — 2005 (2 years )

Worked on establishing a Masters in Software Engineering program in Indianapolis. Developed Database and Programming courses to include industry and practical components.
Senior Management Consultant to the VP of Development

ADP-Probusiness

(Public Company; ADP; Information Technology and Services industry)

2001 — 2002 (1 year )

• Formed and led a team of 27 engineers to serve 3 financial systems investing over $2,000,000,000 daily.
• Achieved 100% compliance record and delivered all 4 quarterly releases 1 day before deadline and under budget.
• Increased system uptime by 63%, decreased service time by 84%, and decreased open service requests by 32%
• Established offshore development center in India and negotiated vendor contracts saving over $1,000,000.
Consultant> Senior Management Consultant to CIO- served as ASP Deployment and Executive IT Director

i2 Technologies

(Public Company; ITWO; Computer Software industry)

2000 — 2001 (1 year )

• Concurrently directed 50+ projects in 8 countries with 20+ engineers, teams in India, and 2 project managers.
• Earned repeat business and retained 10 customers during the bust years.
• Directed the network and application re-architecture to support 10-fold load increase. Evaluated and directed the deployment of 33 enterprise applications and infrastructure enhancements in 8 countries across 4 continents.
• Achieved 100% staff retention in IT despite the uncertainty during i2’s acquisition of RightWorks.
• Implemented 24-hour development support at ½ the cost. Saved $200,000 in 3 months with vendor negotiations.
Consultant> Executive Consultant & E!Now Worldwide Manager

Hewlett-Packard

(Public Company; HPQ; Information Technology and Services industry)

1999 — 2000 (1 year )

• Planned and executed partitioning of product & pricing enterprise systems in 6 countries for the HP–Agilent split.
• Orchestrated 12 interdependent projects and unified them with the goals of HP and Agilent on time and within budget by continually inventing solutions and proactively managing relationships at all levels.
• Established a development and support center with 40+ engineers in India. Selected, trained, and transitioned the offshore team. Reduced cost by over 50%. Provided 24/7 support leveraging India and US offices.
Consultant> Executive Management Consultant to CEO

On Your Mind Inc., Mountain View, CA

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

1999 — 2000 (1 year )

• Provided executive engineering direction for a highly interactive executive profitability management system and streamlined negotiated purchase system. The company raised 2 rounds of funding during this time.
• Reunited with CEO 6 years later to become Co-founder and VP Engineering of Decision Street, Inc.
Consultant> Senior Management Consultant

ADP

(Public Company; ADP; Information Technology and Services industry)

1998 — 1999 (1 year )

• Proposed, planned and deployed 2 web products to automate fraud detection and insurance claims management.
• Deployed 6 custom releases and managed client relations at all levels of State Farm and USAA to get key references for other sales. Coordinated activities across marketing, design, development, deployment, and sales.
• The system saved insurance industry several millions dollars in labor costs and fraud reduction.
Consultant> Senior Management Consultant

Western Digital

(Public Company; WDC; Computer Hardware industry)

1998 — 1998 (less than a year)

• Architected and led the development of a data warehouse to increase quality by over 20% and throughput by over 10% in manufacturing facilities in San Jose and Malaysia.
Principal Engineer, Principal Operations Analysis Manager

Eaton Corporation

(Public Company; ETN; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry)

1995 — 1998 (3 years )

• Built the FleetAdvisor logistics platform using mobile computing and satellite communications in 1995!
• Managed 7 customizations, including UPS, Harley, and Georgia-Pacific.
• Devised an XML-like EDI in 1995 (before XML was defined) to save 12+ person-months and $100,000+/year.
Assistant Professor

North Carolina A&T State University

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

1992 — 1995 (3 years )
Visting Professor

Lahore University of Management Sciences

(Educational Institution; 201-500 employees; Education Management industry)

1989 — 1995 (6 years )

Advised on curriculum trends and integrated industry and practical modules into the academic curriculum.
Developed and taught coures.
Co-Founder

Swans International

(Medical Devices industry)

1987 — 1995 (8 years )

• Developed and deployed software tools for Welch Allyn, Zoll, Dynatech, and other biomedical manufacturers.
Carl Friedrich Gauss Instructor of Computer Science

Duke University

(Non-Profit; 501-1000 employees; Education Management industry)

July 1990 — June 1991 (1 year )

Named position awarded by Duke University to develop innovative courses.

Salman Azhar’s Education

Duke University

PhD , Computer Science , 1987 — 1993

Carl F. Gauss Named Instructorship (1990-91) at Duke University recognizing excellent teaching ability

Activities and Societies:

Awarded James B. Duke Fellowship (the most prestigious fellowship of the university for three years straight: 1987-88, 88-89, 89-90)
Ph.D. Thesis: Computational Aspects of Efficiency in Capital Markets & Equilibria in Economic Systems
M.S. Thesis: Efficient Learning of Permutation Groups by Examples
Wake Forest University

BS , Math, Physics , 1985 — 1987

Member of the following Honor Societies:
Phi Beta Kappa (Academic Excellence), Mortar Board (Scholarship), Omicron Delta Kappa (Leadership), Pi Mu Epsilon (Mathematics), Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics), Upsilon Pi Upsilon (Computer Science)

Activities and Societies:

Valedictorian (GPA 4.0/4.0). Mathematics Honors Thesis: Patterns in the Distribution of Prime Numbers; Physics Honors Thesis: On Rare Earth Impurities in Ionic Halides

Guy T. Carswell Scholarship (1985-86, 1986-87) at Wake Forest University recognizing academic excellence
Kenneth T. Raynor (1986-87) at Wake Forest University for best Mathematics senior
John Y. Phillips Prize (1987) at Wake Forest University for best Mathematics graduate
St. Anthony's College (and High School)

O' Levels , Science , 1975 — 1981