Director/VP of Information Technology.  Exceptionally capable executive leader of technology utilization in companies who life blood depends of consistent delivery of high performance infrastructure and resources with a measurable ROI.  Skilled in all aspects of running an efficient and dependable IT department including staff management, budget oversight, and strategic planning.  Effective results delivered while providing the highest quality service to internal customers and aligning the goals of the company with external customers.

Professional Experience

MKK Consulting Engineers, Billings, MT                                                 2003 – 2007/2008 – Present

Director of Information Technology (2008 – Present)

Formulate IT strategies and manage all infrastructure operations at 3 physical business sites including full budget responsibility.  Responsible for entire infrastructure including server operations, desktop computing environments, networking systems, managed service companies and staff management.  Management of all suppliers, contracts, expenditures, service providers and operational policies.  I also coordinated the infrastructure for the ERP and HRIS systems.

1. Reorganized the IT department from a traditional internally staffed paradigm to a primarily outsourced managed services configuration.  This conversion resulted in dramatically higher service levels and technical competency across the company and in all branch offices while reducing staff costs by 25%.
2. Led a series of network infrastructure and services upgrade, replacing mostly obsolete systems and poorly performing WAN connections between the branches.  Upon completion of the project, the amount of usable bandwidth available between the offices quadrupled and the bandwidth to the Internet increased on average by about 7 times. All new services were contracted keeping monthly recurring costs nearly flat.
3. Developed a new budgeting process for the IT department that provides 3 years of visibility and tracks all expenditures against budget.  This new process provides quarterly KPI’s to monitor OpEx and CapEx spending ensuring that costs remain in control.  The process I developed was so unique and effective, it became a model template for other business operational groups with budget management responsibilities.
4. Instigated a printer equipment program that put the burden of printing costs on vendors rather than the company.  The partnership program ensures that the company has the latest technology printing equipment while carrying no risk of ownership or leasing.  The program has provisions for termination with no liability to the company and the overall program is saving the company approximately 10% annually.

Electrical Engineer (2004 – 2007)

My career at MKK started in the engineering department and quickly developed the essential electrical engineer skills on the job.  I became very successful in this role, earning my PE (Professional Engineer) license in 18 months.  Gaining this licensure usually takes typical engineers 4-8 years to accomplish.

During my time in this role, I made a number of significant contributions to the company’s technology infrastructure including a live archive/backup server system that eliminated the need for administrator intervention for tape backup recovery.  I was also actively involved in the IT support and operations in the Billings branch office.

Yellowstone Club, Big Sky, MT                                                                                    2007 – 2008

Director of Design Engineering

I was offered a once in lifetime opportunity to lead the engineering development at one of the most unique hospitality facilities in the world.  The Yellowstone Club is the only private skiing facility that offers several private mountains of skiing exclusively for use by the limited members of the Club.  My role was responsible for the management of engineering projects, consultants and contractors in all aspects of vertical construction on the property, primarily focused on the $120M Warren Miller Lodge.

Unfortunately, shortly after arriving at the Club, the housing market collapsed and the owners of the Club entered into an exceptionally messy divorce process that ultimately led the facility into bankruptcy.  I chose to resign approximately 18 months into my tenure due to these factors.

Red Hat Software, Research Triangle Park, NC                                                            1997 – 2000

Director of Quality Assurance, Software Engineering Manager

I started my tenure with Red Hat as employee number 20 and watched the company grow to over 1,000 employees.  During my time at Red Hat, I participated in virtually every aspect of a high technology company including marketing, business development, software development, M&A, public relations, quality assurance and system administration.  The experience gained in growing with a startup company through several rounds of venture capital and an IPO process cannot be understated.  This was truly a lifetime of experience in a few years.

Some of the specific accomplishments at Red Hat include:

1. Development of the software quality assurance department.  The culmination of my work in this area was a 1,500 square foot test lab facility with 100’s of computer systems used for development and testing of the Red Hat Linux operating system.
2. Creation of an engineering department focused on bringing clustering and high availability components to the Linux operating system.  In this role, I managed a diverse group of genius software developers from around the world.
3. Multiple speaking engagements, partner development projects, marketing presentations and evaluation/integration of companies/technologies as a result of M&A activity.

Education

Master of Science l Industrial & Management Engineering l 1998 l Montana State University

Bachelor of Science l Mathematics l 1994 l Montana State University