General Overview
The thing I love about Information Technology can also be the most frustrating - CONSTANT CHANGE. Just when you think you've seen it all, something new comes along and it's time to hit the books and fire up the test lab again. There's always another certification ... another new technology ... another new innovation that promises to be the "silver bullet". Keeping up with the changes can be very difficult and challenging but also offers great rewards - personal growth, career advancement, peer respect and a job done well. Change in IT keeps the job fresh and interesting and each new experience seems to validate the experiences that came before. I started my interest in computers when I was 12 by writing my first computer program in BASIC on a Commodore 64. Throughout high school, computers fascinated me and eventually this curiosity became the passion that led me to pursue an IT career. I did not go straight to college from high school, however, and I was 28 before I attained an Associate's degree in Computer Programming and Network Administration. By age 35, I gained a Bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems. I am now pursuing MBA and MSIS degrees to move into the next phase of my career in Executive Leadership - focusing on business outcomes and solutions that are synergistically aligned with IT.
Skills Summary
Over the last 20 years, I have been blessed to be a part of numerous IT projects that have pushed me beyond my limits and into new areas. The primary focus of my career has been in application engineering involving computer programming in Java, C/C++, C#, VB, PHP, ABAP, Progress and various scripting and markup languages on Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Linux, Sun Solaris, SAP, VMware, Citrix, IBM AIX and HP-UX. I also have experience working with various storage array and server platforms from Dell, HP, IBM, NetApp and LeftHand Networks. Virtualization is not just a buzzword anymore and the experience I have with VMware, HP-UX, Oracle, Red Hat and Citrix has aided me greatly in designing cloud solutions. From disaster recovery and business continuity solutions to cloud based workload management and load balancing, the cloud is really hitting its stride right now. There has never been a better time to be in Information Technology and I am excited to see what the next 20 years will bring.
Certifications
Validate MCP (Transcript ID:819928 Access Code:m1c40s0ft)
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Current Position(s)
Download ResumeDirector, Enterprise Architecture - Optum - July 2016 to Present
- Implement strategic business enhancements
- Ensure flawless technology and service delivery for our customers while improving cost, quality and cycle time
- Continue to build deeper and more comprehensive customer relationships
- Accelerate innovation and speed to market while expanding enterprise solution capabilities
- Demonstrate continued collaboration across the enterprise by empowering and supporting our people
- Foster efforts to increase employee communication, engagement and respond to employee feedback
Previous Positions
Principal Solutions Architect, Public Sector - Verizon - May 2011 to July 2016
- Act as the customer's CTO in the lifecycle management of the customer's overall IT roadmap for the CMS (healthcare.gov) and Veteran's Administration accounts while leading a team of 30 Infrastructure/Platform Engineers and 6 Service Managers
- Help customers expand their own knowledge of their systems/hosting environment, while assessing gaps between the client's current environment and their desired business goals.
- Provide technical strategy, guidance and support to the Public Sector Strategic accounts team, Sales and Sr. Sales Engineering teams. When solutions fall outside of Verizon's standard product offerings, work closely with Product Management/Development to productize the new solution in order to offer the solution as a standard product to other customers.
Lead Enterprise Solutions Architect - TSA, Inc. - September 2008 to April 2011
- Direct Professional Services organization (6 Engineers), business strategy and vendor relationships
- Work with Sales and Marketing teams to develop strategies for targeting customer needs
- Participate in the HP-UX Ambassador and Virtualization Warrior program
- Pre-sales engineering, post-sales implementation, project management - developing proof of concepts around VMware, Hyper-V, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Citrix, HP-UX, Red Hat Linux, Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory solutions, .NET programming, and other leading-edge technology
- Internal IT support and planning for TSA offices in Houston and Birmingham
- Customer training and speaking at TSA Technology Events and other seminars
Adjunct Instructor - ITT Technical Institute - 2009-2011 Responsible for classroom instruction, attendance, grading, and general management of 30+ students in the following courses:
- TB143 - Introduction to Personal Computers
- CS140 - Business Concepts for Application Developers
- CS290 - Software Development Capstone Project
Programmer/DBA - Wellborn Cabinets, Inc. - November 2001 to September 2008
- Monitored, tuned and developed SAP systems (BASIS) and multiple large Oracle databases; proactively maintained high availability with 10g databases; performed periodic reorganizations of the database and archived data
- Designed redundancy solutions for disaster recovery and business continuity
- Programmed over 1000 SAP interfaces and converted more than 400 legacy web and Progress interfaces using .NET, ABAP and PHP
- Researched technology (i.e. virtualization, e-Commerce, ERP, etc.) and how it drives current business strategy for manufacturing environment
Systems Engineer - Orthomerica Products, Inc. - June 2000 to October 2001
Technical Services Manager - BonneTerre, Inc. - April 1998 to May 2000
L2 Technician - Convergys - November 1996 to March 1998
Education
MBA/MSIS (2012 to 2018) - Auburn University
Bachelor of Arts: Management Information Systems (2006-2008) - Virginia College
Associate of Science: Computer Programming and Network Administration (1998-2000) - Florida Technical College