Information Technology: Strategy, Design, Operations, Development & Implementation
Information technology professional with extensive experience – 15+ yrs – leading the design, development, and implementation of business software and infrastructures. Frequently leading projects that are critical to business success and high profile. Advanced technical acuity and ability to visualize complex systems, components, and interactions with a deep understanding of the relationship between software and runtime architecture (networking, storage, databases). Establish and maintain base design and application governance policies as well as evaluation and approval of new projects. Ensure deliverables are functionally appropriate, technically sound, well integrated, and meet overall business objectives. Assess situations quickly and make the necessary decisions decisively to provide solid direction to team members.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
UBM Global Trade · 2009-Present
UBM Global Trade provides products and services – print, on-line and in person – for third-party logistics providers, freight services forwarders and brokers, and international shipping lines enabling them to move goods, within compliance, by air, ocean, rail and truck.
Projects Director
Summary in progress – I just started
- TBD!
CondeNast Digital, New York, New York · 2006-2009
Division of CondeNast. Publisher of Style.com (home of Vogue & GQ Magazines), Wired.com (home of Wired Magazine), Epicurious.com (home of Bon Appetite & Gourmet Magazines) and others.
Hosting, Technology, Development & Infrastructure
Accountable for all software components used across all sites including delivery and management of software development platforms and evolution of systems to meet the needs of development teams. Oversee operations and software runtime infrastructure, including relationships with third-party vendors.
- Played a key role in migrating the internal hosting to a third-party provider (Savvis), resulting in more than $8M in reduced technology costs, increased productivity and higher accountability. Continue to manage this relationship monitoring budgets, enterprise architecture, and planning. Contact me for a detailed list of accomplishments.
- Lead operations team providing support for changes in the environment, on-call support, runbooks, and continual efforts to keep the technology up-to-date.
- Lead efforts to consolidate platforms and implement best practices – CMS, development tools, applications servers, processes and practices – to reduce costs, streamline development, and increase business agility.
- Testing migration of databases and development systems to a cloud computing platform to reduce costs, increase flexibility and test cloud computing for applicability in production systems.
- Introduced Agile development concepts via Flip.com project, a social networking site, which allowed the business to adjust rapidly to user expectations.
- Instrumental in implementing local development, reducing build time from 90 minutes to less than 100 seconds, decreasing QA cycle time, reducing costs, and increasing productivity. Read Case Study.
U.S. TRUST, Jersey City, New Jersey · 2003-2006
Provided banking and wealth management services for high net-worth individuals primarily in the United States. Employed 2,300. (A Division of Charles Schwab, now Bank of America.)
Vice President – Enterprise Architect
Hired to assist in the migration of the software development process to a hybrid of Agile, RUP, and Scrum as well as design a new application to open and manage existing accounts. Focused on proof of concepts and strategy including Fiorano SOA, document management systems, address correction systems, application server consolidation to JBoss, CRM system integration, Schwab integration, source control systems, testing and profiling, and long-term investment planning.
- Directly involved with saving an estimated $1.1M as a result of converting applications from WebLogic and WebSphere to JBoss.
- Chaired the Project Review Board, reviewing technical implementation plans for new projects.
- Played a key role in creating and implementing a re-design of the asset management account opening process and of an automated asset transfer process, resulting in a significant time savings for each. Received an Excellence in Service award for the account opening project.
CORDIEM, Arlington, Virginia · 2001-2003
International aviation B2B exchange founded by the worlds’ major air carriers (American, United, British Airways, Iberia, Air France, Delta, and others) and their suppliers. Employed 200.
Team Lead Portal & Web Development
Recruited to join the company by the CTO to build a new aerospace B2B portal and ERP integration. Oversaw software development and infrastructure design while managing a staff of 33 individuals.
- Led development team that created proprietary aviation-specific software to replace TradeMatrix and DynamicTrade within a four-month timeframe.
- Saved airline members several million dollars over a 3 month period by implementing a trading software platform that increased purchasing efficacy.
- Involved in intellection property collection, presentation to the Board of Directors, and other activities required for the start up and shutdown of the company.
TOYS ‘R’ US.COM, Fort Lee, New Jersey · 1999-2001
Retail toy seller with more than 200 employees in the .com business division.
Senior Application Developer
Managed a team charged with creating a robust Web site to support a high volume of online shoppers. Spearheaded development, maintenance and support of backend systems.
- Played a key role in improving communications among technology servers (increasing from 100 to 400 over six days after launch) resulting in a 340MB reduction of memory footprint and the ability to continue operations without database functionality.
- Streamlined processes by developing a service based integration between legacy purchasing platform, web sales systems, and warehouse “pick and ship” applications.
- Responsible to core data passing system handling millions of dollars per day in transactions.
E-THE PEOPLE, New York, New York · 1998-1999
On-line electronic democracy and public relations web site designed to help users communicate with local, state and national elected officials.
Chief Technical Officer (CTO)
Launched start-up, hired staff, worked with VC firms for investment, and wrote core software applications.
- Studied corporate mission and structure, then wrote long range technology strategy and software implementation plan, including budgeting
- Grew and managed a highly qualified technical team who produced some of the most complicated ColdFusion applications online, at that time.
- Built sophisticated zip code and address to electoral district engine for all levels of local, borough, county, state, and federal government
- Programmed e-The People from conception to launch and beyond in ColdFusion & Oracle on NT
- Worked with potential clients to determine exact technical requirements for implementation of E-The People on client’s site
- Worked with venture capitalists in their technical reviews of E-The People, as a company, prior as well as after investment
Reed-Elsevier, PCI, Forman Interactive, WestCon & LLGMA, New York City Area · 1995-1998
Worked with a variety of firms as contractor.
Freelance/Contract Developer/Developer
Worked on various internet projects to help support the business needs of trade groups, consulting firms, publishers, web content and wholesale distributers.
- Planned and implemented TCP/IP based long haul connectivity, including ISDN, T-1 and local area networks including all protocols implementation, i.e. DNS, POP, SMTP, etc. for several clients
- Created web associated custom database software on SCO UNIX and NT using ColdFusion,
- Progress, MS SQL, Access, and FoxPro for client Intra, Extra, and Inter networks.
ASAP Media Service & University of Maine Institutional Technology, Orono, ME · 1993-1996
Supported systems in the University of Maine IT portfolio along with development of projects in the new-media program.
Engineer/Developer
- E-mail, DNS, NNTP and WAIS server setup and administration for a userbase of over 1000
- WWW server setup and administration on MacOS, UNIX and NT
- CGI interface to SQL servers (Butler and Oracle) in C and PERL
- Taught classes in design, programming and networking
Bachelor of Science in Zoology (Highest Distinction) – University of Maine – Orono, Maine
Coursework for PH.D. in Biological Sciences – Columbia University – New York, New York
Publications & Conferences – Visual Neuroscience, WWW2, etc…
Hello there – I am the granddaughter of the missing Zakim sibling (Max) in your photo of the 5 out of 6 Zakim siblings. I happened to be browsing – during an extremely boring conference call and came across your website. While I never knew my grandfather, Max, who passed away in 1945 I did know the other siblings. Just wanted to say hello to a cousin.
MZM