During the last 25 years, I worked for Fortune 100 companies as a Program & Project Manager, Architect, Developer, Salesman and Business Developer. I also built a public company that I ran for 7 years as well as CFO of a small Seattle based company.
I am a developer by trade and a manager in practice. My motto is:
On-Time, Under Budget, Zero Defects and delivering business benefit. To accomplish these lofty goals, I build teams that perform high above the average of most software or hardware development teams.
Since I began my career writing accounting systems such as General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory and Payroll, I am comfortable discussing financial details with the CEO or CFO of any company. Later in my career, I entered the Retail market and built interfaces to over 20 different ERP systems.
This led to the starting of a company that created a 3-dimensional spreadsheet with an IO language that turn a PC into a real cash register. This software was eventually translated into 4 languages and boasted a programming time 100 times faster than typical POS development. I built a network of over 200 dealers worldwide.
My experience in Retail caught the attention of Fujitsu and I was brought on as a consultant that allowed me to work with Fortune 100 retailers. My title was Technical Design Authority but much of my time was spent in managing the project and ensuring that designs met the client’s expectations.
From there, I ended up at Nordstrom where I ran projects that included cyber-security, $100M gift card migration, on-demand credit card offering and several POS upgrades to over 10,000 registers. In addition to the local Seattle based team, I also managed teams in India.
At Honeywell, I was hired as an Architect because of my experience with building and deploying SQL databases. Because of my PM experience, I was asked to manage a project in my spare time. This quickly grew to several projects and I found myself spending all my time managing projects. Honeywell had a plethora of systems and spreadsheets to make a project work but there was no documentation for new project managers. After starting my second project, I realized the need for some process around how to start a project, so I created a document. Then I was asked to train new PMs, so I shared my documentation. Soon the documents appeared on the global PMO website and I was getting recognition for giving new PMs a chance at doing their jobs quickly.
My team was also instrumental in testing and implementing new software or being the guinea pig for new project requirements, like GDPR, CFR21, CMMI and cyber security, as the team was mature and willing to follow direction with the new processes. When JIRA was introduced for global testing, my team supplied 48% of all input, even though there were 10 teams worldwide.
Since leaving Honeywell, I have been doing short contracts. I helped PointB to migrate their payroll from an outside supplier to in-house. I help a startup church to set up their 501c3 and created their accounting system. I continue to consult on their financial council. I am also working to build a unique food bank that collects food from business in the community and then delivers it to people at their home, when they have time, instead of making them show up between 10 and 2 to shop. This also builds relationships that can have long lasting benefits.
In my spare time I have written 2 books as well as a board game that I am currently in the marketing phase using Facebook ads and deciding whether to use Kickstarter or Backerkit Crowdfunding.
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