Sales Manager
Resume:
edward schwalb, PhD, pmp
Irvine, CA 92612 *******.******@*****.***
www.EdwardSchwalb.com
Director Financial and Database Systems
Multi-Site Projects / Database Utilization / Financial Proc Automation /
Startups / Turnarounds / Capacity Planning / Cap Budget Mgmt / CPI /
Operations / SDLC / Lifecycle / Legacy Systems / Licensing / Integrations
Complex Rollout / CRM / Cost Control / Team Development / Training /
Intellectual Property
An innovative/pragmatic senior technical manager/architect, I provided
superior solution development (client+server) and technical leadership to
both small/startup firms and industry leaders in the advertising/e-
commerce, finance, electronics and health service sectors. With 17
pending/granted patents, I am often considered the "go-to" technical
expert. Key capabilities include:
? Establish processes and practices to motivate and enable teams to
flourish under conflicting demands
? Utilizing modeling and ETL methods to cost-effectively eliminate
bottlenecks and boost productivity
? Using Cap Budget to establish a competitive edge by consistently meeting
customer expectations YOY
? Overseeing requirement definition to deliver value-added innovative CIP
and help drive revenues/profits
? Dynamic active hands-on leadership and mgmt of design, development,
implementation and support
? Building, leading and mentoring superior multi-site technical teams and
establishment of career paths
Prior to my PhD in AI and MS in Computer Science from UC Irvine, I was
awarded a BS in Physics/Computer Science at Bar-Ilan University. A proven
leader, I create the cross-functional synergy critical to long-term
success.
Technical expertise: Agile PM, DEV and QA; enterprise applications and data
warehouses; data modeling; ETL architecture, design and development;
infrastructure integration and modernization; automated solutions; in-place
legacy system modernization; technical support; diagnosis/CIP of fielded
systems.
Distinctive Accomplishments
Money Mailer
Integration of CRM sales forecasting data. The National sales team for
Money Mailer, a $120M direct mail advertising firm, needed a CRM system to
support doubling its national sales force. Teamed with VP Sales,
customized the system to allow expanding the sales team facilitating goals
of 30-40% bump in national sales
Orchestrated critical DB server modernization. The AIX servers supporting
company's entire operation were antiquated and migration to a new hardware
platform/upgrade of database was essential. Assembled IT Tiger Team,
acquiring/installing new Linux servers and seamlessly executing data
migration. Negotiated licensing and maintenance agreements, delivering 90%
cost reduction and >500% performance increase to improve overall
productivity.
Aligned data processing technology with corporate strategy. The mass of art
templates needed was difficult to create and utilize. Created an online
Art request system, automated workflow and self-service application.
Focused resources on art processing, reduced in-house costs by hundreds of
thousands of dollars, reduced turnaround time by 60% and reduced franchisee
art costs by 50%.
Automated essential financial dataflows. Growth of the accounting
department failed to resolve severe tardiness on performing critical tasks.
Orchestrated automation of main sub-functions, including reporting,
invoicing, payment processing, A/R and commissions. Dramatically improved
overall productivity while eliminating five FTEs.
Cost-effectively resolved major data production problem. Demand for
functional department reports overloaded IT/IS capacity, preventing focus
on more urgent projects. Implemented SQL server products, complete with end-
user training. Established a new reporting system boosting turnaround and
accuracy, and saving hundreds of thousands of dollars while freeing
resources for higher ROI projects.
Integrated with Online Partners and Google Analytics. The company
established a new interactive strategy. Revitalized MoneyMailer.com,
hundreds of franchisee micro-sites, online search engine, performed Search
Engine Marketing (SEM), integrated with online business partners and SMS
platform provider.
Training and Mentoring of Staff: The technical staff has no experience
with modern ETL and BI. Provided the entire team with ETL and BI training
in-house for two weeks; during each week one half of the team was in
training and half was supporting the operation. Met the already reduced
training budget.
Modernized Legacy 4GL Database Apps: Converted 4GL green-screen application
into web-applications. Interviewed department heads, developed mockups and
designed the web-services to support the application. Extended plain text
output with Excel integration and workflow capabilities resulting is
significant measurable ROI.
First American Financial
Directed Key Data-Driven Project Turnaround. First American project team
was not performing to expectations in modernizing the data-driven title
reports system. Resulting delays prevented meeting market demands for
modernized web applications. Led rapid re-engineering of the 2M SLOC
system eliminating backlog and preventing recurrence of the problem. The
modernized flagship product was delivered through >150,000 man hours and
within 18 months, far exceeding quality expectation, and with customers
referrals selling the product on behalf of sales people.
Revamped Release Process to Align with Business Demands. The team and
process were not capable of responding to business demands. Introduced a
new agile release process which accommodated unplanned requests, clearly
aligned cycle phases with roles, controlled scope against the time line,
and improved the source control process. Unplanned requests were
fulfilled, regression rates were reduced to by 80% and releases were 100%
successful. The quality of the releases was hailed by both customers
(e.g., reviews, referrals) and field support staff.
Modernized Legacy DB2+VSAM App. Worked with the Regional VPs to document
and approve requirements all regions. Initiated and co-authored the
"bible', a 3000+ pages specification document used as the backbone of the
development effort. Developed mockups and prototyped components to achieve
buy-in of the entire company's management and sales force. Negotiated
scope and functionality against entrenched rigid functionality expectation
to evangelize and achieve enthusiastic adoption of the new product.
Initiated Development of Data-Driven Automated Title Chain Inspection. The
company needed to leapfrog the competition by automating the identification
of documents of interest with long title chains. Introduced innovative
machine learning architecture (earning US Patent), enabling thousands of
end-users to more rapid access data critical to their work output. Directed
the implementation of new data warehousing model that streamlined and
automated ETL processes. This work culminated with a patent application.
Revamped Off-Shore Collaboration Processes and Team Structure: An
extremely high turnover rate (above 35%), combined with non-diversified
skill set, crippled the team. Successfully re-defined roles, developed new
skills and career paths, while simultaneously reducing turnover.
Introduced a college-culture whereby freshers (1st year with the team) are
assigned to juniors (2nd year), which are assigned to seniors regarded as
team-leads (= 3rd year). This provided a career path, resulting in wider
and deeper skills, code mobility and 70% reduction in turnover.
Negotiated Deep Discounts With Vendors: To meet system performance needs,
there was a need to introduce report generation hardware. Identified and
negotiated excellent pricing, for production and disaster recovery boxes,
pitting DataPower and Sarvega, to achieve 50% cost reduction, plus
integration services. The deployment of the appliances flattened the
throughput-latency chart and achieved all performance targets.
Leveraged Existing Processes to Introduce New Products: With the advent of
MS Virtual Earth and Google Earth and numerous funded startups, the market
demanded a new product. I initiated, designed and orchestrated the
implementation of a graphic GIS OLAP tool, and acquired the low-cost
hardware to allow scanning >3 million properties, against 200+ filters,
within less than 1 second, surpassing cost-performance expectation.
Testing Automations: Developed tools to automate synthetic user and
regression testing. Supported the off-shore QTP-Pro team with script
development and product integration. Supported the infrastructure team
with automated connectivity and performance testing. Developed in-house
performance load testing leading to a purchase of specialized equipment to
flatten the throughput latency curve and improve performance by a factor of
10.
Countrywide Financial Services (now BofA)
Developed an Underwriting Data Model for critical automated underwriting
system. The Artificial Intelligence component of company's loan origination
process was critical to the performance of system handling $20B of loan
originations per month. Documented the data model in XML, generating an
object-oriented data model that was the foundation of a self-service
intranet. Integrated newly developed API, providing underwriters company-
wide with access to products that optimized their production/document
accuracy.
Knowledge Based Wizards
Aligned Industry Standards with R&D Strategy. Sharp Electronics needed a
leg up in the interactive TV market and selected KBW as its technology
expert. Devised DTV and data broadcasting technologies, developed industry
wide standards for DTV set top boxes to fit strategy. Enabled Sharp to
earn 10 patents. Published iTV Technology book.
Conceived and Developed Unique Productivity and Quality Improvement Tool.
Amada, a leader in the sheet metal industry, needed to be modernized.
Created a 3D associative dimensioning CAD system package and DXF
translator, complete with algorithms that enabled incredibly precise
modeling while minimizing costly re-work.
Career History
Sr. Architect / Director, Money Mailer LLC, 2007 to Present. Recruited by
$120M advertising firm to leverage IS to boost productivity, and enhance
Internet effectiveness, for HQ and 230+ US franchisees. Directing eight-
person team, partnered with internal/external customers to consistently
improve overall performance.
Architect / Senior Manager, First American Title (part of $6B First
American Financial), 2004 to 2007. Re-vitalized team of 45+ on-shore/off-
shore developers serving more than 10,000 end-users. Successfully re-
engineered title reports system that severely hindered competitiveness in
47 states. Managed $2.5M budget.
Application Development Manager, Countrywide (now BofA Home Loans), 2002 to
2004. Directed eight-person technical team, managing AIS layer of company-
wide automated underwriting system that processed about one million loans
US-wide each month. Enhanced Intranet capability to dramatically increase
processing capacity.
Principal, Knowledge Based Wizards (KBW), 1995 to 2002. Founded software
development firm servicing a range of commercial and government customers,
including Amada, Sharp Electronics, the DOD and NIH.
Graduate Student/Researcher, University of California, Irvine, 1991 to
1995. After moving to the US from Israel in 1991, completed MS in Computer
Science and PhD in Artificial Intelligence/Computer Science. Also served as
a TA and Staff Researcher, the latter as part of team developing high-
performance search engines in C.
Specific Roles and Activities
Cross-Departmental and Company Synergies: Identified department heads'
needs through interviews; Documented touch-points and process workflows;
Defined work streams, and prioritized based on ROI; Automated data
integration between internal systems and external vendors; Introduced a
improved release cycle of concurrent activities at various SDLC stages to
accommodate unplanned items to meet pre-existing commitments and maintain
quality.
Program and Product Manager: Developed the data-driven interactive
strategy for Money Mailer comprising of the new MoneyMailer.com, hundreds
of franchisee micro-sites CMS and advertise-with-us search functionality,
online search engine, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), online coupon
partners' integration, and SMS couponing integration. Defined features,
carved out subsystems and integrations; Quantified productivity gains and
prioritized activities based on ROI; Conceived prospecting tools and
dashboards to align franchisee's sales effort
Enterprise Database Architect: SharePoint Excel Services; .NET, SQL and
Java server design; Convert 4GL screens into rich SOUI web applications;
Cross-platform (Windows,Linux,OS X) XML web-services; Caching frameworks,
ETL frameworks; batch process design and implementation; database server
consolidation; automated data integration with Google Analytics and outside
vendors.
Component/Module-Responsibility maps, UML OOD, XML Interfaces, Data
Structures, Data Processing/Mining Algorithms, Financia Model and l and
Commission Structure Back-Testing.
Release manager: Change control meetings, content approvals, source control
process/policies, decoupling of work streams, schedule mgmt.
Mentor: Led and mentored team members on Microsoft, Java, AJAX and Adobe
Flex/Flash technologies; Provided on-site in-house training for SQL Server
skill building; Regular architecture, design reviews and hands-on
demonstration of rich-client coding techniques; Detailed explanation of
business rules to turn developers into SMEs; Training in source control
branching methods and release processes; Constructive communications to
encourage ownership of work quality; Nurture ongoing professional
development away from 4GL legacy technologies.
Modern Tools Adoption: Introduced AJAX, thin client technologies, high
performance ETL DWAP, XSLT and XML processing accelerator technology.
Brought in-house SharePoint Excel Services, Adobe Flex, ETL, SSIS, SSRS &
related, Informix/SQL bridge, SQL techniques, Google Analytics, and
numerous tools, modernized development environment.
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