Project Management / Technical Manager

John A. Podratz

***** ******* ***.

Apple Valley, MN, USA 55124

612-***-**** (mobile)

952-***-**** (home)

********@*****.***

• Strong technical and business management background.

Summary of

• Successfully managed the deployment of several simultaneous wireless projects.

Qualifications

• Results driven project management professional experienced in overseeing projects from the

design phase, implementation, changes, risk management and final acceptance.

• Manage site engineering and acquisition personnel from the standpoint of the requested customer

coverage requirements, number of required sites, antenna gains & patterns, available tower

heights, building penetration, etc.

• Excellent communication skills. Able to build strong working relationships internally and also with

customers.

August 2012 to

Current J.A. Podratz Consulting, LLC – Apple Valley, MN

Present

Responsibili General Consulting and Project Management

ties • Providing contract project management services support for client

systems.

• Provide LTE, Pico Cell & WiMax product expertise by interfacing with

customers on technical issues, onsite technical & project support.

• Provided technical expertise in the design & bid review process on a County-

wide public safety radio systems scheduled for deployment in 2013.

February 2012 to

Work Experience NewNet Communications Technologies, LLC – Shelton, CT (home office) July 2012

Global Projects

• Provide global project management support for new & existing

systems.

• Provide LTE & WiMax product expertise by interfacing with customers on

technical issues, onsite technical & project support.

• Devise and administer CPE IOT testing as required, support new SW

releases, and RF system support activities.

• NewNet purchased the WiMax business unit from NSN.

Motorola Solutions / Nokia Siemens Networks – Arlington Heights, IL October 2006 to

Manager, WiMax & Expedience Support February 2012

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• Directly involved on several large scale WiMax deployments primarily in Latin America including

VTR Chile, Axtel Mexico and Embratel Brazil. Directly managed the onsite personnel, arranged

contract labor, arranged customer training, interfaced directly with customer personnel on technical

issues, scheduled equipment content & delivery, administered ATP testing and provided RF

coverage support for these nationwide deployments. In Chile, I led the government testing support

to gain final acceptance of over (140) sites. In Mexico, I was a major part of the risk management

team effort to reduce Customer Trouble Tickets, working directly with deployment personnel to root

cause & resolve site install issues at over (500) sites, directly involved in capacity testing & analysis

of data to present to the customer and participated in daily meetings with the customer at their

facility. In Brazil, I led the effort to improve system reliability and worked hand in hand with

customer personnel to demonstrate capacity performance required by contract. The Embratel

WiMax network consists of nearly (600) sites in twenty-six markets throughout Brazil.

• Worked closely with a wide variety of Development staff and have an excellent working relationship

with everyone from management, systems engineering, RF engineering, CNRC, NPI, SIST, WRM

and others.

• Managed technical field staff that deploy and support Expedience, LTE & WiMax broadband

wireless systems. My staff was comprised of personnel with network and/or RF expertise.

• Worked with Sales personnel to provide support with client technical questions

• Made project resource assignments for all Expedience projects that required service expertise as

well as LTE & WiMax projects which our group was assigned.

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NextNet Wireless – Director, Deployment Services – Bloomington, MN March 2001 to

October 2006

• Started at NextNet originally as its first Deployment Engineer. NextNet was a start up company with

a concept broadband wireless product at the time. I came on board before we had our first

customer.

• Involved in making critical decisions from a system engineering standpoint about antennas to be

used, installation hardware that needed to be purchased and/or designed.

• Project managed our side of head to head trials in Canada, Mexico & Brazil. We were the chosen

vendor as we won two of the three trials and the third actually came back to us after the chosen

vendor failed.

• Project managed our initial commercial deployment at MVS Communications in Mexico during which

time we began adding personnel to the Deployment area. I was promoted to the manager of the

group. The MVS network was built into a system of over five hundred base stations in three of

Mexico’s largest cities.

• Led trials and deployments worldwide. As the product began gaining momentum, built the

deployment group to include project managers, field engineers and staging personnel.

• NextNet was purchased by Clearwire Corporation following a trial we did with them in Longview, TX.

They used the Expedience products to commercially build out thousands of sites in over fifty cities in

the United States, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark and others. Over 20,000 base stations and over 1

million subscriber units were sold of the Expedience OFDM broadband products built from a small

start-up concept product.

• NextNet Wireless was sold as a wholly owned subsidiary of Clearwire Corporation to Motorola in

October 2006.

E.F. Johnson Co. – Manager, Project Services – Waseca & Burnsville, MN May 1979 to

March 2001

• Began at E.F. Johnson directly out of school.

• Worked on many types of two-way radio products (conventional, analog, digital, cellular, LTR

Trunking, Multi-Net Trunking) in a wide range of frequencies.

• Began in the manufacturing test area before moving to customer service, engineering and field

services during my first ten years.

• Worked in the system services group when EFJ moved into the public safety arena. Scheduled and

supervised contractors for tower work, shelter construction, microwave installations, dispatch center

construction, mobile installations, etc. Successfully completed systems for the City of Eden Prairie,

MN and San Rafael, CA before moving to Project Management. Responsible for conducting ATP

testing in an effort to gain system acceptance.

• Managed construction and was responsible for P&L on a large number of public safety trunking

systems including Tianjin Police (China), Los Angeles County Transit Authority, Maui County Police

(Hawaii), Pima County Sheriff’s Dept (Arizona) & Waterbury Police Dept (Connecticut). Worked

closely with legal staff to finalize customer contract content, ATP content, etc. Negotiated contractor

contracts and issued purchase orders as required.

• Assumed management responsibility for the project services group and built the department into a

group of eight Project Managers, Staging department and field services personnel.

• Worked closely with Systems Engineering, Bids & Proposals and Sales on new sales opportunities.

Education AAS Degree, Wireless Communications – Ridgewater Technical College, Willmar, MN

Related course work: RF Communications, Wireless Communications Analysis, Telecommunications

Systems, Radio Communications Systems, Electronic Product Development & Manufacturing.

Certificate, Project Management Fundamentals – Watermark Learning Center, Edina, MN

Certificate, PMP Certification Preparation – Watermark Learning Center, Edina, MN

Related course work: Aligned with the processes described in the Project Management

Institute’sPMBOK® Guide and for the preparation in taking the certification exam.

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