CHARLES PONTON

**** ************ ***

Richmond, VA 23227

ac0j4p@r.postjobfree.com

Home: 804-***-****

●Dedicated IT Director /Senior Level Engineer with 15+ years of experience in information technology. Proven record in developing IT solutions to align with business objectives. Experience with managing large scale projects and providing leadership to meet business requirements and goals. Excellent problem solver. Sound decision maker and strong collaborator.

Work History

Richmond City Public Schools, Richmond, VA 12/2014 to present

Senior Network Engineer

Provide strategic architectual design strategies to support voice, data, video, and wireless (Wi_Fi/Cellular 3G/4G) technologies.

Provide network engineering and administration support for Richmond Public Schools.

Manage, configure, and troubleshoot routed Cisco WAN infrastructure consisting of 1Gps circuits at 60 sites, 5 10Gbps core circuits

Manage, configure, and troubleshoot Cisco 7510 wireless controller infrastructure to support up to 4000 access points division wide

Manage, configure, and troubleshoot Cisco ASA firewall security appliances to secure network for 23,000+ users

Manage and configure Cisco ACS and ISE servers to provide radius and tacacs authentication.

Manage and configure site to site and remote access vpn users on Cisco ASA firewalls

Manage, configure, and troubleshoot Cisco routing, switching, and wireless infrastructure to cover 60+ locations

Mentor and train engineers, computer service technicians and service desk staff on technical topics

Research new and emerging technologies for telecommunications, electrical, cooling, hardware, and software technologies and determine their suitability for supporting integration in the school division’s instructional and administrative strategies.

Performs LAN/WAN/WLAN problem analysis and performance monitoring for the school division’s network infrastructure, using monitoring and analysis tools. Researches new technological advances or unconventional application to meet school division’s IT and business requirements for speed, reliability, and flexibility.

Generates report, documents network designs, and develops and coordinates technical specifications for communication hardware and software configuration requirements. Provides technical expertise, coordinates technical and administrative telecommunication matters for the school division.

Petersburg City Public Schools, Petersburg, VA 7/2012 – 5/2014

Director of Technology,

Inherited an environment with an aging network infrastructure in need of hardware and data cabling upgrades. Environment consisted of 2500+ computing devices to include desktops, laptops, and tablets. Environment required much needed telecomm cabling upgrades, and various network hardware and infrastructure upgrades were also needed.

●Upgraded WAN circuits at Four (4) Elementary Schools (10Mbs to 100Mbs), Upgrades improved performance of online testing application and provide increase bandwidth capacity for support of division financial application. Upgrades resulted in an overall reduction of the division’s telecommunications costs while providing significantly more capability.

●Manage technology budget of 1.3M and staff of six (6)

●Migrated division to new Student Information System to improve to overall effectiveness of the division to manage student data.

●Implemented Avaya VoIP phone system at School Administrative office to improve administrative services to our stakeholders and schools.

●Implemented division wide wireless access using Aruba access points to all school buildings and administrative support buildings to improve integration of technology into the classroom

●Upgraded internet access circuit from 50Mbs to 100Mbs to increase internet bandwidth and improve performance of web based applications

●Replaced web hosting vendor to improve design of website for division. New website provided enhanced features and functionality to provide better communication to our stakeholders.

●Initiated projects to upgrade data cabling in all school buildings. Project consisted of providing 1Gbps to desktops with a 10Gbs fiber based core.

●Chaired Technology Focus Committee to develop plan to build a 21st century learning environment. Plan was developed and aligned with the division academic plan to ensure strategic objectives for the school division are met.

BB&T Corp Wilson, NC 11/2011 – 07/2012

Network System Analyst I,

BB&T Corporation is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the US with approximately 1,851 financial centers

●Resolve WAN issues to ensure availability of online application for banking centers

●Provide support for enterprise IT infrastructure

●Provide design recommendations to help improve IT infrastructure

●Provide support in fast-paced environment to meet SLA

●Document network designs

Petersburg City Public Schools, Petersburg, VA

Senior Network Analyst, 07/2009 – 11/2011

. Selected Contributions:

●Upgraded hardware for Exchange email system to support 700+ users. Hardware was upgraded to provide a fault tolerant redundant architecture to improve uptime and reliability of email application

●Replaced legacy ATM internet access circuit and hardware with 1Gbs Ethernet circuit and new hardware to increase internet bandwidth and improve performance of web based applications

●Served on Technology Planning Committee as Subcommittee chair for infrastructure design.

●Along with Director, managed Technology budget of $1.1M. Advised Technology Director on budget planning and provide recommendations for upcoming expenditures.

Virginia Community College System Richmond, VA

7/2004 to 7/2009

Advanced Technology Senior Engineer,

Provided leadership to four (4) network engineers to support voice, data, video network infrastructure to support twenty-three (23) community colleges and three (3) administrative office buildings . Selected Contributions:

●Developed professional development plan to train staff of network engineers on latest Cisco voice, data, and security hardware. Comprise budget of $40K

●Developed and wrote Network Infrastructure Security Model for distribution to the community colleges. Model provided guidance to college IT staff on best practices in securing their network infrastructure.

●Played critical role in negotiations and design specifications with Verizon to provide a MPLS infrastructure design to migrate VCCS offices from legacy ATM infrastructure.

●Maintained network architecture to support 250K students and provide access to Blackboard content management system, student information system, and email

●Provided Tier 3 level support of statewide Cisco data network to support 23 community colleges.

●Provided Tier 3 level support of statewide Cisco VoIP network to support 23 community colleges

●Configured site to site and remote access vpn users with Cisco PIX firewall

East Carolina University Greenville, NC

6/2002 to 6/2004

Telecommunications Engineer Supervisor,

. Selected Contributions:

●Worked with the Center for Health Sciences Center in support of Brody School of Medicine

●Managed contracts with Pitt County Hospital to provide T1 network infrastructure to six (6) regional medical centers for clinical and education applications. The infrastructure access via videoconference to medical specialist from rural areas. Budget $250K

●Re-organized technical support staff which provided for the promotion of two (2) employees. Staff realignment improved videoconferencing and audio/video support services to the ECU School of Medicine and Pitt County Hospital.

Department of Information Technology Richmond, VA

5/1999 to 6/2002

Telecommunications Engineer,

. Selected Contributions:

●Managed telecommunications project for Dept. of Social Services to convert 200 sites from frame relay to ATM WAN infrastructure

●Developed mode for Child Support Enforcement agency using videoconferencing to improve child support claim objectives

●Assigned to project to assist Motor Vehicle Board to increase data network performance to expedite process of issuing titles for vehicle dealerships

●Managed project for Department of ABC to install DSL circuits to 100+ store locations to support debit/credit card machines.

Education

MS, Information Technology Management, Virginia Commonwealth University

2/2008 – 5/2009

BS, Electrical Engineering Technology, Old Dominion University

8/95 – 12/98

CCNA Certification - CSCO12034078

3/2012

Professional Skills

Cisco routers 2800, 3800, 1001-X, 7200 series, 7600 series, ant etc.

Cisco Catalyste switches- 4500, 6500, 3750, 2960, 3560, 3800, and etc

Cisco Nexus 7K, 5K, 2K switches

Cisco ASA Firewalls 5500 series

Cisco Wireless LAN controller 7510 to support 4000 access points

Cisco ACS 4.x and 5.x, Cisco ISE 2.1

IP Routing Protocols: BGP, OSPF, EIGRP

LAN Technologies: Ethernet, VLANS, Trunking, VTP, STP, HSRP, Etherchannel

WAN Technologies, Frame Relay, ATM, ISDN, T1, T3, MPLS, Metro Ethernet, r

Cabling Technologies, CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, Fiber

Security: IPSec VPN, GRE Tunnel, ACL, AAA (Radius & TACACS)

Related Training

Strategic Project Management - University of Richmond, 1/28/02 -1/29/02

Managing Technical Project Teams, University of Richmond, 2/25/02 – 2/26/02

Advanced Project Management, University of Richmond, 2/27/02 – 3/1/02

CCNA Bootcamp, Sunset Learning, 11/2004

Cisco CVoice. Global Knowledge,

Cisco Pix Firewall Advanced, Global Knowledge,

Cisco Implementing MPLS, Global Knowledge

Cisco IP Telephony I, Global Knowledge

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) - Essentials - v9.x Feb 2009

BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) - Advanced Topics - v9.x Feb 2009

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