Manager Support

Christopher Alexander Thomas

*** ******** *****, **. ******, MO 63376

M: 469-***-**** ************@*****.***

linkedin.com/in/chrisathomas

Distinguished career leading the design, deployment, and support of advanced technology solutions, and building and managing IT operations to position organizations for continued competitive growth. Skilled in building, optimizing and expanding enterprise infrastructures, services, teams, and processes to meet evolving business needs.

Provided vision and dedicated leadership for aligning technology investments with business goals. Manage the full life cycle analysis, recommendation, and implementation of network infrastructure, messaging, security, remote access, routing / switching, disaster recovery / business continuity, wireless, and VoIP solutions with strong Return On Investment (ROI).

Natural communicator, mentor, and team leader with proven ability to motivate, energize, and lead to success. Skilled in leading high-performance teams in defining and implementing solutions to support strategic objectives across complex environments. Proven ability to adapt quickly to challenges and changing business requirements.

Core Competencies

Strategic Business & Operational Planning Technology Needs Assessments & Solutions Budgetary Planning & Control

Project Planning & Management Solutions Design, Delivery & Support Processes, Procedures & Standards Design

High Availability Infrastructure Build Out & Management LAN / WAN / WLAN / VoIP / Security Design, Rollout & Optimization

Vendor & Customer Relationship Management ITIL Service Delivery Best Practices Team Development & Leadership

Active Directory Design and Deployment IT Visionary Agile Methodology

Professional Experience

APPIA COMMUNICATIONS – St. Louis, MO 10/2015 to 01/2016

Vice President of Operations

Built and Implemented processes and procedures to ensure Appia Communication in the SIP Trunk and Hosted PBX market.

Responsible for meeting all relevant statutory and mandatory requirements associated with operations, provisioning, and for working within the framework of the company's core values, as well as promoting its ethics and mission statement.

Leadership & Strategy

Strategic senior leadership role with the company developing process and procedures aligning them with company objectives.

Provided leadership and direction to a team of 30 team members across 4 strategic national locations to include sites within the Midwest and Southeast.

Managed the implementation of a new business partner and wholesale retail onboarding process to support a more diversified approach in expediting customer requirements.

Established the standard support policies to support the 24x7x365 Network Operations Team.

Designed alerting and monitoring solution to reduce incidents by 25%.

Technology & Business Solutions

Spearheaded the re-design and deployment of new processes to reduce to overall implementation of services and features for Appia’s customer base.

Directed the build out of a mass SMS alerting system to alert customers of incidents and problems more efficiently and expeditiously.

Defined analytics framework to standardize reporting and communication across multiple teams reducing inaccurate data reporting by 45% and ensuring adhoc practices were minimized.

Managed the re-design of 2 specific teams to align with business requirements through an Operations and Onboarding focused approach.

MASTERCARD – O’Fallon, MO 09/2013 to 10/2015

Sr. Director/Business Leader – EPT Production Support

Designed and implemented a “Follow the Sun” model to support 15 Emerging Payments Technology (EPT) applications through onboarding a team of 55 resources located in 5 strategic locations globally.

Responsible for meeting all relevant statutory and mandatory requirements associated with operations and for working within the framework of the company's core values, as well as promoting its ethics and mission statement.

Leadership & Strategy

Built organization’s IT Department leveraging internal corporate and onshore / offshore outsourced support model that enabled MasterPass to grow rapidly to support 168 wallets and go live in 24 countries within 24 months.

Recruited a high-performance team of 55 team members across 5 strategic locations to include sites within the United States, Brazil, Ireland and India.

Managed the implementation of the MasterPass Production Bug Defect Team to support current production code base through a Break/Fix triage approach to ensure stability and availability.

Established the standard support policies across the MDES, OpenAPI, Personal Payments (Moneysend, repower, MS3, Billpay, MasterCard Send) and MasterPass platforms.

Operational lead for the coordination of internal security patching for web based customer facing application in accordance with internal and external compliance standards

Designed alerting and monitoring solution to reduce incidents by 70%.

Technology & Business Solutions

Spearheaded the architectural design and deployment of new deployment plans reducing implementation change times by 35%.

Directed the build out of standard processes and procedures to support the full life production life cycle of MasterPass and the OpenAPI platform.

Defined analytics framework to standardize reporting and communication across multiple applications reducing inaccurate data reporting by 60% and ensuring adhoc practices were minimized.

Managed the design and build out of 3 specific teams to align with business requirements through an Operations and Support focused approach.

Experience dealing with and maintaining MasterCard PCI compliance for multiple internal applications.

Led the successful deployment and implementation of the EPT Production Support Disaster Recovery exercises resulting in a green status across 9 applications.

Key Role Manger in the successful deployment of load balance strategy reducing bottleneck and transaction loss.

JVL VENTURES LLC / ISIS – Dallas, TX 03/2010 to 02/2013

Director of IT Operations

Designed and implemented the build out of teams, infrastructure, and systems to support the development and launch of Mobile Wallet, a joint-venture between AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to establish a nationwide mobile commerce network leveraging smartphone and near-field communications (NFC) technology.

Provide leadership and framework to actively identify needs, resolve critical issues, establish standards and best practices, and align technology investments with business goals. Oversee the evaluation, recommendation, design, deployment, and management of high-availability infrastructure, systems, platforms, and environments supporting core Mobile Wallet platform and corporate users across multiple locations nationally. Manage team of 40 through 4 direct reports; and oversee efforts of global vendors supporting outsourced messaging, VoIP, data center infrastructure, WAN, licensing, and office equipment.

Leadership & Strategy

Built organization’s IT Department leveraging internal corporate and onshore / offshore outsourced support model that enabled ISIS to grow rapidly from 40-50 users to 200+ within 12 months and launch Mobile Wallet in 6 months.

Recruited a high-performance team of 40 across network engineering, data center operations, desktop support, SharePoint administration, messaging, security, and corporate application support.

Evaluated, analyzed TCO/ROI, and deployed Exchange Messaging Services to a SasS Cloud provider.

Established corporate security plan and procedures to mitigate risks and achieve PCI and ISO 27001 compliancy. Instituted policies for access/identity management, vulnerability / incident management, Internet / messaging usage, and data security / retention.

Lead the implementation of internal and external audits to support industry compliance standards for PCI-DSS specifications.

Designed support structure for Tier 1-4 support model; negotiated favorable contracts with outsourced vendors that delivered $1.5 million in yearly savings; and monitored outsourced services to ensure adherence to established standards and guidelines.

Technology & Business Solutions

Spearheaded the architectural design and deployment of new infrastructure for data center and corporate network leveraging open-source Linux, Microsoft and Cisco technologies.

Directed the build out of 5 separate environments development, end-to-end testing, testing, beta testing, and production pilot within 4 months of hire to support the full life cycle development of Mobile Wallet platform.

Defined architecture, developed requirements, and led the design of security framework to reduce vulnerability and risks.

Implement COBIT 4 IT Governance Security Framework to support external audits for banking institutions and carriers opting in to use JVL’s mobile wallet application.

Lead team of security engineers to develop and implement an ongoing security patching strategy to support internal and external compliance standards.

Managed the design and build out of new corporate headquarters to support rapid growth. Contracted with AT&T to provide Internet services and introduced a vendor-managed VoIP solution for leadership team.

Led the development and launch of Active Directory Services leveraging Windows 2008 R2 and a SharePoint 2010 Intranet site to enhance communication across the enterprise.

Successful Implementation of Active Directory Group Policies to support security requirements across the enterprise.

Implemented Disaster Recovery alternate location for Production Network for Active-Passive functionality.

DANISCO USA – New Century, KS 04/2005 to 01/2010

Service Desk Manager/Infrastructure/Engineering

Built an impressive record of achievements for this global leading supplier of food technology and biotechnology.

Originally recruited as Systems Specialist III to administer and optimize network infrastructure supporting 15,000 users globally. Chosen and promoted to Service Desk Manager to oversee the build out of Service Desk servicing 6,000 users in 35 locations across North and South America. Based upon success, selected as the Network Engineer Manager to oversee the standardization of LAN / WAN infrastructures across North and South American regions to reduce costs, enhance administration, and meet corporate guidelines.

Leadership & Strategy

Established the 1st Service Desk supporting North and South American regions, enabling the rollout of follow-the-sun support model. Recruited team of 5, oversaw the deployment of ACD system, and instituted auditing and service delivery metrics.

Administered Enterprise Active Directory Domain for user account ads, moves, deletes. GPO roll-out to support ISO requirements.

Planned and executed 5-year plan to standardize data, voice, and video infrastructure across North and South America. Developed a prioritized upgrade plan for 35 sites to ensure compliance with corporate standards.

Spearheaded the build out of co-located Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity site that reduced downtime of MPLS network infrastructure by 70%. Authored backup procedures for Unity backups to ensure optimal restore of critical systems.

Designed and implemented the 1st VoIP structure for the enterprise, replacing traditional PBX systems and associated costs.

Created wireless policies and procedures utilized by global teams to manage WLAN controllers and LWAPP access points.

Technology & Business Solutions

Assessed, architected, and deployed standard data, voice, and video infrastructure across 35 sites leveraging Cisco Catalyst switches, ISR data / voice routers, and IPT telephony solution. Designed and configured Layer II / III LAN redundancy.

Managed and optimized global MPLS infrastructure across BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP routing protocols. Introduced automated WAN and Internet fail-over, and configured Juniper SSG5 firewalls to secure and control access to network services.

Managed AS400 user administration for 2500 user-base to support ERP functions.

Implemented Cisco IPT solution, which was subsequently adopted globally to replace decentralized PBX systems with standard centralized VoIP solution. Purchased and configured Call Manager, Call Manager Express, Unity Messaging, Unified CM, and Voice Gateway with SRST C3825-VSEC-SRST Analog Phone Gateway VG224.

Deployed WLAN Access Controls to centralize the management of access points across North / South America.

Project managed team of 25 in converting Novell servers in 13 locations globally to Active Directory structures.

THE GLEASON WORKS – Rochester, NY 08/2000 to 04/2005

Senior Network Engineer

Brought in to design and implement technologies to enable continued growth for this global automotive manufacturer.

Technology & Business Solutions

Held primary responsibility for managing and enhancing infrastructure supporting corporate users in Rochester, New York.

Led the design and implementation of Checkpoint Firewall VPN-1 to enable users globally to securely access MPLS / Frame Relay infrastructure.

Set-up and configured Citrix framework to allowed users to access business data remotely.

UNITED STATES ARMY – Arizona 10/1990 to 04/2000

Information Technology Manager

Supervised team in managing desktop and Active Directory environments servicing users across multiple facilities.

Education & Credentials

UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX

Master of Science in Information Systems Management (2006)

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (2004)

Professional Development

Project Management MS Office MS Visio Cisco VoIP CUCM CME Training

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