To whom it may concern,
I am excited to write to you today about the new role you have posted. Please read the lines below, written just for you, it illustrates readiness to lead and inspire teams to flourish and produce predictable outcomes. Please take a look at my recommendations on Linkedin, it attest of my authenticity.
In short the Director Network role is extremely similar to the role I played at Cox Automotive, including: helpdesk, incident & change management, process, outsourcing, strategic plans, SLA, capacity, business continuity, maintenance, continuous improvement, etc.. I have over 30 years of experience in IT, over a decade as an executive (director and above) in various size of organization, such as Huawei, Fibernetics, Rogers, Cox. Leading software development, applications support, DevOps, Release Management, Product Management, Project Management and network integration teams are all part of my experiences. I have been responsible for IT infrastructure, support services, technology solutions, back and front end, operations and risk management. I am know for my business sense, seeing opportunities, supporting the closing of new businesses while maintaining smooth operations.
I have been hired for my ability to setup processes (Operation Excellence), have studied Six Sigma black belt course. I am currently implementing IT operation processes for 10 businesses within the corporation. I am responsible for IT Operation OPEX budget and have held P&L responsibility for over a decade. My teams responds daily to IT security issues, implement sturdy strategies to protect against infiltration and ransomware attacks. I used my background in operations to gather the appropriate data points and trends and implement policies around those trends, so that continuous improvement delivers best of class services to our customers. At Rogers this delivered a raise in NPS, at Cox it is delivering better quality code and significant reduction in incidents. My background in telecom networks design and support, software development, marketing, product management enables me to consider the big picture, understanding nuances of large and complex systems versus business impacts/effects.
I led product management roles for 15+ years and have received internationally recognized award for technology innovation. Having worked for manufacturers, carriers, software shops and distributors, I am intimately familiar with product development/management, and product marketing life cycles. Having led technology, I have managed and developed KPIs to deliver best of class operations and services, increased revenue and NPS, reduce MTTR and incidents. I led and inspired teams of sr managers, directors, off-shore groups for a decade. I have been invited to join organizations for my track record building culture and technology processes.
I have demonstrated that I can adapt, innovate, motivate, coach, attract, recruit, retain talent, and deliver: no excuses. Managing and negotiating with vendors on multimillion dollar projects and leading technology for 4 years at Fibernetics (high growth startup), using a DevOps/Agile model, I have demonstrated management skill in a real time SAAS cloud environment servicing mobile/desktop (B2B/B2C), in a 7x24x365 operation. I helped software development teams build HA systems, DR solution and support them. My recent software development experience at Rogers includes: web/desktop/mobile portal & backend applications, scaling, KPIs, releases, continuous improvement, integration.
Over a decade of IT leadership experience: led IT Operation, implemented Agile, Release Management processes and project management, led technology in high growth startup building software for a PBX, ACD, IVR, CRM, Voice to text in DevOps environment, led roadmaps and product introductions, been a trailblazer turning companies around with shoestring budgets. My strategic experiences helped organizations through business plans, portfolio of product changes (Roadmap), and stabilization of operations.
I work with teams as a leader and mentor, to inspire others, my online profile is testimony of it. Known as a planner and inclusive leader who considers the teams’ perspectives. I work diligently to gain respect and trust from teams while reducing churn: creating a healthy work space. I look forward to discuss your business needs and later help you develop and grow your business.
IT LEADER – STRATEGIC & OPERATIONS ORIENTATION
Senior Bilingual IT Leader with extensive experience as a Change Agent, leading key software development team on a strategic project valued over $150M, breaking into new markets valued over $100 million for Technology Manufacturers, Operators and Distributors. Successfully created new structure and operation process discipline – reducing outages, staff turnover, identifying new KPIs and improving morale with industry leaders that include Rogers, Fibernetics and Huawei. Respected for implementing a culture of collaboration, respect and trust, leading to sustainable and repeatable success. Highly transferable skillset.
Key Competencies
Successful Change Agent
30 + years in IT
Bilingual (French & English)
Business Case & ROI
Product & Project Management
Software Development & Support
Network Design & support
Process & Change Management
Systems Architecture & Operations
Recruiting & Engagement
Increase NPS, Decrease MTTR, Increased Revenue, Profitability, Efficiency via continuous improvement
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Cox Automotive Canada (~1500 employees) 05/2019-06/2022
Director IT Operations - reporting to CTO
Leads DevOps scrum teams, release & incident management teams, application & helpdesk teams managing daily operations. Inspire, recruit, guide, coach, steer and deliver business solutions and new efficiencies.
Inspire Application Support Specialist in areas such as AWS, Salesforces, Wordpress, Splunk, other.
Recruit and motivate Eng. Ops. teams responsible for AWS & local infrastructure in a 500M$ software shop.
Guide help desk teams across the country, responsible for 10 locations servicing ~ 1500 staff.
Steer IT monitoring & KPI systems development, to deliver ever increasing value from big data.
Responsible for IT Operations, BCP, DR and OPEX budget alignment.
ROGERS COMMUNICATIONS INC. 06/2016 – 05/2018
Director IT
Directed IT teams to develop and support systems for various business units ambitious new offerings
Managed a group of wireless local and outsourced software provisioning, delivered for new Apple devices and eSIM on time and budget
Managed a group of local and outsourced Carrier Operations Services Software provisioning, delivered seamless inter carrier porting on time and budget
Managed two groups of local and outsourced wireline software provisioning, successfully delivered on latest IPTV and Yahoo email authentication/portal solutions (front end, back end, .Net, full stack) on budget
Managed a group of network integration professionals, delivering secure and reliable software, data governance & infrastructure solutions on time and budget. Resolved recurring IT issues across major systems, resulting in improving Net Promoter Score
Designed and implemented a training program for IT at large, enabled over 500 staff to receive in person training on four different telecommunication topics
Implemented a residential IT planning tool, exposing resource availability
Responsible for 48 different applications, associated development teams, associated cybersecurity incidents, running 7/24/365. Restored Time To Fix and Time To Restore KPIs by closely monitoring issues, team responsiveness and applications response time
Implemented High Availability solutions to various systems, reducing Time To Restore to seconds in some cases
Implemented server based analytic transaction level monitoring & reporting to an authentication system in order to improve internal visibility and resolution time of incidents
Ran a continuous improvement program, reporting to business team, using reported data from various group to resolve recurring issues across all of IT: considerably reduced workload to call centers
Coached & mentored large development team towards best of class engagement score.
Environment: HTML, Java / JavaScript, JEE, JSON, jQuery, XML, SSL, HTTPS, 2FA, Oauth, C, Oracle: OSM & ASAP & RDBMS, WLS, SAN, Apache, Load Balancer, Python, PHP, SQL, MS-Project, MD-5, SHA-3, bcrypt, ITIL, Agile, Waterfall, Akamai, Jira, SOAP & REST API, Security penetration testing
BOUTIQUE TELECOM 10/2015 –
Principal Consultant – Sr. Program Manager
Consults with small technology companies & municipalities focused on their operations and processes.
IPTV expert consultation – Mediaroom
M & A Due diligence
Fancom Connects Ltd – Sr. Program Manager
oDesigned robust/redundant GPON network for rural municipality (~18K endpoints)
oLeading fiber to suites (~2000) construction design (~100M$ development in Ottawa & Gatineau)
Stouffville:
oPreliminary Ubiquitous WiFi network design & proposal (~1 KM)
oPreliminary Broadband Wireless Rural network design & proposal
Aizan Technologies Inc.: Implemented project management and agile delivery sprints. Team promptly adjusted and delivered on time to customers: Google, TELUS.
Environment: HTML, PBX, Java/JavScript, C, SSL, HTTPS, 2FA, Oauth, DevOps, Cloud, WiFi, Pt2Pt wireless, GPON, DWDM, OTDR
FIBERNETICS, BUSINESS SERVICES / NEWT 08/2011 – 08/2015
VP of Technology - HQ role - Telecom Industry Operator with 200 employees
Reporting to CTO, responsible for product development / management (roadmap), support, QA, installation and training teams. Provided leadership, coaching, developing and motivating each to stretch their capacities to achieve performance goals and business targets. In a period of uncertainty, managed productivity and engagement to successful technologies and operation turnaround. Robust product & Revenue Multiplied X 5
Led software team to explore and prototype innovative solutions for (front end & back end / full stack) PBX eco-system, in an Agile/DevOps CI/CD operation, delivering scalable and robust carrier class systems
Managed Business Technical Service – NOC, Data Center, DR, Data Governance: implemented High Availability (HA), System reliability, reduced outages to carrier level
Managed Product Management + Development + Project (Agile & DevOps). Reduced COGS 60%
Forecasted and managed CAPEX and OPEX budgets for NEWT (IP PBX) technology, delivered on budget
Developed new processes, masterminded reorganization, increased agent call capacity by 60%
Created weekly call center reports and monitoring, using data analytics & dashboards to enabled the organization to reduce average wait-time to < 1 minute and average on-call time to 7 minutes
Implemented customer device monitoring solution, provided global and customer specific incident visibility thus greatly improving resolution time
Designed & implemented support process, enabled the organization to service its customers 7/24/365
Reduced KPIs to best of class levels, enabled organization to claim best of class service levels
Coached, lead and role modeled to raise engagement, resulted in near zero staff churn in call center
Led the implementation of the first (as far as I know) service provider SDN offering in Canada
Environment: SaaS, Cloud, SQL, Asterisk Open Source, Virtualization(VMWare), VoIP, Unified Communications, Sharepoint, C, Python, PHP, Pascal, API, ACD, IVR, PBX, Mobile development (Android, iPhone), Linux Ubuntu, SalesForce (CRM), DevOps, Agile, GitHub, SAN, Mobile, HTTPS, Unbuntu, ERP, DDOS, SRED
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CANADA 08/2008 – 07/2011
Director /Solutions (National) – Telecom Manufacturer with 100K employees
Responsible for product portfolio (tactical & strategic) and market entry strategies. Working with cross functional project teams in a matrix structure, led solution strategies for Broadband Access portfolio: direct access to customers, R&D and product positioning. Influence Canadian telecom market trends: changed the Canadian Telco vendor landscape, introducing Huawei as vendor of record at TELUS, Bell Canada and Videotron
Hired to break into the Canadian market by selecting and promoting the right product set
Led strategic product introduction – (NPI) in NA that translated in: TELUS’ adoption of Huawei’s VDSL technology, Bell labs trials of Huawei’s GPON technology
Led RFP response team in the optical space, translating in Videotron’s adoption of Huawei ADM technology
Identified immediate opportunities & established a three year strategy, providing guidance to team & partners
Corporate marketing, trade show, delivered presentations & technical solutions to key accounts, making a success of Huawei in Canada
Environment: VDSL2, PON, ADM, DSM, DTA, IPTV, OTT, VoIP, Wireshark,SNMP
FONEX 07/2003 – 07/2008
Product Marketing Manager (International) – Telecom Distributor with 50 employees
Hired to resolved the imbalanced distribution of revenue in a matrix environment
Led the identification and definition of clear and differentiable value-propositions for specific product and market segments, such as FTTx (EPON & GPON), xDSL, VoIP (ATA, IP phones, Gateway, WiFi & GSM), IPTV, BPL, POE. Resulting in significant business growth
Defined, own growth, go to market strategies, pricing (ERP), agreements, key role in global growth plans
Leadership in portfolio planning, product launch activities - NPI to increase market penetration (Oracle ERP)
Assured market intelligence is received and analyzed (CRM), capitalize on opportunities as they occur, and minimize the effects of competitive activity
Developed and managed vendor’s relationship (ZyXEL, Grandstream, Wave7Optics, UTStarcom, XaVI, Sunniwell, Millinet, Ikanos, Entone, Harris and many others), leading to favorable terms
During my tenure, the diversification of the portfolio sparked a >200% revenue growth
LEITCH TECHNOLOGY 07/2002 –07/2003
Product Marketing Manager - Control Systems (International) – Industry: Broadcast ~ 800 employees
Led the development of hardware, software and roadmap for the control systems platform, (SAP ERP)
Received (Award for Innovation in Media) AIM award and Editor’s Choice award at NAB 2003
Environment: Drivers, Firmware, API, Client/Server, UX, Graphics, Control cards.
POSITIONS PRIOR TO 2002
Experience at organizations that include ADC, Cabletron Systems, Bell Sygma, IBM Global Services, LOGISIL, Royal Trust, Lake Shore School Board, Sodarcan and Service Informatique RC in positions such as Product Manager, Technical Support Engineer, Senior Network Architect, Senior Consultant Networks, Instructor, Office Automation Consultant and Software Developer.
EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Management Information Systems (Computer Science)
Université du Québec à Montréal, Québec
Technique Informatique
Rosemont Collège, Montréal, Québec
Self-study, read and studied over 40 technical books on topics such as MPLS, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM, QoS, VoIP, IPTV, WiMax, ISP, etc.; continually updating my technical foundation
Management Courses: Coaching for Results, Leading for Results, Coaching employees through difficult situations, Creating a culture of strategy execution, Emerging Leader Foundations, Igniting Emotional Engagement, Learning Agility, Learning to be Approachable, Developing Adaptable Employees, Unconscious Bias, Improving Employee Performance, Leading without Formal Authority, Leading Effectively, Managing Experienced Managers, Managing High Performers and Managing Technical Professionals, Improving Employee Performance, Talent Management, Employer Branding to attract talent.
Technical education/certification: Blockchain basics, Blockchain beyond the basics, Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, Learning Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, IT security foundations, IoT Foundations : Fundamentals, Programming Foundations: Fuzzy Logic, Putting ITIL into practice, DevOps foundations, DevOps Foundation: DevSecOps, DevOps Foundations: Lean and Agile, Cloud architecture: core concepts, Cloud architecture: advanced concepts, Operational Excellence Fondations, Six Sigma Fondation & Black Belt