My experience includes 16 years as a manager and director of groups related to software and website development. I managed major releases and process enhancements for all aspects of software life cycles. I contributed to projects at every phase from product definition through implementation, test, and post-release evaluation. At two different companies I built teams from scratch to over 25 people.

I've had responsibility for business and software requirements, release management including feature and bug triage, builds, schedules, reports, budgets, customer interaction, recruiting, staff evaluation, testing, and process improvement.

I have excellent judgment with respect to the balance of technical and business issues. I motivate people. I drive innovation. I solve problems. I prevent problems.

Since June, I have taken time off to relax and work on some of my own projects.

Metaweb builds technology for next-generation web infrastructure. Specifically, storage and interaction with massive, structured datasets. Core technology includes a proprietary graph database and a new structured query language (MQL). Metaweb built and operates freebase.com which is a Web 2.0 site for collaborative creation of data and data structure. It is a very large, open database for the web. Initially millions of entries were imported from Wikipedia and Musicbrainz, now anyone can manually add data or write software to import data.

Metaweb is a venture capital funded spin-off of Applied Minds, Inc. In 2005, I transitioned from Producer / Project Manager with Applied Minds to Director of Product Development at Metaweb. A few months after spinning off I became Director of Engineering. Accomplishments and responsibilities include,

• Public launch of freebase.com
• Managing development team
• Hands-on help building, deploying, and testing
• Writing detailed functional specifications
• Defining product at a high level
• Contributing to business development plan
• Recruiting
• Budget planning
• Interim management of design, data import, and system administration groups

Development environments included, client development using Javascript with AJAX techniques, HTML with CSS on Mac, Linux, and Windows; middle tier and backend development using Python, C, on Linux, with a custom built data repository; development process tools included, bugzilla, SVN, and zwiki.

Applied Minds invents, designs, and prototypes all kinds of things (including robots, vehicles, workspaces, and software technology). I worked with a small software group focused on interfaces for data input, query and organization using large graph data structures. We produced designs and built prototype software for things like crisis management, decision management, and hypothesis assessment. Most prototypes were delivered as software to be run by end users. We also did business development, research, and prototyping related to Metaweb. Accomplishments and responsibilities include,

• Delivering all projects on time and on budget (several projects were over a million dollars, no project was smaller than $300k)
• Negotiating and managing project requirements
• Contributing to functional designs
• Writing functional specifications
• Writing user documentation
• Forecasting and managing budgets (labor, hardware, software, travel, general and administrative), recommending and approving purchases
• Preparing proposals for contracts
• Preparing demonstration material
• Managing people (designers, developers, testers, scientists, system administrators)
• Managing customers (meetings, conference calls, visits), customers included intelligence community government agencies and large corporations
• Recruiting and hiring
• Preparing formal and informal reports
• Organizing wiki
• Tracking and approving timesheets for all staff and all projects
• Testing prototypes
• Reviewing bug and feature lists for triage

Development environments included, Adobe Flash and Java on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh; development process tools included, bugzilla and CVS; project management tools included: MS Excel, MS Word, and zwiki

During this period I took one full year off then did short-term work on a variety of projects at a few different companies. Accomplishments and responsibilities include,

• Planning and tracking development and test
• Establishing a product life cycle process including, requirement setting, approving, developing, and testing
• Reviewing functionality and user interfaces to suggest enhancements
• Generating new product ideas and enhancement suggestions
• Defining and writing specifications for requirements, feature implementation and test cases
• Recruiting
• Demonstrating prototypes

Scopus primarily built customer support software and later merged with Siebel Systems. I grew a group of 3 quality assurance engineers to a release engineering group of 26 staff including four managers and two temps. Accomplishments and responsibilities include,

• 8 major and over 20 minor software releases
• Contributing to design of Scopus QualityTEAM product which supports problem tracking
• Re-engineering processes including, bug tracking, building software, packaging, manufacturing software, communicating with customer support staff, testing (automation, structure, tracking), tracking product releases, supporting systems and workstations (helpdesk), and requesting purchases

ViewStar built workflow software for scanning and processing documents. I formed the quality assurance group from 0 staff and grew to a group of 21 staff including two managers and six temps. Accomplishments and responsibilities include,

• At least 5 major product releases concurrent with multitudes of minor releases.
• Managing technical aspect of company relocation (200 employees). The project included redesign of the corporate network, hardware and software modifications to every computer (300+) in the span of a weekend with a handful of technical staff. We were 100% operational by Monday morning.
• Reengineering processes related to releasing software, communicating with technical support staff, packaging, testing (automation, structure, tracking), build software, manufacturing software, and requesting purchases.
• Saving systems support team; eliminating unscheduled network down time; motivating staff, creating processes for helpdesk requests, resolution tracking, backups, and system maintenance.
• Forming a volunteer group of engineers to set standards and introduce development tools.

I joined ViewStar as a software engineer; I was promoted 3 times: to supervisor, to manager, then to director; at each stage I accumulated responsibility for new groups; I was voted MVP of 1994 by employees and received several other awards during my six year tenure

At the desktop I am proficient with Netscape and Microsoft browsers, and most Microsoft applications including: Project, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, and Excel.

I keep current with the tech industry through my network of friends, books, internet research, and journals.

More recently I developed a simple website using HTML and CSS, and I wrote a few scripts using a new templating language and some Javascipt.

At the beginning of my career I worked 5 years as a software engineer programming with C, Fortran, Basic on PC (DOS and Windows), Macintosh, and VAX computers. I worked as an engineer 1 year at ViewStar writing image display software, 1 year at BioRad writing software to control scientific instruments, 3 years at Columbia University biology research lab writing software to drive scientific instruments and video image processors. At Columbia I also built a small network and supported hardware and software systems.

Environments I've worked with included, Windows, Macintosh, Linux and other flavors of UNIX, HTML, CSS, XML, Javascript (with Ajax techniques), Java, C/C++, Lisp, TCL, JSP, SQL triggers and procedures, relational databases (MySQL, Postgres, Oracle, Sybase, MS SQL Server, Informix).

Assistant editor on 3 independent documentary films. Production Coordinator with JCPenney Direct Mail Advertising Department for 1 year. Classes I've taken include, improvisation, photography, yoga, Tai Chi, and massage. Sports and games I play include: basketball, golf, tennis, poker, and go.

B.A. Computer Science, New York University