Ray Garcia Email & Phone Number

New York, New York, Us

Business innovation performance coaching for firms that use technology as a key driver of value. High-impact tactical changes that lead to strategic growth is what I do. Get beyond the founder prototype stage, SME stagnant stage, into operational excellence mode, then accelerated global growth. When a company, product, process, or project stalls, that is when I get hired.Figure out the possible, then I focus performance of the people, processes, and product, so it all generates the promise of profitability.Consulting services for technology venture backed start-up companies, investors, and corporations on strategic and tactical issues relating to the creation and use of information technology products and services for innovating the business model.Responsibilities include acting as interim technology executive for clients, and conducting technology product audit assessments, investment analysis, infrastructure planning, product architecture enhancements, software development processes implementation, technology team building and coaching, business process improvements, and executive management guidance. Oversees top talent hiring and retention, vendor management, global outsource management, and contract negotiations on the clients behalf to ensure return on investment.

Brussels, Be

I am an expert evaluator and business coach for the European Commission Horizon 2020 SME Instrument. The SME instrument addresses the financing needs of internationally oriented SMEs, in implementing high-risk and high-potential innovation ideas. It aims at supporting projects with a European dimension that lead to radical changes in how business (product, processes, services, marketing etc.) is done. It launches companies into new markets, promote growth, and create high returns of investment. The SME instrument addresses all types of innovative SMEs so as to be able to promote growth champions in all sectors. My focus was on evaluating grant proposals within the ICT sector with awards ranging from 50k to 2.5 Million Euros of funding per company which exceed the threshold score for the evaluation criteria.

Working closely with the Vice Rector for Innovation and Research at the University of Pisa I helped establish the curriculum for the entrepreneurship program "PhD Plus", focusing on commercializing research. Since 2011 over 500 researchers have attended the classes with several winning the Tuscany StartCUP business plan competition, entering the SeedLab accelerator, and obtaining venture funding from US investors. The program spans all research departments.Since 2012 I have taught the entrepreneurship course at the School of Economics, International MBA program. The MBA students come from over 16 countries representing four continents and have prior business experience.Since 2013, working with the school administration, we organized a joint entrepreneurship program using the curriculum I developed. We select promising PhD research targeted for commercialization and combine the researchers with the MBA students.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, Us

Collaborate with faculty and students to explore research opportunities with the sponsoring companies of MIT Media Lab. Primary focus is the commercialization of research artifacts for the MIT Media Lab Center for Future Banking.Formative stage development of a research track for social and economic networks. I worked with the MIT Researchers and Bank Executives to establish a line of inquiry to explore the use of network theories in the assessment of value and conducted informative sessions for line of business executives to foster collaborations with the Media Lab faculty and researchers.The position was funded by Bank of America where I had obligations as an SVP through March '09 during the formative stages of the effort.For a narative of my experiences at MIT Media Lab: http://sites.google.com/site/raygarciaatmitmedialab

Tucson, Arizona, Us

Guided a research team in the area of self-directed informal learning. Using the Internet as a resource and learning within physical spaces such as museums and science centers. This research is applicable to e-commerce website, enterprise skills and knowledge acquisition, and retail environments. The product is able to detect consumer purchase intention and buying decision making process. Research product is available for IP licensing and the University transitioned the effort into a commercial entity "Zonebee".

Co-founded the company. Raised venture capital funds, hired the team, built the product and delivered to market, sold the company.Payment and loyalty product using contactless RFID smartcards based on ISO 14443, the same standard used by proximity payment Credit Cards and now called Near Field Communications. We were the first company to deploy a solution to a large scale retail environment (sports staduim) with 450 payment terminals.We provided cell phone gaming to the sports stadium that was associated with the loyalty programs and coordinated with Advertising on the jumbotron in stadium displays. Our solution works with all three major credit cards and developed a unified protocol for the integration of competing RFID proximity readers.SMART System Technologies partnered with Philips Semiconductor, Inside Contactless, and was an early member of the NFC Forum. We provided an early demonstration of eight possible use cases for NFC using a Nokia and Seimens Cell Phone that had NFC support. Our products were featured at CTIA and 3GSM with Philips.

Manchester, Greater Manchester, Gb

Built and delivered an ERP class application for International Trade which managed multi-modal transport and supply chain logistics for cross border trade. We had major fortune 500 clients for the product including Lucent, Oracle, BASF, P&G, Raytheon, Union Carbine. Clearcross applications were implemented for European, Japanese, Middle Eastern, and US multi-national companies.Accountable for all technical decisions, including the technical architecture and software development of electronic commerce systems and products. Hired, managed, and trained a staff of 80, including project managers, software developers, web site designers, networking technologists, functional experts, quality assurance experts, integration specialists, field service and support technicians. The software development was distributed with locations in UK London, India Delhi, and New York.We acquired several competitor companies before merging with the last acquisition.

New York, New York, Us

Worked with a business innovation group within Citicorp (known as Crossmar). Developed an Insurance Letter of Credit product with an internal sponsor based in London.Provided financial software development and deployment, and managed a team of programmers and business analysts. Accountable for the delivery of complete software applications and the management of the entire lifecycle process, including project management, scoping, budgeting, feasibility, business analysis, software design, implementation, quality assurance, security, and delivery.

International Private Banking, lead a team that created a consolidated account management application for the private bankers that brought together the family of relationships with account holders and display the status of all bank products for the aggregated accounts. Updated the technology infrastructure to deploy and support the new application.Managed all financial software development and provided project management guidance, including sub-project planning, budgeting, cost estimating, and scheduling, as well as drafting coding standards, source code management, code inspections, test planning, and transition and deployment planning. Accountable for staff development and the timely delivery of applications.

Directed software development and technical project management for international trade execution and supply chain management applications. Administered all technical decisions, including technical architecture, software design, and implementation. Hired and trained the programming, support and professional services staff.This company later became Clearcross Inc. after receiving venture funding in 1997.

Provided software application design and programming expertise to Sybase clients and advised clients on technology implementation issues related to performance and scalability. Accountable for project completion within the contractually agreed cost and time estimates. The primary client assignment was with Morgan Stanley in Geneva.

New York, New York, Us

Oversaw the application of information technologies used in automating management and financial accounting functions of the restaurant operations and corporate systems. Developed software for consolidated accounting into the corporate ERP systems. Reported operational activities and the status of software developmental projects.Created the financial models and projections as part of a team that executed a leveraged buyout of the company. At the time the company was publicly traded on the American Stock Exchange.

New York, Ny, Us

Taught continuing education courses to professionals. The courses were in business information techology such as micro-computing architecture and programming. I developed my own course material and the equipment and labs were provided by the College. Most of the students worked in local law firms and publishing companies. All classes where given in the evenings. Topics ranged from assembly language programming to computing hardware architecture.

Certificate Of Completion, Symposium For Entrepreneurship Educators (See)

Bachelors, Engineering Technology