Brian Austin Email & Phone Number

Grand Rapids, MI, US

Scottsdale, Arizona, US

While running multiple teams for Affinaquest, we restructured and combined all technical teams into a single CTO led organization, with multiple missions and specialties focused on delivering products and services to the higher education data market. Responsibilities include Product Engineering (build the product), Cloud Services (run the product), Client.

Scottsdale, Arizona, US

After working on a consulting project for the company, I was offered an opportunity to join this quickly evolving and fast growing software company focused on collegiate athletics and higher education advancement. My role spans multiple departments and services with both external and internal stakeholders, including the Board of Directors and many contacts.

Albany, US

After helping a number of companies on a part-time "side hustle" basis, I transitioned to a full time independent consultant, specializing in disruptive organizational change management, accelerated ground-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud migrations, M&A integrations & carve outs (including accelerated TSA exits), and interim CIO responsibilities. I also.

Scottsdale, AZ, US

• In 2019, I had been appointed to drive alignment across Product Development/Engineering, Cloud Services/Operations, Central IT, Information Security, and Client Support, comprising ~220 personnel across 3 countries.
• Champion the company’s technical vision by aligning architecture, cloud, and mobile application experiences with the product vision.
• Maintain executive responsibility for PCI, SOC2, and other compliance requirements.
• Formed new teams with talent acquisition, budgeting, methodology, and operational control design (US and offshore).
• Evaluate prospective employment candidates with Board members; interact regularly with the Board via scheduled meetings and ad hoc engagements.
• Foster an environment of continuous innovation and one whose philosophy is, “say yes unless you can’t.”

Scottsdale, AZ, US

• Following the sale of Transact to private equity, I was retained to oversee Cloud Services/Operations and Client Support with an annual budget of $16M+.
• Navigated the exit process from Blackboard systems, including transitioning personnel to Transact owned and managed resources.
• Merged siloed Support teams into a common system and management resources.

Boca Raton, Florida, US

• In my final official role under the Blackboard umbrella, I was promoted to provide executive management of Cloud Services/IT Operations and oversight of $32M+ budget throughout the process of divesting the Transact.
• Maintained financial accountability of all Blackboard cloud-hosted services in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, correcting overruns and cutting costs ~15% through integrative accountability and change.
• Contributed to the due diligence process throughout the successful sale of the Transact business unit to private equity.I subsequently transitioned to Transact leadership/new company.

Boca Raton, Florida, US

• Upon the company’s acquisition of Higher One Holdings in 2016, the company doubled in size, leading to a company reorganization. I Oversaw Cloud Services/IT Operations, with headcount of 20, and annual budget of.
• Spearheaded 6 application migrations from data centers to cloud providers, including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, driving 35%+ savings in overall hosting costs while maintaining PCI and SOC compliance.
• Combined 4 IT operations teams into single team of cross-trained generalists and specialists, while reducing headcount 20%.
• Standardized operational and security controls to meet PCI-DSS 3.2 standards across multiple application stacks.
• Negotiated vendor contracts, including Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco, to provide required services and achieve EBITDA targets.

Boca Raton, Florida, US

• In 2012, I was tapped by the company president to step into a custom-made role and entrusted to successfully transition from data center operations to cloud operations, which required refined change management skills.
• Migrated 4 data centers and 12 application stacks throughout role tenure. Built SaaS Operations department, handling hosted services operations from data centers in Indianapolis, Dallas, and Phoenix, as well as global.
• Improved Support customer satisfaction to 97% while continually improving case closure rates annually.
• Generated $7.3M in Consulting revenue, increasing net margin 7% YOY.
• Delivered team satisfaction rates among the highest across the company; reduced turnover while lifting employee satisfaction.

Boca Raton, Florida, US

• When I first joined Blackboard, the company was much smaller than it is today. I was hired to provide team management and network analysis / troubleshooting to support Blackboard Transact products and services..
• Restructured the Client Support team to allow for faster customer issue resolution and escalations.
• Introduced training plans for team members, developing internal mentors and succession plans while reducing turnover.
• Revamped the issue escalation process to identify and prioritize customer issues for Product Development, resulting in faster bug fixes and patches for improved customer satisfaction.

New York, New York, US

As the Tempe Systems Infrastructure Lead, I oversaw all infrastructure-related systems, including network, servers, communication circuits, voice systems, workstations, and peripheral systems.I led a team responsible for 40+ Microsoft Windows Servers, 100 workstations, Cisco and Dell switches and routers, FortiGate firewall systems, and Mitel/InterTel.

I managed the design and implementation of private telecommunications links between commercial, education, and government facilities. This spanned technologies such as terrestrial systems (local telco, custom fiber optic plant installations, etc.), microwave, cellular, free space optics, and satellite systems. While in this role, I also oversaw several.

US

As the Director of IT, I provided technology support for all company operations, including administrative, sales, executive, and field service technicians for this heavy-equipment rental company serving the Southwest US with offices in AZ, CA, and NV.

Throughout my 3+ years with ABLE, Inc., I consulted, designed, installed, configured, and migrated enterprise networks and phone systems in K-12 educational environments, local and county governments, and a few other commercial customers.

Broomfield, Colorado, US

As a Network Analyst IV, I monitored, troubleshot, and repaired customer connections to the international GlobalCrossing IP network.