Chris Ward Email & Phone Number

Maryland Heights, Missouri, Us

Elk Grove Village, Illinois, Us

Merrimack, Nh, Us

I joined the Connection executive team to turnaround the 400-person technology solutions group. Revenues were stalling and the team culture was lagging. I quickly built and deployed strategies to break down barriers, boost engagement, and reposition the business for growth. My leadership spanned services business inclusive of professional, managed, lifecycle, and warranty services along with associated presales support.To form a strong team culture, I defined 4 core tenants for the organization to embrace encompassing a OneTeam mindset, quality as a top priority, building trust and confidence with every customer, and embracing enablement and adoption of emerging technologies.✓ Doubled services business revenue to $70M and gross profits to $20M in addition to positively impacting product revenues of key partners such as Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, HPe, and others through increased efficiencies and culture change.✓ Aligned and unified the PMO with a single set of tools and foundational processes to optimize customer services and standardize end-to-end operations. ✓ Optimized organizational design and influenced legacy culture shift to break down traditional silos and improve communication. ✓ Championed pursuit and achievement of Cisco Master Security and Microsoft Azure Expert MSP accreditations to increase competitiveness and credibility in the marketplace. ✓ Fueled evolution into a global solutions provider. Partnered with marketing team to reimagine solutions and services messaging. Curated technical content and presented keynote sessions for public events.✓ Developed principal level program with rigorous requirements to provide meaningful career advancement opportunities for pre-sales architects and post-sales delivery engineers. ✓ Acted as executive sponsor and chief architect for Connection’s largest and most complex engagements, driving successful digital transformation initiatives within multiple $100M+ revenue Fortune 500 accounts.

Portsmouth, Nh, Us

As a senior member of the executive team, I drove the end-to-end technology strategy and vision to fuel development of next generation services and solutions. I unearthed gaps and opportunities, navigated market challenges, and ensured the business was on the leading-edge of what was possible. My team led execution roadmaps alongside sales and technical enablement across multiple cloud and SaaS solutions. I headed the Office of the CTO (OCTO) group consisting of practice directors and enterprise architects charged with evaluating cutting edge traditional and cloud-based solutions.✓ Spearheaded offshore expansion in India to create a 24/7 service operation that would amplify customer services and increase retention. Negotiated contracts, defined all operating processes, and navigated cultural intricacies for team of 50. ✓ Fueled 100% annual revenue growth through enhancement of managed service function to increase reoccurring revenue and founding of robust consulting model. ✓ Handpicked to lead the internal professional and managed services Salesforce CRM design team that allowed the marrying of product resell and services side of the business for increased revenue opportunity. ✓ Innovated and trademarked Cloud Management as a Service (CMaaS). ✓ Named a top 25 innovator by CRN magazine in 2015. ✓ Presented cutting edge technical topics at major industry events including VMWorld. ✓ Trusted by technology vendors that included VMware, Cisco, and Citrix to participate as a member of their Partner Technical Advisory Boards (PTABs).

Portsmouth, Nh, Us

I joined Greenpages with a mission to build the VMWare practice up from ground zero. Initially a one-man team, I advanced to lead as director of solution architecture with oversight of pre-sales activities. I was then promoted to VP of consulting and integration to drive both pre-sales and post-sales teams across virtualization, end user computing, networking, data management, and security.✓ Generated $6M in annual gross profits across both products and services. ✓ Designated as Employee of the Year (2x) and Solution Architect of the Year. ✓ Positioned the company as forward-looking and leading edge in the market. Architected demonstration running 480 simultaneous VDI sessions on a single Cisco UCS blade serve during the VMWorld 2009 conference. ✓ Selected to speak at leading IT events across the nation.

Us

As a hands-on technologist, I led the design, implementation, and troubleshooting of small, medium, and large datacenter environments. Additionally, I built and introduced network infrastructure solutions including Cisco routers, switches, and firewalls, Bluecoat ProxySG devices, and Citrix Access Gateway devices.✓ Recognized with Technical Services MVP Award. ✓ Executed migration of Exchange 5.5 system with 2K+ mailboxes to clustered Exchange 2003 organization in a different domain.✓ Migrated and consolidated 9 disparate Exchange 5.5 organizations with 1.5K+ mailboxes to single Exchange 2003 organization with zero downtime to the system.

Responsible for implementation, troubleshooting, and maintenance of small, medium, and large local and wide area networks.* Awarded Franchise Player designation from 2001 thru remaining tenure* Excellent interpersonal skills including training/presentation experience* Team leadership/project management experience on large projects* Experience designing and supporting networks which have from three to 2500 workstations in both local and wide area configurations with heterogeneous operating systems* In depth knowledge of network operating systems including Novell Netware 3.x, 4.x, 5.x, and 6.x as well as Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows 2003* Expert knowledge of Novell’s EDirectory and related products including Zenworks (desktops andservers), Groupwise (4.x, 5.x, and 6.x), and Bordermanager (all versions)* Enterprise level experience with Windows 2000 and 2003 Active Directory including upgrading from NT 4 domains, DirXML connectivity with NDS, and multi-site multi-domain replication* Enterprise experience with Exchange 5.5, 2000, and 2003 including upgrades and migrations from other messaging platforms* Numerous implementations of remote access solutions using Windows Terminal Services, CitrixMetaframe, Shiva Lanrover, and Netware Connect* Vast experience with TCP/IP services including DNS, DHCP, WINS, SLP, and LDAP* Experience with many hardware platforms including Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Dell* Clustering/SAN experience utilizing HP and Dell hardware solutions* Comfortable with many backup solutions including Arcserve and Backup Exec in both Netware and Windows environments* Excellent troubleshooting skills with both server and client side hardware and software* In-depth knowledge of routers and switches from various vendors such as Cisco, 3com, and Nortel