Fortium Partners is a national firm of former CIO's from top-tier companies, who serve as interim IT executives or as leaders of turnaround, rescue, strategic, or transformation initiatives. We bring only senior seasoned Partners to solve complex problems hands-on, delivering an array of critical business and technology services. Fortium Partners’ unique perspective results in better outcomes, lower risk, and shorter time to value. Dave's Fortium experiences include: • IT strategist for Fortune 500 retailer identifying retail trends and their applicability, assessing retail applications and outlining a retail cross-channel applications strategy direction.• IT strategist for a regional convenience store chain defining a three-year roadmap including recommended transformation initiatives for store marketing and customer engagement.• IT strategist for a middle market food retailer guiding management through an enterprise IT vision, requirements definition and Retail ERP software selection.• Program Director for the global market share leader for highly automated fulfillment center material handling delivering rapid same-day service for Amazon, FedEx and WalMart. Responsible for global strategic initiative that redefined business processes, and designed the application to greatly simplify and speed the processes. Directed the program to develop the application and implement the user change within six months to deliver greater timeliness, efficiency, accuracy and transparency.

Program Director responsible for global strategic initiative for Dematic, the $2B global market share leader for automated material handling equipment. Defined and designed a quote management application to greatly simplify and speed the concepting, estimating and quoting process to deliver greater accuracy. Directed the multi-million dollar project to develop the system and implement the user change, within six months. Customers actively seeking quote timeliness, accuracy and transparency include Amazon, WalMart, Walgreens, FedEx and retailers depending on highly automated fulfillment centers to deliver rapid same-day service.

• Neiman Marcus Group, VP IS Retail and Enterprise Applications interim. Responsible for Store, Merchandising, Supply Chain, Marketing, Financial and Enterprise applications for three divisions with over $3B in annual sales. Managed 120 staff, $18M capital and $10M expense, and led IT PMO.• Michaels Stores Inc., Chief Information Officer interim. Directed a 600-person IT organization for this 1100-store, $4B retailer with 40,000 employees. Led transformation of project/service delivery performance and results, restoring business trust and alignment with IT, while rebuilding associate morale and outsourcer partnership. • Dallas County, Chief Information Officer (2010 interim) – Directed 80-person IT department for this 6500-employee $400M organization. Led creation of IT governance model and business alignment with exceptional executive engagement. Led transformation of PMO and Application organizations for performance. • Bluarc Management Group - IT Infrastructure Director (2009 interim) – Stood up the technology infrastructure for this wind energy spinoff. Virtualized disaster recovery.• American Eurocopter, Chief Information Officer (2008 interim) – Led infrastructure rescue after a major outage, stabilizing network security through a rapid technology refresh. Led implementation of SAP product and manufacturing modules to a timely successful completion for this $500M manufacturer. • Led Business Intelligence, enterprise performance management (SAP), sales and executive reporting implementations for Home Interiors & Gifts, Fitz & Floyd, Fisher Nuts, Pegasus Logistics, and Highland Capital Management’s companies.• Warner Music Group – Led the development of a Business Intelligence strategy for this global music content and digital multi-channel retailer/distributor.• Celanese - Conducted redesign of the global IT organization to optimizes costs and support for shared services and business divisions worldwide for this Fortune 500 company .

Responsible for merchandising, supply chain, marketing, stores, and enterprise applications development for Neiman Marcus, Last Call and Bergdorf Goodman over $3B annually. Managed over 120 staff, $18M capital and $10M expense. Implemented thirty major projects and releases successfully in the first year, a mix of custom, cloud and packages, exceeding business expectations. Managed outsourcer using new metrics, and negotiated SLA’s. Provided executive leadership for enterprise/financial team on successful high-profile Oracle projects, in the absence of a director. Provided program direction over omni-channel initiatives for customer service inventory and merchandising solution selection. Initiated advanced omni-channel CRM strategy with Big Data integral to an innovative customer experience vision for mobile apps and in-store systems. Collaboratively initiated an innovation lab and team responsible for testing new technologies and developing prototypes as feasible for the business. Transformed IS PMO direction to collaborate with IS managers on standards, methodology, tools, lifecycle releases, and project management. Defined new reporting for project and portfolio management. Interim assignment.

Directed 600-person IT organization for this 1100-store, $4B retailer with 40,000 employees. Led turnaround transformation of project/service delivery performance and results, engaging business executives and gaining business trust and alignment with IT, while building associate engagement and morale, and rebuilding working partnership with outsourcer. Delivered on all commitments for over thirty transformational projects on time, on budget of $59M capital, including a high-priority high-risk Customer Special Order System on an accelerated schedule. Initiated new Governance model, and defined a multi-year application roadmap for IT, a reorganization of IT and its operating model, a Master Data Management Strategy, a Data Center Strategy, and the IT Capital Plan. Interim assignment.

• Developed a business-aligned IT strategy and roadmap approved by the executive team. • Led Zale Direct multi-channel and eCommerce order-taking, fulfillment, CRM and integration requirements, and solution selection.• Led redefinition of HR business processes. Guided executives through solution selection matching the redefined processes, leading to over $5 million in savings.

• Gap Inc. - Program Director over redefinition of transformed and integrated business processes across multi-billion dollar divisions Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, using software functionality to minimize modifications. Exceeded performance targets to achieve performance bonuses for the firm.• Directed software implementations of Retek driving business process change for Brooks Brothers, J.Crew and other retailers. For Payless Cashways, led the initiative leading to $20M sales increase and $19M inventory reduction, adopting new processes driven by multiple Retek applications, implemented on aggressive schedule. Automated inventory replenishment driven by demand forecasting that enabled high service levels for top-selling items while reducing overall stock level.• New Media Network/ eGroove - Led strategic architecture, integration design, and planning for software implementation of multi-channel eCommerce including CRM, merchandising, and operations.• Skinmarket - Directed the evaluation of software to meet requirements for multi-channel operations including web orders, CRM, fulfillment and distribution, merchandising, and stores.• CFT Consulting was acquired by Answerthink (all experiences included here)

Managed over 100 staff and a $34 million budget during a turnaround of this $1.5B public company. Transformed under-performing IT organization while reducing IT department turnover from 40% to 10% through attention to vision, leadership, organization and communications. Converted international operation, migrating legacy systems to new platform and enterprise systems. Established strategic IT direction with new architecture, organization and priorities driven by tight integration, stabilization, software packages and program initiatives on a timely schedule. Planned implementation of Retek. Interim assignment.

• Michaels Stores – Assessed merchandising systems, IT capabilities and plans, reporting to new CEO driving turnaround of this $1.5B retailer. Conducted special projects across merchandising for short-term improvements. Led merchandising requirements and software selection leading to Retek.• KB Toys - Led development and implementation of an innovative inventory planning data warehouse for this billion-dollar 1000-store retailer. Led joint business/IT team that set long-term planning/ allocation/replenishment vision, and then evaluated and implemented up-to-date software. Initiated merchandise allocation and replenishment process improvements that increased sales $50M in Q4.• Initiated and led business-driven strategic information technology planning projects for apparel and hardlines retailers.

• Led projects developing strategic information technology plans for Jos.A.Bank and other retailers.• Liverpool – Program Director who led requirements, design, custom development and implementation of a highly automated, RF-driven retail distribution center in Mexico.• Consulted with U.S. retailers on their foreign operations. Performed on-site evaluations of European operations of a multi-national merchandising corporation which sources billions of dollars of merchandise worldwide on behalf of many major U.S. retailers. Developed a business plan to establish stores in a foreign country. For a multi-division $10B retailer sourcing worldwide, he directed the redesign of business processes including product development, sourcing, supply chain, and trade management.• Consulted with major retailers outside the U.S., including four of the five largest in Mexico. Directed engagements from design through development and implementation, on-site in a foreign country. Directed the reengineering of workflow improvements across merchandising, distribution, store operations and accounting. Evaluated early debit card feasibility for WalMart de Mexico. Performed IT assessments and developed strategic information technology plans. • Neiman Marcus – Evaluated the distribution center network, technology and operations, recommending geographic repositioning of distribution centers. • NM Direct division of Neiman Marcus - Defined distribution center system requirements, and selected software used for direct marketing and fulfillment operations.• Neiman Marcus - Managed mainframe data center migration from the divesting retailer. Conducted evaluation of POS proposals.