Mentrix provides software systems architecture and development. We also publish books, training, tools and support for people transforming systems. Visit http://mentrixgroup.com to learn more.Recent project examples: The Construct: Architect and develop a greenfield platform with a unique and meaningful goal. Currently in development.https://thisistheconstruct.com/The Wikimedia Foundation: Architect away from a monolith towards a modern knowledge system designed for knowledge distribution. This work has included a number of initiatives and am currently contributing as Principal Systems Architect.Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Work with internal team to architect and engineer internal capabilities that easily make content available *in context* to people who need it.Global Strategy Group: Strategy for moving their website to the center of their digital toolset. Design and deliver this tool.Cedar: A two-year journey with The Economist, moving from "our publishing systems are reaching end of life" to a funded program of work to replace them. (See Content Systems Architect role, below, for more detail.)The Economist Revamp: a multinational-team effort to transform the content platform's landscape; an evolving content authoring system exposed to a midTier microservices distribution platform, serving as the foundation for engaging front-end experiences using Isomorphic JS frameworks. Delivered in a continuous integration environment designed to tighten the feedback loop through continuous delivery. Contributions include:* System architecture* Custom Drupal strategy, architecture and development* Platform architecture for midTier services* Engineering strategy including team building, Agile development process, and engineering best practices

Responsible for the technical direction of The Economist's content authoring platforms and their integration with media and distribution systems. My primary focus was the business-critical Cedar Programme: rearchitecting and replacing the content authoring systems (CCI Newsgate and an enterprise Drupal 6 instance).* Model the previously-unmodeled current system architecture. Create an evolving architectural framework.* Survey the current technology landscape and align this landscape with editorial and business capabilities to create a technical roadmap for new system(s). * Integrate all key stakeholders across the organization to find, select and engage a new vendor, including the proposal process, hands-on-workshops and working prototype.* Define and design the technical vision for a well­-engineered content authoring workflow. Work with Editors, Stakeholders and Product Owners to envision the business, functional and nonfunctional requirements for the platform(s).* Lead a talented cross-functional team through the proof of value, elaboration and planning process then present a project plan / business case to the CEO that secured funding.* Define, implement, and maintain the Content Systems Architecture and Strategy. Serve as the technical governance representative within cross functional teams to makeappropriate system and component level design decisions across the system.* Partner with subject matter experts across the organization to orchestrate the transformation with minimal disruption.

The Amazee Group hired me to launch a US company, Amazee Labs (Austin), a full-service web development shop serving American and Canadian clients. Working in cooperation with a sister team in Zurich, Switzerland, Amazee provided strategic consulting, solution architecture, design, responsive theming, custom software development, and hosting.As CEO, my role included everything necessary to succeed. Primary successes:* Strategically positioned a new US development company in a competitive, well-established open source (Drupal) market. Became “known” within a year, attracting multiple high-profile clients, including Drupal.org itself.* Grew a nonexistent company into a viable, stable and growing business operating in the black.* Transformed a team of diverse skills into subject matter experts working directly with clients.* Architected solutions for enterprise clients.* Implemented a project, development and engineering process that works for a US-centric team and their clients.

My mission as EVP was to balance the engineering team productivity with team morale while delivering superlative technology solutions to our clients and elevating Astonish Design through internal strategic projects.* Provide technical strategy and solution architecture that lead to elegant solutions with a maximum ROI.* Create an innovating, inspiring, trusting, and enjoyable engineering ecosystem.* Champion software development best practices and effective processes like Scrum.* Ensure the team has cutting edge skillsets, are consistently growing, and correctly anticipating market needs.* Plan, track, and adjust team productivity to ensure both revenue and product value.* Recruit top talent.* Standardize devops, security, and other essential development workflows.* Contribute expertise to the tech leadership, development and open source community. * Publish, speak, and train on thought-leadership topics.

When I began at Four Kitchens, I was one of two developers. As the team and my responsibilities grew, the satisfying challenges grew too. From my roles as application developer, team lead, and finally Director, some highlights are:Developer and team lead:* Wrote a custom credit card processing extension for the Wikimedia Foundation and worked on the contribution payment application. * Developed, as team lead for the Economist team (Austin), features such as a custom homepage management tool and a scaleable topics aggregation feature.* Coded custom features for big websites (usually) running Drupal.Director:* Created strategies and solution architecture for a wide variety of clients including the Gates Foundation.* Provided technical leadership for an elite team of web professionals, communicated our issues and solutions when a single voice is needed.* Built teams, projected bandwidth, matched skillsets, and ensured the ecosystem was both dynamic and well tended.* Conceived and built an international training program, creating curriculum and offering professional development for web developers. Open Source Contributor:* Global Chair for DrupalCon trainings.* Contributed to the web development and open source community by giving presentations covering topics such as web development, team building, and programming.* Published blog posts and articles, for example, in the Drupal Special Edition of the Linux Journal.

Architected and developed web sites for small to medium sized organizations.* Projects included custom development, content management solutions and CiviCRM installations.* Primary technical focus: PHP, MySQL, and some front-end development (CSS, JavaScript).* During this time, I also owned an independent bookstore and created a henna body art business offering unique products, services, and training.

Provided web content development. Published articles in a variety of fields. Provided technical writing services. Developed and offered trainings for all ages in multiple areas. Wrote for and performed in theater productions.