Harold Knutson Email and Phone Number

Helping Clients succeed through improved strategies and leadership in technology and customer service. Sample engagements include:- Guiding a regional Health Insurer through improving its strategic planning process which led to improved investment decisions.- International retailer/service provider ($2.3B Rev) seeking technology sourcing alternatives and brand consolidation.- International service provider ($1B Rev) seeking to refine and implement a digital customer strategy.- County Government seeking to develop an effective IT Strategy ($6.0M IT Budget).

Responsible for all aspects of technology leadership across Office Systems (e.g., CRM, ERP, Commissions, and BI / Data Warehousing) for the companies within the Legal Business Unit of Thomson Reuters ($4B revenue, 450 IT staff globally - Eagan, Buenos Aires, London, Hyderabad and Bangalore).Effectively established a Target Enterprise Architecture and implemented Business Relationship Managers into the organization.

Responsible for Project Management, Testing / QA, Vendor Management, PMO, Application Operations and Infrastructure for Thomson Reuters’ flagship online legal service, Westlaw.com. $2.3B annual revenue, 18M daily transactions, 125k daily customers, 3 petabytes of online information, $125M development portfolio, 400 staff globally. Improved system performance to levels where the Sales Team used those metrics as selling tools. Reliably released new, online research products and features.

Responsible for design, development, and operation of BestBuy.com. Grew site to the (then) third most-visited site in the world. Integrated the stand-alone eComm technology division into the enterprise IT Department. Led Information Management, Database Development, DBA’s, Data Warehousing, and analytics for the enterprise. Generated $130M benefit against a budget of $33M, with 130 staff.

Group CIO - Financial Services & Database Marketing (4/99 - 8/00)Responsible for all aspects of technology leadership to Credit, Financial Services, Fingerhut National Bank, and Database Marketing for Fingerhut and other Federated Direct divisions (e.g. Macys.com, Bloomingdales.com, etc.).

Responsible for the identification and remediation of operational risks across AmEx Fin Advisors Tech Organization (4,000 members, operating budget of $800M), The Client Service Organization (1,500 members, operating budget of $75M), and the Field Sales Force (8,500 members, operating budget of $750M). Introduced disciplined project management practices and tools to the conduct of audits. This improved the timeliness and perceived value of audit reports which, in turn, improved Audit's value to the organization and Board of Directors.

Responsible for the delivery of $250M of incremental revenue through the successful development and implementation of PC-based tools used by 8,400 Financial Advisors with over three million clients across the United States. Established and led the Divisional CIO concept to improve the strategic value of IT to the Business Units. Led development and implementation of mission-critical apps. Saved $19M annually through improved Vendor Management.