Jon Wagner Email & Phone Number

Philadelphia, Pa, Us

* Taking the time to rebuild skills from the ground up so I can be a more effective CTO.* Focusing on simulation, optimization, and AI.Open to:* Board / Advisory roles* Mentorship or Executive Coaching* CTO roles in Technology or SaaS companies

Chicago, Il, Us

We're on a mission to enable fans to see their favorite live events.Everyone is a fan of something, and at Vivid Seats we get to bring our fandom to work. Individual passion shows up in our team every day. Our technologists are smart, hard-working, and business-savvy. We continuously ship tech that move the business, helps our customers, and (possibly more importantly) we get to use our product for ourselves!After Zoomer/GrubHub, it took me a while to find a team and mission that I really wanted to back. Now that I've been at VS for a while, I know that I have it, and I'm starting to think BIG. Come and join us...More about Vivid Seats below.===============================Vivid Seats is the largest independent marketplace for tickets to live sports, concerts and theater events, and the industry's leading provider of technology platforms and service solutions. Founded in 2001, the Chicago-based company offers exceptional affordability across one of the widest selections of premium tickets and event packages. Selected by organizations like ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Notre Dame and the Duke Blue Devils to serve as official ticketing partners, Vivid Seats supports all confirmed orders with a 100% Buyer Guarantee and a dedicated customer service team to ensure the safest and most convenient purchase experience. Fans who want to sit closer and see more of their favorite live events can order directly on vividseats.com, by downloading the Vivid Seats mobile app or by phone at 866-848-8499.

We provide Systems Engineering and Decision Engineering solutions to operational, financial, and logistics problems. Our work includes creating operational simulations, creating business case analysis, researching schedule optimization, and building engineering teams.Relevant

At Aidan.ai, we built a more convenient and more powerful way of integrating disparate financial systems, using Semantic Integration and Natural Language Processing.Although the product did not gain the traction that we had hoped, it did rekindle my interest in applied AI.Relevant

GrubHub is the market leader in online restaurant ordering, and now thanks to the Zoomer team acquisition, delivery.At GrubHub, I integrated the Zoomer Decision Engineering, Systems Engineering and Domain expert teams into GrubHub’s technology and product management environment. Combining GrubHub’s market share and data science expertise with Zoomer’s delivery, forecasting, systems engineering, and decision engineering strengths allowed us to turn operational guesswork into properly designed, engineered, and executed decisions. Delivery operations stabilized enough for GrubHub to expand its delivery operations nationwide.Relevant

Zoomer was a real-time delivery logistics provider for high-volume restaurants. Operating in 20+ cities with hundreds of restaurants, thousands of drivers, and millions of deliveries, we changed the economics of delivery for our restaurant clients.As head of Decision Engineering, I assembled a team of operations research experts, data scientists, systems engineers, and software engineers to tackle the real-time, hot-food delivery problem. This began with educating leadership on the benefits of simulation and optimization to create efficiencies in the logistics world, and then directly working with the team to deliver fully automated delivery dispatch technology that improved delivery speed by 20% and variability by 30%. We also established a Data Engineering and Data Science team to build forecasting and business intelligence capabilities for the company.As Chief Operations Officer, I oversaw 24x7 field operations in all of our cities. Using the data science and business intelligence infrastructure, we were able to use engineering rigor to transform startup operations into a more disciplined process, significantly improving the predictability and efficiency of delivery operations.Zoomer’s technology staff and Decision Engineering team was absorbed by GrubHub, becoming the group responsible for operational efficiency and delivery optimization within the larger organization.Relevant

Gladstone Analytics provides an analytics platform for financial advisors to benchmark, value, and optimize their practices. The Analytics and Practice Improvements programs combine years of experience in firm M&A, business modeling, and practice consulting with the latest in business optimization.As Interim CTO, I used my experience in modeling, optimization, and product management to execute a product turnaround in a very short amount of time.Gladstone Analytics and its technology was acquired by Truelytics.Relevant

After 13 years at eMoney, it was time to take stock of where I had been and where I wanted to go.AI was the future, so I took a deep dive into formal methods of optimization, the basis of artificial intelligence. Cloud computing was also ubiquitous, so I gave myself a refresher on the latest trends. To recharge my batteries, I spent more time with family and took on some creative writing. To get involved in new things, I helped several entrepreneurs start their companies on a sound business and technical footing.Relevant

Radnor, Pa, Us

eMoney is the leading wealth-planning system for financial advisors. It combines account aggregation, data integration, financial and Monte Carlo simulation, and a rich-interactive experience that allows advisors and clients to plan their financial future.In the early days of eMoney, I was directly responsible for the creation of the core technologies. The financial model set the standard of accuracy and level-of-detail for personal financial planning, while the account aggregation system and transaction classifier led the competition in terms of quality and timeliness.Over the years, my duties varied from VP of Engineering to CTO. I developed product strategy, managed strategic vendor relationships, created teams and departments, and influenced the company culture. As a member of the executive team, I collaborated on company strategy, and set technical and product direction based on our sales, strategic account, and marketing efforts.Along the way, my proudest achievement was being able to build and mentor a team of over 40 technologists, product managers, and operations staff, several of whom have gone on to become VPs of Engineering and CTOs in subsequent roles.eMoney and the accompanying technology was acquired by Fidelity Investments.Relevant

As the house baritone, I appeared in over 50 operas and concerts for the LLOT of Philadelphia as well as Amici Opera.I use the arts as a complement to rigorous technological thinking, the vocal training as a humbling way to always be learning, and the ensemble as a way to better understand the interdependence of each player in the cast. Public performance is the ultimate way to experience vulnerability, a great tool for learning self-evaluation, discipline and teamwork.

Us

VerticalNet was an online B2B marketplace that allowed procurement officers in specialized industries to connect to new products and services.In the early days of VerticalNet, my team scaled the content and community platform that drove the company’s growth. Then we built the eCommerce and RFP platforms that enabled us to compete as one of the first online B2B companies.Later, as head of software architecture, I was responsible for integrating technologies from the various acquisitions. In this role, I learned the importance of applying multiple Systems Engineering disciplines to problems - data, dynamics, behavior, and engineering.Relevant

Reality Online was a Reuters company that was focused on providing financial market information to consumers. We were the first Reuters group focused on bringing financial data to the internet.As a Director of Development, I led a development team to build one of the earliest streaming Internet stock quotes and news servers, as well as personal portfolio management software. We built software systems that were one of the few financial services sites that survived the unexpected load during the 1997 stock market “mini-crash”.The Reality group and its technology eventually were absorbed into the main Reuters technology team.Relevant

SMG’s mission was to improve the skills of management professionals and to use executive development as a tool to facilitate and implement strategic plans. At its core, we provided condensed, custom MBA curricula and training for professionals, combined with interactive simulations to turn learning into practice.As a research engineer, I developed methods for financial modeling and interactive simulations. The simulation platform and tools were the basis for a generation of modelers and simulation designers, allowing them to efficiently design, validate, test, and deliver custom models for each client’s business.Meanwhile, I fervently studied SMG’s content. The management and strategic planning skills have been very valuable throughout my career.SMG and the simulation technology was later acquired by BTS.Relevant