Kevin Acker Email & Phone Number

Chief Technology Officer and Division Administrator at the the State of Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds. The division houses the information technology, security, and data management functions within ETF. This position is responsible for providing leadership to the aforementioned functions and participating as a senior leader in the organization.

Trusted Compass Consulting is a technology consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations achieve their business goals by bringing people, process, technology, and data together to provide strategic business solutions. I work with companies to identify their current state and desired future state and then build and execute a plan to address the gaps to get the organization to the future state. My background in technical architecture, program and project management, and leadership gives me a unique lens and ability to help organizations bring capabilities they need to fruition.Work with clients includes being a product owner for a Master Data Management solution (Semarchy) implementation, building a strategy and implementing an IT Operating Model, implementing an integration platform (Mulesoft), negotiating and managing contracts, and vendor management.

Madison, Wisconsin, Us

 Managed a group of staff and consultants that fulfilled project manager, data and systems architect, business analyst, application developer, interface developer, and report development roles. Provided leadership, vision, and oversight to SWIB's technology environment including the management of SWIB’s application portfolio with a focus on flexibility and agility to stay aligned with a rapidly changing business environment. This included managing the technology architecture and application roadmap. Implemented multiple vendor systems both on-premise and in the cloud using hybrid, public, and private clouds from Microsoft, Amazon, and others. Built current and future state project and technical documentation and a plan to achieve the future state for multiple projects. Performed vendor management and negotiated several contracts. Performed organizational and IT strategic planning activities including budget management.  Led the cross functional team that governed SWIB’s project portfolio including prioritization, resourcing, strategic goal alignment, and reporting to SWIB’s board. This included utilizing both waterfall and agile approaches to manage projects.

Madison, Wi, Us

I was the IT Operations and Business Systems Manager reporting to the IT Director of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB). SWIB is responsible for managing about $115 billion of assets primarily associated with the State of Wisconsin retirement system. This role is primarily responsible for managing the IT group that is responsible for SWIB’s business systems and architecture. Manage a group of staff and consultants fulfilling project manager, architect, business analyst, application developer, and report development roles. Provide leadership, vision, and oversight to the system development life cycle and management of SWIB’s applications. Designed a data management and governance approach with the Data Management group. Responsible for the overall architecture for the organization focused on people, process, technology, and data. Develop and cultivate relationships with business units. Oversee standards, policies, procedures, and best practices to effectively deliver technology services. Perform organizational and IT strategic planning activities including budget management.  Led the implementation of a new operating model for SWIB’s technology organization to support the strategic roadmap and goals of the organization. Lead on team that manages SWIB’s project portfolio including prioritization, resourcing, and budget management. Technical sponsor for an ERP implementation of Finance and HCM using UNIT4 Business World and Change Agent for SWIB for it's involvement in an implementation of PeopleSoft at the state level. Technology representative on steering team responsible for managing a $50 million dollar initiative with over 25 unique projects that overhauled SWIB’s systems and business processes. Developed and currently manage several complex contracts and relationships with vendors.

I was the State of Wisconsin Chief Technology Architect for the Division of Enterprise Technology (DET) within DOA. I reported directly to the state CIO and was a member of the DET Senior Leadership team. DET had approximately 320 employees and provided IT services to all executive branch state agencies which included about 40,000 end users and thousands of servers, network devices, and applications. This role was responsible for managing the group setting the technology architecture and the services DET delivered.  Manage a group of staff and consultants fulfilling project manager, architect, and service delivery manager roles. Built and executed an architecture function at DET. Was head of the Technical Architecture Review Committee (TARC) which governed the technologies utilized by DET. Managed the portfolio of shared services DET delivered to its customers. Led the IT strategic planning effort for DET including the creation of the annual IT plan for the organization and the alignment of DET’s services, budget, and staffing with the strategic plans of the organization. Co-Managed DET’s $100 million budget with the Deputy CIO and Business Manager. Sponsor and steering team member for numerous projects including several multi-million dollar technology initiatives. Developed and cultivated relationships with the other state agencies by providing transparency into DET’s activities and building trust over time. Led or sponsored multiple vendor, contract, and IT procurement management activities including RFP development and execution. Provided state-wide leadership and direction regarding the use of existing and new technologies and the policies and processes used to manage the delivery of technology services. Developed road maps for DET services and technologies including use of cloud based systems.

Madison, Wi, Us

I managed the IT architecture for DWD and was the team lead for the group that supported the application infrastructure within the department working extensively with customers to develop solutions to meet their requirements in a cost effective manner.Worked with DWD IT senior leadership and business area staff to design, build, and support IT solutions for the business.Built and maintained an application architecture review process.Worked collaboratively with business areas to determine which business automation projects they should pursue.Worked with management on the budgeting process and determined which technologies to purchase. Assisted with the enterprise IT strategic planning process and project portfolio management.Team lead for an application infrastructure operations support group of up to 12 staff that administered over 200 web and client server applications and provided technical assistance to developers.Mentored staff in technical, communication, and project management skills.Participated in numerous security and license oriented audit activities including verifying applications met state and federal regulations.Managed on-call and staff coverage schedules, assisted with performance reviews, provided day to day problem and change management coordination, and managed the daily work of the team.Created and maintained a Technical Reference Model, strategic and tactical technology plans, and other technical standards which identified the technologies and implementation methodologies in use within the department.Created the infrastructure architecture and implemented an initial version of the PeopleSoft ERP suite for state-wide usage.Project manager for several high profile infrastructure upgrade projects.Provided technical support for DWD applications and infrastructure services. This included extensive experience working with technologies from Microsoft, Oracle, VMware, HP, IBM, and many others.

Madison, Wi, Us

I provided system administration for application and infrastructure technologies. This included working with a diverse group of customers and application developers to design systems using those technologies.Provided technical infrastructure and application support for in-house developed and COTS applications utilizing hundreds of technologies from Microsoft, VMware, Oracle, Cisco, HP, EMC, IBM and many other vendors.Developed detailed knowledge of network, domain, and application level security, web and client server application architecture, and network, telephony, storage, and server infrastructure technologies.