Maher Darwish Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Develop, implement and monitor the strategic plan for the global network architecture, including technology, security, and operations.Responsible for the management of a $12M annual capital budget and cost-effectiveness. Direct daily operations of department, analyzing workflow, establishing priorities, developing standards and setting deadlines.Lead, mentor and coach a team of network architects and engineers. Managed and supported the company’s network infrastructures, operations plans and processes.Ensure timely resolution of service issues and lead service improvement teams.Evaluate the organization’s technology use and needs and recommend improvements and upgrades.Collaborate with Company’s IT teams to identify opportunities to automate, track and secure data that is hosted, transformed, and stored in client and business environments. Negotiate and approve service contracts and equipment purchases in support of network operations maintenance and repair responsibilities.Support and enforce all IT policies and procedures, including those for architecture, security, disaster recovery, standards, purchasing, and service provision.

Chicago, Il, Us

• Develop, implement and oversee a strategic, comprehensive global network architecture to maximize investments in support of stated business requirements and objectives.• Lead and assist with major project initiatives that span departments within and outside Network & Telecom Services.• Develops and maintains strong working relationships with IT vendors to influence product direction in support of the company strategic direction.• Contributes to company’s overall business results by making recommendations that significantly improve operational efficiency and effectiveness.• lead and motivate distributed global cross-functional, interdisciplinary teams to achieve tactical and strategic goals.• Develop and manage network budgets, monitor them for variances and initiate corrective action where needed.• Define SLA’s and provide regular metrics and reporting on the current status of the network services to senior business leaders and IT customers as part of running IT.• Manage network incidents to minimize business impact and protect corporate IT assets, including intellectual property, regulated data and the company's reputation.• Monitor emerging technologies, seek opportunities to leverage benefits they may offer the business in developing future network strategy and architecture.• Develop, maintain and publish up-to-date global network policies, standards and guidelines.

Vernon Hills, Il, Us

• Manage the planning, configuration, installation, management, and coordination of enterprise LANs/MANs/WANs and Voice networks.• Plan and executes proactive analysis and regular maintenance activities including network upgrades, network monitoring, performance tuning, capacity planning, reporting and change control.• Identify and investigate risks to the organization using a variety of applications and processes.• Participate in and facilitates audits, both internal and external. Ensure a cost-effective and efficient infrastructure that will provide the processing power essential to business unit and departmental operations.• Develops operational plans that align to the IT strategy. Define service level and other key IT performance metrics.• Participate in budget planning for ongoing operations and new projects (OpEx/CapEx).• Manage relationships with external service providers including negotiating contracts and manage expenses/invoices for assigned areas.• Develop a disciplined, detailed and structured team to drive a high performance culture and environment. Work with staff to ensure that individual team metrics and goals are being met.• Oversee the daily activities of Network and Telephony Services and performs direct supervision of team members, including problem ticket management, incident/event management, performance reviews, career development, and staffing.• Stay current on emerging technologies, and makes recommendations for technology that supports corporate strategy and growth plans.

Paris, Ile De France, Fr

• Lead the Network Infrastructure team that was geographically distributed across the United States for 24/7 network operations, Data center expansions, Network Architecture and building next-generation Data centers. Provide Network Architecture solutions to complex, highly available global computing environment.• Designed, architected, supported and orchestrated the deployment and management of LAN & WAN projects including the North American MPLS rollout, a national Cisco-based router and switch refresh, an upgrade of all Checkpoint firewalls across the Americas, and a consolidated wireless and network management solution across the US.• Drove the development and implementation of global network service projects, including carrier decisions, methods of connectivity, network topology, and equipment selection.• Performed cost analysis of vendors, telecommunication companies and any other service providers.• Determined an operating budget for labor and capital expenditures.• Managed and maintained successful working relationships with technical vendors.• Ensured implementation of network security controls at the regional level as established by the corporate information security policy.• Implemented business continuity and disaster recovery plans.• Leveraged wide ranging talents in networking and staff leadership to effectively manage organizational change, mitigate risk, improve client support, infuse new ideas and deliver high-tech solutions.• Review and update current standards and policies for Security, Networking, Operating Systems and Services as a basis for any recommended revision, updates or replacement.

London, Gb

• Manage a WAN and Internet support group that is responsible for installing, deploying and maintaining WAN and Firewall services throughout the company.• Managerial responsibilities include producing a yearly budget, setting employee goals and priorities, resolving daily support related issues and managing outside vendors.• Implements wide area network solutions to connect distributed systems. • Managed WAN Services, including setup, configuration, and deployment of Cisco routers, switches and Cisco PIX firewalls, as well as different Networking devices.• Insure proper implementation of all policies and procedures related to LAN & WAN.• Ensure up to date and accurate monitoring on WAN & LAN systems.• Monitor, prioritize and mitigate problems to ensure network services are maintained.• Provides leadership and guidance to Technicians and Engineers with implementation and maintenance of the network

London, Gb

• Design, implement and test various types of LAN & WAN Architectures.• Design, implement and test various types of LAN & WAN Architectures.• Setup, Configure and Troubleshoot Cisco Routers, Circuits and WAN problems.• Evaluates and creates engineering design documents for WAN/LAN.• Analyzes the daily network operations to ensure the highest availability of the network.• Design, develop and maintain configuration standards for network equipment.• Evaluate and Recommend effective Hardware & Software solutions for WAN network.• Serves as an escalation point for network issues, including backbone routing, customer router configuration, and Internet related services

• Manage and distribute the work on daily bases for the Network team.• Monitor System’s performance to ensure the availability of the network all the times.• Plan for the efficient use of the IBM 3725 & 3745 Front End Processors.• Supervise the installation of the IBM Controllers, Terminals and Printers.• Configure IBM 3174 & 3274 Controllers and Modify the NCP on the IBM 3725 F.E.P.• Install and troubleshoot the Data Communication Equipment.• Develop a contingency plan in case of emergencies.• Coordinate and perform analysis of strength and weakness for current hardware and software, and research on market opportunities to recommend to management.

M.S, Computer Telecommunications

B.S, Computer Science