Richard Harper Email & Phone Number

Columbus, Oh, Us

★ Chosen into new role—following organizational restructuring—to direct Network Engineering, Cloud Engineering, Carrier Services, and SCADA Engineering teams in expanding and enhancing infrastructure to support strategic objective of transitioning into hybrid onsite/remote work model across the enterprise. ★ ➤ Co-manage the NGUCS program to replace legacy 2-way radio system for the entire 14-state territory to eliminate end-of-life risk, enhance communication between the field and customer center, improve site coverage, strengthen uptime, and enable the access of data digitally. Define and execute multi-phase plan to modernize system for 400 towers and field trucks, while staying within budget and timelines.➤ Direct infrastructure projects to support the rollout of O365 platform. Lead teams in increasing bandwidth for Internet services, upgrading firewalls, and testing and validating compatibility of voice and video conferencing services across 200 sites with O365 platform.➤ Support enterprise-wide Cloud Transformation initiative. Manage team in analyzing, designing, and implementing adequate bandwidth to ensure direct connections to AWS and Azure clouds. Collaborate with security team to strengthen security structure and mitigate risk.➤ Lead the migration of infrastructure for voice services from legacy PRI to SIP connections to improve redundancy, reduce operating costs, and enable growth.➤ Built the $3M Infrastructure Engineering Validating Lab that enabled team to test new features and configurations—prior to rollout onto production environment—and to replicate issues.➤ Recommended, secured funding for, and am leading the replacement of end-of-life networking equipment to eliminate vulnerabilities and impact to the business.

Columbus, Oh, Us

★ Directed the Transport Engineering, Wireless Engineering, Network Engineering, SCADA Engineering, Carrier Services, and Telecom Engineering Design teams in designing solutions to improve reliability, resiliency, security, and remote maintainability of infrastructure for hundreds of substations, office buildings, data centers, and telecom sites in the U.S. ★ ➤ Directed the AMEN program to replace disparate WAN networks with a standardized service provider delivery model to support future growth, enable automatic failover, and increase resiliency. Managed efforts of internal resources and vendors to upgrade the routing infrastructure across the enterprise.➤ Co-led the TTMP program to build fiber-optic infrastructure for all priority substations to meet future business demand, increase security posture, and strengthen return on investment (ROI).➤ Drove the adoption of automation across the department to mitigate risks and increase efficiency. Recommended and implemented Blue Planet Analytics to proactively determine potential failures to the telecom equipment. Secured additional funding to implement Blue Planet Inventory to digitally track inventory.➤ Transitioned 12,000 employees to remote work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with minimal disruption to business operations. Led team in increasing the bandwidth—within days—and implementing WebEx across the company. Determined the guidelines to maximize the safety of field resources.➤ Contributed to delivering the FND project, automating the deployment of Cisco routers to the field.➤ Improved Department Culture ratings from 4.06 to 4.45—in FY19—for both the Gahanna and Tulsa teams.

Columbus, Oh, Us

★ Led the Transport Engineering organization, working collaboratively with Planning and Engineering groups to identify new technologies to positively impact design, implementation, and support of multistate microwave and light-wave networks, ensuring connectivity to AEP facilities both efficiently and cost-effectively. ★ ➤ Standardized equipment installation processes and fostered collaboration between groups in Gahanna and Tulsa, better engaging the Telecom Enterprise Operations to allow Transport Engineering to focus on high-level objectives.➤ Supported the Transmission Telecom Modernization Program (TTMP). Led large transport upgrade projects, focusing on ensuring readiness to in-service optimally, while mitigating reliability and connectivity risks.➤ Pursued operational excellence through identification and action on continuous improvement projects, initiating project engineering changes, advancing accountability, and completing the first annual Transport Engineering Blueprint.➤ Shaped a high-performance and high-morale culture. Worked diligently to build camaraderie, fostered constructive feedback, encouraged proactive communication, and drove collaboration across geographically disparate team.

Columbus, Oh, Us

★ Led telecom strategy development and the research and selection of next-gen technology for critical legacy transport equipment upgrade. Drove increased reliability and resiliency, supporting the business and its partnership with the Transmission Business Unit. ★ ➤ Led Blue Chip initiative to analyze and select next-generation technology to support DWDM solution for the time-sensitive New Albany Data Center project, upgrading legacy OC-48 SONET equipment to DWDM and Carrier Ethernet.➤ Worked with Transmission and Security stakeholders to support CIP 14 Physical Security program. Participated in tabletop sessions to work through requirements and define solutions and support for Transmission Telecom Strategy.➤ Championed development of multi-year plan and estimates for building out telecom backbone transport infrastructure, collaborated with key leaders and peers to define priorities, document objectives, and chart department goals.➤ Participated in talent review and selection processes for a new Telecom Planner position in Tulsa.

London, Uk, Gb

★ Provided infrastructure expertise to build a carrier-grade voice / data infrastructure globally to increase uptime, reliability, and redundancy, and support organization’s strategy to migrate toward a shared service delivery model. ★ ➤ Established a highly effective framework for designing, building, testing, and transitioning equipment and support services to operations team. Partnered with global carriers to procure, deliver, install, and document new environments at 6 sites in North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, designing supportable solutions that met business goals.➤ Credited with planning and directing global teams in deploying new high-availability infrastructure supporting enterprise-wide voice, video conferencing, SIP, and unified communications solutions.➤ Directed upgrade of Avaya Call Manager for 30+ locations-encompassing large call centers and critical operations-allowing migration to SIP. Led the rollout of latest release of platform and building a certification lab.➤ Led VoIP deployment—throughout Dayton campus—eliminating a legacy system and supporting roadmap to build out a global unified communications structure. Oversaw migration of 3,000+ phones and small ACD groups from TDM PBX.

Arlington, Virginia, Us

★ Led technicians and contractors in achieving optimal uptime of telecommunications network servicing internal and external customers across a 6,000 square-mile territory; drove the delivery of complex projects across enterprise voice, data, and radio networks to increase redundancy and expand delivery of services. ★ ➤ Partnered with union, human resources, and technology teams to update roles and responsibilities, negotiate salary increases, implement an on-call rotational framework, and roll out training programs that reduced restoration time and improved morale.➤ Directed 18-month, $20M initiative to convert network from SONET to MPLS architecture that increased redundancy, enhanced operations, and enabled the rollout of new services.. ➤ Contributed to establishing company’s 1st Disaster Recovery / Backup Control System that improved redundancy and availability of WAN / SCADA networks..➤ Managed the upgrade of dark fiber network from OC-12 to OC-48 and rollout of new OC-12 ring that increased reliability and enabled the rollout of new services to internal business.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Electronics Engineering Technology

Master Of Science - Ms, Engineering Management