Richard Howard Email & Phone Number

Mangawhai, Northland, New Zealand

Responsible for the Planning, Implementation, & Maintenance of IT Infrastructure at the Kaipara District Council. Lead a team of in-house staff and consultants designing cost effective solutions that meet the needs of the organization.

Auckland, New Zealand

Since arriving back in New Zealand, worked in family business specialising in property management. Main activities include Project Management of building & related IT projects as well as coordinating infrastructure maintenance, building upgrades and customer liaison. Key Responsibilities• Project Management of major renovations to property portfolio • Implement a cloud-based property management system with ongoing technical support • Manage contractors for property portfolio maintenance and improvements

British Columbia, Canada

The Tuara Group is an ICT consultancy firm specialising in the design, implementation and management of ICT Solutions for the local government sector of British Columbia. Worked on client engagements and provided strategic, technical and operational expertise on a variety of ICT initiatives.Key Responsibilities• Provided CIO level advice and acted as an IT representative in stakeholder meetings • Developed and implemented business and IT strategic plans in collaboration with clients• Managed all aspects of ICT infrastructure ( Design / Build / Maintenance )• Developed IT Service Management (ITIL) processes to ensure effective delivery of IT Services • Project Managed technology and business improvement initiatives• Provided financial and risk management support throughout client engagementsAchievementsTown of Gibson Municipality ─ Provided end to end IT consultancy expertise. Completed refresh of IT infrastructure platform. Migrated legacy IBM systems to modern resilient virtualized (Hyper-V) platform comprising EMC SAN, Cisco Networks, Lenovo and HP hardware.SCADA Security Network ─ Project securing Government Infrastructure endpoints (Sewer, Water & Lift Stations) using Cisco & Sophos technologies. Extensive Vendor and Sub Contractor management. Critical Risk Analysis and mitigation strategies employed for total risk avoidance requirements

Vancouver, Canada Area

ODG is a CARF-accredited, not-for-profit organization providing employment services to thousands of individuals across locations in Vancouver, Kamloops and Sechelt. As Director of IT Managing 10 facilities and around 250 users, this was a challenging hands-on IT Management role which required the development of a new ICT strategy, and leveraging modern technology platforms to improve our ability to provide effective employment services for our clients Key Responsibilities• Successfully achieved organizational objectives through strategic planning and implementation of IT initiatives• Provided hands-on technical leadership through the end to end design and delivery of a complex and modern infrastructure platform• Managed and mentored a small team of IT Engineers to provide a high-quality and responsive customer service to the user base • Implemented aspects of ITIL and COBIT frameworks to support effective IT Service Delivery • Designed and implemented enhanced IT security measures for risk mitigation AchievementsVirtualization & Network Buildout: Full Data Centre Migration from standalone servers to Hyper V including rollout via Microsoft System Centre of 250 Endpoints across 10 geographically separate offices. 3 month Schedule, $70k budget, 7 person team, Multiple Vendors. Fixed scheduleBusiness Improvement Initiative: Rollout of customized ITIL & COBIT frameworks for the improvement of IT service delivery. Extensive discovery process, data collection, requirements gathering, and scope refinements with executives and line level staff. Primarily an in-house project executed in a functional environment. Key stakeholder engagement with clearly defined communication strategies were essential for executive buy-in and governance acceptance.

Sechelt, British Columbia

Directed IT & GIS staff. Designed, implemented and managed IT Infrastructure and Services. Developed IT strategy, managed technical projects, budgeting, purchasing, vendor management and FOIPP compliance. Managed corporate wide projects with effective matrix team leadership and by providing hands on technical expertise. Expert at identifying cost effective IT solutions. • Managed Enterprise ERP project, including asset, document, and records management solutions.• Led project to develop solutions for the auditing, categorization, and financial analysis of assets • Reduced downtime and costs, and increased efficiency through virtualization of IT services• Managed, trained and mentored staff in the effective use of technology assets, • Developed, monitored and controlled budgets with written reports to senior executives.AchievementsGovernment ERP Solution: Interdepartmental Matrix Project integrating Financials, Asset Management, Geographic Information Systems & Electronic Document and Records Management. Complex project with multiyear Schedule. 300k budget & 15 member team. Extensive use of Vendor and Subcontractor Management. Multiple projects managed as a portfolio.Data Collection Project: Collection & Analysis of GIS data to support financial analysis of fixed asset costs and associated depreciation. Used for compliance to new regulatory standards and risk assessment and mitigation strategies. Strict adherence to project schedule necessitated by statuary deadlines.

Port Moody, British Columbia ( Remote Support For Uk Operations)

While Senior Systems Administrator for Qube Networks, I installed, configured, and maintained Windows and Linux server platforms; email, web, and DNS application servers; Cisco Pix firewalls; and SQL databases.Featured achievements are:• Optimizing operations through standardization of procedures and documentation.• Developing an infrastructure monitoring solution resulting in greater than 99% uptime, substantially increasing revenue and customer satisfaction.

Vancouver, Canada Area

Responsibilities included maintenance of the network, file servers, Windows and Macintosh workstations, and high-end scanners and printers. I managed a staff of 7 employees and was responsible for their training and their performance appraisals. Working in a face-paced and deadline-driven environment, I provided excellent customer service by being a results-driven manager and by paying close attention to quality control.

Haifa, Israel

Responsibilities included visual documentation of extensive construction projects and visiting dignitaries, documenting and archiving priceless artefacts, supplying media to worldwide organizations, and magazine production.

Brighton, United Kingdom

Responsibilities included customer service, quality control, staff management, process control, testing and reporting to third party vendors.

Wellington, New Zealand

Responsibilities included customer service, quality control, staff management, process control, testing and reporting to third party vendors.

Masters Of Management ( Information Technology ), It And Business Alignment

Graduated with Double Masters -- Management of Information Technology & Business Administration.

Master Of Business Administration (Mba), Computer Science

Double Master in Information Technology & Business Administration. Major Portion of Courses in Project Management.

Pmp #2162724, Project Management

Diploma In Network System Specialist, Cisco Networking, Oracle & Mssql Database Support, Microsoft & Sun Server Support

Unix, Cisco networking, Microsoft Server administration, Oracle and SQL database administration.