As Senior IT Operations Support Manager, I have overall responsibility and leadership for maintaining the 'steady state' of UnitedHealth Group's strategic Infrastructure, systems, portals and applications deployed in our Mainframe and distributed server farm environments. In this role I serve as the integration point for ensuring overall system's health, problem resolution, and operational readiness by holding the following responsibilities: Drive improvements in availability, stability, and reliability in IT infrastructure used by critical Business applications Monitor performance, capacity, availability, and usage metrics to ensure established OLA's are being met and proactively resolve negative trending as required  Maintain systems integrity by ensuring required configuration management, backup and recovery, security management, and disaster recovery plans are in place and being followed  Project manage activities required for operational maintenance support of the infrastructure and applications, as well as ensure infrastructure and application software is maintained at appropriate revision levels  Drive and ensure IT production environment processes are developed, followed and maintained for IT infrastructures, systems, and applications  Ensure "operational readiness" tasks have been completed before changes are moved into the production environment  Develop and maintain "end-to-end" technical and business knowledge for strategic infrastructures, systems, portals and applications  Provide second level support, assist and/or coordinate the activities of level three troubleshooting

As the Senior Program Manager consultant, I had overall strategic and operational responsibilities for projects and process improvement for all areas of the organization. Initiated, planned, and implemented, multiple projects and process improvements, working with both internal and external organizations, at all levels of the organization. Main focus is improving the overall performance of the organization. Provided leadership mentoring for other senior leaders that do not have the leadership skills and experience that I have been able to gain throughout my career.  Moved 300 people from one location to a brand new location. This includes building out the entire voice and data infrastructure, AV, furniture, construction, signage, and security.  Opened a second office in Minnesota that mirrored Des Moines office delivering the same services in both locations. This call center environment handles all sales and fulfillment functions in both locations through the implementation and use of intelligent call routing and internal business processes. This allows us to handled increased volume while delivering a business continuity plan if one center is unable to perform normal operations.  Transitioned 250 employees from Wells Fargo into Military Family Home Loan. All employees had to be treated like brand new employees and run through a new hire process. Provided leadership through this process and documented and implemented HR processes to help streamline this effort. Implemented an improved and more efficient way to deliver the training required for fulfillment, processers, Underwriters and closers. This effort allowed us to provide the training necessary to enable our fulfillment team members to become effective in a shorter period of time.

Chief Information Officer 2009 – 2012 Managed 5 managers and 27 indirect reports in support of 350 faculty and staff as well as 1750 students, across three colleges (College of Osteopathic Medicine, College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery, and College of Health Sciences). Planned, implemented and supported network infrastructure, Internet, servers, applications, desktops and laptops, mobile devices, classroom technologies, security and printing. Initiated, priorities, and executed university-wide projects.  Completed assessment of the entire IT organization to determine the new vision for IT. Assessment highlighted 4 main areas that we built our Mission, Vision, and Goals around. The new mission was to improve, communications, customer service, project delivery, and enabling technology.  Redesigned and improved security polices and standards to improve efficiencies within clinic operations.  Led procurement effort to double our Internet bandwidth while reducing the cost by 25 percent. Led procurement effort for all networking and data center needs (servers, storage, and networking). Was able to negotiate pricing enabling us to purchase the equipment needed over two years verse the initial three year Capex plan. Led procurement effort to standardize all classroom technologies. Completed a three year rollout in 2.5 years and under budget, enabling us to redistribute Capex savings to other areas that needed funding.

Director, Information Technology 2004 – 2009Managed 2 mangers and 17 indirect reports in support of 3000 staff and support teams across multiple business units (Facilities Management, Capitol Projects & Project Management, Public Safety, Auxiliaries, Environmental Health and Safety.); this environment consists of multiple data centers, distributed computing environments, disparate IT departments, multiple applications, desktop and laptops. Successfully migrated organization from Novell Netware to Microsoft Active Directory, from Novell GroupWise to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, virtualized 100 servers down to 20, and moved our production Datacenter to a more hardened data center, while creating a separate test and development data center in another physical location.  Created an IT service catalog. This enabled customers to understand what services IT was able to deliver and at what cost.  Co-sponsored effort to create a Program Management Office that allowed us to initiate, define, plan, monitor, control, and close projects that were executed through the PMO.  Implemented a new reporting strategy using Crystal Reports, Business Objects, and Data Integrator. This system enabled the Facilities Management department to make data driven decision helping them to improve their service delivery.  Led effort to centralize all procurement. Was able to move 5 disparate IT departments’ procurement needs to one centralized department reducing expenses for data center equipment by 30%. Successfully worked with business leaders to implement support SLA’s, set policies and procedures to help them meet their strategic business goals. Technical sponsor to implement PeopleSoft ERP system for University Services. Completed implementation on-time and under budget.

Director, Data Technology and Engineering 1998 – 2004As IT Director for AT&T, we provided Managed Services to UnitedHealth Group and were responsible for all data technologies for UHG. Managed 8 direct reports and 50 indirect reports responsible for project management, LAN/WAN architecture, design, implementation, procurement, circuit provisioning, capacity planning and disaster recovery. Developed, planned and rolled out a complete new ethernet switching environment at 250 calls centers and three data centers across the United States Successfully re-engineered project management processes and procedures to better stream line ability to get work through life-cycle process quicker.  Architected a complete new disaster recovery solution for all remote locations, replacing ISDN technology with new MPLS technology.  Led procurement effort that assessed all Frame Relay bandwidth and routing requirements and redesigned the network, enabling customer to reduce their transport expenses.  Led procurement effort to bring in a redundant carrier, enabling UHG to have two routes to all call centers with multiple carriers.  Responsibilities also included working on future technology that would enhance UHG’s data network to support their business needs. Successfully decrease lost user minutes by 20% and increase successful changes by approximately 10%.

Senior Network Analyst 1996 - 1998 Responsible for network planning & design, supporting and enhancing Northwest Airlines worldwide network. Architected and designed self service ticketing network in support of the self service ticketing application which was implemented in all airports around the world. Installed and supported network monitoring tools which included Netview, OpenView, CiscoView, CiscoWorks and Optivity.  Estimated project costs and developed network designs from premise wiring, communications room equipment, Wide Area Networking solutions, LAN solutions and network management Reviewed new products and new technologies.  Provided training to operations groups on different technologies and networking equipment Experienced on TCP/IP, IPX, SNA, P1024 and AppleTalk protocols. Performed Cisco router configuration and design with RIP, OSPF routing protocols. Experience with Cisco switch with the Catalyst 3000, 5000 and 5500 switches and experience with BayNetworks and Allied Telesyn Hubs.

Senior Network Analyst 1984 – 1996Network management and operations responsibilities for SNA and TCP/IP networks. Supervised team of 3 people who were responsible for the day-to-day monitoring, troubleshooting, problem reporting, and change management of 3M’s voice network. Successfully developed, integrated and implemented network management applications onto HP OpenView, IBM NetView and mainframes using both MVS and UNIX operating systems. Provided multiple interviews and quotes in trade magazines and reports for my network management integration work.  Participated on an AT&T customer counsel that helped them develop their AT&T Solutions, outsourcing business. And customer input counsels for IBM, HP& BMC and HP helping them develop in software.