Resume - Brian Wood

Santa Clarita,  CA  91390
 Home: (661) 268-8008 Mobile: (661) 877-5052
v908 at yahoo.com

 

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Last updated: 05/16/2018

 

 


Self-motivated, experienced leader with over 20 years managing Information Technology functions (including ISO 9000 and FDA validated manufacturing facilities) in both business unit/division and corporate/enterprise environments in numerous industries (manufacturing, consumer products, entertainment, and government).  Proven strengths in strategic leadership and IT vision, staff development, business requirements and analysis planning, applications development, infrastructure and operations (data center, client services, networking, telecommunications, file and print, messaging, etc.), Internet & web technologies, vendor/supplier management, facilities, cloud technologies, outsourcing, and enterprise-wide project planning and portfolio management.

History of success based on demonstration of IT value and benefit as well as bridging the “gap” between technology and business leaders.  Adept at managing the Information Services (IS) functions, and providing the Information Technology (IT) vision and strategy, for a companies where the effective and efficient functioning of information systems, services, and technologies is vital to daily operations, decision-making, and long-term business success.

 

Ekman Associates, Inc.

2017 - Current

Yorba Linda, CA

 

Vice President, Engagement Services. Partnering with clients in multiple industries to design, develop, and implement technology and business strategies for efficient and cost effective solutions. Primary engagement with NBC Universal as Senior Program Manager within the Vendor Management Office, executing a vendor consolidation strategy for IT Professional Services (domestic and off-shore), Value-Added Reseller (VAR) consolidation, and Telecom consolidation.


MMR & Associates, Inc.

2016 - 2017

Hermosa Beach, CA

 

Principal IT Consultant. Providing technology consulting services for IT Strategy, service development and delivery, contract negotiations and deliverables, technical services, operational performance and metrics, etc. Leveraging significant cross-sector technology and innovation experience to help clients develop the products and services that are essential for growth in a highly competitive economy. Assisting clients with transformation and innovation for long-term success by combining technology knowledge with expertise in strategy creation, product and technology development processes, and organizational development.

Entertainment Partners
Burbank, CA

2008 – 2013

Vice President, Information Technology. Responsible for all aspects of Information Technology including Engineering & Operations, Customer Service (Service Desk and Facilities), Strategy & Portfolio Management, and IT Process Development & Delivery. Provided leadership and direction for the entire range of the IT's management functions, including technical services and delivery, staffing and personnel management, budgeting and scheduling, DevOps, quality control, and Security Operations.

Accountable for IT department performance against key objectives and standards, efficiency of operational environment, and support of software development activities. Oversaw all aspects of Infrastructure support and delivery from the desktop to the data center.  Notable recent achievements include:

  • Restructuring the IT department and staffing up, where appropriate, to focus on operations efficacy, production stability, improved service delivery, and consolidated, enhanced technology platforms.
  • Lead the migration/consolidation of two data centers from a sub-standard on-premise facility, and an off-site colocation site, to a state-of-the-art, high availability colocation site – dramatically reducing risk and cost.
  • Following the acquisition of a major competitor, successfully migrated newly acquired systems, assets, and information technologies into EP’s environment. Managed the integration of IT staff into a cohesive unit.
  • Oversaw a major building move project, reshuffling over 500 people between three buildings over the course of one weekend.
  • Dramatically increased EP’s compute, storage, and networking capabilities; and established a capacity planning system that eliminated the need to initiate discrete purchases to fulfill capacity requests.
  • Initiated efforts to leverage public cloud offerings (Amazon and Azure) for key products, while simultaneously introducing technologies and establishing procedures to effectively use internal resources as a “private cloud.”
  • Upon the departure of EP’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), oversaw all Information Security functions, including introduction of new firewall (Palo Alto) and edge routing technologies (Cisco) to improve EP’s overall security posture.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA

2008 – 2013

Section Manager (Director/VP), Shared Services & Operations Support.  Accountable for Operations Integration and Service Delivery support in the Operations, Networking, & Cybersecurity Division (173) of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO). Provided key line and program leadership for the entire range of the Section’s management functions, including technical, staffing and personnel management, professional development, resource management, cost, quality, schedule, and technical commitments. Accountable for budget, schedule, and performance standards for Section services supporting all aspects of JPL’s business including critical flight mission support. Made risk decisions and performance commitments in fulfilling project or system objectives. Provided substantial input to programmatic standards, practices, procedures, and policies. Responsible for the overall integration of processes, methods, activities, and product/service delivery within the Section, Division and OCIO. In the scope of doing so, collaborated with peers within the Division, elsewhere in the OCIO, OCIO management, laboratory management, and cognizant staff at all levels.

Managed the overall budgetary planning cycle for the Section as well as controlling the planning, technical priorities, expense priorities, schedules, methods, and performance standards to be employed and adhered to by senior-level staff and assigned group-level managers and their contributors. Responsible for communicating with and briefing executive-level management on activities, operations, and associated issues related to the organization, its services, and its customers. Responsible for providing direction and guidance related to staffing decisions within the Section (hiring, promotions, appraisals, etc.). Key responsibilities and deliveries included:

  • Developing and sustaining the service delivery and operations integration processes for new and existing IT Infrastructure systems and services including the High Performance Computing Systems, Hosting, Storage, Cloud services, and End-User Computing.
  • Spearheaded JPL’s initial move to cloud technologies, including provisioning, deprovisioning, billing, monitoring and alerting, operational support, etc.  This included the development of a tool to determine which cloud resources best fit user/system requirements.
  • Established a robust program to leverage virtual machine (VM) technologies and storage virtualization tools and processes to enable development and/or migration of customer workloads off standalone systems and onto virtualized and highly available environment.

The Walt Disney Company

1999 – 2008

Burbank,  CA

 

Held a diverse range of executive positions spanning business unit and enterprise-wide areas of responsibility including infrastructure and operations, enterprise-wide end-user services, applications development, supplier management, and portfolio management.  Responsible for staff of up to 75 domestic employees and varied international resources.  Specific technical responsibilities included desktop automation and support on a variety of Windows and Macintosh platforms with over 15,000 local and remote users, server operations (Windows, UNIX, AS/400), messaging technologies (Lotus/cc:Mail, Exchange/Outlook), LAN/WAN, Service Center operations (Help Desk, Change Control, Data Security), and applications development (including web and client/server technologies).   Notable achievements include:

  • As Director of Global Operations & Technology at Disney Consumer Products (DCP), expanded Help Desk functions into a true Service Center model, including change management and data security functions.  Set up Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the business units and provided tools and metrics for measuring performance against those agreements.  Established network, server, and application monitoring for the production and office automation environments.  Brought DCP’s data center operations up-to-date, including power conditioning, resilient air conditioning, and environmental monitoring.
  • As Director of Client Services for Disney Worldwide Services, established a consolidated client services function supporting multiple business units.  Developed a desktop automation program to provide on-going technology refresh of desktop and notebook computers, hardware and software inventory, software distribution, remote management of desktop devices, and effective management of software licenses.
  • As Director of IT Strategy & Communications, participated in a major IT restructuring and outsourcing project -- evaluating, reorganizing, and creating shared services across multiple business units and Enterprise IT services.
  • As Director of Applications Development & Support, consolidated several departments/functions within Corporate Applications (applications development, database administration, architecture, and web applications) into one unified department working toward common goals and objectives from project initiation through retirement.  In addition to the support of 100+ applications (.NET, Java, Unix, etc.), led migration of legacy (primarily mainframe) systems to SAP and other current environments.
  • As Director of Portfolio & Supplier Management Office, headed up the newly created Applications Supplier Management function within Disney Enterprise Applications - focusing on managing relationships with the outsourcing vendors (including a major, global SAP implementation), establishing and maintaining Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and metrics, and initiating process improvement efforts.  Also, created a consolidated Portfolio Management Office (including project management support) for the overall Enterprise Applications Services organization.

Nestlé USA

1996 – 1999

Glendale,  CA

 

Director, Distributed Systems & Services. (a.k.a. Client/Server Technologies).  Tied together multiple IT/IS functions (previously managed by three director-level positions) into one integrated, well managed environment sharing common vision, goals, and objectives.  Full responsibility for staff of 70 supporting the Distributed Systems environments (Windows NT, UNIX, AS/400, etc.), Telecommunications, Network Services, Desktop Automation, Web Services, and Messaging Technologies for  a national, enterprise-wide environment serving over 6,000 users in approximately 90 local and remote locations.  Major accomplishments include:

  • Creation of a common desktop workstation environment based on Windows and Exchange/Outlook -- dramatically reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for the management, software distribution, and support of these systems; and improving communications and groupware capabilities.
  • Complete overhaul of LAN (local area network) technologies in over 50 locations from token ring and out-dated Ethernet technologies to state-of-the-art switched 100mb Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet environments, with complete network monitoring and device management tools.
  • Established Nestlé USA’s Internet Technologies and Collaborative Computing organization, providing centralized management and common development initiatives for Internet technologies, groupware, workflow and electronic messaging capabilities.  Successfully “insourced” web development and internet technologies projects back into Information Services.

St. Jude Medical (Pacesetter, Inc.) and Electronic Data Systems (EDS)

1987 - 1996

Sylmar,  CA

 

Director, Information Services. Functioned as senior IT executive, providing all company information technology and services for over 850 users of UNIX, VMS, Windows, and Macintosh environments on various hardware platforms (including VAX, Alpha, Sun, HP, and an assortment of desktop systems).  Notable endeavors include:

  • Combined multiple information technology groups (MIS, UNIX Systems, Engineering, PC Support, and Telecom) into one integrated, centrally managed and highly effective Information Services department.
  • Successfully insourced PC support with a cost-effective and highly responsive internal PC Services group.
  • Planned and coordinated the move of all Information Services functions from an aging 5-building campus environment to a new state-of-the-art facility.  This included overseeing the design, layout, and installation of all infrastructure elements (including the data center) and management of consultants and contractors.
  • Following outsourcing to EDS, assumed leadership roles in global networking, client/server, telecommunications and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects.

BA in Biology, Earlham College (Richmond, IN).  Emphasis on management and computer sciences.

2012 NASA Honor Award for Cloud Application Suitability Model Team
2011 NASA Honor Award for role in Cloud Computing Working Group
2011 NASA Excellence in Team Achievement Award for work on multi-venue cloud computing architectures


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