Innovative technology leadership successfully delivering technology strategy, services and solutions.

WORK HISTORY
The New York Academy of Medicine – New York, NY 9/2013 –1/2014
Consulting Director of Information Technology

PROJECTS/DELIVERABLES

• Migration to GoogleApps
• Phone System ReplacementIncrease Internet bandwidth at lower cost
• Prepare for IT Audit
• Server Consolidation and Virtualization
• Setup helpdesk software/Establish Service Level Agreements
• Revamp business continuity/disaster recovery plan
• Negotiated 50% discount for the cost of the new Library System.
• Established 2014 IT budget.
• Set up an FTP server in the cloud saving approx. $1,500/yr.
• Developed a 3-year IT strategy
• Implemented NYAM’s first collaboration software.  http://nyam.slack.com
• Negotiated an aggressive discount with http://www.lynda.com

Phase2 Technology – New York, NY 1/2013 –9/2013
Consulting Project Manager

• Managed a >$4million portfolio of critical IT projects for University of Minnesota, Penn State University, Major League Soccer, The Rasmuson Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy and others.
• Collaborated with Phase2 colleagues and leadership to establish well-defined project management ‘playbook’ based on best practices. (predominantly Agile/Scrum/Kanban methodology.)
• Supervised a highly-skilled technical team delivering complex, high-value projects on time and in budget.

Columbia University – New York, NY  2006 – 2013
Director,  Interactive Services     8/2007 – 12/2012
Executed web/digital media development associated with Columbia.edu and other domains owned by the University, departments, institutes, labs, some student groups and individual professors. Accountable for University’s event calendar software, google search appliances and helix streaming media servers.

 

• Conceived/Developed/Maintained web applications and web-based enterprise application interfaces.
• Directed a 9-person team of Information Architects, Designers, Application Developers and QA
  technicians.
• Developed business continuity and disaster recovery plans for web infrastructure
• Successfully delivered complex, high-value projects, on time and in budget.
• Managed by the numbers.  Set/met productivity targets in terms of number and scope of sites completed and supported annually.
• Team maintained over 200 websites and web applications, many of which are integrated with University systems and social networking sites; Completed approximately 30 additional website projects per year with budgets between $10k and $200k.
• Member Columbia University Technology Architecture Group,  CUIT Implementation Management Group and CUIT Change Advisory Board

Project Director     12/2006 – 8/2007

• Delivered migration of over 800 phone lines from old PBX system to new VoIP service, meeting all scope, time and budget objectives.

• Completed feasibility study leading to the choice of Pinnacle software to replace several legacy applications to manage design, field services, inventory, plant management, finance and helpdesk support.

• Directed transition of the Earth Institute’s email and file storage from their internal IT department to CUIT (Columbia University IT).

eFashion Solutions – Secaucus, NJ   4/2006 – 12/2006

Interim CTO
All aspects of strategic IT planning and IT operations including networking, systems, budgeting, partnerships, personnel, implementation and support including supply chain management, ERP, eCommerce, warehouse systems, application support, helpdesk, website development, administrative computing (Financial Accounting System, HRIS). 20 direct reports, several contractors and a multi-million dollar budget.

• Acquired $17 million dollars of private equity funding for the company.
• Created and tested first corporate business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
• Improved custom supply-chain and customer service management and data warehousing applications.
• Realized $60,000 in savings by renegotiating eCommerce website hosting contract as well as ISP contracts for corporate office.
• Selected and implemented scalable multi-terabyte storage area network in 3 months at a very competitive price.
• Upgraded and re-organized company data center, network and website.
• Increased helpdesk performance 85% by implementing an open-source, web-based helpdesk application.
• Established disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

New York Botanical Garden – Bronx, NY  1/2004 – 4/2006

Director of Information Technology
Strategic IT planning and operations, budgeting, voice/data networking, systems implementation and support, library technology, partnerships, personnel, helpdesk, website development, enterprise, scientific and academic computing.

• Major upgrades to NYBG website (including establishing first NYBG flickr group) and computer network.
• Library’s online public access catalog (OPAC) system and digital archiving systems.
• Raiser’s Edge fundraising software.
• Setup cold site on campus for disaster recovery/business continuity planning.
• Migrated several database applications to the web.
• Redesigned and consolidated several websites into a single hosted solution with a custom content-management system.
• Developed new, custom-built enterprise management software for NYBG Press.
• Implemented new course catalog/registration system for Adult Education, Graduate Program, Children’s Education and School of Professional Horticulture.
• Implemented new visitor services application suite with wireless connectivity.
• Established disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
• Implemented a multi-terabyte fixed content archive to store over seven million Herbarium specimens.

American Museum of Natural History – NY, NY     1/2002 – 12/2003

Assistant Director of IT   
Responsible for applications support, implementation and development for the Museum’s sixty scientific, administrative and educational departments.

Example applications include: Storage Area Network, Ceridian HR/Payroll, ServiceCenter helpdesk application, MeetingMaker, Oracle Financials, Pledgemaker fundraising software, IMAP mail system, Enterprise backups/tape library and LDAP directory. 

• Delivered NYC Gov’t procurement process for acquiring Museum’s first Storage Area Network.
• Converted multiple legacy database systems to unified web-based application stack including Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP to assist the Museum collections managers in tracking millions of museum specimens.
• Negotiated support and licensing contracts with third-party IT vendors.
• 6 FTE, several independent contractors and vendor resources.
• Oversaw the acquisition and administration of application server, storage and backup hardware and software.
• Participated in IT product development, strategic planning, network security, disaster recovery and business continuity planning.

VA Linux Systems, Inc. – Boston, MA   2/1997 – 1/2002

Director, Systems Engineering  

• Staff of 25 systems engineers in the US, Canada and Europe, providing hardware, software and professional services support to VA Linux Systems customers in the US, Canada and Europe.
• Reduced operating costs for the System Engineering LOB an average of 20% per quarter by allocating SE resources to Professional Services projects.
• Provided pre-sales technical support for sale of VA’s Linux hardware and software including systems tuning, rack mounted- high availability/high performance clusters, load balancing, storage products, remote management and cluster management.
• Managed installation, post-sales technical support and fulfillment of professional services contracts, including managed services contracts.

 New Mass Media, Inc. – Hatfield, MA   3/1994 – 2/1997

Internet Services Manager    

• Developed digitization process and web-presence for six newspapers.
• Created web/digital solutions for publishing company with multiple revenue streams (events, advertising and product sales).
• Hired and managed staff of web application developers, designers and systems administrators. Supervised five permanent staff and numerous small groups of contractors in Romania, Ukraine and Hungary.
• Managed projects of database development (front and back-end) and graphic design.Managed strategic IT planning and information architecture.

EDUCATION

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY – Pittsburgh, PA; MFA
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN – Ann Arbor, MI; BA  

SKILLS

LinkedIn:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/jfreeman

PERSONAL/PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES PROVIDED UPON REQUEST