Experience

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  The Kineton Group, Inc.

  • Calgary, Canada Area

  • Consulting Principal

    • Sep 2002 - Present
    • Calgary, Canada Area

    Provides business analysis, project management, transformation management, government relations, and business development expertise to private and public sector clients. Recent assignments include: • Providing marketing, transition management, contractual, project planning, and execution consulting on large ($50+ million) infrastructure services outsourcing engagements in the energy and public sectors. • Developed and implemented the program plan (7 programs, 143 distinct projects) for systems implementation in preparation for operational readiness of a $9+ billion oil sands mining and upgrading facility as CNRL’s Manager, Horizon Applications. • Performed assessments of the Government of Alberta’s implementation of its financial and identity management programs. Developed program governance model template including an innovative opportunity analysis process. Established the Government of Alberta’s Voice Over Internet Protocol Transformation program office. • At the request of the Board, served as interim CEO of a start-up web services company and reviewed product viability; shut down the company without legal challenges. • Provided marketing consulting to a security, risk and compliance assessment application development company, Initiated the company’s United States operations by opening a sales and operations office in Washington DC. • Developed the global marketing strategy for a health surveillance information warehouse product. • Provided government affairs, health sector, and public policy alignment consulting to SAP AG, the world’s largest ERP (integrated financial management) software vendor.

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  Government of British Columbia, Canada

  • Deputy Minister and CIO

    • May 2001 - Sep 2002

    • Key participant in the planning and execution of the most extensive downsizing of government in Canadian history (35% of total staff). Developed the plan and a “dashboard” to track performance to plan.• Restructured the Chief Information Officer (CIO) function to focus on strategic uses of information, legislation, policy, education, and initiatives specifically selected by Premier. The Province of BC invested approximately $700 million on information technology per year at that time.• Negotiated compromise with the Privacy Commissioner to amend legislation to support inter-Ministry use of personal information.• Developed the Premier's electronic government strategy and established a single Enterprise Portal foundation including security gateway, integration broker, common directory service and common financial interface. BC was recognized (Accenture study commissioned by the Ontario government, 2001) as the Canadian leader in electronic government.

  • Executive Director, HealthNet/BC

    • May 1999 - May 2001

    • Led policy and applications development initiative to enable employers to register and change their employees’ information in the BC Medical Services Plan (2.5 million members) over the internet.• Developed the national (Canadian) award winning health data warehouse integrating information encompassing regional care, hospital, ambulance, continuing care, mental health, preventative care and vital statistics.• Led an organizational development initiative resulting in restructuring IT functions to utilize the “centre-of-excellence” model. Successfully outsourced the Ministry’s application maintenance and operations functions in a highly unionized environment under a socialist government.

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  Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

  • CIO

    • Sep 1994 - Jun 1998

    • Developed and performed the chief information officer function in a decentralized, sixteen-unit research and education environment (world’s largest). Directed central services organization that included electronic outreach, photography, printing, and information technology. • Developed and promoted the award winning text, image, and video public “web” capability recognized as one of the premier services on internet.• Developed an Institution-wide internal “web” capability linked to news services, external sites, and internal capabilities such as telephone book, policies, forms, library, help desk, and software distribution.• Sponsored high visibility distance learning initiatives and negotiated partnering agreements including one to transmit teacher training modules into 2,000 K-12 schools and another to co-sponsor the 21st Century Classroom Project with the Council of Great City Schools.• Implemented new financial management and accounting systems (ERP) in anticipation of Year 2000.• Constructed National Mall fiber backbone connecting all museums for voice, data, and video.• Reorganized the struggling central information technology group into highly focused services, infrastructure management, and systems engineering organization. Eliminated two management layers and outsourced several utility functions.

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  Saudi Arabian Ministry of Defence

  • Division Manager, Computer Services

    • Jan 1991 - Aug 1994

    • Recruited during the uncertainty preceding the first Gulf War to direct the extensive information technology capability supporting the construction and operation of the Kingdom's 28 military and civilian airports. Stabilized and extensively upgraded the infrastructure on a “crisis” timeline. Personally re-staffed 30% of the positions in a multi-national group of over 100.• Facilitated a series of structured strategic planning workshops with executive management resulting in initiation of eight priority programs to improve business operations of the Ministry. Served as the ongoing co-coordinator of the resulting projects.• Implemented the first installation of local area network (LAN) technology in the Ministry. Developed all supporting LAN service organizations including management, administration, and "help desk".• Saved $500,000 per year in maintenance costs alone by consolidating two IBM MVS data centres. • Re-engineered management processes including change control, problem management, service request procedures, and asset control. Automated these by utilizing workgroup software.

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  University of Maryland System

  • Director of Administrative Computing and Telecommunications

    • May 1989 - Jan 1991

    • Directed the voice, data, and video network (administration and academic) and administrative information technology groups during contentious merger of the 14 campus university and state college systems (100,000 full time and 250,000 part time students in total).• Rationalized and optimized two central administration groups into single unit eliminating 11 positions. Established the project management office, quality management, data administration, and information centre functions without increasing staff levels.• After establishing central CIO function and shared services organization, directed decentralization of remaining information technology functions to campuses.• Chaired the steering committee on System-wide financial and management control systems (ERP) implementation. The governance structure was selected by Gartner Group for a “best practices” case study.

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  MCI Telecommunications, Washington DC

  • Various Director Level

    • Aug 1985 - May 1989

    • Recruited shortly after the landmark deregulation of the US telecommunications industry in late 1984 and helped foster, and manage, the exponential corporate growth throughout the decade. Business Management magazine selected MCI as one of the 4 best managed companies in the Fortune 500 in 1989.• Supported asset base of over $1 billion in 5 data centres and 524 locations while corporate growth rates averaged over 30% per year. Computerworld magazine selected MCI as the most effective user of information technology in Fortune 500 in 1989.• Consolidated separately managed point-to-point data networks connecting 500 locations onto a single, high capacity, backbone network. Reduced costs 35% over two years.• Saved $2,000,000 per year by redefining voice network strategy taking advantage of newly developed company products. Reduced both cost and outside dependencies.• Sponsored project to prototype automated operations using remote console capabilities and robotic tape handling. After proving the capability, implemented the company’s first “dim” data centre.• Established a centralized systems development group and moved applications systems support from division to corporate locations. Reduced staffing from 350 to 150 without loss of capability.

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  Public Service

  • Various Boards, Task Forces, and Groups

    • 1900 - 1901

    • Elected (2006) to Vice Chair, Wood Buffalo Library Board• Appointed (2005) to the Wood Buffalo Library Board.• Elected (2005) to Chair, Planned Giving Committee, Chinook Scout Foundation.• Appointed (2004) to the Board of Directors, Chinook Scout Foundation.• Appointed (2000) to advisory committee for the Strategies for Public Sector Transformation conference series. Appointed Chair of this committee in 2001. This series brought leading thinkers (such as Janet Reno, Alvin Toffler, Nicholas Negroponte, and Donald Tapscott) to British Columbia for a series of highly acclaimed conferences aimed at change agents in the public sector.• Scout Leader (1997-2005). Specialized in winter camping and survival skills.• Appointed (1996) to the Business School Advisory Council, American University, Washington DC. The council focused on curriculum development and institutional outreach.• Appointed (1996) by the Maryland Governor to the Technology Investment Fund Oversight Committee. From modest beginnings, this self-replenishing fund grew to dispense $100 million of grants and loan guarantees per year for bio and information technology initiatives.• Appointed (1994, 1996) to the Maryland Information Technology Board. Chaired by the Governor, the Board served as a subset of cabinet with four external members. This body approved all significant technology initiatives and independently commissioned several key strategic studies.• Appointed (1995) to Maryland Citizen Information Technology Education Committee. The committee (composed equally of citizens and elected representatives) sponsored an information technology literacy campaign in the State.• Appointed (1995) by Governor to Maryland Welfare System Task Force. The Task Force served as the primary point of governance for Maryland’s successful move from “welfare” to “workfare”.•