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Mark Phillips
mark@markphillips.com

SUMMARY

I have an unusually wide experience set for a technology professional, encompassing nearly all aspects of Internet-based computing, from data centers to network security to SaaS and SOA based application architectures and software development. All of my experience since 1989 has emphasized the Internet, making me an early adopter of what is now the dominant technology vision. I believe my major talent is for the leadership of technology teams with higher than average productivity. We all work within organizations; I have an unusual knack for building them, or fixing broken ones.

EXPERIENCE

2010 - Present
Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture
Epocrates, Inc.
San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Responsible for Platform Services and Engineering Operations, an umbrella of multiple teams who between them are maturing an enterprise platform rapidly evolving from an earlier business model to SaaS:

• Platform Services designs and implements the Service Oriented Architecture underlying our shift to SaaS. This is a fundamental architectural enabler being implemented at a very aggressive pace. I built the group, which includes the company's most senior developers, in a very short time, leading to on-time Beta and GA deliveries of the company's new flagship product; led the architecture design; designed and developed the initial suite of services; and implemented HIPAA-level security at the core of the architecture.
• Release Engineering are transitioning from legacy manual build & deploy processes to full automation across all products via the BuildMaster release automation tool. Our vision of "release reform" includes new technical practices such as dependency management via Ivy & Maven, as well as streamlined decision and process workflows across the business.
• PMO are transitioning from enablers of the waterfall to global problem-solvers spanning organizational boundaries. They're leading the migration to Agile including adoption of the Rally Agile automation suite; driving business process changes while automating build & release; and intervening to streamline workflows throughout the department.
• Quality Engineering are evolving from manual to automated testing of all products, including tight integration with Platform Services and Release Engineering to ensure that the architecture and the processes owned by those groups are test-automatable.

Additionally responsible for the Engineering Department's Strategic Quality Initiative; and chair our cross-functional Best Practices Working Group.

Current direct reports are three Directors and one Manager. Indirectly manage approximately 60 employees both onsite and offshore.

2005 - 2010
Senior Consultant
San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Assisted clients with Internet-based application architecture and engineering projects. Clients included SRA, Google, Macrovision, Revenuebase, Cal State East Bay, Middletone, Aptimus, the Defense Manpower Data Center, SmartMonsters, Kudols, Epocrates, and others. Projects encompassed product design; application architecture; Java and J2EE development; server infrastructure design; network security auditing; technology planning assistance for executive management; project management; hiring and mentoring. Examples: designed, developed and delivered the RBEvents product for Revenuebase, a high-profile project completed on time and on budget; assisted Middletone with the Alpha and Private Beta phases of their jaxtr IP telephony product; assisted Cal State East Bay with a re-design of online resources for instructors; assisted the Defense Manpower Data Center with a major migration of legacy systems to J2EE; and served as startup CTO for Kudols.

2003 - 2005
Senior Consultant
Senior Software Architect
Macrovision, Inc.
Santa Clara, CA

Macrovision (now Flexera) is a leader in digital rights management with approximately 300 employees worldwide. Designed and completed an ambitious J2EE/JSP-based deliverable for the Global Consulting Services group ahead of deadline; then co-architected the J2EE-based redesign of the company's enterprise software licensing infrastructure, including the new FLEXnet Manager product -- a multi-year project building the next generation of a core product line. Version 1.0 shipped on time and budget, winning the Codie award for Best Digital Rights Management Solution in 2004. In 2004 I was awarded the company's "Above and Beyond" special recognition award for my work on FLEXnet Manager and other products. Later in 2004, transferred to the Global Consulting Services group, where I designed and implemented integration and customization solutions for customers around the world.

2001 - 2003
Chief Technology Officer
SmartMonsters, Inc.
San Francisco, CA

SmartMonsters pioneers next-generation multiuser role-playing games, which I believe are an emerging form of literature. As CTO, I brought SmartMonsters' flagship product to market a full quarter ahead of schedule and 40% under budget.

SmartMonsters' Java infrastructure is significant: over 15,000 classes in all. The flagship product, TriadCity, is an n-tier design in which Swing applet clients communicate with a cloud of highly-scalable all-Java servers. The approach combines Java's NIO selector-based networking with a cooperative server topology providing unlimited scalability, a key enabler of the potentially infinite virtual "world" it hosts. The code makes extensive use of design patterns such as the "Strategy" pattern for reliability, extensibility, and dynamic runtime flexibility. Considerable emphasis is placed on AI techniques including automatons with emergent behaviors; QA robots; and chatterbots. The application design emphasizes speed and robustness, and will easily accommodate thousands of concurrent players.

The project is an artistic as well as technological success. TriadCity is cited by The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism as its culminating example of Postmodernist literature.

2000 - 2001
Management Consultant
San Francisco, CA

Independent management consultant assisting Bay Area firms with a wide spectrum of projects:

• Technology due diligence management for clients contemplating multimillion dollar vendor relationships.
• Technology needs assessment, matching technology choices to client business objectives and organizational cultures.
• Merger and acquisition management, integrating organizations with disparate technology bases and management cultures.
• Recruitment, from formulation of job descriptions to resume screens to the full interview cycle.
• Data center migration from legacy in-house operations to state of the art first-tier collocation sites.
• Network and host security architectures, including monitoring, intrusion detection systems, and intrusion response policies.

Customers included Key3Media, gloss.com, SmartAge.com, Softbank Forums, SmartMonsters, and others.

1998 - 2000
Senior Director of International Technologies
Senior Director of Product Development
SmartAge.com
San Francisco, CA

SmartAge.com was a leader of the business-to-small-business space during the dot-com boom. We were a pioneer of the SaaS model, providing Web-based solutions to customers numbered in the millions. Of approximately 300 employees, I was employee number seven.

Recruited and led the company's technology organization during the startup phase; formulated technology strategies including platforms, languages, and architectures; managed application development, MIS systems, vendor relationships, and desktop support; designed and implemented the company's data center and enterprise security infrastructures; architected and developed the technology solutions underlying many of the company's major products; internationalized the whole kit and caboodle; and integrated acquired proprietary technologies. Fruits of this experience included over a million customers and $50M in venture funding during the first year. All of these projects were delivered on time and budget.

1997 - 1998
Director of Application Development
Ziff-Davis Comdex & Forums
Foster City, CA

Ziff-Davis Comdex & Forums (now Media Live International) was the largest producer of computer industry trade shows and educational conferences in the world, hosting 2,200,00 IT industry attendees in 1997. The company produced Comdex, NetWorld + Interop, the Java Internet Business Expo, Windows NT Intranet Solutions, Seybold, the Domino Web Developers Conference, and many others.

Directed the Information Engineering group, charged with in-house application development as well as traditional MIS data systems. Expanded the group from 7 to 27 on both coasts; designed advanced next-generation systems based on CORBA/IIOP, Java, Sybase, the Web, Notes/Domino, and others; and assisted in the merger of disparate organizations with contrasting cultures. Applications included event registration, attendee housing, inventory management, sales, lead retrieval, and financials.

1994 - 1997
Director of Advanced Technologies
Manager Of Network Services
Manager of Open Systems
Collegis, Inc.
San Francisco, CA; Chevy Chase, MD; and other locations

Collegis is a national information systems management outsourcing firm specializing in higher education. The company manages IS departments at 30 colleges and universities throughout the country. Clients I worked with included the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Golden Gate University, Menlo College; the College of Notre Dame; Stanford University; and many others.

At Collegis I was most commonly tasked with design and integration of clients' next-generation computing environments. At this time, "next generation" meant standards-based, interoperable, multi-vendor frameworks largely centered on the Internet Protocols: a very radical skill set for 1994 which is now all but ubiquitous. This experience spans a broad range of systems, projects, and customers.

1989 - 1994
Network and Database Systems Independent Contractor
San Francisco Bay Area

Designed and implemented TCP/IP and AppleTalk networks and networked database systems, and managed technical projects for businesses, law firms and libraries throughout the Bay Area, with an emphasis on Internet connectivity, e-mail, electronic bulletin board systems, WAIS, gopher, and (1993-94) the Web.

1975 - 1989
Business and Nonprofit Management

Founded and/or managed successful enterprises in both commercial and nonprofit arenas. Professional hats worn at different times included: nonprofit CEO; nonprofit CFO; nonprofit fundraising manager; recording studio owner; multimedia developer; and others.

Migrated toward networked information systems after learning to appreciate the potential these technologies have for accomplishing many of the same aims which had drawn me to nonprofits -- essentially, improving people's lives. IS management and modernization became my principal focus in the nonprofit world, from which I branched out in 1989.

SKILLS

Management:

Organization building and repair; recruiting; technology needs and risk assessment; technology due diligence; vendor relationship management; data center and infrastructure management; application development management; SaaS; SOA.

Languages and Language-Based Standards:

Java; J2EE including Servlets, JSP, JSTL, JNDI, JDBC and so on; SOAP and XSLT; UML; Ant; JUnit; Struts; Maven; Ivy; OO design patterns; HTML; SQL; LDAP; various UNIX dialects.

Applications:

Oracle; Orion EJB application server; Tomcat; Apache Web Server; Jetty; BuildMaster; Rally; Jira; Eclipse; Oracle Designer; Toad; Nimsoft; ActiveMQ; Mule; various SNMP-based network management systems; and a bunch of others.

Network Protocols:

TCP/IP; IIOP; Java RMI; HTTP; ATM; Frame Relay; FDDI; ISDN; AppleTalk; flat and switched Ethernet; SMTP; DNS; SNMP; NIS/NFS/PCNFS; JDBC; SSL; LANE; X-Windows; and all the usual suspects.

Operating Systems:

Linux; Solaris; Windows; Mac.

REFERENCES

Please see my LinkedIn profile for more than a dozen very kind recommendations from colleagues and clients.

PUBLICATIONS

A number of my prose fiction pieces have been published in leading online literary "zines." In November 2002, I was The Blue Moon Review's first-ever guest blogger. I've been "cyberbard" for SmartMonsters since 1999. My travel writing and photography has been published internationally. I am currently (November, 2005) preparing my first photography exhibition.

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