• Skills
• Experience
• Key Projects
• Hobbies/Interests
• Education
• References
• Complete Client List
• Blog

Outstanding project leadership, problem solving, crisis management, and communication skills.

Decisive, a self-starter, driven, exacting and demanding.

Well organized, self disciplined, analytical, confident and an imaginative problem solver.

Summary

I have been writing web-based applications since 1992, primarily self-taught as a result. Since then, I have developed many web sites and web-based applications, being involved in every stage of the development cycle: requirements, analysis, design, development, testing, deployment, management.

I have been managing technical teams since 1996, and heading up digital/interactive departments for small boutique agencies and large global agencies since 2001, managing department production budgets in excess on $2 million.

My technical skills include a strong knowledge of web application development using PHP (including PHP 5), SQL, Perl, Java/JSP (J2SE, J2EE) and XML. I have also worked with and deployed applications on most of the modern operating systems, including Windows servers, Linux, MacOS and IRIX(SGI). Since 2007, I have been working closely with social media and mobile marketing campaigns.

I was a senior instructor at Centennial College for 10 years in their continuing education programmes. I developed and taught the curriculum for their Web Development Certificates, and I sat on the program advisory committee for an Information Architecture post graduate program.

Skills

Bilingual: English, French

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Experience

Sharpe Blackmore Euro RSCG
VP Digital
January 2005 to Present
Manage the technical and project management teams for all digital work. Oversee PMO standards, requirements gathering, database modeling, code architecture, core programming, and deployment while keeping future goals (the 'Big Picture') into consideration for scalability. I consult regularly with the creative & account service teams to suport their digital pitches. Project managers consult with me for project estimates, statements of work and timelines. I manage an annual production budget of over $2 million. Major clients are Home Hardware, Kraft, Intel, Volvo, Hersheys, Fidelity, Schering-Plough, GSK.

Technical Writer
May 2004 to Present
I wrote many technical documents for my students ove rteh 10 years I was teaching, but have recently begun writing a blog. I have been published in PHP|Architect Magazine and online at oreilly.com (August 5th, 2004 by O'Reilly at the OnLamp). I also write technical documents in my day to day job.

TorPUG (Toronto PHP Users Group)
January 2002 to 2007
TorPUG (formerly TWADG) was a small developers group based in Toronto. I founded this group mainly to help support students in a peer environment. The meetings were held at Centennial College on a monthly basis. This group no longer meets.

Contract
July 2002 to 2005
Please see the key projects section below for more information.

Protium Creative Inc.
Technical Director
April 2000 to June 2002
Developed all new media projects, as well as the company's network and systems architecture. This consisted mainly of database driven web sites, and the occasional CD-ROM. Our primary application server platform was PHP, but I did some work with ASP and JSP. Most of the database work was driven by MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and Access.
During my time there, some of the applications I developed were a Perl-based email deployment system, a complete web-based content management system, and many database-driven web sites.

Centennial College, the Centre for Creative Communications
Senior Instructor
October 1995 to Present
Developing and maintaining their Web Programming Certificate, teaching many of the courses. Courses include: CGI with Perl, Intro to Java, Advanced Java, JavaScript, Advanced JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, XML. Also developed the curriculum for these courses. I sit on the program advisory committee for their upcoming Information Architecture graduate program (for which I will also be teaching).

Mixed Media
New Media Consultant
August 1998 to January 2000
Hired to support their new media needs. They were expanding their business to include CD-ROM and web development services for their current client base. Designed and set up their network infrastructure, and consulted on all new media jobs. Also worked on the production of most of their new media projects, mostly digital speaker support and CGI/Perl work for the web with some streaming video work.

Interactivity Inc.
Director of Technology
February 1992 to August 1998
Developed many web-based applications and CD-ROM/multimedia presentations. Worked on a CD-ROM that was featured in Studio magazine, developed a proprietary relational flat-file database written in Perl, and built online shopping carts. Also set up and maintained their network and systems architecture.

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Key Contract Projects

Euro Framework
The Euro Framework (the topic of an article published in the March 2006 issue of php|architect) is a PHP code library that allows for rapid development of web applications. The team has found that maintaining a site written on top of this framework saves quite a bit of time. Development & maintenance time has been reduced by about 30% on average compared to work done prior to the framework's implementation. Estimating development time has also been much more reliable when quoting for a new project.

GAIA
GAIA is a framework/API written in PHP 5 to aid in the rapid development of web applications. GAIA uses a system of modules to implement the business logic in the application. The presentation layer uses a combination of XML and XSLT to truly separate presentation from the code. The framework uses a handler/front controller, which delegates requests to relevant modules after both validating submitted data and validating the user. It also uses DataObjects to form the data access layer. More info can be found at TorPUG.

SynergyPath
This was an on-going project focused on developing on-line communities. I performed the analysis and design for this project, also taking on the role of technical lead. The main goals for this very large project were a unified login/membership system and content deliverable to various devices and systems. We chose to use XML to represent our content, using XSLT to transform the XML into HTML for browsers and SOAP to deliver paid content via web service.

Elist
Elist was prototype for a web-based e-mail deployment and list management tool. It used a MySQL/PHP back-end to manage the process of e-mail deployment and the e-mail lists, but used a robust custom built Java deployment service to deploy an e-mail campaign. The system managed not only the lists, but also tracked bounce-backs, click-throughs and views. It generated reports that let the user analyze trends in their e-mail campaigns.

9Net
This is a process and file management system for a television production company. I was brought in as technical lead. It requires many levels of access to determine user permissions, with extensive file upload and management capabilities. Every step of the production cycle is managed by this system, allowing large teams of people to successfully collaborate together online, sharing files and ideas. This system went live in September 2003.

MMSDirect
Performed the analysis and design for their ProManage 2.0 production management system. Worked with their programmer to engineer the best coding practices and class/object structure to get the job done right, making it as scalable as possible. Written in PHP with a MySQL and Access back end, I also coded a couple of the modules for this product.

Toronto PHP Users Group
I organized and ran this Toronto based developers group. A handful of developers met on a regular basis to develop useful web-based applications. The meetings were held at Centennial College, the Centre for Creative Communications usually on a bi-weekly basis. All projects were developed as open source, released under the GPL program. We built a PHP API called Gaia, used to make developing web apps easier, quicker, and cleaner. Our last project was a GAIA based content management system (CMS).

Merisel Sellutions
Designed and developed the first version of their Sellutions extranet, targeted to their value added resellers. With a valid login/password, the VAR could log into the system and search for computer hardware based on a multitude of criteria (such as number of PCI slots, amount of RAM, network card, etc). This made it easier for their VARs to find relevant products for their customers. Before this, their VARs would waste a lot of time manually searching through a very big catalog, marking relevant pages and compiling information. This was released in 1995, before the term extranet was coined.

Toronto French School
Developed a database driven, module based, client managed web site. A complete custom content management tool was created to make updates, changes and additions easy for the average employee of the school: no knowledge of HTML required. It was written in PHP, making extensive use of its object model, with a MySQL back end. Released in 2002.

iOnView
A Java Swing based client that uses the HTTP protocol to connect to a custom J2EE servlet that queries and delivers laboratory analysis data from a Microsoft SQL Server database. It is actually part of a larger product called OnlineLIMS, software that laboratories use to capture and analyze their data. iOnView opens up selected data from their system through their firewall, so their clients can see analysis results remotely. Prior to this product, results were faxed or emailed to the client by request. Now, they can simply log in to see their data. Released in 2003.

Scotts Canada Image Bank
Scotts Canada needed a way for retailers to get images to use in their ads. Previously, retailers consulted a printed book, compiled a list of needed images, and were sent a CD-ROM with the images they requested. Now, they can log into the system, browse product shots, drop them into their basket (similar to a shopping cart system), then download a zipped file of all their images. Written in PHP/MySQL and Java to create the zip file. Released in 2001.

E-mail Deployment Programs for Compaq/HP Canada
Compaq/HP Canada often needed to get out e-mail based communications for their internal staff, their retailers and their customers on short notice. Systems were developed using both Perl and PHP/MySQL to quickly deploy and track e-mail. Perl is used as the deployment engine, while PHP/MySQL is used to manage and track the e-mails. The system could track when and how many times an e-mail was viewed, as well as click-throughs and bounce-backs. The system could deploy text and HTML e-mail.

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Hobbies/Interests

• Kayaking
• Open Source Projects
• Skiing
• Climbing
• Music
• Skating (ice & inline)
• Camping with the wife and kids
• Member of the East York Rotary Club
• Scout Leader

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Education

Harris Institute for the Arts, Toronto, 1991-1992
Diploma in Audio Engineering

Algoma University, Sault Ste Marie 1990-1991
1st Year Business Administration

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References

References supplied upon request.

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Complete Client & Brand List