Welcome to my site.
I currently live in Holden, Massachusetts and have been there for almost 30 years. I came to Worcester in 1982 to pursue an Applied Math degree at Clark University (I actually came wanting to be a marine biologist, but cell biology killed that dream!). My first job after Clark was at Hanover Insurance as an Actuary. It was there I found my love for technology and my love for life - my wife Anne.
I’ve always considered myself a problem solver
Overview
I have been blessed with the experience of starting a few companies. In the first, I was more of an active participant than an owner but the next three I was the founder (which means at some point I did everything from clean bathrooms to raise $16M in capital). Here are few of the highlights - sorry, but this part reads like a resumé.
I consider myself a highly experienced senior executive who has demonstrated the ability to successfully lead a corporation to significant growth and profitability.
Co-Founder of a $25M insurance solutions provider (Blue Cod Technologies) and senior member of a start-up insurance company (The Covenant Group) that grew to $55M.
I believe I have strong technical and business qualifications with 25+ years of hands-on experience in strategic development, corporate planning and budgeting, enterprise software development, systems design and implementation, and product development.
A proven ability to successfully analyze a corporation's critical business requirements, identify deficiencies and potential opportunities, and deliver innovative services in a cost-effective manner for enhancing competitiveness, increased revenues, and improved customer service offerings and customer satisfaction.
Significant experience dealing with business partners, vendor partners, outsourcing and SaaS solutions.
Technical
I have spent a large amount of my professional career transforming data into information within an organization. We are inundated today with a lot of data coming from both external and internal sources. However, data is often useless unless organized both visually and collectively. In my early career as a Software Engineer, I accomplished this through the development of intuitive applications. Later, this transformed into the development of artificial intelligence systems that organized data into meaningful actionable tasks. Today, as an entrepreneur, I have been able to boil operational components down to measurable KPIs and have a visual dashboard to guide my decisions.
My current programming experience is with the Microsoft platform specifically with C#. However, through the many years of my career, I have used several different languages to accomplish the task at hand. The first application I wrote back in 1986 was in DOS! So, I have a great appreciation for the evolution of programming languages over the past 30+ years.
My technical experience branches out from software into databases and networks. I have a very strong understanding of data structures and the technical management of databases. Again, my strengths are in the Microsoft world and using SQL Server. But I have found that in order to be an effective software developer, one must have a very strong understanding of how data lives and how to manipulate it to present the question at hand.
I am also comfortable around hardware and networks. I have constructed many networks from the ground up and have spent a fair amount of time configuring firewalls in order to keep the bad guys out! Even today as an owner of a coworking space, I have implemented a secure network for my customers using the latest networking technology of Wi-Fi and firewalls.
Being an owner of a start-up company, I have been forced to learn a lot. All of my past experiences have given me the ability to understand the complete technical environment. I can build you a computer, build you a network, connect you to the internet, protect you with a firewall and then develop software for you to do your work. I think there are very few people in the industry that have this breadth of knowledge.
Areas of interest and Studies
I have always had an interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Back in the mid-1990s I was developing in one of the emerging languages using AI. It was an amazing experience and I have been hooked ever since. During the years of my tech company, I developed an AI-like rules engine that enabled the end user to feed it business logic, and then the engine would process business based on this logic. This was an incredible tool that propelled our customers years ahead of their competition using this simple AI engine we built. Today, I am learning how to develop machine learning logic using R as a programming language. Machine learning has unparalleled potential in the business community and will be what sets businesses apart in competing in their markets.
Cyber security is also a hot topic in our world today. I have been responsible in the past for managing this threat, but it is ever changing. So, I am currently studying to take the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification exam to stay current with my understanding of this topic.
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