ITIL v3 Certified and PMP Certified Senior Technology Consultant /
Senior Project Manager / Program Manager in
IT Security, IT Infrastructure Management,
Data Center Operations & Development, IT Change Management,
Application System Development, Technical Service Development,
and Service Management

(U.S. Citizen and U.S. Air Force Veteran having previously been
cleared DoD Secret Security Clearance and a Top Secret Security Clearance)
August 2010

SUMMARY:

Mr. Slater's career has been characterized by both professional excellence and high quality work performance. He leads by example and is a results-oriented, people-oriented technical manager who can effectively build, lead, and motivate high performance teams. He has a coaching-mentoring style of leadership. Mr. Slater has worked in some of the world’s most demanding IT environments; among these are British Petroleum, the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Microsoft, Technisource, and the United States Air Force. Each of these environments presented unique, high-pressure, high-visibility challenges that not only required intelligence, skills, experience and integrity, but they were demanding in ways that required creativity, adaptability and flexibility. Mr. Slater possesses exceptional technical and leadership skills, and is a well-rounded IT professional who can quickly adapt to and add great value to any organization.

OBJECTIVE:

Experienced Senior IT Project Manager, certified in PMP, CISSP, CISA, ITIL, MCSE, MCITP, and MCSD, available for technical project work or a full-time position in positions related to Data Centers, other IT infrastructure, IT Security, ITIL-based Service Management, and/or Application Development. I will be instrumental in helping my organization maintain a strategic, competitive edge by providing strong, positive leadership and driving excellent performance in the teams, projects, and services I manage in order to maximize the business value to the organization. This position should be challenging, provide project and/or program leadership opportunity, additional opportunities for growth, and be recognized as making a vital contribution to the organization.

EDUCATION:

Master of Business Administration (MBA) Program (in progress), University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ.

In Progress. Over 80% completed and expect to graduate by October 2010. Current GPA is approximately 3.77

Data Center Technology Program, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY

Graduated and Awarded a Certified Data Center Professional (CDCP) Certificate in March 2008. GPA 3.78

M.S. in Computer Information Systems, University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ.

Graduated in October 2004. GPA 3.92

B.S. Engineering Technology, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN

Major: Computer Systems Technology, Graduated Cum Laude

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS:

Organization	Certification(s)
PMI	Project Management Professional - PMP
(ISC)²	Certified Information Systems Security Professional - CISSP	System Security Certified Practitioner - SSCP
Exin	Information Technology Infrastructure Library - ITIL Foundation v3 and v2
ISACA	Certified Information Systems Auditor - CISA
Institute of Data Center Professionals (IDCP)	Certified Data Center Professional - CDCP

Note: Information on other IT certifications available at http://billslater.com/certifications.

COMPUTER EXPERIENCE:

Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server , Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT Server, Windows Terminal Server 4.0, IOS, Citrix Metaframe 1.8, Windows NT Workstation, RedHat Linux, Fedora Linux, UBUNTU Linux, AIX 5.4L, HP-UX, VAX/VMS.

Networks and Protocols: TCP/IP, IPv4, IPv6, BGP4, EIGRP, OSPF, RIP, RIP2, Ethernet, Token Ring, HTTP, SNMP, SMTP, POP3, DNS, DHCP, NetBEUI, DLC, RAS, PPTP, PPP, IPSec, SSL, WEP, WPA, WPA2, L2TP, EAP, and RDP.

Hardware: Servers from these vendors: IBM, HP, COMPAQ, Dell Servers, Digital, RS/6000, Sun Cobalt Qube; Laptops, IBM-PC Compatibles from 8088 to Intel Core 2 Duo. Also Wireless Routers, Wireless Access Points and other wireless networking devices: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11i. Other hardware includes: Cisco VPN Concentrators, Cisco Routers, Cisco Catalyst Switches, HP-UX RISC Workstations, VAX, Network Applications NAS Storage Device (100 TB), RAID 0, 1, and RAID 5 disk arrays, network interface cards, modems, switches, hubs, SCSI, IBM 30XX, tape drives, etc.

Software and Utilities: MS Visio (certified), MS Project (certified), MS Word MS Excel, MS Access, MS PowerPoint, MS Outlook, Remedy, Microsoft Operations Manager, MS Project Server, MS Sharepoint Server, Wireshark, Channelizer, Inssider, Ethereal, BP Global Change Management System (GCMS), TCP/IP, SNORT, Nessus, PuTTY, Samba Server, DNS, DHCP, WINS, Active Directory, FTP Server, NMAP, MS Exchange Server, MS Internet Information Server, HP OpenView Network Node Manager, HP OpenView Desktop Administrator, Network Associates Sniffer, MS FrontPage, Compaq Insight Manager, Citrix Metaframe, MS Internet Explorer, PaintShop Pro, Norton 360, Norton Anti-Virus, McAfee VirusScan, BackupExec, CA ArcServIT, WS_FTP32.

Databases: SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2000, Oracle, Oracle Rdb, MS Access, PARADOX, IDMS/R.

Networking Devices: Hubs, switches (managed and unmanaged), 802.11b/g/n routers and wireless access points, Riverbed Steelhead devices, CSU/DSU’s, DSL Modems, Cisco Routers, Cisco Switches, VPN Concentrators, Ethernet network interface cards, and 802.11a/b/g/n network interface cards.

Development Tools and Platforms: Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), ASP, ASP.NET, IIS, Visual Studio 2003, 2005, and 2008, Visual Basic 6, PERL, Java, Java J2EE, C#, C++, VBScript, JavaScript, KIXStart, UML, XML, HTML, SQL, PARADOX Application Language, C, FORTRAN, COBOL.

Data Center Automation Tasks, Tools & Experience:

Have used several tools to automate the management of tasks required to efficiently manage a modern Data Center. Visit http://billslater.com/datacentermanager/WFS_Data_Center_Automation_Tasks_and_Tools_2009_.htm for a complete three-page list of Tasks and Tools.

Service Management Methodologies / Frameworks: ITIL v3, ITIL v2, COBIT

System Development Methodologies: RAD, RUP, MethodOne, SDLC, Waterfall.

Project Management Methodologies: PMI PMBOK, PMBOK Lite, BP, Customized Project Management Methodologies, MethodOne, USAF, MOCS.

Compliance Frameworks: ISO 17999, ISO 27001, SAS 70 Type II, and SOX

Social Media and Web:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/billslater

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/billslater

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/billslater

Blogspot: http://billslater.blogspot.com

Personal: http://www.billslater.com

Career: http://billslater.com/career

Certifications: http://billslater.com/certifications

WORK EXPERIENCE:

Engineering Services Network (offices in Arlington, VA) January 2010 to Present

Project Manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs (Full time position)

Working at the VA Network Security Operations Center at Hines VA in Hines, IL, leading a 14-person Tier III IT Security Support Team that provides network security and defense, analysis and problem resolution on the VA’s national IT infrastructure on a 24 x 7 basis. This enterprise IT infrastructure has over 30,000 servers and over 330,000 desktops, and has managed IT assets and data located in all 50 states.

Major Accomplishments:

Led a Visual Basic 2008 application development effort to design and develop an automated time tracking system that helped track and report on the tasks and times associated with the over 30 job functions that comprise the day-to-day responsibilities of IT Security Analysts.

Led the effort to turn around a $2.2 million Tier III IT security management project, helped win a second year for the project contract, as well as helping win an additional VA project contracts totaling more than $12 million worth.

Developed over 200 security management- related performance reports required by both the VA’s Performance Work Statement and ad hoc report requests that the VA initiated.

Developed the new Service Level Agreement metrics by which the Team’s performance would be measured and managed.

Developed the Project Transition Plan for the Year 1 to Year 2 transition for this Tier III IT Security Support Team, which included 1) new staff management plan to staff up for dual site 24 x 7 coverage for Tier III IT security support; 2) Risk management for the entire transition; and 3) a detailed schedule / plan of future performance work statement deliverables. Then helped manage the transition from the Year 1 contract to the Year 2 contract.

CSSS.NET (offices in Bellevue, NE) September 2009 to January 2010

Project Manager for the United States Air Force (Full time position)

At Peterson AFB, CO for the 561^st Network Operations Squadron, formed and led a 12-person Team to accomplish an ITIL v3 IT Services Management implementation for a branch of the United States Military. This ITIL service management implementation was designed to introduce ITIL v3 service management as well as continuous service improvement processes to every facet of their global infrastructure, and when it is completed, it will be the world’s largest full-scale pure ITIL v3 implementation.

Technisource Corporation, Itasca IL November 2008 to March 2009

Technical Project Manager

Managed a large Data Center Migration Project for large international manufacturing company which involved a significant in-sourcing initiative where servers were being migrated from an out-sourced facility to an in-house facility. (Note: I took this temporary position knowing that the project would end in Spring 2009.)

· Chief accomplishment: Successfully reengineered, reorganized, and managed this Data Center Migration project that was 13 months behind schedule, resulting in cost savings of more than $4,290,000.

· Managed the construction of the new Data Center.

· Helped to restructure and provisioning of the WAN infrastructure, both primary and backup circuits for Internet and for MPLS circuits.

· Worked on the design of the Data Center LAN and physical Security Infrastructure.

· Helped select, qualify, and train the Team of Data Center Specialists who will permanently staff the Data Center, 24 x 7.

· Helped qualify and select a Managed Network Services Provider to monitor the network, 24 x 7.

· Assisted with planning and managing the virtualization and migration of Applications into the new Data Center.

· Server Virtualization and Refresh Efforts: Assisted with planning and managing the virtualization and migration of Applications into the new Data Center. We were required to migrate applications into new servers for the new Data Center because the old servers in the old Data Center were at the end of their useful life.

· Result: After the analysis effort, we created a design and plan for migrating 55 servers into 8 physical servers. We virtualized the old server images and placed multiple images on each of the new servers that were running ESX by VMware. The data for these servers was also migrated at the old Data Center site using a migration staging server. After the new virtualized servers were installed, there was an extensive testing effort to ensure that the newly virtualized servers performed as required to meet the customer's expectations and business needs.

· Designed and implemented an advanced WAN optimization architecture using Riverbed Steelhead devices.

· Led the development of the Service Delivery Model for the IT Organization based on ITIL Service Management.

· Participated in the qualification and selection of the Service Desk Solution and Service Desk Provider.

· Designed the Operating Model and the Operations Guides for two Data Centers based on ITIL Service Management.

· Led the effort to create viable Disaster Recovery Plan and get it updated for two primary operational Data Center sites.

· Created all standardized Data Center Reports for two Data Centers.

· Managed the launch, education and Control Monitoring Initiative to bring the two Data Centers into Compliance under ISO 17999, ISO 27001, SAS 70 Type II, and SOX. Also utilized COBIT guidelines.

· Wrote the IT Security Plan required to manage security for two Data Centers.

· Created the Project Communications Plan.

· Helped manage the Project Plan, Schedules, and Financials.

· Worked with vendors to help produce robust solutions for cooling and fire protection.

· Did a large share of the work in the CapEx and OPEx Budgets for the new Data Center.

Microsoft Corporation, (Headquarters in Redmond, WA, work location in a suburb of Chicago)
March 2008 to October 2008

Data Center Manager / Sr. IT Operations Program Manager II

I managed and was responsible for the Microsoft Chicago Data Center, a $6 billion project which is being built at a secret location western suburb of Chicago. It is the world’s largest Data Center, in floor space (701,000 sq ft), in power consumption (120 MW), and in the volume capacity for servers. It will eventually house over 600,000 servers, and it is a major part of the infrastructure that supports Microsoft’s Cloud Computing initiative.

The Microsoft Chicago Data Center is the world’s first location where Data Center Modules (think 40-foot shipping containers) will be implemented on a mass scale. I was intimately involved in the selection of the manufacturing vendor, as well as the operational implementation of this new containerized computing technology, writing the procedures to install and integrate them into the Chicago Data Center.

Managed and work with contractors and subcontractors who provide cooling, electrical, telecommunications, security, cleaning, and cabling services for an operational area that is inside a construction zone, as well managing facilities people who are providing the cooling services, power, Building Management System, VESDA, EPMS, and data services to the Data Center Modules mentioned above. I also managed staff of 22 superstar Data Center professionals that help me manage this 24 x 7 operation. Two thirds of this staff was responsible for the cooling equipment, electrical equipment, fire protection, and automated facilities systems all of which provide the critical environment services at this Data Center. The other one third of my staff provided the technical services for IT equipment installation, configuration and data networking.

Building this state-of-the-art facility generated approximately 3,000 construction-related jobs with a peak workforce of around 2,800 workers. More than 1.5 million man-hours of labor went into the project, and the total investment in the facility will exceed $1 Billion over time.

For the first year, of the Chicago Data Center, the operational budget exceeded $40 million, and in following years as the facility becomes filled with servers, this is expected to exceed $100 million.

Enforced audit controls under SAS 70, ISO 17999 and ISO 27001 to ensure compliance for audits.

Worked on the Disaster Recovery Plan and kept it updated to reflect organizational and infrastructure changes.

Finally, using Visual Basic 2008, I designed and developed an automated time tracking system that helps track the times associated with the over 40 job functions that comprise the day-to-day responsibilities of a Microsoft Data Center Manager, in an environment that is constantly filled with intensity, non-stop multitasking with a sense of operational urgency.

CSSS.NET, (offices in Bellevue, NE and Chicago, IL) November 2006 to March 2008

Program Manager for the Veterans Administration in Hines, IL (Full time position)

On contract worth over $4 M in annual revenue, I managed a 21-person Team of senior level system engineers who support MS Exchange Server 2003, Blackberry Cell Phone / PDAs, Windows Server 2003, Microsoft Operations Manager, and Tivoli Backup Manager. These systems support the 24 x 7 business electronic messaging needs of over 300,000 users at the VA, and potentially affect interactions with an additional 500,000 users and are considered to be extremely business critical. We used Remedy to manage, track and report on the Service Requests.

Worked on organizational process documents for re-engineering the technical support organization to provide technical services that will be planned, managed, and measured based on the ITIL Service Management model of processes and procedures.

I was responsible for all personnel management issues for this team including interviewing, recommendations for hiring and firing, performance evaluations, schedule and resource management, team development and career planning, etc. I screened and hired 14 employees during the time I managed this Team.

I was also the technical lead project manager on the 2007 Data Center Migration and Consolidation Project in which 200 production servers and an EMC SAN are being migrated into a high-profile, high-security Data Center.

Managed a team that was putting together a Data Warehouse based on data from 14 sources. The purpose of this Data Warehouse development was to provide web-based decision support dashboard applications which would provide management a near real-time view of the organization's performance. The database was SQL Server 2005. There were some custom utilities written for the data extractions as well as the standard SQL Server Data Transformation Service and data load utilities.

Managed other system engineers who were system engineers for production servers running Linux, WebSphere, and OpenVMS. Also managed system engineers who were responsible for SMS, enterprise software distributions, and other specialized applications such as STATGuardian and PatchLink.

Upon voluntarily leaving this position to go work for Microsoft, I wrote an extremely detailed 65-page Program Manager Guide on how to do my job.

Contractor at BP, May 2001 to November 2006

Data Center Manager / Change Management Manager / Project Manager (Full time permanent position)

(Three Roles in this position)

1) Data Center Manager for all operational aspects BP Naperville’s Data Center that houses hundreds of Servers (Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 Server, Solaris, and Linux) as well as a network infrastructure that forms one of the largest hubs in North America, and also had responsibilities for three nearby satellite Data Centers totaling 50 additional servers.

· For 5.5 years, I managed and worked with contractors and subcontractors that provided cooling, electrical, fire protection, telecommunications, security, cleaning, and cabling services for each of these Data Centers.

· I also managed Teams of IT professionals that provided technical services for IT equipment installation, configuration and data networking.

· Server Refresh Efforts: During the 5.5 years I managed the BP Naperville Data Center, there were over 400 servers. Planned and supervised the replacement of more than 93% of the older servers in total. Oversaw major refresh initiatives: 1) modernization of operating systems from NT 4 Server to Windows Server 2000, which required some new servers also; 3) upgrades from Windows Server 2000 to Windows Server 2003; and 2) a large replacement project of about 100 old COMPAQ Servers with HP Servers during 2005.

· Was responsible for all activities and project management related to three Data Center Server Rooms.

· Also was responsible for ad hoc and quarterly reporting for these sites, reporting on the inventories and the safety inspections, as well as all activities related to the maintenance and upgrades that occasionally occur.

· In addition, also responsible for management and coordination of all vendors and contractors who performed work in these Data Centers.

· Worked on the Disaster Recovery Plan / Business Continuity Plan and kept it updated to reflect organizational and infrastructure changes.

· Participated in semi-yearly testing of Disaster Recovery Plan / Business Continuity to verify the plans and ensure that everyone knew their roles in how to recover from one or more disasters.

· Over the past five years, planned and managed eight migrations of servers and related equipment, into the main Data Center.

2) Change Management Manager for a nationwide region comprised of 67 sites, and scores of servers, routers, switches, scores of WAN Circuits, etc.

As the Change Management Coordinator for the North Eastern Change Advisory Board which meets at 1:00 PM each Monday, I managed the coordination and approval of Change Requests to the BP infrastructure components for approximately 67 sites. I also routinely processed Emergency Change Requests and publishing of custom Change Notifications which in effect announced approved Changes and approved Outages to the BP Infrastructure throughout North America. Finally, I gave technical support in the areas of policy, processes and procedures as they relate to Data Center Management and Change Management, and wrote these policies and kept them updated.

3) System Engineer on a large Active Directory domain network (over 2000 servers total, distributed globally). Technologies used: SQL Server, MS Access, NT Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Professional, IIS, FrontPage, HTML, Windows Terminal Services, PCAnywhere, etc. scripting in PERL, VBScript, and KIXStart.

Net1Source Corporation Elk Grove Village, IL - February 2001 – April 2001
Senior Systems Consultant

1) database administrator , 2) network administrator, 3) Exchange Administrator, 4) network management specialist, 5) IT services marketing strategist, 6) network specialist supporting Citrix MetaFrame and Nfuse, 7) setting up a Cisco VPN 3000 Concentrator and associated VPN clients and creating all documentation that showed the exact configuration of everything, and 8) Web developer.

Chicago Manufacturing Center July 2000 to February 2001
Sr. Business Advisor / Database Administrator

As this organization’s DBA and primary advisor on computer, networking, and Internet technologies, I was responsible for maintaining and providing reports that ensured that 75% of its revenues were received in the form of government grants. Primary tools used were MS SQL Server, NT Server, MS Access and SQL. Other accomplishments included: writing data access routines that led to the data clean-up efforts, doing the analysis and research that led to the modernization of the entire networking infrastructure, documenting all aspects of the DBA position and responsibilities, helping to select and train my replacement.

· Also managed the successful migration of their Data Center in December 2000, including all networking and computing assets, into a new facility, including 12 servers, and 25 desktop computers.

Slater Technologies, Chicago, IL August 1999 to May 2001

Sr. Technology Consultant / Database Administrator

Various consulting jobs involving computer security, systems engineering, web development, databases, troubleshooting (networks, computers and software), and e-commerce.

Sr. Business Advisor / Database Administrator April 2001 to July 2000

Database Administrator (DBA) for Chicago Manufacturing Center. See the detailed description above.

Senior Technical Consultant December 1999 to March 2000

Technical lead and engineer on a large project for the City of Chicago using HP OpenView Desktop Administrator (DTA) to track and catalog 9200 networked desktop computing assets in a heterogeneous network environment.

Senior Technical Consultant August 1999 to November 1999

· For RMS Business Systems at John Crane, worked as an HP Openview Consultant for using DeskTop Administrator (DTA) to automate to distribution of software over a heterogeneous network, that was LAN and WAN-based.

· Worked as a workflow consultant to help win a bid for Technology Bridge, Inc. with Safer Foundation of Chicago, IL. The technologies to be used were Compaq Workflow Expeditor, MS Exchange Server 5.5, Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000, and Visual Basic for custom screens and Crystal Reports for custom reports.

· Developed custom websites for small businesses and for then Illinois Supreme Court Justice S. Louis Rathje.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT:

· Awarded Employee of the Quarter for first quarter 2010 at ESN because of the effectiveness of project leadership efforts.

· Attended an intense, 2-day course at Thornton A. May’s IT Leadership Academy, Value Studio Session 15 in Jacksonville, Florida, May 27 - 28, 2009.

· Wrote a technical article on Cloud Computing on January 1, 2009 at www.web2themag.com.

· Attended a 5-day intense Microsoft Management Excellence Foundation course in Bellevue, WA, July 27 – 31, 2008.

· Attended the Franklin Covey Management Training Seminar; Seven Habits of Effective Managers in Chicago, IL, October 17 – 18, 2007

· Attended the 2007 Architecture and Design Conference sponsored by Dr. Dobbs in Chicago, IL from July 24 – 27, 2007.

· Took and passed the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam on June 9, 2007.

· Completed the Data Center Technology Classes in a program sponsored by the Institute of Data Center Professionals and Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY. Graduation date: March 2008. I won a NIST sponsored $16,000 scholarship award to participate in this program.

· Participated the 2007 Software Architecture & Developers Conference in Chicago, IL, July 23 – 26, 2007.

· ITIL Foundation v2 Training – August 1 – 3, 2006. Passed ITIL certification on August 3, 2006.

· Completed the MS in Computer Information Systems graduate program at the University of Phoenix, started in January 2003 and completed in October 2004.

· Various conferences by TechTarget Conferences, in Data Center Management, and in Information Security, 2003, 2004, 2005.

· Completed Two Day Seminar in LEAN Manufacturing Training for Chicago Manufacturing Center in June 2000

· Microsoft 1560 Course: Upgrading NT 4.0 Admin Skills to Windows 2000

· Various Web Seminars in IT Security and in Wireless Networking

· Active Server Page Developer’s Conferences, November 1998, and October 1999

· Introduction to Cisco Routers and IOS, January 1999

· HP OpenView ManageX Training and HP OpenView Network Node Manager Training, September 1998

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:

· Association for Computing Machinery

· Chicago Chapter of the Internet Society (President and Founder)

· Data Center Professionals Network

· EC Council

· Electronic Frontier Foundation

· IEEE Computer Society

· Institute for Data Center Professionals, Charter Member and Newsletter Editor

· International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc., (ISC)²®

· International Society for Auditing and Control Association (ISACA) - Member

· Internet Society, Supporting Member

· Microsoft Alumni Network

· Microsoft Partner Program

· Microsoft Developer Network

· The Planetary Society

· Project Management Institute

· Triton College – Advisory Board Member

· Uptime Institute

Security Clearances:

· 2009 Active DoD Secret Security clearance granted on July 24, 2009 after completing an SF-86
Background Investigation form as a candidate for a government contractor position.

· 2007 – Present Public Trust Clearance issued by the U.S. Government for work as a Program Manager for the Enterprise Messaging team at the Veterans Administration in Hines, IL.

· 1977 – 1980 Top Secret SIOP ESI Level 01 for active duty work in the U. S. Air Force,

Strategic Air Command Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, supporting the automated command control systems in the SAC underground.