Professional Bio

LTH ADVISORY, LLC | Cumming, GA Partner Jan 2023 – Present 

Leaving the Harbor (LTH) Advisory delivers the professional services, managed security, managed communications, and flexible staffing clients need to digitally integrate, modernize, secure, and scale to achieve their business objectives.

  • Managing Partner leading corporate strategy and growth. 
  • Executive Consultant for digital transformation and security initiatives.
  • Fractional or Interim CIO/CISO


 

FUSION CONNECT | Atlanta, GA Senior Vice President Jul 2022 – Dec 2022 

Fusion Connect is a leading, next-generation managed communications and security provider with a top-notch, global team of 100 analysts, developers, project managers, and QA engineers using best practices for secure, Agile software development. Along with 25% of the corporate staff, position eliminated in December 2022 due to US economic unrest. 

  • Created a differentiating world class customer experience enabling employees, partners, and customers up-to-the-minute status, provisioning, and self-service. 
  • Managed the enterprise application architecture connecting our internally developed systems with Workday and Salesforce.


 

SPORTSMAN’S WAREHOUSE | Salt Lake City, UT Chief Technology Officer Jul 2019 – Jul 2022 

Sportsman’s Warehouse is an outdoor sporting goods retailer with more than 130 locations across the United States.   Hired in July 2019 to accelerate the company’s growth and technology strategy.  Technology was critical to corporate growth over the next three years with the brick-and-mortar store count increasing from 92 to 130, ecommerce sales from $70M in annual sales to $300M, and total annual revenue from $850M to $1.5B.  This happened while managing tremendous supply chain, workforce, and other disruptions caused by COVID. 

This growth was achieved by:  

  • Modernizing Technology Platforms. Migrated Sportsmans.com to Microsoft Azure public cloud platform for ultimate scalability.  Major software upgrades for ecommerce and Point-of-Sale (POS) provided new features and enabled integration. One result of this and other initiatives was that Sportsmans.com ranked in the top three of Total Retail’s “Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers” in 2021 and 2022.
  • Driving Efficiency Through Supply Chain and Digital Integration. The supply chain visibility that came from tightly integrating ecommerce, POS, ERP, and distribution systems had many powerful benefits such as reducing cancelled ecommerce orders from a peak of over 9% to consistently less than 1%. 
  • Empowering Store Associates with Mobility.  Created application to “pick, pack, and ship” to achieve 2-hour fulfillment of 95% of orders for Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS) as well as Ship from Store (SFS).   
  • Making Data Actionable.  Created executive dashboards for sales, inventory, merchandising, and finance which improved daily and strategic decision making.  Other dashboards were used by store managers to continuously monitor store performance on sales, order processing, shrink, and other KPIs. 
  • Growing Sales Through Customer Loyalty.  From creating a new customer database and loyalty program to allowing loyalty points as payment, loyalty initiatives grew sales from our most profitable customers. 
  • Ensuring Security and Compliance.  My first challenge was to remediate a material weakness in the prior year’s SOX audit and then to maintain SOX, PCI, CCPA, and WCAG compliance while preventing any security breaches. 

THE EXCHANGE| Dallas, TX Chief Information Officer Mar 2013 – Jul 2019 

“Serving those who serve”, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (the Exchange) is a retailer with annual revenue of $8.5B and more than 3,000 locations around the world. The Exchange operates department and convenience stores, gas stations, quick-serve restaurants, theaters, vending and other businesses. Promoted from SVP to EVP in 2014.  Promoted to CIO and Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) in November of 2017 with leadership of IT as well as Strategic Plans and Partnerships, General Counsel, Procurement, Policy, EEO, Board Secretary, and Trustee for the $6.5B pension plan.  

  • Reducing Cost to Fund Modernization. Reduced legacy IT expense by 32%, capital by 36%, and staff by 12% to fund investments in customer facing technology as well as RPA and AI.  Moving to an ITIL-based services model and leveraging Agile development were key to delivering stability and new business drivers faster.  
  • Transforming the Customer Experience.  Leveraging journey maps to transform the customer experience resulted in the Exchange being named by Consumer Reports as one of the top 10 online electronics retailers for 2015 and 2016 as well as $350M in online sales in 2017.  Other digital successes include guest Wi-Fi, kiosks, digital signage, mobile payment, mobile food ordering, and a new B2B website.  
  • Transforming the Supply Chain. Driving supply chain efficiencies required a real-time view of inventory and a new Warehouse Management System in our seven global distribution centers; creation of new ecommerce distribution centers; and 60 ship from store locations. Improved automation resulted in greater availability of merchandise, lower cost per case, and “pick, pack, ship same day” capability.    
  • Creating a Digital Backbone.  Developed and deployed a new POS platform with mobile capabilities, a new collections system, and a new proprietary credit system along with numerous platform upgrades such as Oracle Retail.  This digitally integrated backbone is critical to omnichannel success.  
  • Creating Value from Data.  Created a customer data hub enabling the Exchange to identify and support 18M new customers while adding social media analytics and an omnichannel loyalty program. 
  • Security Focus.  A redesigned and refocused cyber security program, Brand Trust, led the retail industry in 20 of 20 categories according to an independent assessment by EY. 
  • Team Focus.  While leading the IT organization through this dramatic people, process, and technology transformation, employee engagement improved as measured by Gallup surveys. 
     
SCINTEL TECHNOLOGIES | Atlanta, GA CIO and Corporate Advisor Aug 2009 – Feb 2013 

Scintel is a boutique technology consulting and software development provider for Fortune 1000 companies.  Scintel operates in an onshore/offshore model focusing on retail, finance, and healthcare.  

  • Designed, developed, and managed the technology infrastructure supporting our growth.   
  • As the head of Customer Solutions, partnered with business, financial, and technical executives to identify requirements, design processes, and design technology to meet those requirements.  This strategic consulting role relied on leadership, communication, financial, and technical experience for customers, including First Data, Nextel International, McKesson, and Macy’s.   
     
EDUCATION FINANCE PARTNERS | Austin, TX CIO Feb 2008 – Dec 2008 

EFP was the fourth largest originator of private student loans, rapidly growing to $1.5B in assets. EFP’s strategy was to create a higher quality portfolio of loans for securitization through improved credit scoring, better portfolio management based on analytics, and improved management of accounts in collection. Efficiency was improved by designing for high levels of online processing and automation. Unfortunately, the frozen capital market forced the company to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in December 2008.

My charge was to prepare the company to scale rapidly and to implement the processes and technology needed to take the company public. This included creating a technology strategy that was a compelling differentiator for investors. Despite bankruptcy, the IT team’s work was validated when it was spun off to a specialized loan analytics company “Loan Sciences”.

Specific accomplishments include:

  • Developed the technology strategy to enable aggressive business plans. The strategy included a mix of custom development and integration of commercial software to build a suite of lending systems: marketing, sales, origination, and servicing. A flexible staffing model allowed us to execute large projects without a large, permanent IT staff.
  • Developed and launched a loan origination system for certified private student loans. Testing and creation of operational support processes were the keys to smooth deployment and excellent results in production. All of this was built on a virtualized infrastructure for scalability. EFP systems processed 50,000 applications and approved 10,000 applications for a total of $270 million in loans per month during peak season.
  • Created Business Intelligence platform leveraging SAP as the foundation for portfolio management.
  • Upgraded systems management and security infrastructure appropriate for the target scale.

MACY’S | Atlanta, GA SVP, Infrastructure and Operations Jul 1997 – Jan 2008 

Macy’s Systems and Technology is the IT division of Macy’s Inc. Hired as the Director for Client Server Design and Engineering, I was promoted to Senior Director, VP, and SVP.   

  • Portfolio Management.  Developed, Deployed, and Managed an Extensive System Portfolio including; the POS platform, Macys.com, an Enterprise Data Warehouse, and PeopleSoft for employee benefits and payroll.   
  • Global Technology Operations. Led technology operations for Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Macys.com, and all support divisions, including more than 1,000 locations in the U.S. and a dozen overseas offices.   
  • Budget Reduction and Optimization.  Planned and optimized an annual IT budget of $100 million in expense, $70 million in outsourced operations, and over $25 million in capital projects.   
  • Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Support.  Completed twelve acquisitions and divisional consolidations, requiring extensive system integration and data conversion.   
  • Security Architecture and Policy.  Responsible for the security architecture for all corporate IT infrastructure and applications.  Instrumental to Macy’s achieving and maintaining SOX and PCI DSS compliance.  
  • Project Management. Implemented the ITIL framework.  Created a Project Management Office supporting strategic projects including the May Company acquisition/merger.  
  • One Team Leadership.  Created a high-performance team including employees, contractors and strategic outsourcing partners, IBM Global Services and Verizon.  

THE PROVIDENT BANK | Cincinnati, OH AVP CTI & Electronic Banking Aug 1995 – May 1997 

The Provident Bank was a regional bank with $18 billion in assets and 100 branches in the Midwest and Florida. Provident was acquired by National City Corp in 2004.

My charge was to design, build, and support Telebank, a next-generation contact center for retail loan and deposit customers. The bank’s largest technology initiative to that time, I led the technical and PMO teams driving this effort to improve customer satisfaction and build multi-channel relationships which improve customer retention.

Specific accomplishments included:

  • Software development, systems integration and program manager for a next-generation contact center. 
  • Designed e-Banking infrastructure, including network, security, and systems management. 

   

EDUCATION 

Specialization in Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)  
Duke University (online program)  

Specialization in Artificial Intelligence (AI) Product Management  
Duke University (online program)  

Master of Science in Information Technology  
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL  

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science   
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. 

  

GIVING BACK AND COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT 

National Cybersecurity Committee Member, Private Directors Association
Non-profit to define and model private company governance excellence

Board of Directors, Literacy Network of North Georgia
501(c)(3) supporting Youth and Adult Literacy