Chris Ritchie

Employer:	AustinRacquetball.com
Position:	Founder
Time period:	December 2004 - Present
Description:	A non-profit, recreational venture

Employer:	Harte-Hanks, Inc., Austin, Texas
Position:	Vice President, Software Development (2006 – Present); Director, Software Development (2004 – 2005)
Time period:	December 2003 - Present
Description:	Responsible for the development and delivery of innovative technology solutions for Fortune 100 companies. Responsible for the executive leadership of a diverse team of professional service engineers responsible for the rapid definition, development, and delivery of innovative products and services including Web, CRM, OMS, data mining/analytics/enrichment, fulfillment and shipping systems. Largest customers include USPS, , IBM, Microsoft, HP, Verizon, Ross, FedEx and BMW. Markets served include IT, government, financial, pharmaceutical, automotive and consumer electronics. Solutions are built on an enterprise class architecture platform which include web, integration and data services. Selected Accomplishments: - Executive Leadership – Responsible for the executive leadership of over 100 employees across multiple geographies including Texas, Kansas, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida and the Philippines. Responsible for operations reporting to C-level management. - Personnel Management – Lead personnel initiatives including leadership development, team restructuring, career pathing, performance planning and training budgeting. Rolled out a job family and job position framework to provide consistent management of staff across locations. - Technology Management – Lead the strategic planning for the continued development of the enterprise class architecture framework consisting of inbound/outbound sales, order management, data services, lead management, campaign management, fulfillment and shipping services. - Offshore Start-up and Operations – Start-up and management of successful operations in the Philippine labor market. Phase I of QA services complete and growing in Manila. Phase II of development services in process. - Financial Management – Principal leader in the budgeting for and transition to a break-even financial IT model. During this transition a new IT business unit was formed, Shared Technology Services (STS). The STS is responsible for serving other business units’ IT needs globally for those units who either don’t have IT capabilities or capacity to serve their needs. Successfully reduced IT expense as a % of revenue by 30% through costs analysis and technology upgrades. - Enterprise Integration and Consolidation – Lead integration and consolidation efforts to reduce costs and maximize IT capabilities. Systems, servers and other infrastructure hosted in disparate locations by multiple teams are moved to consolidated centers of excellence within the STS management domain of responsibility. - Compliance management – Lead the technical due diligence required to assess Sarbanes Oxley Policy, Payment Card Industry (PCI), and Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) policies compliance and put corrective actions in place to lead towards future compliance.

Employer:	Austin Inventors and Entrepreneurs Association (http://austininventors.org)
Position:	Co-founder and President
Time period:	December 2003 - Present

Employer:	Central Texas Red Cross Technology Council
Position:	Advisory Board Member
Time period:	December 2005 - November 2007

Employer:	http://findica.com
Position:	Advisory Board Member
Time period:	December 2003 - November 2006
Description:	Search engine technology business

Employer:	Practical Workforce, Inc.
Position:	Co-founder and VP Engineering
Time period:	December 2003 - November 2005
Description:	Remote workforce business

Employer:	http://coursetrends.com
Position:	CIO, 1-to-1 marketing channel product line business
Time period:	December 2002 - November 2004

Employer:	The Cobalt Group, Austin, Texas
Position:	Director, Product Development & Offshore Operations (2000 – Present); Development Manager (1999 – 2000)
Time period:	December 1998 - November 2004
Description:	Successful in establishing and growing dominant market share of innovative Internet CRM solutions to the automotive industry. Held concurrent leadership positions, directing cross-functional groups of development, QA and IT engineers, and program managers in software development activities spanning Washington, Texas, and India locations, with dotted-line accountability for architecture, IS, IT and database functions. Provide organizational leadership for teams up to 75 employees. Drive product development best practices and implement strategic planning for 8 product lines that represent 30% of total company revenues. Conceptualized and launched all facets of offshore development and operations function. Selected Accomplishments: - Startup to Enterprise Operations - Co-founded the Austin Technology Center and grew from 0 to 100 employees. Built an enterprise class product development capability including offshore operations in Bangalore. Established a center of competence specializing in a J2EE-based CRM Product offering. - M&A Leadership - Lead the technical due diligence on several strategic acquisitions to complement the Cobalt product portfolio. Acquisition work included technical assessments, consultation and integration of both technology assets and key personnel. - Offshore Start-up and Operations - Start-up and management of successful offshore operations in the India labor market. Operations in Bangalore reached a staffing level of 20 developers and 15 QA engineers. - Organizational Leadership - Spearheaded operational growth from start-up to enterprise-class solutions provider. This by institutionalizing organizational structure and methodology, implementing strict recruitment and performance evaluation methods, and making bold decisions regarding product technologies (J2EE / .Net). Single digit voluntary attrition within the organization for 5 years through both growth and reduction phases. - Large-scale platform development - Lead the development organization in the elaboration, design, development, and verification of an enterprise-class, large-scale application development platform designed and implemented in the J2EE technology and according the common J2EE patterns for n-tier architectures. This platform is deployed in an Oracle DB, Weblogic Application Server, and Apache Webserver infrastructure. - Enterprise-class CRM application development - Established successful CRM product line as a direct and indirect contributor – using “garage team” efforts – that grew to enterprise capability and enjoys installation within 5,000 auto dealers, processing over 30,000 transactions per day and serving over 15,000 users.

Employer:	IBM, Austin, Texas
Position:	Solutions Architect
Time period:	December 1996 - November 1999
Description:	Successful advancement through fast-track promotion to increasingly responsible positions for industry pioneer in technology products and solutions. Promoted to executive-tier, international assignment as right-hand advisor to CIO in defining network architecture and resolving critical applications issues with core Network Station accounts, including SAP and AHOLD. Traveled extensively throughout Europe to provide on-site consultations over broad range of IT disciplines, including network topology, project management, thin-client application development, and server installation/configuration issues. Selected Accomplishments: - Leading edge technology engagements with ISVs and value-add software providers for the IBM Network Computer. - Delivered successful customer engagements, largely through relationship building efforts with C-level executive teams and design of network/systems solutions that benefited both customers and IBM. - Strengthened expertise in evolving technologies and various platforms – AIX, Linux, NetBSD, NT, WinCenter, NT Terminal Server, Citrix, and Sun Solaris.

Employer:	IBM, Austin, Texas
Position:	Development Lead
Time period:	December 1993 - November 1997
Description:	- Video Server Development, MPEG Technology Team (1996 – 1997) - NT Graphics Device Driver Development (1994 – 1996) Served as technology focal point for 2 key 3rd line product development initiatives. Scope of responsibility covered content encoding and management, customer support, vendor development, and tool design for Video Server Development; managed personnel and resources in NT Graphics project, directing team of 6 programmers in development and delivery of graphics accelerator for IBM PowerPC NT 4.0 version produced by Kirkland Programming Center in Seattle. Selected Accomplishments: - IBM “blue bits” on MS WNT 4.0 - Championed groundbreaking IBM device driver development and delivery to market through MS certification channel, collaborating with Microsoft HCL Certification team and internal hardware/software development groups to resolve GDI and HCT test case bugs spanning both companies and geographies. - Advanced technology capabilities - Continually explored and presented recommendations for improving bottom line of business units involved in MPEG project, building loyal customer relationships. - Published - Achieved publication in Xhibition Conference proceedings for “Shared Memory Transport: A Proprietary Communication Protocol.” Delivered well-received presentation at 1996 conference in San Jose.

Employer:	IBM, Austin, Texas
Position:	Advisory Software Engineer
Time period:	December 1989 - November 1993
Description:	- Advisory Engineer, Display Power Management Systems Development (1993 – 1994) - Staff Engineer, Shared Memory Transport Development (1991 – 1994) - Senior Software Engineer, Xrecorder Application Development (1991) - Software Engineer, Graphics Accelerator Device Driver Development (1990 – 1991) Advanced through progressively responsible software/systems engineering positions following successful fulfillment of corporate objectives and internal/customer expectations. Gained extensive background and proficiency in broad spectrum of systems, applications, platforms, protocols, and technologies during heavy growth period in IT industry. Selected Accomplishments: - Best of breed development - Designed and implemented variety of key features and tools for proprietary product offerings in self-managed and team settings, resulting in enhanced product performance and ROI for development work. - Technical liaison to ISV - Served as IBM Technical Consultant to 3rd party ISV in London, providing expertise and support on development and distribution of application-benchmarking tool, exceeding partner expectations.

Employer:	Warehouse, Manufacturing, Distribution and Production Control
Position:	Work experience
Time period:	December 1985 - November 1989
Description:	- Statistical Process Control Specialist (1988 – 1989) - IBM PC & RISC Workstation Manufacturing (1987 – 1988) - Warehouse Small Parts Storage System Operator (1986-1987)

University:	Saint Edward's University
Degree:	Computer Science, BSc

Memberships:	JBoss Innovation Award 2006, Core Infrastructure Honorable Mention for rapid deployment of a Volunteer Management System supporting both Rita and Katrina in Texas Red Cross centers. Bootstapping a Startup, Austin Business Journal, 6/2005
Awards:	• Finalist in Everyday Edison PBS TV series casting call (present)