John Spitznagel

2554 Clifton Avenue

Saint Louis. MO 63139

STRATEGIC IT LEADER AND TECHNOLOGIST

PROFILE A highly experienced, innovative IT leader with proven skills in guiding diverse teams to

successfully accomplish strategic and tactical initiatives. Strong technical knowledge across IT in

combination with business acumen providing the ability to develop, implement, and achieve key

initiatives for the success of the organization. A mentor who truly understands success is

dependent on the personal and professional growth of those around him.

  · Experienced in working with executive leadership to develop and execute strategic plans.

  · Deep knowledge of IT and Data Center technologies and emerging trends.

  · Strong success partnering with Application Development and PMO organizations to lead

large, diverse, and matrixed teams to achieve a shared vision.

  · Experienced in meeting audit, security, and reporting requirements of highly regulated

industries.

  · Proven ability to identify, attract, and develop strong talent.

  · Passion for “seemingly impossible” projects that drive bottom line results.

  · Experienced in network and telecomm infrastructure, implementations, and operations.

  · Strong expertise of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity programs.

  · Extensive project experience throughout all phases of the SDLC.

EMPLOYMENT

2013 – Present

(314)910-8177

john.j.spitznagel@gmail.com

Principal Technical Analyst

APEX / Forest Pharmaceuticals

Forest is a leader in the Pharmaceutical industry, with both domestic and global operations. The

increasing competitive nature of this field has caused Forest to develop a more centralized and efficient

Data Center architecture.

Key Achievements

  · Developed and implemented a systematic approach to categorizing and mapping the company’s

applications and infrastructure.

  · Developed a cloud based database solution for tracking and analyzing all data for the Data Center

Migration project.

  · Identified opportunities for significant cost savings through application consolidation and retirement.

  · Transformed the application and infrastructure mapping effort into a structured migration project plan.

2006 – 2013

Vice President, IT Data Center Planning Services

Director, IT Data Center Planning Services

Manager, Networking and Telecommunications

Network Engineer

Scottrade is an established Broker-Dealer with Bank, Advisor and Custodial Services, and an emerging

International division, specializing in secure on-line client solutions. The firm is in the highly regulated

Financial Services industry, with $1B in annual revenue. Scottrade employs over 3,600 people, including

multiple remote HQ locations, as well as over 500 branches nationwide.

Responsible for Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Infrastructure Architecture, Enterprise

Monitoring, Capacity Planning, and Data Center Planning with a budget of over $5MM annually.

Scottrade, Inc

Key Achievements

  · Responsible for departmental strategic planning, as well as strategic initiatives for Change Control,

Vendor Management, ITIL, and Firm wide Communication and Collaboration.

  · As co-chair of the Architectural Review Board, worked closely with the application development

teams to review and recommend new technologies, products, and projects, assuring synergy of

application development and infrastructure.

  · Responsible for partnering with the vendor management team for negotiation, implementation, and

ongoing billing review of data center facilities, third party connectivity, and telecomm circuits.

  · Established Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Programs to meet business and regulatory

requirements, including plan governance, oversight, testing, and compliance.

  · Introduced a risk management based methodology for the prioritization of service restoration.

  · Integrated Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity, Capacity Planning and Enterprise Monitoring into

the SDLC through establishment of requirements and specifications within the PMO.

  · Established Enterprise Monitoring and Capacity Planning teams to track over 4,000 servers, storage

systems, mid-frames and third party connections.

  · Served as the firm’s Business Continuity coordinator with the Securities Industry and Financial

Markets Association (SIFMA).

  · Lead a project team with over 300 members across infrastructure, application development, and QA

to build and configure a new 20,000 ft2 remote Data Center. Successfully transitioned all IT services

to the new Data Center over a single 24 hour period without any service interruption.

  · Built and developed the Networking, Telecomm, DR, BC, and Data Center teams to support a rapidly

growing organization, including a 100 seat call center.

  · Supervised the installation of all cabling, outside circuits, hardware, and physical plant for a new data

center with 10,000 ft2 of raised floor.

  · Managed vendor operations and connectivity with key financial industry participants, including NYSE,

NASDAQ, CME, and the Federal Reserve.

  · Responsible for the design and implementation of a highly available, fault tolerant communication

infrastructure to support connectivity between multiple local sites, remote HQ facilities, and over 500

branches nationwide.

  · Successfully led a project to convert all remote locations from a hybrid Frame Relay network to an

MPLS network, allowing the introduction of VoIP and SIP technologies and conversion from local

key systems to a centralized Avaya digital system.

  · Upgraded and centralized the voice recording platform to meet regulatory requirements.

  · Provide 24x7x365 support for all network and telecommunication services.

1999 – 2006

Systems Engineer and Database Administrator

Enterprise Support Supervisor

HASCO

HASCO, under the trade names of FirstFoto and Growing Family, is an in-hospital infant photography

service, representing over 80% of US births in over 3,000 hospital. The company also maintained many

partner marketing relationships to reach out to families of newborns. In addition to adjusting to HIPAA

regulations, the company also transitioned from film and print services to digital delivery of content,

including a strong web presence.

Key Achievements

  · Webmaster for multiple websites with over 1MM unique visitors per month.

  · Responsible for all database administration and SAP Basis administration.

  · Partnered with the application development team to build a digital delivery system for data and

images utilizing XML over https.

  · Supervised staff analysts and specialists; responsible for departmental budget.

  · Lead the transition from film and print to digital delivery and the launch of web site delivery.

  · Responsible for establishing and operations of a service desk and support systems for over 3,000

locations in North America and 400 users in two corporate offices.

  § Administration and maintenance of HP-UX systems and infrastructure.

  § Responsible for support of LAN, WAN, Storage, Exchange, Telephony, Data Center, and End User

services.

  § Development of process, procedure, and documentation of support systems, including Service Level

Agreements and Objectives, as well as Partner Provider Programs.

  § Implementation of a tiered support model and implementation of service desk software.

  § Development and deployment of Internet and Intranet web pages, for both consumer content and

corporate reporting.

  § Development of testing and validation processes with the systems development teams to assure

seamless hardware and software upgrades.

  § Support of all telephony functions in an inbound and outbound center utilizing i3, Nortel, and Octel

technologies.

1988 – 1999

Technical Data Systems Manager

Quality Assurance Manager

Technical Specialist

District Manager

Field Service Technician

Consumer Programs Incorporated (CPI) is a provider of photographic products and services, including one

hour ‘Mini Labs’ as well as Sears Portrait Studios. The photofinishing division was merged with Fox Photo,

later sold to Kodak, and eventually acquired by Wolf Camera.

Key Achievements

  · Implemental in the business transition of film and print technology to digital delivery.

  · Oversaw Y2K upgrades for over 800 remote POS systems.

  · Responsible for IT systems in all remote Locations.

  · Participated in resolution of customer inquiries and complaints.

  · Developed, wrote, and maintained an inventory program responsible for tracking over $1M inventory.

Analyzed and reduced total inventory.

  · Developed and implemented a national Quality Assurance Initiative, including training and ongoing

evaluations, resulting in reduced customer complaints over 10% in the first year.

  · Implemented remote polling of Quality Assurance data for over 600 locations, and publishing reports to

the field management staff.

  · Responsible for supervision and technical assistance for over 30 Field Technicians and over 600 stores

nationwide, involving a wide range of equipment and services.

  · Project leader for the retrofit of over 300 analog printing systems to digital scanning technology.

  · Responsible for training new field technicians, district and store level training classes.

  · Responsible for bottom line P&L and all operations of 16 stores in the Chicago and Southern Illinois

markets, supervising over 100 employees.

CPI / Fox Photo / Wolf Camera

  · Named Technician of the Year, District of the Month seven times, and received The Award of

Excellence for highest Add-On sales.

  · Responsible for all technical service and training in over 30 stores throughout Illinois, Wisconsin,

Michigan, and Iowa.

  · Assisted with Regional Print Quality Improvement Seminars, including blind surveys nationwide;

became the program’s primary facilitator in January 1998.

  · Team member for all mergers and acquisitions.