Hinson Stephens, Jr.
| 10212 Pointview Court | (407) 370-6973 |
| Orlando, FL 32836 | hinsonjr@yahoo.com |
SENIOR TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE
Director of IT– Manager of Application Development – Sales Consultant / Engineer – CIO – CTO
Consistently successful in:
ˇ
Building and
leading multi-site Information Technology/Information System organizations that
achieve corporate objectives
ˇ Gathering/assessing business requirements, developing application architecture, and building/optimizing business solutions and applications
ˇ Providing technical expertise for team-based sales, conducting customer demonstrations and training, and consulting with customers in engineering design methodology and project management
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Just Biz - Technology Services
A privately-owned corporation founded by Hinson Stephens to transfer our IT experience and knowledge to the small business community in Central Florida.
Owner/President
Started the company as an IT consultant in the Dr. Phillips area. Grew the business through referrals and networking to support over 50 businesses in Central Florida. Became a Microsoft Certified Professional and a Microsoft Small Business Specialist.
Developed strategic relationships with key vendors including: Microsoft, SonicWALL, Trend Micro, Symantec, Zenith Infotech, DoubleTake, QuickBooks, Ingram Micro, etc.
Implemented a support infrastucture utilizing ConnectWise PSA (Profesional Services Automation) software to manage tickets, projects, sales, contracts and billing.
Implemented an outsourced NOC (Network Operations Center) making over 500 engineers available to support our technical team with the deep technical knowledge and monitoring expertise required to implement IT managed services.
Provide Technology Assessments for small businesses and help them turn their IT infrastructure into a secure competitive advantage.
Provide Managed Services (monthly fixed fee) including Server and Desktop monitoring, maintenance, and remote support.
Provide Backup and Disaster Recovery services that include a platform that provides local backup, server recovery within 1 hour and remote offsite backups in a single product.
Synchronicity, Inc.,
A privately-held leading provider in electronic design management, team collaboration and intellectual property (IP) reuse solutions for the global electronics industry. Synchronicity’s products include Design Sync and Project Sync. Customers include Cypress Semiconductor, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Infineon Technologies, Intel, LSI Logic, Micron, Motorola, NEC Corporation, Nortel Networks, ON Semiconductor, Philips Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics, PMC-Sierra, Qualcomm, and Toshiba Corp.
Director of IT
Recruited by one of the founders and the VP of Sales four months after Synchronicity was launched. Began as Sales Applications Manager, concurrently functioned as Marketing Engineer for 2 years, and was promoted to Director of IT in 1999. Work closely with senior management team and report to COO.
Manage the entire IT and IS operation in a multi-site environment including: sales, finance, HR and engineering applications; implementation and maintenance of all data networks, inter-office VPN, corporate LDAP, firewall and access security, departmental disaster recovery and backup policies and procedures, and computer hardware.
Manage strategic planning, capital budget planning and development, staff recruitment and training, and management of an extensive portfolio of projects. Manage selection, purchase and installation of all networking equipment and service providers. Support customers with escalated issues.
Technology: Provide a reliable engineering development and test environment comprised of over 60 Solaris, AIX, HPUX, Linux and Windows servers and 2 Terabytes of NAS storage on Network Appliance filers, including standalone performance network. Manage access using Cisco PIX firewall, Cisco routers and Cisco VPN concentrator products. Maintain Mail System using Sun One products.
Accomplishments
· Instrumental in building technology infrastructures, systems and teams as this privately held company started by four founders has grown from start-up to a multi-million dollar company with up to 125 employees and 120 of the world’s leading electronics industry customers.
· Transitioned sales team technology from an internally developed CRM system to Salesforce.com. Recruited and led a cross-departmental project team to participate in tool selection, and manage implementation, end-user training and rollout. Managed vendor and consultant relationships, and migration of all existing data within 2 months of purchase decision.
· Built and manage company’s Intranet including HR employee database, vacation tracking system, corporate calendar, sales tracking and forecasting system, IT Request system, asset management system, and license generator/expiration notification software system providing email notification of all events to the appropriate parties with links to initiate next action step.
· Led development and deployment of a complete WEB-based customer support system with ticketing and Knowledge Base components using Synchronicity’s WEB and database technology. System has provided the single point of contact for our customers to our support team since 1998 and has received accolades for ease of use and the quick response through email and pager notifications.
· Planned and executed the logistics involved in acquiring a Synchronicity partner (Cadence IPInfranet) and managed the office transition and transfer of computing resources to a central computing facility which resulted in a substantial cost savings.
· Maintain 99.89% uptime for networks, email system and UNIX environment.
· Identified and resolved over $16K in billing overcharges from WorldCom (UUNET) for network services.
· Deployed teleconferencing and web conferencing server (Latitude’s MeetingPlace) which saved the company $400K in recurring expenses in 2002 and subsequent years directly impacting the bottom line.
· Managed an office closing and an office relocation: conducted pre-closing inventory, captured sales contact database, transferred servers, dispersed/shipped equipment, and facilitated a smooth transition without interruption.
· As Marketing Engineer, designed and prototyped several of the company’s products including IP Gear Catalog and IP Gear Support, an Intellectual Property management system for cataloging, distributing and supporting electronic modules. Initial catalog prototype was developed in conjunction with the Virtual Socket Interconnect Alliance’s (VSIA) Rapid Consortium.
Sales Applications Engineer
As the fourth employee in this start-up company, worked with the VP of Sales to develop our initial sales plans and first customers. Recruited and built a technical team to support sales force as company grew.
· Traveled throughout the US, Europe and Japan conducting technical presentations and providing implementation plans and support for early adopters of Synchronicity technology.
· Worked with the sales force and led development and implementation of a custom CRM system based on Synchronicity’s product that provides a high level of communication and critical decision support for the management team.
· Served on a team of four that selected a Japanese training partner and personally rolled out the initial product training to the customer. Assisted with initial presentations to new Japanese customers.
Cadence Design Systems, Orlando, Florida 1989 to 1996
A $1.1 billion publicly traded (NYSE:CDN) supplier of electronic design technologies, methodology services, and design services. Cadence solutions are used to accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems, networking and telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, and a variety of other electronics-based products.
Sr. Technical Leader
Senior ASIC and DFII technical expert supporting account managers with complex sales to industry leaders pioneering technologically advanced solutions. Consistently exceeded hire-out quota required of all application consultants.
· Recognized as the ASIC and DFII product knowledge expert and superior sales team member, traveled throughout the US and Europe to consult with customers in engineering design methodology and project management.
· Conducted customer demonstrations, seminars and training sessions, and provided support to customers designing systems using Cadence software tools.
· Developed custom solutions for Cadence customers by integrating the Cadence tools into optimized design flows to fit the customers’ requirements.
Daisy Systems, Orlando, Florida 1984 to 1989
A Silicon Valley NASDAQ software developer for microprocessor designers.
Sr. Applications Engineer
Supported sales managers for the Southeast US. Provided demonstrations, seminars, training and support to customers designing electronics using the Daisy software and hardware tools and provided customization services to integrate the design tools into the customers’ environments.
Harris GASD, Palm Bay, Florida 1982 to 1984
Electrical Design Engineer
Designed high-speed digital communications electronics for military aircraft. Assumed responsibility for design tools and design flow for the ASIC design process at Harris GASD.
EDUCATION
B.S. Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, 1982
Specialized in Computer and Digital Systems Design
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Customer Astonishment, Darby Checketts, 2003
Fire Walls & Internet Security Seminar, Data Tech Institute, 2001
Selling The Value of Technology, Nahman Parsons, 1999
Cadence Products & Tools, numerous product training courses, 1989-1996
First Things First, Stephen Covey, 1995
7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey, 1994
Solution Selling, Michael T. Bosworth, 1993
VOLUNTEER LEADERSHIP ACTIVITIES
Past President (2001-2002) and Treasurer (1999-2001) of a Church Group: Ran ministry of 150 men overseeing fundraising events netting over $70K for the Educational Endowment Fund and Youth Center. Current member of international organization providing food and assistance to the poor. Provide customized database applications for both organizations.