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Tom Seely, PMP
3584 Woodland Trail
Cell: 651-688-8543
Executive Summary
Tom is a Senior Manager specializing in technical leadership of development teams in fast paced environments using Agile methods. In addition to his technical expertise in developing information systems, Tom provides a true understanding of how business requirements and a persistent focus on getting better reality drive the successful implementation of new technology. His clients are repeatedly impressed by how well he understands the needs of the business, how quickly he gets up to speed in new environments, and how effectively he leads his team members through technical issues that challenge even the most experienced developers.
Tom’s career has been very hands-on. During his 22 years of service to the IT industry, Tom has performed and supervised the analysis, management, leadership and technical direction for a wide variety of projects in nearly every type of environment including web, intranet, client-server, embedded systems and critical mainframe applications. He has a thorough understanding of both legacy and object-oriented technologies and has used several methodologies ranging from iterative to waterfall. His proven success with Agile management has been especially impressive with the programs he led at MoneyGram and United Health Group. Tom has a Masters in Computer Science from the U of M, he’s near completion of an MBA from the Carlson School, and is Microsoft, PMP, and CSM certified. His effectiveness as a technical leader and business liaison makes him a valuable asset to any project team.
Career Highlights
At the headquarters of a $2 billion global financial services firm, Tom combined his business and technical expertise as the program manager of a major redesign for the company’s flagship web product. With a tight schedule that was unrealistic for a traditional approach, the company recognized that the effort needed an experienced Agile leader that would inspire the team and drive deliverables with a focus on time to market, adding value to the business, and capturing market share. Using Scrum and other Agile methods, the team met it’s deliverables on time, under budget and ahead on scope. All of the key stakeholders and developers applauded Tom for his ability to successfully cover a very demanding role for both technical and business leadership.
At a $60 billion health care
company, Tom helped to turn around a multi-million dollar product that was
close to collapse. He was key to adding over $100M in
product revenue and saving many jobs during the process. He championed process
improvement efforts and helped to raise configuration management, release
planning and resource management to new standards. Assigned to run interference
with a product manager that was especially demanding,
At a $30 billion manufacturing company, Tom combined his business and computer expertise as the project manager and lead designer of an OLAP system to retrieve sales information via the web and build a data-warehouse for marketing analysis. Tom also led the development of a DSS to support a multi-million dollar incentive program. During these projects, Tom demonstrated his focus on strategic business objectives and his ability to turn around tactical decisions that were not adding value to the business. The delivered system was a major improvement over the original concept and was praised by the project owner and 22 year veteran of IS as the best project she's seen in both design and execution.
At the headquarters of a $2 billion manufacturing company, Tom again combined his business and computer expertise as the project manager and lead designer of a distributed system to integrate 48 plant manufacturing-systems with the corporate financial system. The design takes full advantage of the client’s commitment to running an advanced Microsoft server environment and has been praised for its reliability, flexibility, and improvements over the original concept. Several members of the senior management team including managers from three separate divisions praised Tom for his innovative approach and commitment to a job well done.
At a $20 billion energy utility, Tom led the development of a 100GB marketing data-warehouse. Senior management commended him for his perceptive vision, his ability to manage difficult projects, his polished presentations, his positive attitude, and his aptitude for resolving issues in a very challenging environment. The most senior executives of all five Sales and Marketing units authored a letter to the CIO thanking Tom for raising project management to a new level of excellence.
Other Client and Corporate Experience
Principal Consultant
August 1997 - Present
In addition to the full time assignments described below, Tom was involved in all aspects of business development for a local consulting firm. These duties included all sales activities including identifying business opportunities, scoping projects, authoring proposals, acquiring resources, and overseeing accounting processes for regulatory compliance.
Project Management Office – Mayo Clinic Media Services Division
October 2007 – February 2007
Tom led the establishment of a project management office for a division that is an integral part of the Mayo Clinic. The effort had a broad focus to raise the rigor of project management on many active and high profile strategic projects that were already in flight. Tom helped to move the PMO effort further than expected given the complexity of the projects and the resources available. He worked closely with senior management to establish and justify the staffing needs required for the PMO effort, and worked closely with 15 project leads to better define project deliverables and their business value. Tom also provided significant coaching for business analysis and project control that was very well received by all participants. The duration of the assignment was determined in advance. The senior management and personnel who worked with Tom are hopeful he will return to the Mayo Clinic in the future.
Program and Project Manager – Starkey Laboratories
October 2006 – August 2007
Tom managed multiple product development programs from concept through ramp up across multiple releases in the hearing aid industry. Led the charge toward significant process improvement while assisting with the adoption and increased utility of their new EPM tool Project Server. Worked daily with all development areas including product design, research, circuitry, acoustics, embedded systems, mechanical engineering, systems engineering, manufacturing, operations, multiple software application teams, clinical trails, QA and systems verification. Delivered presentations to company executives. Earned a reputation for being positive, energetic, insightful and helpful in a very complex environment. Helped with training several new PM’s and doubling the size of the PMO.
Business Consultant – Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Processing
March 2006 – May 2006
Tom assisted with the requirements definition and use case documentation for post closing processes at Wells Fargo. Praised for how quickly he was able to understand complex details of their operations and identify key decisions that needed to be made to prioritize competing initiatives. He identified several opportunities at the program level for improving the performance of several projects. The projects were put on hold and the teams released before Tom was placed in a position to correct those problems. Tom also trained several consultants on how to use Rational Tools, specifically Rational Rose and Clear Case.
Team Lead – University of Minnesota Enterprise
October 2005 – November 2005
Tom led the requirements gathering for three business areas affected by the implementation of PeopleSoft Financials Treasury modules (cash, deal, risk). Several participants were impressed by how quickly Tom was able to get his team to understand the details of several non-trivial business processes. The success was especially impressive when compared with a substantially larger prior attempt that had failed due to poorly understood requirements. The resulting analysis led to fundamental changes in the design of all three solutions. This assignment was time boxed due to a prior commitment with another client. All participants were grateful to Tom for his contributions.
Program Manager – MoneyGram International
December 2004 – September 2005
Tom led the development for a new business unit with 10 full time development resources and 20 shared resources. Using his considerable experience with iterative development and his Certified Scrum Master training, he used Agile principles to manage the development and implementation of a highly visible web application with a multi-million dollar development budget. Tom worked closely with the business to identify requirements and priorities while providing hands-on guidance to the development team throughout the design and construction of project deliverables. The product included both internal and customer facing applications developed in java and deployed on Linux (Apache/Tomcat) with Oracle databases. The security, cryptography, and fraud detection features of the system were impressive and highlighted the benefit of Tom’s technical understanding with keeping the team on track. The schedule using a traditional approach required 18 months. With Tom’s leadership and experience using Scrum and other Agile methods, the major functionality was delivered in 3 months. Within 9 months, the team had delivered the 3 year vision for the product. All of the dedicated resources and nearly all of the shared resources working on the product wanted Tom to stay with the company to sustain the momentum obtained while he was managing the development. Post assignment reviews from key stakeholders have been especially impressive. Tom has also been applauded for his presentations on Agile Best Practices to several development, QA and project management organizations. His solid understanding of Agile methods combined with strong technical, business and management skills provide valuable insight for keeping projects on track.
Director Applications Development – United Health Group, Ingenix
October 2002 – May 2004
Project Manager and Lead Designer – NRG Energy
Feb 2002 – June 2002
Tom was brought in to lead the development of an e-commerce-like Data Warehouse for Power Marketing. As a play on the deregulation of the power industry, the client was founded by a large energy supplier. The Power Marketing division was created to sell the uncommitted power from assets. As trading activities evolved, Power Marketing became a significant part of the client’s business. By the end of 2001, it became apparent that skilled traders were being distracted by the limits of information systems that had been assembled in a piece meal fashion. At the same time, Tom was asked to cover the project management duties for a newly hired project manager. In another challenge, a competing consulting firm was aggressively pursuing Tom’s position to keep their presence in the account alive as most of their consultants were released from other projects that were being canceled. Tom was tasked with managing this triangle while keeping the project on track. In June, 2002 Tom rolled out an impressive Data Warehouse based on SQL Server 2000 and Cognos Power Play. Using custom tools that scrape web sites and e-mails, download new and revised files, and import data from 15 feeds, the firm successfully delivered the vision that Tom was instrumental in creating four months earlier. The Director of Business Information Systems was impressed by how quickly Tom got up to speed, how skillfully he negotiated contracts with other firms, and how significant his involvement was in keeping the project on track.
Consultant – Local and National Service Organizations
June 2000 – October 2002
Tom led a significant investment in new technology for a large church with more than 9,500 members. He initiated and coordinated the development of an extensive web site and wrote a detailed RFP for a complete redesign of the church network including servers, workstations, net access and security. Tom performed the conversion from a Novell network to a Windows 2000 Active Directory and a subsequent conversion to Back Office SBS 2000. He installed 32 Windows 2000 workstations running Office 2000 and subsequently converted to Office XP. Tom was responsible for training the staff on the use of Office 2000 & XP, Front Page 2000 & XP, Outlook XP with Exchange, and new enhancements to their database application. Also, he administered their Nortel phone and voice mail system.
For a large national non-profit organization, Tom was brought in to make local operations more efficient. His major accomplishments included developing a strategic plan for the application of technology with top executives and then executing the recommendations of that plan. Working closely with a 25 year veteran that was trapped by obsolete systems and an inadequate budget, Tom demonstrated how to make their back office processes more effective / efficient by moving those systems to the web. The effort transformed the organization locally and was well received nationally.
Quick wins included several enhancements to their network infrastructure, substantially increasing the use of the web for communication, training all areas of the organization on how to use Front Page, implementing software that allows units to electronically submit advancement and registration information, and building an online system for leaders to register youth for summer camps. The search for volunteer web developers came up empty so Tom developed the online registration system using Visual Studio. The asp's were written in Java Script with the more elaborate routines written as COM+ objects in Visual Basic for quick performance. The web server is Windows 2000 and the database server is SQL Server 2000. While many of the initiatives are still in progress, the client has received national attention for being one of the most technologically advanced organizations of its kind in the country. The highlights of this project also included several presentations to an impressive Board of Directors and strategic planning sessions with dozens of community leaders.
Project Manager and Lead Integrator – Litho, Inc
March 2000 – June 2000
Tom led the implementation and customization of a Digital Assets Management system based on Oracle 8i. Recognizing that the web is causing fundamental changes in the printing and prepress industry, the client pursued an internal effort to select and implement a Digital Assets Management system to track 3 TB of images and layouts for repurposing and reuse. After the internal effort stalled, they sought outside assistance and agreed to a proposal to implement Flexstor.db. A local consulting firm led the project internally for six weeks then sought outside assistance when it appeared the project was in trouble. Tom was brought in for a four week consult and was extended to twelve weeks. Within one week of his arrival, Tom was raising the flag that the project was in serious trouble. Many of the deliverables in the contract were not addressed in the estimate, the firm didn't have the key resources required, the contract had serious inconsistencies, and it was written as a fixed bid despite the firm not having any prior experience with similar projects. The Sales Manager responsible for the contract was released a few weeks later and Tom was asked to save the project. The customer wouldn't accept changes to correct the errors and refused to restructure the project toward more valuable deliverables. Working closely with Oracle DBA's, Java developers, network architects, and NT, Mac, Solaris, and IRIX system administrators, Tom was able to save the project.
Sub-Project Manager and Lead Analyst - Fingerhut
May 1999 – July 1999
Tom led the integration of a six TB Data Warehouse with a new ERP system based on Oracle Applications. Seeking to capture the order fulfillment space in e-commerce, the client needed to replace its legacy information systems with a state of the art, web based ERP system. The ambitious project was originally estimated at $80 million and was abruptly cancelled six months later when the projected cost passed $130 million. The failed project was a valuable experience for Tom, who warned that the program was out of control two weeks after he started and two months before its collapse. Fueled by a strong commitment to forge ahead, the project office was unable to take the corrective actions that would have saved the project. Necessary corrections included reducing the scope of the project from a grand reengineering effort to the replacement of mission critical functions that were constraining growth and regaining control over the actions of the primary vendor. Had the project had been unbundled (to reduce cost, duration, and complexity) and more control retained by the client, the project would have completed successfully. Tom was pleased that all of the clients employees with whom he worked wanted him to stay with the company.
Project Manager & Lead Analyst – Xcel Energy
July 1998 – Jan 1999
Tom led the development of a 100 GB Data Warehouse for Sales and Marketing. Faced with pending deregulation of the power industry, the project was the number one strategic initiative for the company in ‘98. Jointly owned by Marketing and IT, the project had three objectives: provide faster access to sales information, provide access to more current sales information, and provide online analysis that was easier to use than the reporting database previously available. The system required pulling information from a large, mission critical, and heavily partitioned Sybase database application running across 4 Sun servers that had no available cycles, no room for additional disk space, high resistance to any change, and no available personnel to assist with the project. The solution deployed Sybase Replication Server on one of the 4 Suns with database replication to a Compaq 7000 server running NT and SQL Server. Client access was primarily through an intranet site developed under Visual Studio. Tom managed a team of 6 full-time personnel and 16 part time participants. He also performed requirements analysis, system design, task identification, resource allocation, weekly status reports, team supervision and mentoring, and managing customer expectations. Senior management in the Sales, Marketing, and Application Development areas were awed by how quickly Tom was able to cut through red tape and deliver results. The most senior executives of all five Sales and Marketing units authored a letter to the CIO thanking Tom for raising project management to a new level of excellence.
Project Manager & Lead Designer – Bemis
February 1996 – Jan 1998
Tom led the development of a
distributed database to integrate the company's disparate manufacturing systems
with their financial systems. The system fed customers & receivables,
vendors & payables, journal entries, and fixed assets from 48 plants across
the
Senior Consultant – 3M
July 1995 – February 1996
Tom led the development of client-server systems for large manufacturing companies and performed the dual roles of project manager and lead designer through all phases of system development. Also, Tom worked on projects that improved the effectiveness of the organization, improved their methods of account management, and created methodologies for project management and object-oriented development. He was reviewed to be their best and most effective project manager.
The two year project originally began as a six month project. The scope was expanded six weeks into the project to include recommendations from Tom that better aligned the results with the client's strategic objectives. Other adjustments were made as needed to cover tasks that weren't being completed in-house. At the completion of Tom’s two year commitment, the client asked that he stay on the project for an additional six months until the project was completed. The client was especially impressed with his open communication, his thorough understanding of their needs, and his ability to step in and shore up technical deficiencies where they existed.
Tom led the development of a decision support system for a marketing growth incentive program at a large manufacturing company. The system processed point of sale information from distributors and determined which distributors created business, lost business, and took business from other distributors. It identified the major customers, which customers were growing or declining, and which sales required adjustments to commissions because they involved multiple sales territories. The system was a two tier design constructed for migration to a three tier architecture as the client’s client-server infrastructure matured. The clients were written in Power Builder and the server was written in Sybase. The class library was provided by the customer and enhanced by Tom’s team during development. The project required 60 screens, 25 reports, 40 tables, and integration with a legacy system. Originally valued at $230K, the scope of the project eventually grew to $650K over 8 months as Tom was asked to manage a related project that wasn’t progressing as smoothly. Despite major changes in requirements throughout the project, the owner and 22 year IS manager called it the most successful project she has seen in both planning and execution.
Senior Systems Analyst – West Publishing
June 1992 – July 1995
Tom provided technical direction and project management guidance to Team Leads managing the development of client-server applications, critical LAN applications, and object-oriented C++ applications. He applied expertise in developing large-scale mainframe and PC applications toward the development of new revenue sources and improvements to internal business management systems. Tom provided hands-on technical direction to make the most of West's extensive IBM mainframe, Novell LAN and X.25 WAN infrastructure. Also, he led the design and implementation of a communication architecture that enabled MVS, CICS, OS/2, and Windows programs to communicate with each other using client-server technology. The system is used by several applications throughout the enterprise to transfer mission critical data on a daily basis. Tom acquired additional experience with architecting and developing object oriented applications, natural language enabled text search systems, document management systems, distributed OLTP systems using Sybase and DB/2, and e-mail enabled applications.
Lead Systems Analyst – West Publishing
June 1989 – June 1992
Tom supervised a team of seven developers that designed and implemented architectures for mainframe information systems. He emphasized product quality and reliability, frequent deliverables, smooth product releases, team unity, and advertising accomplishments to upper management and designed and implemented the first system at West to use both mainframes and PC's for client-server processing. The most notable success was a large-scale transaction processing system based on CICS/MVS and OS/2. The system was considerably faster, more efficient, less expensive and more flexible than comparable systems and continues to be praised as an impressive accomplishment. Also, Tom initiated enhancements to improve the performance and stability of systems already in production and earned a reputation for providing strong leadership and producing quality results.
Systems Programmer Analyst – West Publishing
June 1987 – June 1989
Tom performed system maintenance for a large online transaction processing system. He programmed in PL/I, CICS/MVS, and System/370 BASM and developed considerable experience working with communications protocols such as SNA, X.25, and TCP/IP. Also, Tom developed an understanding of CICS internals and performance tuning.
Director - Academic Computer
Center Mankato
State University
June 1984 – June 1987
Tom managed the operations of a
university’s