Professional Overview
Technology Leader – CTO
Dan is defined by his incredibly diverse work experience. As a serial entrepreneur, he has climbed multiple industry ladders.
In the last 20 years, Dan has worked in technology, manufacturing, and retail. He has been the founder or principal of several ventures. He’s known for his extensive tech hardware/software knowledge, and his people management and training skills. His teams have designed, built, and maintained integrated software/hardware solutions for multiple real-world issues. He is a tech leader with seasoned business acumen.
Dan is a dedicated professional with demonstrated strengths in process creation, shareholder Inclusion, and program management; good at troubleshooting complex problems and building successful solutions. He is an excellent verbal and written communicator with a strong background in cultivating positive relationships and exceeding goals.
Recent Experience
CTO – Chief Technology Officer – Kind Financial / Los Angeles / June 2015 to current
Responsible for planning, designing, building, and implementing commercial, banking, and government software and hardware solutions both web-based and also mobile apps on Apple and Android platforms.
- Managed multiple projects and teams diversely located all over the country and the world.
- Acted as a liaison between my company, state government departments, and technology partners.
CTO – Chief Technology Officer Agrisoft / Kansas City, MO / June 2013 to June 2015
Responsible for SAAS offered commercial business management and inventory tracking solutions (ERP) in an emerging market.
- Transitioned commercial systems from local server placement to Azure data centers.
- Helped facilitate fundraising and completed the sale of the business.
What I really do
I am able to improve teams, products, and processes through my inclusive, passionate, and experienced leadership methods. I’m a thoughtful, reliable, and experienced leader with results that prove my methods are effective. When working one on one with each of my team members, I make sure each of them is engaged, utilized effectively, and progressing in their relative career path. The experiences of guiding a team of 1 and teams of 1200 provide a range of my management capabilities and techniques. It’s given me effective leadership methods as smaller companies I’ve worked with have scaled into larger organizations.
Throughout my experience as an IT executive, I’ve successfully provided strong support and guidance to numerous staff members, while implementing efficient and innovative technology solutions to the complex issues facing my customers, employers, and staff. In addition, helping to ensure that each of the company’s operational aspects is conducted in a highly professional manner and that the team adheres to corporate standards, industry regulations, professional ethics, and applicable laws.
I have a proven record of success with effective business planning and leadership; effectively connecting people, spearheading strategies, and continuously enhancing operations.
My extensive training experience provides the tools needed to be a highly effective leader and product designer. My team members become tomorrow’s leaders.
I make sure to let my teams have the freedom needed to deliver the best product while making sure to focus on the strengths of each member, supplementing when and where it’s needed.
All-Suite level Stakeholders, Engineers, Clients, and everyone important to the success of the project are heard when it comes to the proper direction and outlook of the product we are building.
The business goals are the focus, but how we get there is just as important. To know me is to laugh with me. I like to have fun at work, and when everyone is having a good time I’ve found it directly drives results.
Highlights and Milestones
- Start-up company featured on the opening of the HBO Sitcom, Silicon Valley.
- Successfully closed a limited partnership opportunity between a start-up and Microsoft Government Health and Human Services division. I became the liaison for the engagement and had regular contact with many department heads at Microsoft.
- Trained many management levels and higher associates for Retail and Ecommerce companies on everything from leadership and sales to hardware and software technologies. This experience translates directly to the processes and products I build.
- Won a very competitive state contract for a start-up company without having any prior state contracts. Maintained it as the primary liaison for the entire five-year engagement, including four contract renewals during that time. Multiple government programs were deployed and managed during the engagement.
8
years experience as a CTO managing Software initiatives both Government and Commercial.
19
years of Experience in Technology Leadership positions.
6
years is the average I’ve worked with each team I’ve joined. Loyal and Committed to the projects that I take on.
7
products/applications successfully deployed in the last 8 years. Including Mobile native apps on Android and Apple iOS as well as the web.
Additional Highlights
Engineering
I’m excellent at identifying the right specialists and/or outside contractors for the product development process to be successful. I’ve architected system structures and processes for many different products and product APIs. However, I have not been a direct coding resource on a development team for years.
Design and UX
I’ve worked with great product designers and other colleagues that have taught me an incredible amount about UI/UX. My passion for how people interact with computers is why I focused on electrical engineering and psychology in college, and I use what I learned from those lessons regularly.
Strategic Flexibility
I certainly have technologies and programming languages I’ve grown accustomed to, but I leave an open mind and research regularly to identify emerging technologies that can reduce build times and accomplish product goals in the most cost-effective yet stable and secure way possible.
Marketing
I’ve developed marketing programs and assisted marketing teams in planning for new product releases, as well as developing plans for revamping or upgrading older products.
Publications and Communicating
Public Speaking and communication skills are important for any leader. At 17 Dan was thrust into public speaking when he was identified to be in the top 1% of leaders at Best Buy and spoke about his methods in front of an audience of hundreds of other leaders. In college, he took speech class with the intent to improve his communication skills even further. Psychology and sociology were also focused points when he was in school because he feels that understanding them both is essential in bringing people and machines together in the most intuitive and useful ways.
Dan can build just about anything, both in the hardware and software worlds in a way that’s efficient and fun for his teams. He can do this because he’s spent his whole life enthralled with electronics and the magic of engineering, but was also equally intrigued by human nature and the psychology of humans.
Whatever your project might be, Dan will show you in a short time that he can provide immense value to the team and your organization as a whole.
I’ve done a lot of things I haven’t talked about. Some of it may not have any relevance, but I take pride in every job I’ve done. So here are a few of the things I have experience with that I haven’t mentioned:
Data analyst and data visualizations professional (power BI focused), sous chef, computer software and hardware technician, MECP certified car audio installer, consumer electronics company business owner, software system architect, cellular company call center manager, retail store manager, home automation programmer and installer, computer programmer (basic, visual basic, Python, C++, C#, Angular), Cloud Systems Admin (Azure, Google).