Michael Chernock
… a founding principal of
Chernock Associates, has excelled in companies from 2 to 100,000
employees. He has spent the past 14 years consulting for companies
as large as Pacific Telesis International and as small as two-person
startups. As a result of his diverse experiences in information
technology, general management, startups, recruiting, marketing and
customer service, Michael has the ability to see not just the
immediate issues, but also how they relate to the big picture. During
his career, he has kept his eyes open and has internalized the learning
steps required to excel in management consulting.
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT / TEAM COACHING
InnoMedia, Inc., high tech product manufacturers, San Jose, CA
Michael analyzed operational procedures and practices and general corporate organizational
functions. He recommended extensive changes and staff modifications to keep the client
competitive.
Christmas in April, Marin County, CA
At the request of the Executive Director, Michael performed an organizational analysis and
coached management in operational procedures.
GENERAL / PROJECT MGT. / PLANNING
Pacific Bell, San Jose and San Francisco, CA
Michael was the project manager for the first electronic voting system ever used at a national
political convention (1984 Democratic Convention) and for the system that tracked Pac Bell's
$16B construction budget. He was the IT interface for project “Victoria,” later named ISDN. He
designed, maintained, created and managed network voice and data switching systems for
domestic and international land and satellite circuits and supervised an IT staff that serviced
(15,000) internal (Pacific Bell) customers with 15% cost savings. Michael also served on two
civilian review boards for hiring IT workers for the City and County of San Francisco.
Bell Telephone Laboratories, Piscataway, New Jersey
Michael managed a high-tech staff of more than 20 designers and programmers working on a
$billion, 4GL service order database system. Many of his staff co-developed database concepts
with Univac Corporation for this project. While at the labs, he also beta tested a new product
later called UNIX and was on the team that developed one of the first formal Total System
Design (TSD) methodologies.
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Logica-Data Architects, international software consulting,
San Francisco, CA and London, England
Michael managed marketing and technical consulting staff including systems engineers,
architects, technical writers, marketers and administrative personnel. He developed client leads
and built client relationships with officers/staff of major telecommunications companies in the
U.S. and Canada. Michael's project teams developed early network gateways and other
innovative, state-of-the-art telecommunications software. When the firm purchased Sun Software
Systems in Missouri, he assumed the duties of both project and product manager. For this
product, he wrote and appeared in product videos produced in joint venture with Tandem
Computers, Inc. Representative clients included the U.S. Senate and U.S. Military.
Confidential International Client, San Francisco, CA
Wrote presentation package to win global license and complete business plan to garner project
funding for introduction of new retail line for 140 year old European company with 98% global
name recognition.
INTERIM MANAGEMENT
CyWorldtalk, Inc., Internet telephony startup, Walnut Creek, CA
As senior manager, Michael supervised and wrote operations, employee, and marketing manuals.
He recruited a PR firm and developed marketing collateral materials. He also developed new
product lines; recruited potential teaming partners and clients; and defined a new fax/tel GUI for
off-shore development (mainland China).
InterContinental Software, custom IT development and staffing, Palo Alto, CA
Michael served as interim President for almost a year, during which time he recruited, hired and
placed senior level Bulgarian programmers in Silicon Valley companies. Consistent with
startups, in addition to P&L responsibilities, designing custom systems, and managing local and
Bulgarian-based program development, he created the marketing concept; wrote a sales
handbook; maintained public, government and media relationships; and hired and trained staff.
He developed special news features for CNN and Silicon Valley newspapers and increased
corporate income more than 400% in 8 months.
NewsCenter One, freelance news agency, San Rafael, CA
As interim Vice President, Michael developed and pitched a contextual, interactive news
program to CNN in Washington, DC; designed storyboards with and for NASA to create a
NASA CD-ROM; and pitched the concept to IMSI, Broderbund and Autodesk. NewsCenter One
owned and Michael marketed a 200-volume history of Kuwaiti war to the U.S. Army at West
Point, and to the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian governments. He also created a concept white paper
for the Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Information Science (IRIS), a think tank for
social issues, working with Russian diplomats assigned in San Francisco to create a sister facility
in Moscow.
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Breck Associates, public relations firm, San Rafael, CA
Breck Associates provided public relations expertise to local governments and small businesses.
Michael's most notable project as interim Vice President involved creating a get-better plan for a
local government department that had been indicted by a Grand Jury for performance
issues. Michael taught and directed system design concepts to the entire management staff,
created a Timeline database, and reported concepts and progress to the Grand Jury and the
County Board of Supervisors. Charges against the department were rescinded, and the new plan
served as a model for other agencies.
START-UP CONSULTING
Verticil Communications, Inc., data transmission startup, St. Louis, MO
Michael's client is developing a "black box" for transmitting highly secure digital data that does
not rely on encryption technology. He consulted on system design concepts for which patents
were later approved. He wrote the original and subsequent versions of the business plan and
sought funding from multiple sources including the Governor and business community of Hawaii
and officers of the Silicon Valley Bank in northern California.
Fox11 TV News, Los Angeles, CA
Michael consulted with a Fox news team on a sting operation to uncover computer repair
fraud. He advised on concepts and methodology, and appeared in several news broadcasts. A
videotape about the sting operation was subsequently developed for the newly formed National
Association of PC owners (NAPCO), an independent watchdog group. The exposure caused
IBM to review and modify their repair practices and policies.
Pacific Telesis International (PTI), San Francisco, CA
During PTI's startup years, Michael marketed the firm’s telecommunications and software
products and hosted international clients during on-site visits. He created marketing materials
and product presentations, and his team designed a $55M telecom software product for CANTV
(Venezuela). Other direct clients included the Japanese Telephone Company, Telefonica (Spain)
and British Telecom.
NARCAP (National Aviation Reporting Center for Anomalous Phenomena), Palo Alto, CA
Michael is a member of and consultant to a newly formed NASA spinoff that collects pilot
reports of anomalous sightings and stores and analyzes the data while maintaining full
anonymity for the reporting personnel. Michael advises on data security and collection
techniques.
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TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
Representative Hardware/Software
FORTRAN, COBOL, SNOBOL, SNOFLAKE, GE FORTRAN, Timeshare FORTRAN, Dbase
II, III and IV, Clipper, Basic, UNIX (beta tester), Assembler, Univac COBOL, IBM COBOL,
general operating systems. Timesharing systems, IBM mainframe, Univac mainframe, DEC, and
Tandem hardware platforms; general report writers, Univac’s 4GL (DBASE) database language,
and initial system development techniques. Wrote an elementary compiler. PC applications: MS
Word, Word Perfect, Lotus, Quicken, TimeLine, Corel Draw, Morph, Visual Reality, VISIO,
Printshop, Astound, ACT, DOS, Windows OS, MS Office, Netscape, AOL, Foreign Language
converters, Norton Utilities, Norton Desktop, uninstallers, Windows probe programs,
Dreamweaver, and Flash. Served on product review teams for Broderbund. Built and modified
PCs from the motherboard up, including installation of modems, stationary and removable hard
drives, soundboards, CD-ROMs, network hardware, printers and scanners.
CHRONOLOGICAL WORK HISTORY
Private Consulting Practice
CYWorldtalk, Inc.
Toner Corporation
Logica-Data Architects
Pacific Telesis International
Pacific Bell
Bell Telephone Laboratories
1986 - pres.
1998 - 1999
1989 - 1991
1986 - 1989
1985 - 1986
1967 - 1985
1971 - 1975
EDUCATION
MA Organizational Management, University of Phoenix, Novato, CA
BS Electrical Engineering, California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, CA
Certificate of Completion toward MA in Values (business ethics), SF Theological Seminary,
San Anselmo, CA
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