RICK GANSLER
50 STONEY HILL ROAD
Shrewsbury, Mass. 01545
508-561-1819 (cell)
rick@gansler.com
SUMMARY OF STRENGTHS
 Gathering and interpreting requirements and issues from technology and business stakeholders. Bridge gaps between groups in ways
that they can sometimes not do on their own. Work to gain signoff of proposed architecture and solutions.
 A good listener and teacher who can conduct training sessions, create formal presentations and deliver to large groups.
 Produce documentation, reports, charts, diagrams, organized in a manner that is familiar and appropriate to the each audience.
 Able to provide creative ideas, quickly formulate a “Plan B”, and present compelling proposals to the audience.
 Adaptable, so that work style integrates well into the team. Thrives in matrixed and cross-functional team environments.
 Proactive, results-oriented both as a leader/manager and as an individual contributor; passionate about mentoring staff.
 Envisions robust enterprise systems and business processes while striving to reduce complexity and mitigate risk.
 Experience as a programmer, manager of projects and of development staff, and architect of full lifecycle projects.
 Served in a pre-sales role for many sales calls to executive level stakeholders at banks and partners at law firms. Also worked the
booth and closed deals at many trade shows.
 Experience designing and deploying solutions including COTS, custom developed software, and platforms (such as PegaSystems,
Salesforce.com and Sharepoint).
EDUCATION
Boston University, Boston, MA
B.A. in Computer Science, May 1985
EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE
Citizens Bank, Solution Architect & Tech Lead
November 2009 – present
Defines the high level architecture during the project scoping phase and managing the cost/schedule estimation process, and then
detailing the solution architecture during the project design phase as a deliverable to the project construction phase.
 Authoring blog (on Citizens intranet) about Hadoop ecosystem, as well as a blog on the public internet at
http://learningcloudandbigdata.com and a “magazine” on Flipboard http://bigdata.gansler.com.
 2012-present: Architect & Tech Lead for a $7m initiative to upgrade hardware and OS/applications software for high performance
system (NCR ImageMark) that stores/retrieves check and other document images. System includes 120+ Solaris and Windows
servers (2/3 virtualized), Oracle and MS SQL, and is a high availability system with a disaster recovery architecture. Upgrade
includes migration from Oracle 10 to 11 and a tape silo to EMC Atmos (CAS). Working with internal business stakeholders and
project management, as well as on-site, remote, and off-shore technical teams (such as Accenture, InfoSys, FIS). Created Solution
Approach, Solution Design, and Infrastructure Design documents.
 2010-2012: Solution Architect for a $33m two year project (structured as eight agile phases) to implement a Business Process
Management (BPM) system from PegaSystems (running on WebSphere in AIX) that will serve as a unified agent desktop for the
Retail, Business Banking, and Credit card Call Centers. The system integrates mainframe and multi-tier applications (web and
client/server), databases (SQL, Oracle, DB2), middleware (SOAP, IBM MQ), and externally hosted vendor systems.
 Responsible for gathering technical requirements and identifying project stakeholders. Coordinate the estimation of resource costs,
software/hardware costs and licenses, and on-going support costs. Document assumptions, and follow up to resolve open issues.
Ensure that all information is recorded properly into a Microsoft SharePoint site as well as department specific web applications.
 Create RFI/RFP and score the results from vendors, follow up with questions to the vendor from multiple internal groups, and
incorporate the information into an Options Analysis and/or Solution Approach.
 Create documents containing UML 2.0 compliant diagrams (conceptual, solution context, logical system overview, data
context/collaboration), use cases, assumptions, and risks. Create physical deployment diagrams indicating systems and interfaces.
 Collaborate with the Strategy & Architecture team to ensure that designs conform to the company’s reference architecture.
 Completed courses from PegaSystems: PRPC Fast Track and PRPC Boot Camp. Completed online courses, such as Deploying
Scalable Authentication in Site-to-Site IPSec VPNs and Business Analysis Requirements Management and Communication.
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resume updated Nov 2013
CenterWatch, a JHI Company, Director of Technology
April 2007 – November 2009
Provided technology and operations leadership and management before, during, and after the sale of CenterWatch by Thomson
Healthcare to Jobson Healthcare Information.
Infrastructure Migration Necessitated by Sale of Company
Architected plan and led team to migrate office and server infrastructures, and client facing applications.
 Brokered compromises between Thomson, JHI, and implementation vendor. I mitigated risk and reduced cost by architecting a
solution with low complexity.
 Diagramed the as-is logical and network architecture of five physical servers in the Thomson datacenter, and a to-be architecture for
the JHI datacenter. Migrated servers using images deployed onto VMWare. No applications needed to be reinstalled, and all user
and meta data migrated over seamlessly.
 Documented the as-is and to-be desktop hardware, applications, email and services environments (such as desktop backup), and
coordinated Thomson, JHI, and the vendor that performed the hands-on systems work.
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Application Development
As Solution Architect, gathered requirements from marketing and sales teams. As Applications Architect transformed functional
requirements into a technical design in close coordination with the software engineers, then as Project Manager implemented and
ran an Agile development model.
Inherited a “too-large-to-fail” $600k+ off-shore project that was already in beta. I quickly gathered fresh requirements and revisited
prior decisions. I concluded that it would take an additional six months and $350k to meet core requirements. I architected an
alternative system, and using my diagrams and schedules I received buy-in from stakeholders to shut down the current project and
implement the alternative (using a three person team in four months).
A second project I inherited was a clinical drug trial publishing system for Schering Plough, which had the off-shore project on its
critical path. Again, I gathered fresh requirements, revisited prior decisions, and recommended that the system instead be built as a
Microsoft SharePoint application. I built a prototype myself and diagrammed a conceptual architecture which enabled me to get
buy-in from the client’s non-technical management team.
Proposed a business case and architected the technology solution to merge several diverse web properties into one web site with
unified navigation to improve brand recognition and reduce operational costs. My design called for components and integration
points, which limited rewrite and enabled phased rollout using an Agile model.
Designed web database that enabled clients (Novartis, Sanofi-aventis) to accomplish their own data entry for publication on
CenterWatch.com. Previously they needed to send files with their data to the CenterWatch service bureau.
Operations Management
Managed customer service and data-entry service bureau. Increased productivity & quality.
Reorganized client services and data-entry groups. Responsible for hiring/firing.
Provided account management for multiple large accounts, such as F. Hoffman-La Roche.
Guided effort to create Standard Operating Procedures 250+ page manual to boost quality and assist in training. This also enabled
me to identify ways to automate manual processes and create a workflow system for status reporting.
Planned our social media strategy and selected tools.
Modernization of Infrastructure
Project Manager, Architect, and lead developer.
Architected and led project to migrate from an antiquated NT/ASP/SQL7 server to Windows 2003, ASP.NET, SQL 2005,
XML/XSL, and Ajax.
Designed and implemented solution to migrate MS Access databases to Quickbase (a hosted web database).
Redesigned company website and client facing applications to be database driven with content management rather than static html.
Collaborated on the design with an outside creative firm and our in-house marketing team.
Formulated plan to migrate from home-grown to hosted applications in order to enhance services.
Formulated plan for migration from ACT to Salesforce.com.
Trusted Advisor
Provided technical and development advice to two other JHI companies where I had no direct reporting structure.
 The New England Institutional Review Board: Advised on infrastructure and off-the-self application purchases.
 Medical Intelligence Solutions: Ran daily Agile scrum, provided peer-review of professional services project proposals.
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resume updated Nov 2013
EstateWorks, Chief Technology Officer
March 2002 – April 2007
One of three founders of the company. Architected, led development and customer support teams, and provided extensive hands-on
programming to build and deploy a case management web application for the Trusts & Estates groups at law firms and banks.
Responsible for hiring/firing. Clients included Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Bank North, Ropes & Gray, and Wilson Sonsini.
 Created numerous diagrams & documentation as part of the application development process and for review by potential banking
clients to assure them of the scalability, reliability, and security of the application system.
 Selected application platform and extensively customized it in order to build our product, using ASP and SQL 2000 running on a
pair of Windows 2000 servers, hosted at an IBM datacenter.
 Architected import/export giving clients choice of format, transformed using XSL, and processed by a web service.
 Architected the EstateWorks application so that it could be easily integrated with numerous 3rd party applications, including desktop
tax applications, and server based applications such as HotDocs (used for document assembly). The application was highly
configurable in order to meet specific client requirements, such as password conventions.
 On a professional services basis I architected and managed integration projects for Bank of America and Merrill Lynch.
 I maintained full application source code and configuration documentation held in escrow for clients to meet requirements for
disaster recovery and business continuity.
 I responded to extensive data security questionnaires and RFIs from banking clients, and performed a disaster recovery “fire drill” at
a Merrill Lynch datacenter.
 Presented engineering status at Board of Directors meetings.
 Served in a pre-sales role for many sales calls to executive level stakeholders at banks and partners at law firms. Also worked the
booth and closed deals at many trade shows.
Satoria Interactive, Director of Technology
September 2001 – March 2002
Hired to attempt to reverse the decline of the consulting firm.
 Performed a wide variety of roles, including pre-sales requirements gathering, proposal writing, schedule estimation, technical
design, project and team management.
 Analyzed and identified short term and low cost solutions to problems in infrastructure.
MS2, Professional Services
February 2001 – September 2001
Deployed Windows based client/server application for managing project workflow.
 Gathered information from clients to define the rules of their as-is and to-be development process. Implemented process rules into
the MS2 application, which automated workflow for purposes of standardized reporting and alerting.
 Provided training in a classroom setting to large groups.
 Worked in close coordination with the Sales team.
Granitar, Principal Solution Architect
April 2000 – January 2001
Analyzed client needs, responded to RFPs, estimated complexity/costs, wrote architecture documents and diagrams, and assisted in
writing Statements of Work, all utilizing a formalized process with gated reviews.
 Worked for multiple clients at once, such as The New York Times, and Law.com.
 Gathered and visually modeled the as-is interactions between staff and the content management system used to publish the
NYTimes.com website.
Thomson Financial / FirstCall, Architect & Project Manager
June 1997 – April 2000
Applications Architect – 3 months
 Investigated and prototyped systems (Palm VII application).
 On team to create XML DTD for exchange of research and analytic data. Presented at meeting with firms such as Morgan Stanley,
Lehman Brothers, Salomon Smith Barney.
Senior Project Manager for International Development – 19 months
 Designed and managed development of financial research web application with support for Japanese language.
 Coordinated communication and traveled between Boston, Tokyo and Hong Kong to gather requirements.
 Designed and managed documentation/development/deployment of Sun Microsystems web farms for Hong Kong and Singapore,
enabling migration of users from Windows client/server application, providing more features at lower operating cost.
 Coordinated project to unify software code base of English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese versions.
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resume updated Nov 2013
Boardwalk Software, Consultant (self-employed)
January 1992 – June 1997
Provided architecture, programming, and project management consulting to firms in a variety of industries.
Scientific American Medicine (later acquired by WebMD) – 3 months
 Designed and implemented a web version of the desktop applications that I implemented during the 1993 contract.
Polaroid Graphics Imaging – 7 months
 Fixed bugs in the printer driver, spooler, and RIP for high-end pre-press printer.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – 3 months
 Full life-cycle project (architect, design, code, deploy, knowledge transfer) of a custom desktop application installer, enabling the
MIT IS group to create internet based installers for MIT’s 4000+ Macintosh users.
Black Diamond – 2 months
 Developed Macintosh Control Strip module implementing a Point to Point Protocol dialer using C++. This was developed under
contract with Microsoft for a never released MSN dialup service to support Macintosh computers.
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Lotus Development Corporation – 14 months
Ported Lotus Notes C API sample code to Macintosh and updated corresponding developer documentation.
Developed C API program to transfer data from Lotus Notes server to the Apple Newton.
Trained teams in using Macintosh development tools to (re)build Macintosh development infrastructure at Lotus.
Presented “Lotus Notes C API” at LotusSphere and Apple WWDC, then published article in MacTech Magazine.
Gutenberg Systems (for JVC Information Products) – 3 months
 Extensive upgrades to the CDR applications implemented during the January 1993 – March 1993 project.
Digital Equipment Corporation – 2 months
 Implemented automated test suites, manual testing scenarios, and reported over 200 bugs.
Scientific American Medicine – 7 months
 Full life-cycle project of CME software. I gathered requirements from the client and analyzed a previous implementation of the
application. Development in C++ for Macintosh, Windows, and MS DOS.
Digital Equipment Corporation – 3 months
 Programming in C++ to provide Macintosh access to VMS file servers.
Gutenberg Systems (for JVC Information Products) – 3 months
 Coded Macintosh CDR system in C++. This was one of the first CDR systems available to consumers in the US, and the first
available for the Macintosh platform. Given “Award of Merit” in January 1994 issue of Byte Magazine.
Lotus Development Corporation – 10 months
 Japanese version of 123/Mac: Areas of coding included reading and writing of Japanese file formats, conversion to multi-byte
character sets, and implementation of Japanese specific spreadsheet functions.
Turning Point Software, Project Leader & Software Engineer
January 1988 – December 1991
 Design and programming in C of Macintosh printer and communications drivers to remotely print 35mm slides.
 Architect, manager and lead programmer of a four engineer team during eight month project to implement an application that
generated reports based on user input about a company’s quality controls.
 Wrote article “Porting Between Dissimilar Platforms” for March 1991 issue of Developer’s Insight.
Layered, Inc., Software Engineer
August 1987 – December 1988
 Developed software in Pascal for Mac accounting system. Was favorably reviewed in the Apr 1989 issue of MacUser.
Quinsept, Inc., Software Engineer
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August 1985 – August 1987
Designed and developed Mac genealogy program for hobbyists. Was favorably reviewed in the Feb 1998 MacWorld.
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resume updated Nov 2013