My career started with Listel Hotel as a Credit Manager in the Accounts Receivable department where I worked for 4 years. I made entries to General Ledger, reconciled accounts, combined financial statements and invoiced the function rooms events. I also managed the Information Technology needs of the hotel. For the next 10 years I have worked as a full time IT Manager supporting 2 IT offices and over 100 users in two locations – Vancouver and Whistler (Pacific Palisades Hotel and Summit Lodge). Initially, I provided technical assistance, hardware and software, configured networks (Windows/Novell) and voice systems (Nortel PBX), configured virus protection (TrendMicro/Symantec), disaster recovery (Symantec/Sungard co-location) and backups. I used a variety of tools for a local or remote support (VPN, VNC, remote desktop, gotomypc, showmypc, etc.) to ensure flawless operations.
Eventually, I was promoted to a City IT Manager position with Kimpton Hotels, an upscale group of boutique hotels. I managed vendors and suppliers, negotiated contracts and leases. I worked with the Director of Sales and Marketing on the SEO campaigns, updated over 50 websites and managed 1400 domains. I also handled the financial budgets for both departments. I worked as a Project Manager handling quotes up to $200K (i.e. wired/wireless Internet access in a 233/82 room hotel, PBX upgrades, etc.), overseeing deployment, with the overall budget exceeding $1M. As a member of the Standard Operating Procedures team to procure and implement company-wide standards to over 2500 employees, I worked closely with the Vice President of Human Resources and the Vice President of Operations to create an Intranet portal for the company. I have created and edited a company eNewsletter ensuring the company was well informed, at all times, of changes and news worthy events. Currently I work with Eminata Group as a Manager, IT Operations. 12 IT staff report directly to me, I set the goals, expectations; I motivate the staff, lead projects and evaluate/hire personnel.
Highlights of my skills and abilities include:
- Planning and overseeing projects,
- Help Desk Management; lead technical staff of 10 to ensure the daily technical requirements while placing a greater emphasis on strategic processes
- Provide management coaching and mentoring to on-site resources, by measuring their performance, providing feedback, and taking corrective actions as needed
- Participate in weekly and monthly Infrastructure and Operations team meetings
- Contract negotiations with vendors and suppliers (Canon, Allstream, Telus, SoftBrands, Micros, CDW Canada, PCMall, etc.) and make recommendations to the General Managers and Vice Presidents
- A thorough knowledge of the Information Technology standards
- Innovation skills:
- reduced operating costs and administrative labour expenses by introducing accurate expense-monitoring systems (Total Cost of Ownership)
- Intranet/Internet development, website concept and design in HTML, Flash and web performance analysis (WebTrends, Google Analytics, SEO; marketing via social media: Facebook, blogs, etc.
- Training skills:
- explain technology in easily understood terms
- provide guest/admin support (orientation for new employees)
- Customer relations skills:
- Understanding their needs
- Proactive measures
- Impact analysis
I can have your projects running on all cylinders in a short time.
