David C. Thomas
Executive Leadership in Technology Products

(512) 423-1010 ● 301 Inwood Rd. Austin, TX 78746 ● dcthomasdcthomas. com
http://www.dcthomas.com/resume
October, 2007

Overview - Highly productive, adaptable, customer-focused product R&D executive.

·         Broad and deep expertise in enterprise software product development, organizational problem solving, and product development business process tuning

·         Blend of excellent organizational and communication skills with technical analysis capabilities

·         Leadership experience ranges from multi-city multi-function large-scale team-oriented R&D (150+ people) to small teams (1-4 people)

·         Executive-level experience in multiple functions including engineering, operations (support, IT and production), product management, outsourcing, and partner programs

·         Expertise with software and hardware research and development for products and technologies including security, networked and consumer video, multimedia, network management, operating systems, and Internet content management.

·         Recognized and sought-after in high-risk projects for highly-focused project execution skills

·         Disciplined risk management and proactive problem solving

·         Continuous improvement of quality, technology awareness, process, morale, and teamwork

·         Helping team members find motivation, excitement in the opportunity, and success

·         Building teams that include an appropriate balance of visionaries, technologists, and operational experts

·         Extensive experience with budget control measures including selective outsourcing

·         Recognized in employee surveys for honesty, openness, and communications skills

Employment

Vice President of Products, Mirage Networks 2/07 – present

Mirage Networks’ Endpoint Control products secure network devices. Their solutions combine agent-less Network Access Control (NAC) with zero-day threat prevention and automated policy enforcement.

·          Responsible for R&D, engineering, and operational functions including product development, architecture, quality assurance, customer support, technical writing, and manufacturing.

·          Accomplished significant revamping of many corporate and R&D processes, recruiting of key team members, and new product and feature introduction. 24 person team.

Vice President of Engineering, NovusEdge 11/04 – 2/07

NovusEdge is the market leader of web-based management and control of intelligent facility systems, including Card Access (security), Video Surveillance, and Building Automation.

·          9/05-2/07: VP Engineering.  Company-wide responsibility for product development, customer support, quality assurance, program management, architecture, technical writing, operations (manufacturing, production, shipping and receiving), intellectual property, and technical partner relationships. Executive-level strategic leadership on topics of competitive threats, partnership, and product roadmap. Promoted team-wide vision through communication, inclusive buy-in and goals alignment. Shaped the team through development of organizational structure, position descriptions, and recruitment of team members.  Built foundation engineering processes and metrics for continuous improvement and board-level team performance visibility. Managed organization budget across B and C funding rounds. 21 person team.

·          11/04-9/05: Director of Development. Leader of product development and technical writing. Planned and managed project scope and schedule. Designed and rolled-out engineering, support, and production processes. Evaluated and selected internal tools. Provided technical leadership. Structured development organization, developed job descriptions, recruited for new team positions. 8 person team (including 2 contractors).

Senior Director of Engineering, Vignette Corporation 1/99 - 11/04

Vignette’s Enterprise Content Management products help organizations efficiently capture information, streamline business processes, share knowledge and access relevant information.

·    7/04–11/04: Senior Director of Engineering. Responsible for Vignette Content, Integration, Analytics, Dialog, Messenger, Multi-site Content Manager, and V6 CMS products. Leader of a 120 person team including onshore and offshore development, architecture, quality assurance and technical publications in Austin, Boston, Hyderabad, India, and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

·    7/03–7/04: Director of Engineering for 8 of Vignette’s products. This 100 person team included onshore and offshore development, architecture, quality assurance, and technical writing teams. Owner of the Vignette Global Engineering Process, spanning product development centers across 4 cities in 3 continents. Two-time Vignette Leadership Award recipient and one time CEO Leadership Grant recipient.

·    1/03-7/03: Software Development Manager, Content Suite Products. 11 person team.

·    10/01-1/03: Principal Architect and team leader of V7 Content Suite product (J2EE/EJB). Principal Architect is a Director-level technical position. Member of Patent Committee, Change Control Board, Coordinating Architects Group, and Merger and Acquisition due diligence team.

·    12/00-10/01: Staff Architect for 30 member team in the Commerce Applications Division

·    1/99-12/00: Staff Developer, Architect, team lead of components on the Core Engineering Team

Technical Team Lead, Senior Software Engineer, VTEL Corporation 5/1997 - 1/1999

VTEL is a pioneer of the video conferencing industry.

·   Technical leader of videoconferencing applications group. System architect, API designer and lead programmer for software on the VTEL Galaxy product line.

Director of Programming, Young & Rubicam/SicolaMartin 6/1995 - 5/1997

SicolaMartin is a Young & Rubicam advertising and marketing agency with an interactive focus.

·   Manager of software development, quality assurance, and IT departments (7 people). System architect, technical consultant and lead programmer.

Staff Software Engineer, IBM 6/1987 - 6/1995

Networking Systems, IBM Microelectronics, and Power Personal Systems divisions.

·          Team lead, system architect, designer, and programmer across numerous systems.

·          Received two IBM Technical Excellence Awards.

·          Coordinated worldwide efforts with IBM Research (2 NY groups and a group in Haifa, Israel) to bring advanced multimedia to the PowerPC line of personal computers.

·          Compact Disc Explorer - designed, developed, tested, and distributed this unparalleled compact disc player application. Received an award for development.

Patents 

·   “Method and System for Optimizing Resources for Cache Management” (App No. 34712 filed on 12/28/2001, Serial No. 10/033,242, awarded 2/3/2004, US 6,687,793)

·   “System and method for the synchronization of a file in a cache” (App No. 10033242 filed on 12/28/2001, awarded 6/13/2006, US 7,062,515)

·   “Token Cache Access Control System” (filed 7/11/2006, Non-provisional App No. 11/456,754)

Education

Syracuse University - BFA 1987 with Honors in Computer Graphics

·   Class Rank: 1, Valedictorian. GPA: 3.84 (Summa Cum Laude); 4.0 in major.
Nominated Class Marshal by college dean.

·   Tau Theta Upsilon: leadership honorary fraternity (5 selected out of ~20,000)

·   Other academic honors include: Dean's list (all semesters), Honors program, Rhodes Scholarship finalist, University Scholar candidate, Time College Achievement Awards nominee.

Interests and Activities

·   2003–present - Austin Jiu-Jitsu: Founder, owner and instructor of a martial arts gym focused on submission grappling, a sport similar to wrestling or Judo (40 students).

·   1985-present - Martial arts training, competition, instruction and coaching. Karate (9 yrs - 2 black belts), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (12 years – brown belt), Thai Boxing (4 yrs), Aikido (4 yrs), Jeet Kune Do.

·   2006 – present - Youth wrestling coach, USA Wrestling Certified.

·   Swimming, spinning, weights, and other fitness junkie activities.