749 59th Ave
St. Pete Beach, FL 33706
Mobile: (954) 895-3909
rdk@DickKane.com

CEO - COO - MBA:  Extensive experience in higher education, high technology, financial services, manufacturing and packaged goods. A creative, innovative and positive leadership force with the proven ability to identify strategic opportunities, to dramatically improve performance, to make good decisions, and to build thriving organizations.

EXPERIENCE

Smart Meter is a startup that is bringing connected medical devices to market. As employee #4, I helped take the comopany from pre-market to a $10M run rate.

Director of Operations (acting COO & CIO)

• Member of the executive management team
• Actively led evaluation of NetSuite, SAP and Accumatica leading to NetSuite enterprise ERP implementation
• Strategically planned and executed a one-year process to take this embedded IoT medical device from FDA regulatory approval to mass production
• Technology leadership for Connected Health, Remote Patient Monitoring, and IoT integration
• Responsible for the complete product development life-cycle; managed an electrical design and engineering team in North Carolina, a mechanical design and engineering team in Hong Kong, and embedded software engineering team in Pakistan, and a back-end cloud development team in Florida
• Provided supply chain leadership for manufacturing operations and mass production; researched, vetted, sourced, tested, constructed, managed and optimized a supply chain that spans Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Taichung City and Cleveland
• Operations Management responsibilities include management of the design team, supply chain, quality management, regulatory compliance, and facilitation of off-shore assembly and packaging
• IT responsibilities include front-end / back-end technology selection, management of IT development, functional design, design review, and quality management

Senior Business Intelligence Analyst
Technology and development leadership for complex business analysis and business intelligence systems. Heavy SQL development, MicroStrategy and data architecture in a world class Agile environment.

Founder
Crafted the vision and built a company that changed the vehicle traffic analysis paradigm with the invention of technology able to yield instant deep insights into traffic flow, patterns, and prediction. Via Traffic Insights proved its value as a tool to reduce congestion and improve safety after immediate adoption by the U.S. military. The Via tool set assisted decision makers in the allocation of billions of dollars to maintain, expand, and construct new roads.

Creating such a unique solution required both strategic vision and deep technical knowledge including extensive use of SQL, PLSQL, Entity Relationship Diagramming, and Tableau BI development tool sets to test and to develop fundamentally new data architectures. This was accomplished by merging data science, business intelligence, and telecommunication technologies while executing in an Agile environment. Sprint reviews included detailed functional narratives, process flows, screen mock-ups, and logic diagrams outlining pseudo-code for critical algorithms.

Leadership Facilitator
Provided facilitative leadership of this $12M innovative training initiative from inception through the completion of two training cycles. Startup Quest 2013/14 impacted the lives and professional development of over 100 Pinellas County professionals as they completed their education related to the commercialization of emerging technologies.

• Certified facilitator for this $12M initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Labor
• Demonstrated outstanding communication skills with all stakeholders
• Program graduates created more than 20 new companies in the State of Florida and having a substantial positive impact on many local economies
• Educated professionals on commercialization strategies for cutting edge and innovative technologies
• Developed the detailed project plan for each cycle, assigned tasks, managed timelines, and resolved obstacles to assure success

Senior Director - Acting CIO
Initially engaged by the UK based parent company to port an incumbent technology to the US. Excellent analysis of the complex business requirements and technical issues resulted in expanded responsibility to construct a plan to support the migration of all platform functions to the US market. Responsibilities included:

• Technical specification to meet US based user requirements across all business and IT functions
• Negotiation, selection and management of vendors for mission critical activities
• The use of CRM, financial management and project tracking tools to track technical implementation of all customization initiatives and to ensure successful project delivery

University College develops innovative new interdisciplinary programs for the University while providing access to degree plans, more than 1000 distance learning courses and continuing education for professional development.

Chief Operating Officer

• Recruited and hired by the Founding Dean of this new academic and business unit
• Constructed the strategic plan including opportunities to build new programs
• Managed all budgeting and financial analysis

• Constructed a financial model to analyze all programs
• Conducted a mini-business plan review of each major initiative
• Review of the existing budget process and develop an enhanced process

• Responsibility for effective operations

• Drove process improvement and efficiency
• Centralized resources, streamline operation and plan for growth
• Managed course development for online education

• Identified, qualified and selected primary market research partners
• Managed and negotiated vendor contracts and relationships
• Managed University College IT

• Help Desk
• Tech Support
• CRM system
• Registration system

• Managed marketing & branding for University College
• Led eBook innovations

• Provided USF with a competitive advantage by dramatically lowering the cost to USF student of course materials via eBooks
• Developed publishing capacity to generate substantial profit

Tampa Bay Co-Pack provides a wide range of contract beverage manufacturing services, including blending, processing, bottling, packing, warehousing, fulfillment, and distribution.

CEO - interim
Assumed control of a dysfunctional organization that had experienced mounting losses year over year. Charged with creating a turn-around & taking immediate action to drive the organization to profitability:

• Provided education and training to support a policy and culture of zero defects
• Reviewed executive team for talent, expertise, competency and communication skills
• Replaced the incumbent president with the CEO of a strong competitor
• Identified the need and hired replacement for Director of Quality Assurance
• Trimmed overhead by absorbing the responsibilities of the Vice President of Operations
• Trimmed overhead and simplified operations by absorbing or delegating the responsibilities of the Director of Logistics
• Eliminated the use of antiquated, inaccurate and confusing systems
• Instituted cultural changes to replace a pattern of mediocrity and failure with a culture of excellence and success
• The company is expected to be profitable in 2012 after five years of losses.

Link-Systems International, Incorporated (LSI) is a privately-held technology services and content development company that has been dedicated to student success and student retention in K-12 Education, Higher Education, and Workforce Development Education since 1995.

Senior Consultant - Business Intelligence & Analytics
Responsible for strategic planning and entry into the Business Intelligence software sector of Higher Education. Worked in partnership with the CEO to create the strategic plan and managed all related design, development and prototyping initiatives:

• Designed and develop prototype software
• Demonstrated cutting-edge integration of BI and LMS software platforms
• Created a new user-driven platform for the cross-correlations and visual presentation of data:

• Student performance
• Faculty performance
• Mastery of learning outcomes
• Quality of instructional materials
• Access and use of supplemental materials

Demonstrated prototype software at prestigious national conventions and cultivated relationships with pilot institutions:

• Delivered executive presentation to selected CEOs at 2010 HERDI Conference
• Presented session on Business Intelligence in Higher Ed. at 2010 AACC Convention
• Made a key industry presentation on Academic Analytics at 2010 NISOD Conference

Diversified global education business with $2 billion in annual revenue, 27,000 employees, serving students of all ages from K-12 as well as adult professionals seeking additional training, certifications and degrees.

Vice President, Schools of Business & Technology
Responsible for $260M business unit serving 16,000 students in Undergraduate Business, Graduate Business, Undergraduate IT, and Graduate IT with management responsibility for 70 administration, and 85 full time and 500+ part time faculty members.

• Became recognized as a thought-leader for the delivery of blended and online education
• Centralized all instructional design and LMS support under my leadership
• Created a LMS platform that leveraged the potential of online technology to adapt to the learning style and academic level of each student
• Captured quantified evidence of a 40% improvement in student engagement and student success
• Grew revenue to $195M in 2007 from $155M in 2006
• Added $34M to bottom line in 2008 with a 42% profit margin
• Achieved growth using process improvement skills (Six Sigma) focused on business process efficiency and the competency of individuals (effectiveness) in their specific roles
• Identified the need for an innovative marketing campaign, launched first-ever direct mail, email and paid-search marketing initiatives
• Provided leadership through extensive training, mentoring and upgrading as necessary
• Earned highest employee satisfaction and employee retention rankings in all of Kaplan as a result of creating a culture of opportunity, growth, learning from mistakes and real-time mentoring

Holding company with multiple business units and business activities including commercial real estate development, real estate brokerage, title services, warehousing and distribution.

Title Security, St. Petersburg, FL (2003 - 2006)
Subsidiary providing commercial and residential title services.

Vice President Operations & IT
Retained as turnaround specialist. Tripled company size through complete process re-engineering. Created efficient and accurate business systems, reduced labor by 50% and errors by over 80%, produced record growth and profits.

• Created a competitive advantage by replacing antiquated processing technology with a server-based solution and secure high-speed remote access for remote resources
• Implemented first-ever comprehensive fiscal management process, including annual budgets, monthly performance analysis tools, roles and responsibilities
• Provide innovative ideas and the experience to re-engineer the business process yielding millions of dollars of accelerated revenue

Pronto Distributors, St. Petersburg, Florida (2003 - 2006)

Subsidiary in chemical distribution and warehousing which had experienced revenue growth but with steadily eroding margins and a loss of profitability.

Vice President Operations & IT

• Comprehensive reengineering of all warehousing, inventory and distribution systems
• Replaced all accounting and warehousing information systems
• Created new financial controls, and defined job responsibilities as appropriate for re-engineered business
• Corrected operational deficiencies by implementing bar code tracking and re-engineered material management processes including receipt, stocking, picking, packing and shipping
• Increased efficiency by 30% and returned company to profitability in 2006
• Launched new e-commerce based business unit with 100% internally generated capital

Executive education and facilitated training focused on change management using proprietary experiential education techniques to produce profound lasting business and behavioral changes.

Regional Vice President

• Opened first office in US and contributed to worldwide business development
• Achieved certification in five patented organizational change methodologies
• Recognized by Fortune 100 clients for producing meaningful change not otherwise possible
• Directly managed engagements accomplishing substantial organizational change including:

• National sales consulting and training for Essilor (St. Petersburg)
• Executive consulting for SouthTrust Bank (Tampa)
• Resolved organizational obstacles that had long plagued Platex
• Repaired trust concerns between board members of large chamber of commerce

Software development and consulting services for the acceleration of business results through the use of innovative information technology.

Founding Partner
Business process and business development consulting focused on data collection systems in mid-tier manufacturing, warehousing and distribution industries. Responsible for business development, account management, consulting, software architecture, application design and project management.

• Innovative technology used to develop job tracking systems for General Electric
• 12 month contract with Countrywide Financial Services for business process integration of a newly acquired business unit
• 12 month engagement with Fidelity Investments:

• Doubled warehouse efficiency for retrieval of marketing literature by developing innovative queuing theory in order to optimize order input for a fully automated robotic warehouse
• Achieved multi-million dollar savings by creating a system to retrieve real-time financial performance data and to print fund prospectus materials on-demand, yielding 100% elimination of expired materials
• Led technical investigation of Oracle's ERP Integrated Manufacturing Suite

Direct marketing company with $700 million of annual revenue.

Vice President
Responsible for information technology services supplied to external and internal customers.

Sole proprietorship focused on delivery of strategic information services to mid-tier companies. Launched a revolution in the use of mini-computer equipment from Hewlett-Packard.

Founder
Provided leadership in all aspects of business including: management, finance, technology, organizational development, sales, hiring, training and mentoring a staff of 20. Responsible for software design and development focused on real-time process control and data collection.

Fortune 100, $80 billion, worldwide packaged goods manufacturing company with over 138,000 employees.

Senior Project Manager
Strategic assignments in development of manufacturing and business information systems. Continuing education included Deming and TQMS quality systems. These techniques were used to create an architecture for all process improvement initiatives.

EDUCATION

• MBA (Operations Management), Indiana University, Bloomington, IN., 1978
• B.S. Business Administration (Quantitative Analysis), Indiana University, Bloomington, IN., 1977
  With honors, supplemented with special studies in Computer Science

Areas of Practice

Leadership, Information Technology, International Supply Chain, Medical Device Manufacturing, P&L Management, Turnaround Management, Forecasting, Budgeting, Strategic Planning, Project Management, Business Plan Development, Business Process Engineering, ERP Implementation, Process Flow Analysis

Industry Lines

Medical Devices, Connected Health, Data Analytics, Manufacturing, Packaged Goods, Direct Marketing, Warehousing, Distribution, High-Tech, Financial Services, Education

Education

• MBA (Operations Management)
  Indiana University, 1978
• B.S. Business Administration
  (Quantitative Analysis)
  Indiana University, 1977
  With honors, supplemented with special studies in Computer Science