Orchestrating Success for Organizations & Individuals
CHRIS KOHL
WHERE I'M CONTRIBUTING NOW
Tech Impact
Board Member
Classroom Speaker
Supporting the Mission of affordable IT services for Non-Profits
Mentoring at-risk youth towards productive IT careers
Sharing experiences & advice to enhance the learning process
Philly PAWS
Board Member
Volunteer
Setting Strategic Direction and Furthering the Mission
Hands-on Volunteer caring for and training dogs on their way to forever homes
Calm Clarity Co.
Board Member
Advisor
Guiding the Founder & Company toward Market Traction
Transforming Lives and Organizations through Mindfulness
Emerging
Companies
Advisor
Offering experienced perspective to emerging technology companies
Finding promising innovations to apply in my work
Watching the next waves of the technology industry emerge
NOTABLE & QUOTABLE
"When He's Around, Things Work"
"He takes Dreams to Designs that Doers can make Happen"
WHAT I'VE DONE & WHERE I'VE BEEN
Professional Experience
Vertex, Inc.
Vice President & Chief Information Officer
2003 - 2018
Enterprise-wide Contribution. Executive Leadership. Successful Transformations across the Organization.
Transformed IT from back-office function to strategic contributor. Installed Oracle eBusiness Suite to consolidate financial and transactional activities, transforming business operations along the way. Added Salesforce to the mix to accelerate pre-sales activities. Streamlined delivery and support of systems to support commercial software development and testing. Integrated an acquisition for a greater IT whole. Established robust online hosting capability to speed time-to-value and optimize cost of ownership for Vertex customers. Through comprehensive Systems Strategy, staged systems investments for maximum return.
Led a five-year enterprise-wide process that envisioned and delivered a transformational and progressive new global headquarters to accelerate growth, attract and retain talent, and engage and support partners and customers. A combination of past headquarters design experience with new innovative visioning and planning approaches made this a dynamic and energizing project to support Vertex's future success.
Served as a lead architect and key communicator for Vertex’s organization redesign. This progressive design is transforming the way the company strategically plans, operationally executes, and meaningfully engages its rich pool of talent against the company’s Vision Values and Mission to deliver sustainable value to shareholders and customers.
TecKnowPro, Inc.
Principal
2001 - 2003
Boutique consulting practice that guided and executed strategic and technical IT transformations in Healthcare, Technology, and Financial Services clients.
Reliance Insurance Company
Assistant Vice President - IT Infrastructure
1988 - 2001
IT came into the mainstream over these years. At first it was still mainframes and some PCs, but soon Local Area Networks and Client Server dominated, followed by multiprotocol networks and interconnected everything. Successfully transformed Reliance's field office network from aged mainframe leased lines to router-based multiprotocol network and per-office local area networks to support new commercial insurance rating system. Over a two-year period, led the IT process to design, build, and finally activate and move 1000 people in to a new Head Office in Center City. Integrated networks and systems across all Reliance companies. As the company faced wind-down, led the transition of infrastructure management to an outsourcer. Somewhere along the way, wrote a network analysis and packet diagnostic tool to expose the source of issues that were plaguing Reliance's network that no commercial offering could identify. Open Source and some crafty coding made it happen.
Air Products & Chemicals, Inc.
Network Analyst, End-User Consultant
1982 - 1988
It was the early days of IT (er, MIS). End-User Computing was the rage. PCs made their entre to corporations. Mainframes dominated. DEC was a mainstay in the labs. Client-Server was news. Mobile? Oh, you must mean a 9.6 modem or the Compaq Luggable! Contributions ranged from helping professionals apply computing power to their tasks, making the obscure fourth-generation languages usable, to installing the first LANs and foundational fiber optic network. Tenure included four Co-op assignments and full-time employment following graduation.
FORMAL FOUNDATIONS
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Villanova University, Executive MBA Program
Villanova, PA
A 21-month cohorted Executive MBA Program with a concentration in Systems Thinking and Entrepreneurship. Team-driven Capstone projects:
"Crossing Death Valley: A Crowdfunded Approach to Drug Development": applied systems thinking principles to develop a solution that offered promising early-stage drugs a path to later-stage trials through shared academic and corporate sponsorship.
UniVertitas: a start-up venture project to create a vibrant information marketplace to support students and parents through the college selection process.
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA
Solid engineering and science foundation with business electives to round out the educational experience. Co-op assignments integrated into the 5-year program.
PROFESSIONAL BIO
Everything Happens With and Through People
PURPOSE & STRENGTHS
MY PURPOSE DRIVERS
Imperative offers a comprehensive diagnostic.
Here's how it diagnosed me!
team, institution, community, organizational performance, administration, management
market-driven, incentives, freedom, remove barriers, empower, human potential, market forces, competitive, choice, consequences, entrepreneurial, rewards, fair
organizing, creating ownership, promote, team, evangelize, engagement, resilience, collective, empower, delegate, community, shared goals, collective impact, synergy, advocate, rally
STRENGTHS
According to Strengths Finders, You can Expect These from Me
Learner
A great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, is exciting. Never know where it will lead!
Input
A craving to know more. Collecting and archiving information for use and application
Significance
A desire to be important in the eyes of others. Independent. Want to be recognized for contributions
Restorative
An adeptness at dealing with problems. Very good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it
Responsibility
A psychological ownership of following through on commitments. Stable values such as honestly and loyalty
MORE ABOUT ME
Miscellaneous
Casual
Under the appropriate influences I can look like this
Relaxed
I've been known to relax and vacation like this
Professional
For company headshots, weddings, presentations and formal engagements I can look like this
Places
We've been known to go here
Influences
When my wife brought her home I was mad. Now if she wasn't around I'd be sad.
(yes, at times I rhyme)
A 15-pound furball of energy and love can change you!
I TWEET, TOO
If you like what I say, follow me!
Copyright 2014-2016 Christopher C. Kohl