James B Robinson
jr at ratwerks
415/722-3745
Objective
I build elite technical teams that will improve the efficiency and reliability of your systems while reducing your costs. If you are looking for a dynamic leader to run your operations I'd love to visit.
Work History
Senior Director of Internet Operations -- Shutterfly, 2007 - 2008
Responsible for strategic planning, disaster recovery, business continuity, photo lab support, security and networking. Managed integration of Shutterfly acquisition Nexo into Shutterfly's datacenters. Migrated from Cisco CSM to BigIP F5 for scale, supportability and Global Server Load Balancing support across multiple datacenters. Maintained Sarbanes Oxley and PCI security compliance. Documented all aspects of photo lab support.
Director of Information Technology -- GoldenGate Software, 2006 - 2007
Responsible for all corporate and development systems, including support for every major database on every major platform (including zOS and HP NonStop.) Used VMware Server to support over 300 diverse development environments. Deployed IBM z9 to both save lease costs and create in-house mainframe expertise. Replaced poorly implemented Exchange 2000 with Zimbra. Provided world wide corporate telephony with Avaya VoIP (India, Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil, hundreds of home offices.)
Information Technology Consultant -- The Orphanage, Inc. 2005
Six month contract to rebuild 16 terabyte storage network and sort out operational issues. Moved from SGI CXFS to Lustre for lower cost, better performance, easier management and improved scalability. Reorganized operations, help desk and engineering teams for better collaboration and mutual support.
Director of Webshots Operations -- CNET, 2004 - 2005
Integrated the Webshots' technical team with CNET while supporting the infrastructure that served Webshots' 50 million daily pageviews and 1 million daily photo uploads. Handed off Webshots' e-commerce and ad-serving components to CNET's internal revenue handling divisions.
Vice President of Technology -- Webshots, 2002 - 2004
Built and lead the technical team that allowed Webshots to grow from 16 to 32 million daily pageviews, from 17 to 120 million photos and from a $3 million purchase from Excite@Home to a $70 million sale to CNET Networks. Managed segregated secure webservers and backend MySQL database servers handling about $20,000 of customer transactions each day.
Senior Manager of Operations -- Excite@Home, 1998 - 2002
Managed a team of 21 unix system administrators running 1,500 machines serving well over 20 million daily pageviews at www.excite.com. Removed $20,000,000 (about 25%) of hardware from the datacenter while increasing both system capacity and reliability. Lead the transition from expensive Sun sparc hardware to cost effective x86 hardware. Built a team of senior system administrators to support Excite's international operations in Europe, Japan, China and Australia.
Manager of Information Technology -- Quadralay Corporation, 1997 - 1998
Complete system, network and phone administration of cisco routers, all major unix flavors as well as Windows 95, 98 and NT and the MacOS for a small software development company.
Chief Information Officer -- Steve Jackson Games, 1995 - 1997
Managed the operations of a mixed Windows - Macintosh networked publishing and business environment. Specified, procured and configured new systems, software and hardware. Provided all user support and training. Managed transition from Windows for Workgroups to Windows 95 and MacOS. Designed and implemented CD-ROM archival storage of published works. Migrated company databases from single-user dBase IV, OnFile and FoxPro environments to a multi-user FileMaker Pro environment. Installed and maintained ISDN connection between the company LAN and the internet.
General Counsel -- Steve Jackson Games and Illuminati Online, 1995 - 1997
Eclectic practice in the areas of intellectual property, internet service, tax, mergers, immigration, contract disputes, employee - employer relations, computer network law, and general business law.
Forms Section Chief -- Texas Attorney General Child Support Division, 1993 - 1995
Managed the dozen lawyers on the Forms Committee. Supervised the rewrite of Child Support's automated forms system. Drafted and co-ordinated the distribution of hundreds of legal pleadings to nearly two hundred field offices across the state of Texas. Trained attorneys and legal staff in the use of the new automated forms system. Worked directly with the Division Chief and Andersen Consulting on Child Support's multi-million dollar New System. Represented the Child Support Division on the agency-wide Information Security Committee.
Law Clerk -- Texas Attorney General Child Support Enforcement Division, 1989 - 1992
Designed and coded the Substantive Memo File, a database of in-house legal research; and the Model Office Project, a system to determine optimum staffing levels for Child Support Field Offices. Redesigned TAG, the forms system in use state-wide, and rewrote the software to run under WordPerfect 5.1. Worked with attorneys and forensic experts to develop a computer generated video-animation package to present DNA paternity evidence at trial.
Miscellany
Stagehand -- University of Texas Performing Arts Center, Texas A&M Theatre Complex, Fort Bragg Playhouse, Harbor Playhouse, Princeton Opera Association, 1975 - 1995
Cast and Crew -- Bar & Grill, 1996 & 1997.
Producer -- Assault & Flattery (annual Texas Law show), 1991.
Technical Director -- Assault & Flattery, 1990.
Sound Engineer -- Assault & Flattery, 1989.
- LSAT Instructor -- Stanley H. Kaplan, 1989
- Hospital Technical Assistant -- University of Texas Medical Branch, 1982
Military Service
- Diving Medical Technician -- U.S. Navy Reserves, 1986 - 1988
- First Class Diver -- U.S. Army Reserves, 1982 - 1986
- Medical Specialist -- U.S. Army, 1979 - 1982
Other Things
- Board of Directors -- EFF-Austin, 1992 - Present
- Advise EFF-Austin, a Texas non-profit corporation concerned with defending civil liberties in cyberspace, on legal and technical issues.
- Computer Support -- Women's Advocacy Project, 1990 - 1995
- Developed Access to Justice for Texas Family Violence Victims: an Internet Approach, a world-wide web based system to provide legal documents to people in rural Texas.
- Polymath -- At Large, 1961 - Present
- ham, volkswagen mechanic, bike builder, ironworker, welder, cook, arms dealer, oyster shucker. doctor, lawyer, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, fool, witty.
Education
- State Bar of Texas; Licensed 1992
- The University of Texas School of Law; J.D. 1991
- The University of Texas at Austin; B.A. Philosophy 1988
Buzzword Bingo -- Linux Apache Tomcat Resin MySQL phpMyAdmin Lucene Prevayler Postgres PHP LAMP FOSS REXX Java perl Python Bash Webalizer Nagios Big Brother MRTG SNTP IOS Cisco Foundry Extreme IRC xmpp wiki Dovecot Postfix Mailman Squirrelmail POP IMAP SSH SSL Squid Subversion SVN CVS Samba NFS JFS XFS Dfs CXFS
