Ian Mitchell's C.V.

These are my Personal Attributes:

Leadership: I have demonstrated leadership in a variety of roles:
as CEO of an international company; as the technical leader of young, bright graduates in computing; as the elected leader of my professional peers; as the general manager of administrative and technical staff.

Decisiveness: I possess this, now acknowledged, second most important executive attribute.

Integrity: I have a reputation for having the very highest level of integrity in both my business and personal life.

Motivational Skills: I motivate IT professionals to achieve beyond their current expectations.

Selling Skills: I have always sold my own services and hence have accepted 100% "at risk" earnings. I have achieved very high levels of software sales.

Vision: I am known as a visionary in IT innovation.

In Tune with the Technology: My gut feelings about Information Technology are proven and reliable.

Energy: I am known for my exceptionally high levels of physical and intellectual energy.

Hard Working: I believe that working hard is a prerequisite for success.

Focus on Deliverables: I focus on deliverables and am prepared to be measured accordingly.

Extensive Experience: My experience in IT is second-to-none in New Zealand.

Determination: I am always determined to meet agreed goals in all circumstances.

Up-to-date Knowledge: I demonstrate personal commitment to keeping my knowledge up-to-date.

Dependability: I can be depended upon to deliver full commitment to company goals.

As CEO of Customer Information Technologies Limited I am seeking to exploit my very comprehensive knowledge of IT, my business knowledge and my proven ability to lead software developers.

I make IT happen!

Competency Overview:

My competencies have been gained by formal training from world reknowned sources such as Motorola University, by experience and in many cases by being commissioned to deliver materials to specific clients and by preparing articles for publication in international conference proceedings.

Judgement: My judgement on the strategic directions of the IT industry has been consistently and repeatedly substantiated by subsequent developments. My vision of the impact of IT on management has also been proven by subsequent experience.

Business Knowledge: Broad knowledge of business administration and accounting processes; Project Management; Business Process Re-engineering; Workflow Analysis; Benchmarking; Administrative Cycle Time Reduction; Total Quality Management (& Kaizen, Six Sigma); Total Cost Management; Activity Based Costing; Performance Measurement; Employee Empowerment; Out-Sourcing Criteria; Enabling Successful Right-Sizing; Virtual Management Structures and their implications for IT strategy; The impact of technology on corporate strategy, corporate structure,HRM policies and the role of the Chief Executive Officer.

Information Technology Knowledge: Suppliers' strategies, equipment and software environments; New structural roles for IT and the CIO; IT Strategic Planning; IT Procurement and Vendor Relationship Management; CASE; Software Development and Project Management Techniques; Executive Information Systems and their deployment; Understanding of education, HRM and group work enablers for knowledge workers;e-Commerce both B2B and B2C; e-marketing; XML; ASP; Java; Internet strategies and marketing concepts; Data warehousing; Expert systems; Fuzzy logic; Neural networks.

Recent projects have used C++, Delphi, Microsoft NT, IIS, SQL-Server and e-commerce services.

Professional Leadership: I am a past President of the New Zealand Computer Society (2 terms), was on the NZ Government Consultative Committee on Computing in Schools in 1981-83 and stimulated the formation of Computers in Education Societies throughout NZ. I also ran the first conference on Expert Systems and helped form that society. In addition, I also helped to form the Telecommunications Users Association of NZ. Founding Councillor of ISOCNZ.

Personal Development: I believe in keeping abreast of developments in IT by meeting key people at international conferences. I was an invited speaker to Informix World Users Conference; I have attended many NZCS Conferences and the Uniforum Executives Forum and Uniforum in San Francisco. I have also had major working sessions and discussed industry directions with senior USA managers at Oracle, Informix, Microsoft and OMG.

I spoke to and chaired a seminar for AIC on IT Strategies and attended Tele'Learning in Trondheim, Lessons from Learning in Archamp, SEARCC in Karachi, Colombo, Bangkok, Darwin, IFIP World Congress Melbourne, Dublin, San Francisco, Organisational Transformation in San Sebastian (invited). I have expertise on Computers and Education and am particularly well-informed on recent business and IT literature because of my course delivery preparation work for post-graduate and MBA courses. My paper was accepted at the Prime Minister's Education for Enterprise Conference.

From a technical viewpoint I have a near unique attribute: that of having a proper balance between academic knowledge, leading edge product familiarity (including their development and implementation) and pragmatic state-of-the-art software delivery experience.

Professional Activities:

New Zealand Computer Society (NZCS)

I have served two terms as the President of the NZCS, as a National Councillor of six years standing and am a Fellow of the New Zealand Computer Society. I drafted the NZCS’ position paper on the Knowledge Society presented to Minister Paul Swain.

NZ Representative on the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP)

I represented New Zealand on the General Assembly of the International Federation of Information Processing and am still on the Education Technical Committee (TC3). I have attended several World Conferences on Computing and have organised the pre-conference for the 1990 Conference "National Perspectives" which focused on culturally unique practices in computing and education. I presented at a working conference (TC3) in Iceland in 1989. I am knowledgeable on the preparation of curriculum specific software for secondary schools, and was personally invited to "Lessons from Learning", a closed IFIP conference of international experts. I also attended the Tele'Learning 1993 World Conference on distance education. Recently I was invited to Electronic Educational Environments at UC, Irvine.

Personal Details:

Citizenship: New Zealand, Resident in Auckland, Married with 3 adult children

Health: Excellent

Personal Interests: Skiing, Sailing, Reading, Good Music and Good Conversation

Driver's Licenses: New Zealand, Texas

Formal Education:

Tertiary Education at the University of Auckland

1962-63 Master of Science (Nuclear Physics)

1959-61 Bachelor of Science

1960 Lt-Cmdr W E Sanders VC Memorial Scholarship

1961 University Scholarship

1962 University Bursary Credit Pass

Career Experience:

1998-2000 PHAROS Systems Limited

I was invited to be the CEO of the New Zealand company and of Pharos Systems USA, Inc. I substantially restructured the company, negotiated distributorships with large companies around the world such as Xerox, initiated and designed the web site and created marketing collateral.

The primary corporate product is UnipriNT, a systems product consisting of over 1,000,000 lines of code (mostly C++ with some Delphi).

I created a position of Process Methodology Manager, reviewed all development processes and introduced Extreme Programming Methodologies.

The staff is 30 in New Zealand and 6 in the USA.

I have travelled extensively world-wide and in particular in the USA.

1997-1998 Independent Consultant

I am an active member of the iE3 Group Limited, a well established independent virtual company which I helped form. I provided much of the input into the formal documentation and working procedures of this virtual company.

Before that I consulted under a long term retainer to Fujitsu (NZ) Limited. I have a strong interest in Local Authority IT matters and have been a regular presenter at the annual ITMG conferences.

I have a substantial knowledge of public sector management and accounting. I was invited to speak at the working group of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

I delivered the IT paper for the MBA for the University of Otago.

1991-1996 Assignments

Systems review and procurement process for Tasman Express (shipping).
Review of the IT Strategic Plan of the Auckland City Council and conducted Information Awareness Seminars.
Government IT Systems for The Republic of Kiribati through the Asian Development Bank
Digital Equipment Corporation (NZ) Ltd: Review of IT Strategy (Internal Systems).
NZ Rail Limited: Audit of the evaluation process for an EDI systems strategy.
Fujitsu (Japan): Development of the specification for PEOPL - a proposed commercial 4GL with pervasive and object-oriented features.
Designed Time & Cost Billing System with a practice management component in a large patent attorney practice.
Prepared ISO9000 process documentation for software development and assisted in selecting CASE tool for Fujitsu (NZ) Limited.
Lectured by invitation at the University of Auckland in Software Engineering to undergraduates and in the post-graduate Diploma of Business (IS) course. This unit was "The Management of IT".
Surveyed the computer industry in New Zealand on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce on Views on Government Policy on IT. Consequently I am familiar with the opinions of most senior leaders of the IT industry, some key users and government thinking.
Presented a seminar at the University of Auckland on the MIT program called "Management and IT in the 1990s".
I have prepared standards documents for software development.

1987-91 Managing Consultant of 5GL International Limited

I owned and managed a software house developing in Informix 4GL under UNIX with a staff of 24.

I designed and supervised the development of a major suite of innovative management financials incorporating EIS, Performance Measurement and Workflow features.
My major clients were public sector bodies. Recently I have received unsolicited comments that the innovation in the suite was so forward thinking that it has given substantial advantage 12 years later to its users.
This large project (now known as Corporate Vision) of over one million lines of code was purchased by Fujitsu (NZ) Limited.

Other products were Professional Time-&-Cost and Records Management.

Acted as an Expert Witness for several civil law cases. I have a detailed understanding of the law relating to software and contract negotiation.

1980-86 Independent Consultant

Consulted to The Audit Office (operates within the Parliament) on the Report on Computing in the Public Sector; presented seminars on Computer Audit, Software Methodologies, Business Analysis, UNIX, Managing Computing etc; lectured at the University of Auckland in the Management Studies Department on Transaction Processing.

1978-80 J P Scott & Associates - Branch Manager

I was manager of the Auckland branch which was built to 15 consultants.

I established an education company as a subsidiary of this business.

I also organised overseas speakers such as James Martin.

I consulted in both clinical and administrative areas to the Department of Health.

1975-78 L D Nathan & Co Ltd - Systems Development Manager

I managed over 50 staff in a corporate environment.

1972-75 Information & Management Sciences Ltd - Managing Director

Developed software for law practices which was sold to a consortium of all the trading banks in New Zealand.
This software generated revenue in excess of $10m per year for Databank.

I developed software for the largest market research company in New Zealand hence
I have detailed knowledge of market analysis techniques.

1972 International Data Limited - General Manager

With 51 staff I developed financials software for several large businesses such as Wilson and Horton Ltd.

1968 Mason Bros Limited - DP Manager

I developed the computing operation for New Zealand's largest engineering company.

I helped in the calculations behind the Manapouri Hydro Power scroll casings
- the largest steel rolling job ever completed in New Zealand.

I was an early user of Project Management software and am very competent in PM.

1964-1966 BM World Trade Corp - Systems Engineer
I was educated by the best computer and best marketing company in the world at that time.
I have kept in touch with the editor of the IBM Systems Journal and remain familiar with the best of IBM.