K. M. Peterson

Professional Biography

K. M. Peterson works across traditional boundaries in Information Technology, with a passion for listening and teaching and a focus on helping those who use technology in an organization work more productively and efficiently. His experience spans over twenty years in all facets of Information Technology, across academic, scientific and commercial environments. He is a technical manager, with hands-on expertise in infrastructure: computer servers, network technologies, data management, and the disciplines of creating facilities that power reliable and scalable applications. He has built data centers and managed teams of systems administrators, database architects, network engineers, and end-user support specialists. Mr. Peterson has mastered technologies from operating systems (Windows, Linux, and Mac) to security, Storage Area Networks and virtualization, to network management and routing.

Most recently, Mr. Peterson was responsible for Information Technology services at Basis Technology Corporation. In addition to managing a small but capable team, he also architected a number of new applications, provided backstop support in a complex and fast-paced environment at the company's U.S. and international offices, and significantly increased the capacity of the production resources for the company.

Prior to his position at Basis, Mr. Peterson worked for John Snow, Inc., a global public health consulting firm. Earlier, he managed Information Technology operations for the Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research, where he architected the production systems and managed teams that supported the largest contribution of data to the Human Genome Project, crucial to the overall success of one of the largest scientific efforts yet completed.

Mr. Peterson is a lifelong learner, gaining successive proficiencies in mainframes, client-server environments, and Internet and cloud-based IT. His interest in science formed the initial core of his undergraduate education, but his focus on the human elements in business and the underlying connections with technology led him to broaden the scope of his studies, culminating in an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Boston University. He maintains a vital interest in new technologies, and is active in the technology community.

Objectives

Seeking a position as a Director or Vice-President of Information Technology for an organization that is innovative, has clear goals for their information technology assets, and faces challenges such as:

the need to improve the level of service provided to the company's end-users and/or customers
big objectives, requiring an advanced approach and effective scalability
a demanding and sophisticated end-user community
rigorous goals for availability, security, and consistency
balancing forward-thinking with best practices; uniformity with versatility
a goal to build and develop a productive, flexible, and responsive IT team
the need for leadership with seasoned judgement and current knowledge and skills

Resume

My resume, current as of June, 2014.

Adobe PDF version (Authoritative Version - Highly Recommended)
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Please feel free to contact me! Thank you.

K. M. Peterson
40 Stanton Road
Brookline, MA 02445-6839
+1 617 731 6177

Summary

Hands-on Information Technology Manager, known for innovative approach to solving problems. Team leader experienced in building and motivating professional, capable, and responsive organizations. Polished and professional writer and presenter.

Effective in fostering collaboration and consultative relationships with senior management and across traditional boundaries; highlighting inflection points of technology decisions.
Technical leader with broad experience, brings focus on “big picture” business impacts of technology projects: real costs, practical benefits, risks and contingencies.
Adaptable – skilled at supporting individuals, building systems, handling problems; as well as managing teams, training, developing strategies, policies and processes.

Experience

Consulting and Independent Projects, Volunteer Work, 2010-present

Utilized communication skills and deep technical knowledge to provide solutions for individuals and organizations; expanded competency in key areas through independent projects and presentations.

Project areas included development and implementation of Asterisk, IPv6, Linux (CentOS 6, and related security packages), Network Monitoring (Zabbix), Amazon Web Services (S3, EC2, SNS, Glacier, Route 53), and email implementation (Postfix, DMARC, DKIM).
Consulting projects included Windows Server and Macintosh networking, publishing systems, Internet security; volunteer teaching in Mathematics (ABE), computer/web use.
Developed technical presentations on Backup systems, Asterisk. Delivered “A Technical Introduction to Bacula” at BBLISA (March, 2012). Writing on topics related to technology at kmpontech.wordpress.com .

Senior Director of Information Technology, Basis Technology Corp., Cambridge, Mass. 2008-2010
Director of Information Technology, Basis Technology Corp., Cambridge, Mass. 2006-2007

Upgraded IT for software and services company in Linguistic/Text Analysis market; focusing on highly technical, tailored solutions for network and systems infrastructure. Customers include commercial software and web services companies, and government.

Managed a lean team providing systems, network, end-user and technical support across three U.S. offices, Tokyo; supporting Engineering, Marketing, Sales and Administration.
Principal individual contributions included enhancing data storage, disaster recovery capabilities, and security. Implemented systems/configuration management automation, planned and executed moves to new facilities. Responsible for data center design, office space networking, access control; HVAC, electrical and networking installation contractors.
Led initiatives in virtualization, upgrading corporate network, Exchange Server migration, network monitoring, reducing business risk and increasing efficiencies. Negotiated several significant networking contracts, upgrading bandwidth, improving security and manageability of company networks.
Introduced new technologies and professionalized department, including processes to track problem resolution and manage software licensing and installation; promoted training and development of staff.

IT Manager, John Snow, Inc., and World Education, Boston, Mass. 2004-2005

Managed company headquarters information technology team for $150M global public health consulting firm and literacy organization. Consulted with African field offices on Windows/network security issues (firewall, virus, spam) and negotiated Internet connectivity with local vendors during trip. Planned and executed accounting system upgrade from Windows 2000 Server/Oracle 8 to Linux/Oracle 9i, including database creations/moves, and production-ready installation and tailoring of Linux/Oracle server.

Manager, Computer Systems Operations, Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research (now The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT), Cambridge, Mass. 1998-2003

Staffed and managed 16-person department providing all functions of IT/Infrastructure including Database Administration, Systems Administration, Desktop Support teams for largest publicly funded genome sequencing center in U.S., with research grant revenue of approximately $80M per year. Set direction, formulated requirements, and negotiated purchase of hardware/software over a 4-year period with market value of $13M. Reporting to CIO, developed policies, set service levels, managed personnel and budgets, oversaw all aspects of operations.

Specific achievements include:

Implementation of 7/24/365 support structure including automated system outage notification, ticketing system for efficient problem management; escalation protocols and user-communication procedures.
Architecture of infrastructure, scaling from 3 workstations/54GB storage to 30+ SMP servers, VLM servers, database servers, and storage system including 55+TB SAN/NAS storage and tape robotics for backup and archive.
Negotiated agreements with resellers, vendors, including collaboration-based pricing and academic agreements with a value of approximately $4M.
Increased reliability, responsiveness and level of professionalism in department using negotiation, communication skills, excellent recruiting, and leadership by example.

Collaborations with other groups: member of construction committee (contributed to projects to increase facility size five-fold), Whitehead administration (recruiting new IT director for Institute), MIT Network Security group (security incident response and general collaborative assistance), Employee Benefits committee (redesign of Institute benefits structure).

Senior Systems Administrator, Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research 1996-1998

Implemented new practices and systems: RAID storage systems, Advanced File System, integrated backup/ archive system; redesigned namespace, redeployed website.
Technical lead on Windows NT workstation/server issues; implemented NT domain, researched and evaluated NT/Unix integration strategies

Manager, Systems Support, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, Mass. 1994-1996

Top-to-bottom support of Macintosh in complex, mixed Mac-Unix computing environment and TCP/IP network in intense and fast paced research-based company. Managed customer satisfaction through education, one-on-one support, responsiveness, and communication of IS goals and responsibilities. Founding member of IS consulting practice.

Consulting

Network Security Team, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 2003-2004

Solicited to assist in management of emergencies relating to worm infestations. Managed team responses through volunteers and IS&T staff; supervised response, researched and tested protocols for recovery, consulted with faculty, staff, students, and researchers on hardening strategies.

Harvard University Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cambridge, Mass. 2000, 2001

Two-phase project for a growing and diverse biology laboratory, involving collaboration on assessment of issues and a report to faculty and administration with specific recommendations; and participation in recruiting a Director of Information Technology for the department (including resume selection and review and multiple rounds of interviewing). Consulting took place in tandem with duties at Whitehead.

Technology

Platforms: Linux (CentOS 6/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Ubuntu), Unix (Solaris, AIX), Macintosh (OS X 10.8), Windows (Windows 8, Server 2003/2008, Exchange Server 2007; licensing/acquisition issues), Amazon Web Services (Cloud), VMware ESX/ESXi, MySQL, Oracle, NetApp, EMC Clariion, cfengine, Platform LSF, SAS.

Programming: Python, bash, shell scripting/utilities, Perl, C.

Applications: Microsoft Office, OpenOffice; Adobe CS6; Perforce, Bacula, Apache 2.2, Subversion, R, Splunk.

Communications: TCP/IP (DNS, SMTP, ssh, HTTP, X11, BGP/WAN, 802.11, etc.), IPv6, Ethernet, Postfix, Juniper ScreenOS, Cisco IOS; VoIP (Asterisk 1.8, SIP telephony), PGP.

Education

B.L.S., Philosophy, Boston University, 1993

Professional

Member USENIX/SAGE; MIT Network Security Team

Personal

Hobbies include graphic design, bicycling, exercise, reading, the arts, food. On-air director of fund-raising programming for public radio (WBUR, Boston); co-producer of special events, including Car Talk. Volunteer for NDEC/Boston and Tech Goes Home, Boston. Trustee of the Stanton Condominium, Brookline.

This resume is available online: http://kmpeterson.com/resume