// Resume (CV)

James P. MacLennan

Seasoned business and IT leader with a broad background in strategic visioning, tactical & operational planning and management, and effective & relevant system/process design. Focused on delivering timely, measurable, and sustainable results that drive business objectives. Recognized for creative, high impact performance, innovative and effective communications, and consistent delivery of strong results through formal and advisory leadership

Education

MBA, Marketing Concentration, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
BS, Electrical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Experience

(Publicly held, $BB diversified manufacturing company)

(Chicago, IL area)

2012-present Chief Information Officer

Senior executive responsible for enabling and driving business objectives through IT, while optimizing the delivery of core business systems and services. The Company is a diversified manufacturer that grows organically as well as by acquisition; the Corporate mandate includes the effective integration of new Business Units (BUs) to deliver results. Six direct reports, a global team of over 50; functional oversight of the global BU IT teams (over 100 members).

Reynolds Services, Inc.

(Lake Forest, IL area)

2011-2012 Vice President, Information Technology; Business Unit CIO
2005-2011 Executive Director, Information Technology

Tactical and strategic responsibility for overall IT planning, resourcing, and prioritization of systems & services supporting the Pactiv Foodservice & Food Packaging business unit (>$3.5B), including oversight of IT units in Mexico and Europe. Concurrent responsibility for establishing and maintaining the global functional architecture encompassing SAP, Supply Chain Systems, Reporting & Analytics, and R&D / Engineering systems supporting Reynolds Consumer Products, Pactiv Foodservice and Food Packaging, and Closure Systems International business units. Six direct reports, a total team of over 40, with an operating budget in excess of $21M.

Functional IT responsibilities include:

  • Supply Chain Systems: SAP and enterprise-class platforms in support of R&D, Procurement, Product Engineering and Commercialization, Planning and Inventory Control, Manufacturing, and Logistics (Warehouse & Transportation) across multiple business units.
  • Information Management: Providing timely, relevant, and actionable solutions for reporting & analytics, including data from multiple business units (and multiple systems) aggregated into a single comprehensive view.
  • SAP Application Support: Operational and break-fix support of all SAP modules; this role manages the internal developer pool, plus all external resourcing relationships. I also own the vendor relationships with critical IT suppliers in this area, including SAP and JDA.
  • Project Management Office: Corporate IT is grappling with the challenge of balancing requests for projects that drive the business forward against ongoing “run-the-business” support requirements. I am leveraging my experience with multiple organizations to implement process & procedure, metrics, and knowledge capture tools, in support of our Resource Portfolio Management initiatives.
  • International IT: Responsibility for IT organizations in our wholly-owned subsidiaries in Mexico and Europe.

Within IT, I manage six direct reports, and a total team size of over 40. Total operating budget for these groups is in excess of $21M.

Strategic IT

  • Business Process Integration: IT leadership role for major acquisitions; for the largest recent event, co-directed team of 300+ business and technical resources, implementing major process change using SAP and other enterprise systems. Project successfully completed, rolling out to nine sites in 12 months, and improving the company’s process standards and project management framework.
  • Enterprise Systems Management: Ownership of critical technology vendor relationships; restructured SAP agreement in 2008 and 2011 to drive down recurring cost while increasing value realized. Developed a complete set of performance metrics and TCO calculations to accurately illustrate the cost of customizing our enterprise software. Created a comprehensive, evergreen review of the company’s strategic application portfolio.
  • Enabling Business Results: Implemented quantitative process for aligning information technology with strategic business plans, providing a clear line-of-sight for balancing resources against critical change issues & new business opportunities.

Tactical IT

  • Introduced Technology Roadmaps methodology across multiple areas of IT, providing 6-12 months visibility to strategic and tactical projects, for prioritization and schedule dependencies
  • Rationalizing technology platforms and toolsets in our Data, Reporting, and Analytics group; eliminating redundant technologies to simplify the portfolio and drive down support costs.
  • Developed standardized toolset for capturing specific, quantified benefits for business change projects; applicable to a broad range of functional areas, it enables “apple-to-apples” prioritization for constrained resources.
  • Providing real opportunities for staff growth and advancement through structural reorganization and introduction of cross functional project and requirements reviews.
  • Facilitating resolution of international design and implementation issues as the company reworks our entire global network infrastructure.

Project Management

  • Automated and streamlined the IT Project Forecast process, which provides an integrated, forward-looking summary of resource requirements and constraints for all IT projects.
  • Leading the technical and user-interface design for project portfolio management toolset; we are providing opportunities for internal developers to learn new development skills while upgrading the quality and timeliness of our project tracking data.
  • Pioneered the use of collaborative knowledge management and social networking tools; implemented and introduced a wiki platform; driving the use of blogs and discussion forums.

Culligan International

(Northbrook, IL)

Culligan is a $700M global provider of water treatment products and services.

2000-2005 Director, Information Technology

Assumed lead IT role in October, 2004, after departure of CIO; managed annual North American IT budget of $5M; responsible for 30+ member global IT team, including internal / external resources.

Strategic IT

  • Drove IT strategic planning for 2004 divestiture from Veolia / USFilter, including work plan and master budget ($2M) for all IT projects.
  • Developed a Business Architecture that captured a vision of an IT-enabled business model, and created the Technical Architecture that directly supports that model.
  • Developed strategic approaches for Sales Life Cycle Management and integration of Commercial Services Networks.

Tactical IT

  • Coordinated operational support of multiple ERP systems, including detailed issue / resolution management, and implementation / management of business-driven prioritization process.
  • Implemented the eBusiness Integration Hub; a “Center of Excellence” approach for facilitating electronic transactions between external trading partners and internal business systems. Supported 20 trading partner relationships, estimated monthly cost savings $25K.
  • Created concept and high-level architecture for the Channel Partner Locator, a web service that leveraged our existing investment in geographical software. Processed 35,000 requests per month, estimated monthly cost savings $150K.
  • Consolidated web application development under IT; introduced project management, asset control, development methodologies.

Business Change

  • IT Project Lead for major (>$10M) ERP implementation, coordinating internal & external IT resources; managed integration partners and hardware & software vendors.
  • Managed multiple projects in support of the corporate divestitures, including the consolidation of call centers, transfer of customer service and support for select product lines.
  • Initiated and mentored Hyperion Financial Management implementation for corporate consolidated financials; second-generation effort includes groundwork for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Project Management

  • Standardized project proposals, approvals, tracking, and prioritization; these efforts evolved into the IT Project Management Office (PMO), featuring process and metrics that help Culligan maximize the value of their IT investments.
  • Implemented an issue tracking system, with comprehensive management reporting, that proved invaluable in managing complex projects with limited resources.
  • Created the corporate intranet site, with supporting process and documentation that enables site creation, document sharing, and content management without IT involvement.
  • Created a comprehensive “boilerplate” Master Services Agreement for technology projects, which affords excellent protections while streamlining the vendor approval process.

Vendor Management

  • Multiple (>$5M) software / hardware contract / purchase negotiations for technology projects; often called in by legal group for input on technology discussions in different business units.
  • Drove professional services contracting in support of multiple projects, including creation of proposal, specifications; budget / arrangement negotiations, and ongoing monitoring.

Pharmacia Corporation (Monsanto / GD Searle)

(Skokie, IL)

Pharmacia was created in 2000 through the merger of Pharmacia & Upjohn with Monsanto Company and its G.D. Searle pharmaceutical unit ($3.9B in sales).

1999-2000 Associate Director, Strategy Development

  • Completed impact analysis of eBusiness concepts & technology on the pharmaceutical industry, with focus on driving R&D productivity, and developing relationships with prescribers, key influencers, and the distribution chain.
  • Introduced improvements to the Long-Range Planning process, tightening the connection with corporate IT. Improved visibility of total IT spend; highlighted opportunities for productivity improvements & alignment with corporate strategic direction.
  • At the end of 1999, the Pharmacia & Upjohn merger converted my role to support integration of two complex IT organizations; developed IT architectural requirements in support of eBusiness initiatives in the merged organization.

1996-1999 Associate Director, IT Relationship Management

  • Primary liaison between multiple business units and IT, including Global Medical Marketing and Managed Care organizations, Strategic Communications, Marketing, and Field Sales, and the corporate (Monsanto) Human Resources / Staffing group.
  • Took over troubled projects in Managed Care, supporting the validation of contract purchasing claims. Adjusted goals & tactical plans, managed multiple teams to common objectives, and delivered effective short-term results while supporting a strategic data warehousing vision.
  • Defined overall architecture for a Call Center / Document Management system; worked with IT and business project managers to make sure projects came in on time / under budget. Involved in technical specifications, vendor evaluation, and contract negotiations.
  • IT support for Monsanto’s corporate Knowledge Management initiatives; designed and implemented localized projects applying these concepts to pharmaceutical marketing processes, including cross-corporate work with a strategic partner.

Adams Elevator Equipment Company

(Niles, IL)

Adams is a $28M manufacturing & distribution company serving the elevator industry.

1993-1996 Director, MIS

  • Responsible for 10+ member IT team, including internal / external resources.
  • Led a large business re-engineering project, introducing a significant business process change while downsizing technology platforms. This effort included multiple technology projects, upgrading the front-end business processes for an important SBU. Duties included all user interface design, data modeling, technical specifications, evaluation, selection and management of external consulting resources, plus coordination of the testing and rollout phases.
  • Other development projects included an EIS implementation consisting of custom applications for the unique data constraints at Adams. The first module, an “animated P&L”, allowed drill-down analysis that identified over $100,000 of problem spending within minutes of it’s introduction.
  • Developed an automated link between Adams’ AS/400-based job tracking system and a number of finite shop scheduling packages. The system incorporated work center modeling & capacity planning, daily work schedules, and automated customer follow up & status reporting.

TenMan Systems, Inc Des Plaines, IL

(Des Plaines, IL)

TenMan was an $8M software & services provider, focused on Real Estate/Property Management.

1985-1993 Manager of Product Development

  • Responsible for design & development of AS/400 and PC-based products.
  • Managed 10+ member development, implementation and customer support teams.
  • Specific projects included one of the first PC-to-midrange data communication products, a number of separate finance, accounting, and management modules for the System/36 and AS/400, and the conversion of a suite of System/36 products to native code on the AS/400. In addition, designed and programmed three PC-based Property Management systems.

Publications

www.cazh1.com – Professional web site / selected essays, plus blog; Inspiration, Art, Science, Execution, 2004-Present (best of)

Content syndicated on Social Media Today web site, 2009-Present

Front End of Innovation blog – Contributing author, 2008-Present

Smart Data Collective web site – Featured blogger, 2009-Present

Resistance is Futile (ThinkWrap column), Datamation Magazine, Cahners Publishing, Feb 1995

SQLWindows 5.0 (Product Review), Software Development Magazine, Miller Freeman Publishing, Jan/Feb 1995

Contributing author, Financial Applications in Windows, Windows Connectivity Secrets, IDG Books Worldwide, 1994

Skill Sets

Vertical Markets

Consumer Durable Goods, Consumer Packaged Goods, Consumer Products, Financial, Food Packaging, Foodservice, Franchise, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Professional Services, Property Management, Real Estate

Global Markets

North America (Canada, Mexico), Europe (France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom), Asia (China)

Business Training / Practices

Balanced Scorecard, Business Process Re-engineering (BPR), Knowledge Management (KM), Lean Manufacturing, Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures, Organizational Change Management, Portfolio Management, Project Management Office (PMO), Scenario Planning, Strategic Planning, Total Quality Management (TQM)

Technical Methodologies

Client/Server Design/Architecture (n-tier), Cloud Computing, Configuration Management (SCM), Data Modeling, Information Engineering (IE), Internet/Web Design/Architecture, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Object Oriented Analysis & Design (OOP), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Software as a Service (Saas), Software Metrics, Software Quality Assurance (SQA), Unified Modeling Language (UML)

Functional / Operational Areas

Audit, CAD/CAM/CIM, Customer Call Center, Channel Management, Communications, Customer Service, Distribution, Electronic Commerce (eBusiness / eCommerce), Engineering, Finance, Help Desk, Human Resources, Legal, Logistics, Manufacturing, Marketing, Payroll, Procurement, Production and Inventory Control, Property Management, Research and Development (R&D), Recruiting / Staffing, Sales Management, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Supply Chain Planning, Transportation, Warehousing

Application / System Disciplines

Collaboration Platforms, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Data Warehouse, Decision Support Systems (DSS), Distributed Databases, Document Management, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Executive Information Systems (EIS), Groupware, Material Resource Planning (MRP), RFID, Sales Force Automation (SFA), Workflow, Web 2.0, Web Hosting Services, Web Standards

Computer Languages / Standards

C, CSS, Gupta SQLWindows, HTML, Java, JavaScript, jQuery, Lotus Notes, MS Access, MS Visual Basic / VBA, Pascal, Perl, PHP, Powerbuilder, Progess/4GL, Python, RPG/CL, VBScript, XHTML

Relational Databases

DB/400, MS Access, MS SQL Server, Oracle, Progress, SQLBase, Sybase SQL Server, Watcom SQL

Development Tools / Environments

Adobe Acrobat, Apache, AutoCAD, Blackberry, Cold Fusion, Documentum, Eclipse, Front Page, mod_perl, MS Index Server, MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio, MS Web Server (IIS), S-Designor, Visual Interdev, Visual Studio, WebTrends, Windows Help System

Operating Systems

HP/UX 11i (Unix), Linux, Novell Netware, OS/2, OS/400, Palm OS, Windows CE, Windows NT Workstation/Server, Windows 2000 Workstation/Server, Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP/Server, Ubuntu

Application Suites

Baan (light), Hyperion Enterprise, Hyperion Financial Management (HFM), JDA/Manugistics, JD Edwards, MAPICS, Peoplesoft (light), PRMS, QAD MFG/PRO, SAP