James Michael Lauer
2136 W Division St. #2, Chicago, IL 60622
lauer303@gmail.com 773.292.5003

Qualifications

· 10 years of strategic and technical solutions delivery experience including implementation, process improvement and project management at Fortune 500 clients and major financial services, banking, insurance, IT, retail and healthcare firms

· Proficient in all aspects of object-oriented analysis, design, implementation, testing and deployment of software applications

· Significant securities trading expertise including developing quantitative financial models and using statistical tools

· Natural leader in high-pressure environments with exceptional problem-solving, teamwork and communication skills

· International project experience both working overseas and leading offshore development teams

Education

Cornell University - BA Economics, Computer Science
Ithaca, New York (1995-1999)

University of New South Wales - Faculty of Commerce & Economics graduate study
Sydney, Australia (1998)

Professional Experience

Independent Application Developer/Project Manager (2008-current)

Conseco/Bankers Life & Casualty: Lead Developer for the implementation of a web based portal solution built using J2EE on a hybrid ATG Portal/IBM Websphere platform; Wrote Java based components and interfaces to access and manipulate financial data from multiple legacy sales tools and assisted on-site development resources through an aggressive release cycle.

Cigna Healthcare: Led a performance review of 6 legacy billing & adjudication systems at Cigna’s central home office; Facilitated meetings between management staff, customer service representatives and technical staff identifying over 250 software deficiencies and potential performance improvements; Managed process improvement efforts resulting in batch time performance improvements of over 75% from 4 days to less than 1 day.

R.R. Donnelley: Designed and developed a custom ASP.Net web application for R.R. Donnelley's planning & forecasting team achieving greater accountability and additional visibility into the monthly sales cycle; Enhanced application with an administrative interface with role-based security controls, real-time data synchronization and additional reporting capabilities.

UR Chicago: Built a set of web and email templates for a Chicago nightlife promoter/magazine targeting media buyers in several new markets; Structured custom advertising packages and closed sponsorship deals for weekly local events; Authored weekly email blasts to 100K+ subscribers and tracked campaign data via MySQL and Microsoft Excel.

Whittmanhart Inc.
Manager/Engagement Lead (2005-2007)

McDonald’s Inc: Performed a technical assessment of an independent DVD rental startup for potential acquisition by McDonald's; Prepared due diligence including an IT cost model and a future-state technical architecture; Delivered a step-by-step plan for integrating the firm’s proprietary kiosk technology and hardware platform with McDonald’s expanding IT organization.

MB Financial: Developed a .Net web portal using C# that extended the functionality and improved the usability of the firm’s existing IT asset tracking database; Built a tracking tool allowing LaSalle and MB customers to manage leased IT hardware assets and service level agreements from major hardware providers including Cisco, HP and others; Delivered a virtual leasing desk web application offering users the ability to purchase and manage assets across vendors in real-time.

Footlocker/NFLShop.com: Migrated a retail database of over 50,000 items from a multi-site legacy system to the ATG Commerce platform; Developed Java Server Pages to deliver dynamic .xhtml category, product and search results pages; Added customized personalization features and optimized cart and checkout code base to eliminate memory leaks.

Alexian Brothers Hospital Network: Worked as part of a dedicated Microsoft technical sales team to design and build a proof-of-concept portal solution for a large U.S. based healthcare provider; Delivered a fully functional ‘Med-Surg’ demo site in under 2 weeks using ASP.Net, SharePoint, InfoPath and MS Office tools leading to the sale of a multi-million dollar implementation.

Diamond Technology Partners
Technology Associate (1999-2004)

Lucent Technologies: Conducted requirements gathering and analysis for a proposed SAP Enterprise rollout at the Supply Chain Division of Lucent Technologies; Prepared scope document and an implementation cost model based on alternative hardware/software purchase options; Facilitated brainstorming sessions via WebEx with each of Lucent’s major supply chain members in North America, Latin America, East/West Europe and China.

Transworld Entertainment/FYE.com: Implemented an online product catalog using Java Server Pages and ATG Commerce for the newly branded music and video retail chain; Developed custom Java components and interfaces from wireframe designs streamlining the search and display of product catalog items from a database of over 500,000 SKUs; Completed several release cycles working out additional fixes with an offshore development team.

Praxair: System and regression tested a new fabricated materials order management system based on a model-view-controller architecture and built using J2EE and struts; Provided development assistance through several production releases and 400+ bug fixes.

Goliath Falls: QA manager and testing lead for a business-to-business startup enabling group buying and joint supply chain economies of scale for independent retailers; Authored all supplier related business processes and back-end site functionality; Set up and administered a custom bug and issue tracking system and facilitated rapid resolution of pre-launch technical issues.

Diamond Internal: Developed a Palm web clipping application capable of querying, filtering and updating client contact information from a Pivotal database; Used RIM and WinCE developer tools and C++, ASP and HTML to refactor code across wireless devices and standards including WAP and Voice XML; Authored whitepaper and led Wireless 101 training sessions.

Recruiting Team Lead for Cornell University and University of Chicago; Delivered presentations at key recruiting events and executed successful on-campus campaigns resulting in the hiring of 13 new employees.

KPMG Australia
Electricity Market Analyst (1998)

Prepared due diligence and risk analysis of emerging global electricity spot and futures markets using fundamental and quantitative pricing models; Helped define hedging strategies for individual clients looking to manage risk while participating in newly deregulated markets characterized by volatile prices and limited liquidity.


Gelber Group
Trading Internship (summer 1997)

Prepared research of individual equity and commodity securities based on highlights from SEC Filings, Reuters Knowledgebase, Bloomberg, Lexis-Nexis and online sources; Applied DCF valuation, ratio analysis and other financial calculations to evaluate trading opportunities and estimate risk-reward; Attended road shows and researched additional fixed income opportunities.


Lind-Waldock Securities
Floor Clerk/Runner (summer 1996)

Handled customer communication and facilitated efficient order delivery and confirmation between the Lind-Waldock trading desk and individual commodity futures and options brokers on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade; Reconciled filled order tickets and customer account balances at the close of each trading day.

Technical Skills

Programming Languages: C++, C#, Java, VBA, HTML, DHTML, XML, PHP, Python, CGI, CSS, JavaScript

Frameworks/IDEs: ASP.NET, J2EE, ADO.NET, AJAX, jQuery, Struts, Visual Studio, Eclipse, WAMP/MAMP

Application Servers: IBM WebSphere, BEA Weblogic, Microsoft IIS, Apache, iPlanet, JRun

RDBMS: Oracle, DB2, SQL Server, MySQL, SQLite, Access, TOAD, Erwin

Business Intelligence: SAS, SPSS, Crystal Reports, Business Objects, Tibco Spotfire, OLAP

Network Administration: TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, DNS, DHCP, UDP, SCTP, SOAP, RFC, EDI, Active Directory

CRM/SCM: SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Great Plains, Pivotal, Vantive, E-Z Data

Content Management: ATG Commerce, Interwoven Teamsite/OpenDeploy, Verity K2, Wordpress

Testing: CVS, PVCS Tracker, Bugzilla, ClearQuest, StarTeam, Slik Performer, Rational Rose

Visual Design: Adobe Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Flash, GDPro, Puredata, Visio

Wireless: Cocoa Touch, J2ME, WinCE, WAP, HDML, CLDC, MIDP, EPOC, SMS, Brew, Voice XML