Summary of professional profile
Strong technical and business background combined with proven leadership and banking skills.
Currently Chief Technology Officer at SMT Data with responsibility for product development, professional services and support. SMT Data delivers software and services that apply Business Intelligence tools and methods to IT operational data.
Positions prior to SMT Data include Deputy CEO and CTO at MYC4, freelance management and technology consulting, Executive Director for Program Management at Saxo Bank, and Vice President at Fidelity Information Services with responsibility for the Corebank development center. Before that with IBM from 1982-2001 working on software development and database tools and methods - originally as a programmer, later as a consultant and then as a project manager and people manager.
Currently a Member of the Board of Directors for MYC4 A/S. Previous board positions include MYC4 Foundation and SDC-FinansSystem A/S.
Master's degree in Computer Science from Stanford and a Bachelors degree in Psychology from University of Oregon.
Living in Denmark since 1986 - fluent in English and Danish
Professional experience
2011- Chief Technology Officer, SMT Data A/S
Responsible for managing product development, professional services and support. SMT Data delivers software and services that apply Business Intelligence tools and methods to IT operational data. SMT Data is headquartered in Copenhagen and has Scandinavia’s largest IT installations as customers including Danske Bank, JN Data, TDC, ATP, Nets, DNB, EVRY and many others.
Report to the CEO and manage a team of 10 developers and consultants doing product development and implementation. The solution is developed using C#, .NET, Targit, SQL Server and Analysis Services and is used for analyzing capacity, performance and business data from z/OS, Unix, Solaris and Windows. Also actively involved in management of key customer projects as well as product sales and marketing throughout Europe.
2009-11 Deputy CEO and Chief Technology Officer, MYC4 A/S
Initially hired as CTO, and in 2010 took on also the overall responsibility for day-to-day operations of MYC4 A/S including technology, finance, marketing, customer support and African microfinance partnerships. Currently sill a member of the Board of Directors for MYC4 A/S. Previously a member of the Board of the MYC4 Foundation. MYC4 facilitates investments in small businesses in Africa through the internet. MYC4 is a for profit business with a strong social mission of building prosperity in Africa through business.
Joined MYC4 in 2009 at a time of crisis with increasing costs, falling revenues and problems with fraud and mismanagement among the African micro finance partners. Downsized the company from 30 employees to 8. Hired new staff for key positions in Denmark and Africa. Reengineered business processes including software development, cash management, partner management and credit and risk management. Moved IT operations to Amazon EC2 ‘cloud’. Turned the falling revenue, investor returns and customer base around to positive growth. Developed significant new partnerships in Africa with FDB, ILO, K-REP, Novartis, Ushindi Mobile Money and others.
2009 Freelance IT Management Consultant
IT management consulting, including a review of FIH Erhvervsbank’s IT organization, process and strategy.
2005-08 Executive Director – Global Head of Program Management, Saxo Bank
Overall responsibility for managing Saxo Bank’s portfolio of IT development and infrastructure projects. Managed a team of 30 project managers and business analysts. Responsible for program management, project management, project governance, business analysis and coordination between IT and the rest of the business. Responsible for professionalization of Saxo Bank’s processes and tools to support software development (SCRUM), project management and governance. Personally involved in program management of large complex IT projects. Organizationally placed at the same level as the CIO – reporting to the COO.
Prior to the Program Management position I was co-head of software development and had responsibility for building up a development team of 60 people including an off shore development team in St. Petersburg. Responsible for development of the core real-time trading systems at Saxo Bank on a Microsoft platform (C++, C#, .Net, SQL server).
Key accomplishments at Saxo Bank include establishing the project management and business analyst functions as well as the project governance process in Saxo Bank. Established and ran the Investment Steering Committee. Grew the program management function from 0 to 30 people. Managed a portfolio of 30-40 projects at any one time representing an investment of approximately 100 million DKK. Key development projects included re-engineering the core trading systems for improved scalability, developing new thin client and mobile trading platforms, support for new asset classes in the trading platform, support for MIFID, a news and market data subscription system, a new middle office system, business intelligence tools, and a new website foundation based on SharePoint. Infrastructure projects included establishing an active-active disaster recovery site, IT infrastructure for global offices and acquisitions, test environments and tools, and System Management. Integration projects included a 3rd party reconciliation system, corporate actions system, ID management system, CRM system, OMX membership and large partner integration projects. Process and tools include implementing SCRUM and Artemis.
Saxo Bank is a global investment bank and a pioneer in online trading technology. The company was established in 1992 and had grown to approximately 1300 employees in 2008 and generated an annual profit of 275 mio DKK on an income of 1.5 billion DKK in 2007.
2001-05 Vice President, Fidelity Denmark – Corebank Development Manager
Overall responsibility for the Corebank product development mission and for the Fidelity (previously Alltel) development center in Copenhagen, as well as off-shore development teams in Bangkok and Bangalore. Had five managers as my direct reports covering Development, Architecture, Operations, Environments and Project Office. Managed a development team of 85 people including Fidelity employees, contractors and offshore resources. Extensive contact with major Corebank customers and involvement in sales and support activities. Reported to Fidelity’s Executive Vice President for Corebanking Products.
Represented Alltel on the SDC-FinansSystem board of directors until SDC-FS was sold in 2002.
Key accomplishments in this role have been establishing Alltel Denmark and transitioning the development team from IBM to Alltel and then from Alltel to Fidelity, and meeting development milestones and customer deliverables. Major development projects included implementing new banking functionality for the global market – especially Germany and Japan - and converting Corebank from a COBOL/CICS base to a Java/Websphere base.
Downsized the organization while increasing productivity. Reduced cost by establishing an offshore development team in Bangkok with 15 developers – primarily Java development and support of customers in Asia. Also established an offshore development center in at Fidelity’s affiliate in Bangalore including hiring and education of 20 Cobol developers and establishment of development processes and environments.
1997-2001 Senior Programming Manager, IBM Corebank International Center
Development Manager for the host components of the Corebank product - responsible for a team of 40 developers. Overall management responsibility for the Copenhagen location including responsibility for the relationship with SDC-FinansSystem and other sub-contractors.
Played a key role in the negotiations between Alltel and IBM to form the joint venture and ensured the successful transition of the development team from IBM to Alltel.
Also had role of Product Office Manager in this period with responsibility for product plans, release management, product strategy, budget and external relations. The project was one of the largest application development projects in IBM at the time and consisted of 30 subprojects with over 200 people from all over the world including both IBM employees and subcontractors working at several sites in Denmark, Germany and the UK.
1987-96 IBM Denmark - Project Manager and Systems Engineer
Application development, database, data-modeling, data-warehouse, business intelligence projects in the financial and public sectors.
1987 Transferred from IBM Santa Teresa Labs to IBM Denmark.
1982-86 Language performance analyst at IBM's Santa Teresa Labs, California
Performance measurement and performance tuning of the FORTRAN and BASIC languages. FORTRAN, BASIC and S/370 Assembler programming.
Education
2005-08 Saxo Bank Management Education:
Extensive management development and ‘Role Model’ personal development program at Saxo Bank including coaching, feedback, communication, selecting and developing employees, corporate values.
2007 Certified SCRUM Master
1999 PMI certification:
Certification as Project Management Professional by Project Management Institute in the USA.
1982-2001 IBM education including:
- Management education including personnel management and IBM management practices and procedures.
- Project management including project initiation, planning, execution and economy.
-Technical and IBM product education
- IBM Sales School
- IBM New programmer training
1986 Stanford University, Master's Degree in Computer Science
Emphasis on compiler, operating systems and database design
1983 University of Oregon, Bachelor's Degree in Psychology
Emphasis on organizational psychology
1981 Université de Poitiers, Diplome Supčrieur d'Etudes Francaises
Languages
Native English, fluent Danish, reasonable French.
Personal information
American citizen living in Denmark since 1986. Born 1959. Married. 3 children.
References
Available on request.
See also: www.linkedin.com/in/stevendthomas
