Avitosh Pal
Orlando,FL
Summary
Director of IT | VP of IT 20+ years of IT experience including 15+ years of broad-based management in Systems Design and Development, Implementation and Support. Strategically and cost effectively utilize technology in alignment with corporate goals. Consistently improve delivery times and service levels while reducing costs. Excel at strategic planning, building high-performance teams, project management, and implementing best practice methodologies and continuous improvement programs. ITIL best practice certified. Proven areas of expertise include: Strategic Planning Organizational Development Budget Development & Management Contract Negotiations & Management Platform Management Vendor Management Infrastructure Design & Implementation Process Improvements & Best Practices Project Management Continuous Improvement Cost Containment Security and Risk Management Large Scale Deployments System Architectures Rapid Deployments Structured Methodologies Data Center Management Change Management Systematic technology with 20 plus years of experience streamlining information technology systems. Proficient in troubleshooting and solving complex IT infrastructure concerns. Proven leader adept at decreasing technology costs associated with outdated systems. Intelligent IT Manager with 25 plus-year record of leadership experience in areas such as infrastructure development and management, application support and security optimization. Focused on satisfying customer needs through robust, innovative and forward-thinking solutions. Demonstrated success as operational leader, articulate communicator and practiced influencer. Collaborates across functions to outline and achieve project targets. Skilled in building solid business solutions based on methodologies and engineering principles. Complex problem-solver skilled in developing proposals, integrating technologies and managing projects.
Overview
29
29
years of professional experience
Work History
Vice President of Technology
Holiday Inn Vacation Club
Orlando, FL
01.2020 - Current
- Reporting to CIO with staff of 60 and $13M budget
- Functions include Enterprise Architecture of call center, service desk applications with infrastructure and cloud build, with application integration
- Oversee application, Infrastructure and Cloud architecture strategy and design leadership for Enterprise technology solutions, subject matter expertise at the portfolio level and at the operation level
- Working with the various functional domain executive leaders to develop, engineer and prioritize to refine the technology into digital strategy, products and innovations roadmap across the entire Holiday Inn vacation club business Units
- Leading the delivery of Digital transformation experiences to improve the Guest experience, which includes:
- Defining and delivering the strategic product roadmap
- Leading a cross-functional team of Product, UI/UX and Technology team members to estimate, design, develop/engineer, QA and deploy new products & solutions
- Partnering with internal stakeholders, including engineers, business operators, analytics, data engineers to identify and collect data inputs to use for deploying platform solutions
- Evaluating and managing external 3rd Party vendors to onboard where applicable for development and QA resources
- Partner with Commercial teams to identify and evaluate additional business opportunities
- Coordinate with leads delivering digital and operations projects related to improving the Guest experience and assess how they influence the broader strategic roadmap
- Building the blueprint along with working towards making vendor recommendations and allowing the adoption of the best solution that will meet the program needs but also be aligned with the overall enterprise goals
- Evaluating the design and assessing the feasibility of implementation and recommending options, constraints, and alternatives to product team especially when complex requirements are prohibited from implementation due to existing constraints
- Reviewing the data architecture for data analytics applications including data science and AI solution blueprints with Engineering Lead and Product Manager prior to implementation
- Leading the architecture review board (ARB) where required and get closure on the solution path to be undertaken for implementation
- Leading PoC’s where necessary to prove solution direction in coordination with product and engineering lead around resource capacity and priority
- Providing collaborative support towards implementation efforts - with engineering team, platform team, and QA team by providing Q&A and offering help to the build team where necessary
- Partner with Consumer Insights (Marketing) and Guest Services teams to gain a deep understanding of our Guests, including guest trends and challenges and recommend opportunities to leverage technology to make improvements
- Partner with Customer Engagement teams to develop a strategic communication plan that delivers the right message at the right time to the Guest, including deploying chatbots/Live chat, capabilities
- Oversee and participate in proof-of-concepts, prototypes and pilots of emerging technologies that may be leveraged to improve the Guest experience as part of Next Generation Team
- Strong experience in advanced technology topics such as automation, application messaging, APIs, and cloud technology
- Experience with data model design including traditional RDBMS, Document NoSQL, Wide-column NoSQL, Key-Value Database, conversion of relational data models to NoSQL data models
- Strong experience with architecting and delivering data and Big data platforms capabilities such as database Clustering, Replication, Disaster Recovery, resiliency, maintaining data integrity
- Extensive experience data platform high availability design both on-premises and on cloud
- Broad experience with performance tuning on traditional RDBMS and NoSQL platforms in a large enterprise
- Experience with AWS ML and MS Azure
- Databricks, Azure Data Lake
- Designing a modern architecture and platform design to support a broad portfolio of business-oriented applications
- (On Prem, SaaS, and Custom)
- Integrating cloud (primarily AWS and Azure) and on-prem solutions utilizing 3rd party tools and/or native feature sets
- Define strategies and develop tooling for configuration management, containerization, and process automation
- Extensive experience in Global networking, including WAN/LAN, SD-WAN, cloud networking and network security
- Develop and execute a comprehensive network strategy that aligns with the company’s growth objective and ensures network reliability and security
- Lead the design implementation of a global SD-WAN solution, resulting in a reduction of network latency and a decrease in operational costs
- Spearhead network optimization initiatives enhancing performance, scalability, and redundancy across the global network infrastructure.
Vice President of Information Technology
Earl Enterprise/Planet Hollywood
Orlando, FL
01.2018 - 01.2020
- Reporting to CFO with staff of 20 and $3.5M budget
- Functions include call center, service desk, desktop support, infrastructure and administrative and cloud applications, integration, project management and service management
- Partner with the other senior leadership to establish the vision for an advanced and integrated intelligence-driven organization
- Leading and developing the framework of support delivery with various portfolio projects for Earl Enterprise
- Ensure designs support scalability, QoS, performance, security, maintainability along with architectural integrity, and ensure solutions are delivered in alignment with the defined architecture strategies and goals
- Ensure that the POS systems, reporting, and accounting stay current
- Define a strategic roadmap that considers business needs and leverages new technology opportunities, defining and maintaining a set of technology standards which are consistent with our overall architectural design
- Develop and implement a global cloud strategy in alignment with cybersecurity and financial management requirements
- Maintenance of x86 hardware technology, Windows, Virtualization, Domain Services, Active Directory, DNS/DHCP, Linux, RISC operating systems, P-Series hardware, SAN, NAS and data protection technologies
- Managing high pressure, highly complex 24 x 7 technology operations
- Managing distributed teams (including outsourced resources), along with multiple facilities
- Working with a broad range of technologies and operational disciplines, including:
- Server Platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix systems, mainframes, AS400s and Teradata platforms
- Enterprise Storage systems, such as EMC SAN, NAS, Object Storage, enterprise backup systems, including libraries, ATLs, and VTLs
- Fiber channel / fabric, such a Brocade or a Cisco director-class platform
- Enterprise integration services, load balancing systems
- Virtualization technologies, Hybrid cloud technologies
- Infrastructure systems - DNS, SSL, Active Directory, FTP, enterprise batch / job management
- Notable Accomplishments:
- Consolidated and stabilized servers improving hardware uptime from 70% to 99%
- Reduced software downtime from 50% to
- Applications development slashing time-to-deliver by 50%
- Implemented rigorous development and testing processes decreasing software defects by 65%
- Slashed manual processes by 75% with resultant reduction in overhead costs
- Reanalyzed network traffic eliminated unnecessary routing and equipment and reduced costs by 33%
- Completed migration of all servers from SCO Unix to RedHat Linux reducing Unix-based application development time 25% by standardizing on single operating system.
Vice President of Information Technology
Tijuana Flats Corp
Orlando, FL
01.2016 - 01.2018
- Reporting to CEO with staff of 12 and $1.5M budget
- Functions include call center, service desk, desktop support, infrastructure and administrative and cloud applications, integration, project management and service management
- Provide leadership, vision, and management to the Companies IT department
- Oversee the revision of the IT Strategic Plan on an annual basis ensuring its coherence with the overall company strategic plan
- Ensure that the POS systems, reporting, and accounting stay current
- Maintain the integrity and continual operation of the company communications infrastructure including networks, email, telecommunications, cellular and wireless
- Building creative solutions that deliver significant tangible value for clients
- Recommending long-range strategic and tactical plans for Restaurant location growth and discipline expansion, based on market research and competitive data in the regional market, to meet future business plan goals
- Notable Accomplishments:
- Added 2800 managed desktops, 3000 wireless AP’s
- 500% increase in storage and grew by 15k network ports all with flat staffing and sub-inflationary budget increases
- Partnered with HR to send all managers to Learn and development programs
- Then, created my own year-long advanced program focusing on strengths
- Results: staff attrition is now quarter that of other Departments in the Company
- Reduced downtime by 64% (over 1000 hrs/year)
- Implemented centralized system for corporate Quality Assurance group to monitor call center activity decreasing call rejection rate by 2%.
Sr. Director of Information Technology
Office Depot
Boca Raton, FL
01.2013 - 01.2016
- Reported to CIO
- Responsible for developing and implementing high-level standards across all ITSM units
- Functions included IT Service Management, communications, informatics and online development, vendor management, facilities, Voice & video streaming, and assessment
- Responsible for all 1400 Retail Stores POS systems, reporting, and accounting stay current and competitive in the Retail industry with respect to IT infrastructure and services
- Leverages understanding of SAP best-practices, business processes and the relationships between different functions within different departments to architect appropriate IT solutions
- 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
- Working with IT and other business partners to understand the needs and future direction of each business unit
- Developing and communicates global Network strategy and roadmap that aligns with corporate strategy and IT vision
- Developing Annual Operating Plan (AOP) for Network Services and oversees all aspects of delivery against AOP plan
- Providing career development, coaching, and growth opportunities for talent on the Network and Network Security team
- Ensures team members have challenging yet achievable goals that leverage their capabilities to the fullest
- Responsibility for delivering high quality, highly available Network services (data and voice) to Global Office Depot stakeholders
- Owns responsibility for network architecture, design, documentation, interoperability, and security
- Services provided include backbone and local area networking, remote access, internet access, wireless networking, network security, VOIP and traditional telephony, and network infrastructure monitoring and management
- Negotiating large network products and services contracts, and maintains and modifies existing contracts as business requirements evolve, to achieve the financial and operational goals of the enterprise
- Notable Accomplishments:
- Direct P&L budget responsibility of ~$9M/year, management of capital projects up to $20M/year, and indirect P&L budget responsibility of >$40M/year
- Decreased the amount of trouble tickets by 90% using new quality and development procedures
- Created PMO and instilled both methodology and metrics, effectively eliminating late projects
- Started “PM community of practice” to share practical techniques with other Departments
- Results: willing adoption of unified standards across the company
- Slashed manual processes by 75% with resultant reduction in overhead costs.
Director of Technology
Walt Disney Company
Orlando, FL
12.2005 - 01.2013
- Reporting to Director of Technology, have managed and delivered Parks and Resort technology team with all functions of IT/Infrastructure including Database Administration, Infrastructure support Team, Desktop Support team for largest Hospitality Company, developed policies, set service levels, managed personnel and budgets, oversaw all aspects of operations for the Parks and Resort organization
- Provide proactive oversight of daily operational and organizational activities in support to transformation of multidimensional IT systems supporting customers and business units
- Take charge of ensuring technology sustainment and development for a billion-plus transactional system as well as utmost customer satisfaction
- Provide key input into Digital Channels strategy and responsible developing and driving execution of the mobile and online transaction roadmaps
- Proven successful experience in vendor selection and management for a wide range of technology solutions, including drafting SOW’s, RFP’s, and vendor evaluation, budgeting, and monitoring progress through to implementation
- Demonstrated expertise in various technology initiatives, which led to selection as consultant on multiple company-level transformation initiatives for domestic and international segment regions, such as Walt Disney World Florida, Disneyland California, and Aulani Hawaii, Hong Kong, Paris and Shanghai
- Notable Accomplishments:
- In nine years, reduced recurring operational expense by $1M or more three separate times
- In a fourth year, reduced ongoing budgets by 11%
- Results: administration able to redirect savings to meet shifting demands across the Company
- Partnered with different Vendor partners to develop “multimedia grade wireless” design standards for Retail and Hospitality Services
- Enhanced monitoring, expanded staffing, and removed wired networking from Resorts Rooms and Retail space
- Results: saved $800k annually .
Sr. Manager of Technology
Nortel Networks
Dallas, TX
07.1994 - 12.2005
- Responsibility in Managing people and leading projects
- Responsible for solution development of large, complex engagements and/or acts as leading authority on multiple service offerings
- Responsible for Pre and Post Sales Analysis, Design, Implementation, Integration, of LAN/WAN, Voice/Data, Wireless, DWDM/Sonet technologies, Enterprise System Management (ESM), and Enterprise Information Security solutions
- Principal engineer responsible for designing and implementing voice/data, wireless/mobile systems nationally and globally
- Intranet solutions for campus and MAN/WANs, Voice over IP (VoIP), Voice over Frame Relay (VoFR), Conference Connection, Personal Assistant and Web Infrastructure build and deployment, CTI integration, implementation, configuration, and Enterprise System Management and Security (ESM) platforms/applications.
Education
Master of Science - Electrical Engineering
University of Calcutta
Calcutta, India05.1994
Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering
University of Calcutta
Calcutta, India 05.1992
Cisco (CCNA, CCNP), Nortel Network (NNNP), Professional Lean Six Sigma, ITIL v3 -
Affiliations
Member, International Association of Networking Professionals (IANP)
Member, Cloud network Forum (CNF)
Languages
English
Native/ Bilingual
Hindi
Native/ Bilingual
Accomplishments
- Recognized as Employee of the Month for outstanding performance and team contributions.
- Exceeded sales goals by average of 15% in 2022
- Realized in ongoing effort to boost revenue while reducing costs.
- Created highly effective new program that significantly impacted efficiency and improved operations.
- Consistently maintained high customer satisfaction ratings.
Timeline
Vice President of Technology
Holiday Inn Vacation Club
01.2020 - Current
Vice President of Information Technology
Earl Enterprise/Planet Hollywood
01.2018 - 01.2020
Vice President of Information Technology
Tijuana Flats Corp
01.2016 - 01.2018
Sr. Director of Information Technology
Office Depot
01.2013 - 01.2016
Director of Technology
Walt Disney Company
12.2005 - 01.2013
Sr. Manager of Technology
Nortel Networks
07.1994 - 12.2005
Master of Science - Electrical Engineering
University of Calcutta
Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering
University of Calcutta