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2003 to Present
 
President
 
Kilbride Connectivity is a small company based on the principle that we need to merge our home and business environments into one simple and functional environment.  To that end if you need to be in touch with your house when you are not there, or access to your business on the road, we'll connect it all together.
 
 
 
GSI Inc

1991 to 2003

Systems Analyst

I moved to the US and worked as a systems integrator for PC's Mac's, and Unix boxes.  I tied together Novell, Microsoft, Sun and IBM networks through switches, routers, and bridges.  Large corporations that I have done work with include the local power utility in Missouri called Ameren, and MacDonald Douglas (now Boeing) as well as others.  Those two projects specifically were to design the directory tree and to migrate the corporation from NetWare 3 to NetWare 4, and to coordinate and secure the worldwide e-mail system for the Harpoon Missile division.   Small Office Home Office (SOHO) is where most of the growth and market is; for instance Lawyers, Doctors offices, and in general just a wide variety of small businesses make up the core of my consulting.  I worked with a variety of very large to very small companies.  The smallest system I worked on was a "retired" Opthamologist, who in 1992, was trying to become a day trader on the stock market.  He needed what was called a "neural network" or "expert system".  I built it using 100 Mb ARCnet (before 100 Mb Ethernet) and when he wound up paying millions in taxes on capital gains he really retired, himself and the system.

JJ Computer Consultants

1989 to 1991

Vice President

I felt it was time to move on so I found a partner and we started our own consulting company in 1989.  I wanted to build a company that specialized in 24/7 connectivity to any type of data you as a client needed.   I integrated analog cell phones with regular phone devices to simplify the interface for the client.  I built a Ram 350 Van into an office with regular phones and a regular fax machine.  I installed a furnace with AC, a conference area, a porta potty (with phone), a TV, and a VCR; A Laptop connected to CompuServe but it just as easily could have been any modem bank of your choice.  It was very easy to use; it looked and functioned just like an office in a building, except it was on wheels.  As long as there was cellular service it was totally functional and working.  I showed it at RV shows and to some corporations.


Canada Packers

1985 to 1989

Lab Technician/Line Foreman/Systems Analyst

I worked at Canada Packers until 1989.  I was hired on the basis of my experience with the food industry from Canadian Canners, and my University degree.  My official job was as a Quality Assurance Supervisor but when they needed a night shift Production Foreman I often pulled a second shift.  In my spare time I built software models of their main plants production lines to aid myself as a Production Foreman.  As the model tuned itself during the day, it predicted raw materials required until a shift change or on a finite resource like freezer capacity, or labels left in the warehouse.  They system was accurate to within a hundred finished units off the end of the line.  As my shift neared completion I could enter in my stop time, or number of batches or pre-assemblies I wanted and match all other quantities of pre-assemblies perfectly.  The waste from my shift disappeared and the night shift became far more efficient than the day shift.  Head office found out about the program and asked me to build a standard costing system.  The only resource they gave me was Lotus 123, so using dynamic cell formulas, I did.  That shocked the Lotus help desk back in Cambridge Massachusetts.  I had phoned in for some direction on a particularly thorny problem and got escalated right to Mitch Kapor.  Later, when I met him he remembered the crazy Canadian that made a standard costing/mrp program out of his spreadsheet program.  The program kicked out the raw data sheets to be entered all the way to full variance reports.  On an IBM AT 286 with 1 MB RAM and a 20 MB HD it tapped out at about 200 SKUs.  I also implemented a Material Resource Planning system in four plants for $80,000.  The corporate budget which was sub contracted to IBM was for $26 million.  Sometimes bigger isn't better because in the end IBM MRP system was stopped after spending $39 million.  IBM eventually sold the bones to Computer Associates who killed it totally.


Mohawk College

1986 to 1991

Instructor

This was the mid-eighties so I taught courses on DOS and Word Perfect and Dbase IV as well as general computer knowledge.  I taught one or two courses per semester as a second job as I was still working full time for Canada Packers.  I have always been a good public speaker and have an easy way of making an analogy to make my point.  This experience turned out to be very advantageous as I now have lectured a fair amount at trade shows and taught for several international training companies.  I also developed the manuals for Wave technologies for its courses to migrate a NetWare 4 CNE to a NetWare 5 CNE.  These manuals were printed in student and instructor versions for both the 5-day accelerated course, and the full 20-day course.  

Canadian Canners

1980 to 1985

General Labour to Night Shift Foreman

I worked in the summers for Canadian Canners.  Canadian Canners had a rule that they only used students as temporary workers.  After a few months working for them they broke the rule and hired me on as a Foreman.  I worked the night shift with the cleaning crew with my major responsibility being getting the plant ready for the next day.  I already knew the plant and it's processes inside out.  I took the job, implemented new procedures, and during my first summer moved the plant from a food grade “C” rating to food grade “A” rating.  This changed the frequency of Government inspections from once a week to once a product (corn, peas or carrots).  The management at Canadian Canners was very pleased.