Major Projects
World-wide
Intranet Design and Deployment
Retained after the merger of three small manufacturing companies to design
and deploy a world-wide communications and e-mail system covering nine
locations in the US, Europe and Asia. Since the budget did not permit point-to-point
connections, the public Internet, utilizing a Virtual Private Network (VPN)
tunneling system was used to connect the major hubs. Internet e-mail and
four Microsoft Exchange Servers were used as the Intranet backbone and
the local networks were deployed using the TCP/IP protocol.
Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) System Selection Plan
Created the specifications and assembled the team to select a new ERP system
for a mid-sized manufacturer. The prior set-up was nine different systems
in nine different locations worldwide. The new system will integrate all
of the locations using a distributed processing network into a single system
to provide timely management information and world-wide consolidated financials.
The system will also include production scheduling and forecasting, multi-site
manufacturing planning capabilities and advanced logistics control systems.
Automated Equities
Trading System
Integrated proprietary position analysis technology into a real-time trade
order entry system (DOT). The system constructed a paired portfolio of
long and short positions. This portfolio was then analyzed at frequent
(1 minute to 1 day) intervals to determine what trades should be done to
maximize the projected return of the portfolio. The system tracked trading
strategy and performance and re-balanced based on user or system controlled
completion and synchronization parameters.
Community Newspaper
Chain
Co–founded, along with two partners, a chain of community newspapers that
serve the mid–Fairfield county, Connecticut market. Two newspapers, with
a combined circulation of over 40,000 weekly, were created. The firm grew
from four to over 30 employees in less than two years. Over $2.5 million
in equity capital was raised from over twenty private investors. As publisher,
Mark was responsible for the entire operation, from initial concept, fund
raising, investor relations to post-office, production and staffing issues.
Additionally, Mark designed the system and network that enabled six designers
located in two remote offices, to produce over 160 weekly tabloid pages
entirely electronically, on Macintosh based systems. In 1996, the firm
merged with another, larger entity creating an entity consisting of 10
newspapers, three magazines and a commercial printing operation. In 1998,
the firm was sold to a NYSE-listed national newspaper chain that owns over
200 newspapers.
Portfolio
Optimization System
Designed and implemented the user interface to a complex factor analysis
model for portfolio evaluation and optimization. Provided the sales support
and user training required to implement the investment strategies developed
with the model.
Mortgage
Backed Securities Back Office Processing System
Led a major effort to convert an existing COBOL batch Service Bureau System
to a relational database on-line system. Projects included a complete database
design, user interface design and reporting system. Managed a team of ten
programmers. Extended the system to process all mortgaged backed and asset
backed securities including CMOs and Derivatives.
Mergers
and Acquisitions Premiums/Fees Paid Database System
Designed a system to store, screen and report proprietary data on recent
M & A deals. The system included a highly flexible screening package
with extensive logic capabilities and a user driven reporting package to
produce presentation quality reports on demand.
Union
Dues, Insurance and Pension Fund System
Designed, coded, documented and trained users on a system to collect and
account for monthly dues, insurance premiums and pension fund contributions.
System also includes a bulk check writing and mailing module, and an investment
management module for the pension fund. System maintains over 5,000 active
members and 1,500 retirees with a fund of over $100 million under in-house
management. The system pre-certifies insurance claims for bulk transmission
to the carrier, and has a comprehensive mailing list module.
Government
Securities Trading System
Designed, coded and used a complete trading system for a small government
securities broker/dealer. The system provided: Order Entry, Daily Trade
Blotter, On-line Open Position reporting with current mark-to-markets,
recognized gain/loss reporting, confirm generation and management analysis
capabilities. The system offered the ability to trade any security, including:
Treasury actuals, options, futures and options—on—futures; GNMA's and other
pass-through type securities; Eurodeposits and cash positions; Repos and
Reverses.
Options Analysis
System
Designed, coded and documented a system to price options in the OTC and
Listed Treasury markets. System utilized a modified Black/Scholes option
pricing model to generate both prices and hedge ratios. The system also
included a market volatility analysis module.
GNMA
Forward Retail Customer Portfolio Management System
Co-designed, coded, documented and used a computerized portfolio generator.
The system generated positions in GNMA and FMAC forward positions based
on the customer's interest rate forecast. The system would calculate and
then trade the positions to produce a hedged portfolio based on both time-spreading
and coupon-spreading techniques. The system also provided on-line mark-to-markets,
margin positions and calls, monthly statements, trade confirms, firm at-risk
report, and sales reporting screens.
Stock
Market Pricing Database System
Designed and managed the coding of one of the first large stock market
databases available for public use. The system maintained daily prices
of all listed issues with 7 years of history. The system also provided
COMPUSTAT, VALUE-LINE and other financial and statistical databases. The
system was available to both brokerage houses and retail customers via
a PC-based upload facility.
Broker Recommendation
System
Designed and coded, in conjunction with a major money-center bank trust
department, a system to gather, rank and report on the results of broker
equities research departments. The system would collect estimated earnings
of the underlying companies and compare to reported results. The system
would also rank the individual analysts by name and firm based on Buy/Sell/Hold
recommendations on the equities tracked. The results were then used by
top management to allocate brokerage business amongst the ranked analysts.
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