About Me
In Kuwait City - Sharq Center
In Kuwait City - Sharq Center
I have the good fortune to work on interesting assignments while travelling - the best possible combination for a true Sagittarius. In December 2000 I started an assignment in Kuwait, which allowed me to immerse myself in a number of technical disciplines including: service delivery, strategic planning, enterprise architecture development and e-commerce security.
Not only is this a professionally rewarding assignment, but personally rewarding as well. I have learned much about the Arab culture, Islam, and have made a lot of new friends. I also work with a wonderful team of highly skilled professionals, both in my company and my counterparts in my client's organization. Like they say, La vita dolce per tutti!.
What I do: As a consultant my job allows me to work on a variety of different assignments, each of which adds to my knowledge, skills and experience. Between October 1996 and December 2000 I was heavily involved in the telecommunications industry, and have gained a lot of experience with wireless communications billing systems. I have been fortunate to have been assigned to consulting engagements for most of the major national and international wireless carriers, and have also had one assignment at a CLEC. Other assignments include strategic planning for an international energy company, and various projects involving process design. Specific technical skills include UNIX (various flavors) and Oracle.
The highlight of my professional career started in January 1999 when I was assigned to a team tasked with assuming control of billing, provisioning and point-of-sales systems of a Bethesda, Maryland-based wireless company that had been acquired by a large national telecommunications company. Our assignment was to become subject matter experts, assume responsibilities for operating and maintaining these systems and move them to Kansas City to transition to the IT support staff of the new company. We had six weeks to fully understand the systems and prove our ability to fully support them. Each member of our team was required to undergo approximately six hours of oral examinations that were conducted by a board of subject matter experts in the systems of which we were to assume control. Although most of our team were strangers to each other prior to this assignment, we met these stringent requirements through text-book teamwork and the superb leadership of our engagement manager, Lily Doris.
After the assignment ended in July 1999 and I returned to assignments in Southern California I was initially happy to take a break from the commuting. My next assignment was satisfying, but something seemed to be missing. I realized that, despite the inconveniences of commuting from the East Coast and Midwest, the seven months I spent working on the project were the highlight of my professional career. The reason is the satisfaction I felt working with the best-of-the-best, and I cannot think of a better group of people with whom I would want to work. Twenty-two years in the Navy instilled in me the meaning of teamwork. Seven months with the talented team with whom I had the pleasure and privilege of working revealed the true meaning of synergy.
I am an Italian-American who enjoys Italian wines, cooking Italian food and spending time with my writer/poet wife, Viki (especially in Sedona, Arizona). One of my favorite restaurants is Il Fornaio (the baker in Italian), which is one of the few places that serves Italian food than can compete with my own cooking. I get a lot of great recipes from La Cucina Italiana. If you like Italian food and enjoy cooking I recommend this wonderful magazine.
I am Calabrese by heritage (my grandfather was born in Reggio di Calabria). My grandmother was from Napoli. I came into this world on December 20, 1948 in Farmville, Virginia and was raised in Henrico and Caroline Counties . When I was 12 I left beautiful, historic Virginia and moved to Bowie, Maryland . During those interesting and formative years (hey - it was the 60s) I went to Bowie Senior High School. I dropped out in 1967 to enlist in the navy, spending 22 years on various adventures and seeing the world. I retired as a lieutenant and haven't looked back.
