Founded ESS in 2007. ESS did not replace work overnight - it layered on top of existing commitments and long-term client relationships. Built from a solo consultancy into a 15 person delivery organization known for white-glove service.
19-year partnership (2006-present) culminating in fractional CTO role. Supported MDSi's growth from $20M company (2005) to $300M+ today. In October 2015, MDSi gave all software development to ESS to run. I serve as chief architect, lead developer, and technology decision-maker with carte blanche over the platform. Run the entire operation with an extremely lean team.
Direct full-time employment at MDSi during a period of intensive platform development. Focused on architecting and implementing core systems for the Acuity platform and carrier integrations.
Led an 11-engineer delivery team, driving Agile adoption and technical delivery for enterprise consulting engagements.
Built and led a 19-engineer technology organization delivering Fortune 500 digital platforms and enterprise integrations.
Led a 10-person development team delivering e-commerce, digital media, and integration platforms for national clients.
Contractor delivering mission-critical systems for Georgia Department of Revenue. Architected and implemented E-Lien/E-Title, Tax Delinquency Inquiry, and ASP.NET Membership systems for state government operations.
ESS contractor engagement at MDSi continuing the relationship established at Magenic. Delivered core platform development for the Acuity logistics system and carrier integrations.
Contractor at a major $250M footwear e-commerce company (Dr. Scholl's partnership). Individual contributor with light team leadership. Designed and implemented a full test automation framework as the standout contribution.
Contractor who architected and fully implemented an incident/claims management system. Despite architecture responsibility, the role was still hands-on and execution-focused.
Career-defining role where Tom discovered his love for consulting. Member of Microsoft Partner of the Year team (2005). First met MDSi here - beginning of the 19-year partnership. Delivered enterprise modernization and healthcare audit projects.
Individual contributor with team leadership. Role was heavily focused on code generation - helped build internal code generation frameworks and used them to generate large volumes of production code. Early experience with template-driven development and automation.
Team lead position with hands-on execution focus. Mentored a small number of developers while building and extending features for the reservation management system. Still primarily an individual contributor with leadership responsibilities.
Architected AND fully implemented the Colorado Lottery claims management system. First architecture role - described as "learning architecture" while being a "workhorse implementer". Required CBI background clearance for high-security lottery systems.
Career origin story: Started in QA, self-taught programming, and earned promotion to development. Early .NET adopter from Beta 2 through 1.1, building enterprise deployment and licensing platforms for 15,000+ salespeople.