I am an experienced IT Leader and Manager looking for my next great challenge. My experience to date has focused on managing people and projects in organizations, in assisting teams of technologists to form and in leading them to achieve the organization’s business goals.
These Pages
This is my personal blog. The posts on this site are intended to give you additional insight into my professional side: who I am, what I think and how I make decisions. If you’re looking for an experienced Information Technology Leader and Manager to lead a technical group of people in your organization, I may be your candidate.
Through these posts, you’ll learn about my management styles, the importance I place on leadership (not only my own but those around me), my strategies for team development and the kind of written communication you can expect when you hire me.
In the past, I have typically posted three or four times a week, but have gotten away from that in the past few years due to an increase in writing for my employer. I encourage you to read on and get a sense of how I think about leadership, management and things that make a difference to companies that use technology to achieve their business goals.
My Biography
I have been involved in technology my entire career. That started with a degree from Austin College, focusing on computer science and Spanish. I was a consultant and developer out of Interleaf’s Chicago office before joining Uniscan (one of its VARs) in Cleveland. There I developed some plug-ins for the Interleaf publishing platform and further developed my public speaking abilities.
Later on, I joined Keybank to practice Unix administration, eventually branching out to leading and managing Operations and Engineering teams there. These opportunities have allowed me to fine-tune my skills in leading diverse groups of technologists in successfully leveraging a variety of technologies.
After Keybank, I joined the Equity Engineering Group in an IT director role. I found that particularly interesting in that E2G was small enough to get my arms around, but large enough to present its own challenges, ones that helped me to hone my skills and provide fresh context for writing and presenting.
Since leaving E2G, I have been consulting with small business owners and leaders who feel the need to improve the cybersecurity posture of their companies, providing risk assessments and next-step consulting.
I am a firm believer in the inherent value of each person. I look to challenge the individuals and groups I work with to creatively attack problems, develop unique approaches to providing solutions and deliver value to the business.
My wife and I have four children. In my spare time, I volunteer with our local scout groups, mostly so I can tag along on some neat adventures.
These days, when not consulting or talking with a business partner, I try not to be found by heading out on the water in my backyard-built sailboat or taking a long hike through any woods I can locate. Usually with my family.
My Contact Information
You may contact me via email at JeffreyGifford (at) gmail (dot) com, check me out on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter.
Disclaimer
It seems that every blog needs a disclaimer these days.
This is my personal blog. The opinions expressed here are not necessarily representative of any employer of mine (past, present or future). The opinions (and content) of any comments on these pages belong solely to the one leaving the comment. While I’m not afraid of a good argument, I do retain the right to remove comments that are offensive.
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