Susan Bickford
Mountain View, CA
Office: 650.210.9958 / Cell: 650.906.5131
bol@bickfordonline.com / www.bickfordonline.com

IT Efficiency Expert

Established track record realizing IT infrastructure savings for customers. A strategic visionary who brings a can-do practical magic to complicated and cross-organizational project and program management execution. Creates customer, executive level and organizational success by focusing on management of expectations, rigorous processes, and communcations. Experienced in managing large, multi-function teams of up to 100 people with equivalent budget responsibilities. Recognized leader and manager by executives, peers, and staff. Acknowledged track record in IT, product development, sales, and marketing, which provides deep understanding of business and well as technical complexities. 

•	IT efficiency expert
•	Product and IT development management
•	Large-scale deployment engineering definition
•	Process definition and change management
•	Extensive experience with vendor negotiation, contract, and support life cycle
	•	Mobility with security expertise
•	Identity management solutions
•	Global, cross-organizational project expertise
•	Exceptional presentation skills
•	Technology evangelism
•	UNIX, Linux, Windows management
•	MS Office, Open Office tools	

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

BICKFORD CONSULTING

Principal/Owner	2004 – Present
Consulting business focused IT Efficiency and making security a business advantage.

•	Successfully reduced IT costs by 50-90% for multiple small businesses
•	Senior Partner, with SalesRamp, a marketing consultancy company
•	Advisory board member for an early stage security startup
•	As acting CIO for very early startup, established data center standards and set up systems for a service-based business
•	As CIO with no budget, transformed the costly and antiquated computing environment for the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles

SUN MICROSYSTEMS

Director, Sun Information Technologies	1997 - 2004
Managed customer and business owner expectations and satisfaction as director of a large worldwide team of 70+ people delivering high-profile systems and services for secure access, identity management, smartcard-based solutions, corporate applications, and enterprise management systems.

•	Delivered world-wide smartcard-based badge using Sun's JavaCard technology with high level of end user satisfaction, by meticulous planning and aggressive communications, pulling in executives, product development, external vendors and multiple corporate groups.
•	Successfully delivered a highly constrained identity management infrastructure project supporting over $1.3B in sales, by driving a customer-first approach to manage expectations and buy in while also turning around the technical team
•	Generated enthusiastic customer demand and excitement by providing working prototype solutions for Mobility with Security for trade shows, Sun's customer briefing facility, and board rooms, including wireless SunRays (stateless devices), cell phone authentication, JavaCard integration, and PKI.
•	Extensive experience creating and managing large scale department-level budgets.
•	Drove acceptance and adoption of SixSigma practices.

Senior Manager, SunSoft Enterprise Desktop Group 	1992 – 1997
Managed a large worldwide project engineering group to deliver the UNIX desktop environment focusing on customer input, beta programs, and end-user focused prioritization. Responsible for planning, strategy, execution, customer interaction and early access programs, negotiating contracts, and cross-industry joint development projects.

•	Achieved high level of internal and external user satisfaction with the on-time Solaris-enhanced integration of Sun's first Motif-based desktop, CDE, a project that had ran counter to Sun’s history of OpenLook/OpenWindows support by setting up extensive customer early access programs and internal IT deployment.
•	Delivered major re-write of XIL, Sun's imaging library, accompanied by a book written by Bill Pratt, leading imaging technology expert.
•	Managed Sun's leadership participation in cross-company standardization committee for ICCM (International Color Consortium) profiles, winning Seybold Technology Achievement Award.

Corporate Marketing Manager, SunSoft 				1991 – 1992
Technology Directions Manager responsible for evangelizing OpenWindows and the graphics/multimedia technologies to third party developers.

•	Established successful programs for ISV and customer implementation using Sun's first Solaris releases by setting up early access programs, publishing expert guidelines for developers, and industry presentations.

Area Systems Engineer, Sun Microsystems Sales	1988 – 1991
Managed engineering and technical issues in the technology areas of window systems, graphics, and CASE for the Sun sales organization major accounts in the Eastern US.

•	Drove sales and adoption of Sun solutions to over 100 customers by evangelizing windowing solutions and assisting customers in design and deployment options
•	Established Sun's first early access program for non-ISV developers.

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

Member of Technical Staff, NYNEX Information Resources, New York, NY.
President, The Computer Arts Forum, New York, NY, providing training, consulting, and computer graphics services.
Assistant Producer, Digital Effects, Inc., New York, NY, computer animation studio.

EDUCATION
BA, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
MFA, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY