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SUMMARY

A software leader with deep technical skills focused on building collaborative teams that create great consumer internet products using agile development methodologies. An experienced executive with an in-the-trenches, team-first attitude and excellent relationship and communication skills.

EXPERIENCE

Co-Founder & CTO
Yapp
New York City (June 2011 - Present)

Created, beta'd and launched a platform for consumers to create mobile apps.

 

General Manager
Weplay.com
New York City (October 2010 - June 2011)

Leading product, technology and business operations.

 

VP, Engineering
Weplay.com
New York City (December 2007 - October 2010)

First technical hire at this social site for youth sports.

  • Hired an ace Rails team and built a culture of engineering excellence and collaboration.
  • Built, shipped, and iterated on a great social utility app serving youth sports parents, coaches and kids.
  • Member of senior management team.

 

Director of Software Development
Oxygen Media, LLC
New York City (April 2006 - December 2007)

Led the hiring, growth and success of an Extreme Programming/Scrum team.

  • Introduce and foster new agile software development methodologies such as "ping pong pairing."
  • Focus on regular coaching and feedback to support team members' professional growth and contribution.
  • Introduce Ruby on Rails to the team's technology toolkit.
  • Functioning as a peer senior developer in balance with a functional and strategic management role.

 

Software Development Manager
Oxygen Media, LLC
New York City (January 2005 - March 2006)

Managed a small team of .NET developers within a busy IT group at a cable television network. Worked as a contributing senior developer, too.

  • Introduce and foster agile software development methodologies such as pair programming, test-driven development, and continuous integration.
  • Support growth of team members in design and construction skills through mentorship, training and strategic assignments.
  • Improving interdepartmental working relationships by increasing communication, cooperation and building better deployment processes.

 

Senior Developer
Oxygen Media, LLC
New York City (January 2000 - December 2004)

Learned the disciplines of software development while building the tools that make cable television work at the first on-line and on-air network for women.

  • Created a Windows application for scheduling secondary events on a television broadcast automation system. Includes visual drag-and-drop scheduling, robust web services, and a fail-safe playlist generation system with drop-in extensibility.
  • Wrote a database-backed multi-user Windows application in C# for Legal Department to track Rights & Clearances, and a similarly architected application to track Talent & Submissions.
  • Built television marketing site with complete back-end content management system from scratch on a .NET platform with C# and Sql Server.
  • Chief Architect and Lead Developer on content management and publishing system, built on Interwoven TeamSite.
  • Technical Lead on multiple web applications running on java application server ATG Dynamo.
  • Extensive experience with object-oriented Perl development.
 

Internet Consultant
Independent Consulting
Bangalore, India (May 1999 - December 1999)

While living abroad and exploring southern India, maintained several client accounts in the U.S. and Canada.

  • Built complex PHP & Perl-driven electronic newsletter site that included a client-maintained content management system
  • Worked with business owners to identify and understand internet business strategies appropriate to their business
  • Developed clear understanding of technology industry in South Asia
 

Webmaster
Network Marketing Publications, Inc.
Charlottesville, VA (Nov. 1997 - May 1999)

NMPI is a publicly-traded editorial and publishing house producing and marketing multimedia sales training materials, seminars, a trade journal, and a newsstand magazine for the network marketing industry

  • Took Upline.com, a sales training site for network marketers, from scratch to an acclaimed industry site generating e-commerce sales exceeding $1 million per year
  • Built and hosted multiple sites on in-house Unix, PC & Macintosh web servers
  • Created and directed a free monthly electronic newsletter
  • Developed online secure shopping cart catalog for extensive offering of books, tapes & software
 

Founder & CEO
Kaizensoft, Inc.
Charlottesville, VA (1995 - 1999)

Conceived and co-founded software company to develop specialized contact management software for network marketers and capitalize on that niche market.

  • Raised $150K in capital, managed staff of 5
  • Created and implemented national marketing campaign
  • Developed web design division by subcontracting and directing site development
 

Managing Editor
MLM Publishing, Inc.
Charlottesville, VA (1994 - 1996)

Small publishing & seminar company

  • Oversaw editing, layout and design for trade journal with an international subscription base of 17,000
  • Recommended and managed major redesign of flagship publication
  • Coordinated remote writers and managed scheduling & printing
  • Wrote a popular monthly column on technology topics

spacer EDUCATION

University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA

  • Echols Scholar Program (Top 1% of entering students)

North Shore High School
Glen Head, NY

  • Valedictorian
  • Tandy Technology Scholar

spacer SKILLS

Languages: Javascript, Ruby, Coffeescript, Java, C#, Perl, PHP, HTML & CSS, SQL

Open Source: Contributions to many projects including Ember.js, Rails, Tracks, and others

Tools, Servers & Libraries: Ember.js, Ruby on Rails, Node.js, .NET ecosystem

Other: Strong writing and editing skills, excellent presentation and public speaking skills, basic graphic design skills

INTERESTS

Beach volleyball, international travel, natural health & fitness, personal development, open source software, writing, inline skating

CONTACT & AVAILABILITY

The best way to contact me is by e-mail at luke@lukemelia.com.

View my profile on LinkedIn