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With over thirty years of business leadership experience, Kay Wise has solid credentials in business process management and productivity improvement via process improvement and project management.  She has led change projects affecting the corporate culture of large organizations through the practical application of management theory. Her solutions draw on formal training in the Capability Maturity Model for Software, the Weinberg school of Quality Software Management and Six Sigma.
 
Over fifteen years of computer system design, database management, and application development experience provide Kay Wise with the technical expertise to solve problems and earn the respect of engineers. She can construct realistic business plans and software development schedules for building of new systems or implementation of "Commercial Off The Shelf" software (COTS), including Oracle Financials.

In 2001 Kay took a "buy-out" from First Data.  She returned to Creighton University to study art, specifically oil painting where she received purchase awards for her paintings as a "novice" in 2002 and as a "transitional student" in 2003.   Kay's paintings also appear in print in the April, 2005 issue of Plein Air Magazine and the April, 2006 issue of Southwest Art.

 

Below is Kay's traditional work resume:

 

Work experience


1992 - 2001

 First Data Corporation,  Omaha NE
Director


Laid out and implemented strategy for Management Information Systems involving use of Oracle RDBMS, LBMS CASE tools and PowerBuilder for Application Development. Personally installed all three products and arranged training for staff, including GUI Standards and Human Factors. Served as Oracle DBA for two years.


Created and led the Distributed Systems Standards Work Group as a forum for technical leaders across all business units leading to more consensus choices in software and hardware purchases.


Received Champion’s award for emergency programming of repairs and enhancements to Corporate Financial Consolidation Reporting System after the normal support person left the company.


Planned and managed from conception through implementation a $4 million upgrade to Oracle Financial Systems for Y2K compliance. Choreographed upgrades in Sun and PC Hardware, operating systems, application development tools, Oracle Financials and an 800 module custom billing application. Project plan involved 15 people for 15 months delivering over 22,000 hours of development on time and under budget with 4 minor post implementation Incident Reports.


Created and led a Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) to implement the Capability Maturity Model for Software. With a staff of 4- 7 over an 18 month period we inspired process improvement all across a 1200 person IT organization. Over 20% of the engineers participate directly in the SEPG, which remains active.


Pulled together three separate groups and coordinated Black Belts in the design and documentation of a joint process measurement strategy to support implementation of Six Sigma.


Wrote the business case and led the steering group to pass a $14 million Capital Appropriation Request to implement Oracle Financials 11i across all First Data.


1989 - 1992

 The Wise Choice Information Consulting company, Omaha NE
President 


In three years I grew my own company from one employee to five and more than doubled revenues every year.
Designed and implemented a library system for Douglas County Historical Society Archives and an Inventory System for Midwest Walnut Sawmill in Council Bluffs, IA.


Designed and contract managed implementation of a Metropolitan Area Network for the City of Omaha. Coordinated the selection, deployment and customization of the maintenance management system shared by five city departments: vehicle maintenance, park maintenance, street maintenance, water treatment and city planning.

 
1982-1989

Applied Communications, Inc Omaha NE
Management Information Systems (MIS) Manager


Installed BASE24 ATM software at Chemical Bank, New York City


Designed and built systems to support software configuration management and software quality assurance integrated with problem tracking and delivery of monthly software updates.


Designed and deployed time accounting, cost accounting and billing systems using Tandem’s RDBMS and early client/server architecture. Received ACI’s highest award, 110% Club, in 1988.


Using the relational database I designed, we were able to deliver profitability analyses by product, by customer, by region for management review spanning the period from 1982-1989 during which ACI grew from 100 employees to 700 employees.


1976 - 1982

 Creighton University Omaha NE
Organizational Behavior Research Associate


Co-authored successful multi-million dollar grant proposal
Communicated via ARPANET (precursor to the Internet)
Participated in design and implementation of a Curriculum Improvement Project using Expert System technology and a methodology precursor to that used today by Six Sigma Business Process Management.
Led regular meetings of faculty of the School of Medicine to implement curriculum change while putting the Expert System into practice.

 

1973-76

Full-time parent, Omaha, NE

 


1971 - 1973

I.S.A.T. Agency Omaha NE
Market Research Agency Manager

 

Worked part-time in my mother's market research company doing product marketing interviews, door-to-door surveys, audits and telephoning for political candidates.


1963 - 1969

American Red Cross Washington, D.C./Omaha NE
Program Manager / National Management Trainee


Managed the Red Cross International School Art Exchange Program
Trained in management of other Red Cross Programs, including Blood Donor Recruitment, Disaster Relief, Junior Red Cross, Service to Military.


Selected for Outstanding Young Women in America, 1967
 
Education
1973 – 1982 Creighton University Omaha, NE
Computer Science major / Master of Arts History
4.0 Grade Point Average
1959 - 1963 Midland Lutheran College Fremont, NE
English, History, and Education majors - Batchelor of Arts
Summa Cum Laude
Full Tuition Scholarship 4 years
GRE Scores: Verbal 730, Quantitative 660 (Jan 5, 1962)
1955 - 1959 Omaha North High School Omaha, NE
College Preparatory Course
Valedictorian
Brandeis Award for Scholarship, Leadership and Service


References
I am proud to list as a reference Gerald M. Weinberg, noted author and recipient of both the prestigious Warnier Prize and the Stevens Award. I have participated in the full suite of Weinberg seminars over the last twenty years, including his Software Engineering Management series in 1995. Weinberg’s most recent work is a four volume series on Quality Software Management from Dorset House.
Publications
In Data Processing Digest, April 1983, “A Review of Logical Data Base Design by Curtice and Jones.” And in January 1983 “ A Review of An Introduction to Data Base Systems, 3rd Ed., By C.J. Date.”
“Data Base Design for Easy Maintenance” Infotec89, Omaha NE.
“Strategic Data Planning” Infotec90, Omaha NE.

“Mobilizing for a CMM Initiative” in Software Testing and Quality Engineering, March/April 2000 under the pseudonym J. James Jacobsen.
The CMM at FDR, white paper, 1998, First Data Resources, Omaha, NE.
MIS at FDR, white paper, 2000, First Data Resources, Omaha, NE. Used to guide major reorganization of management information systems.
 

 

 

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