Tom Conrad
I'm the CTO @ Pandora
| Headline: | Entrepreneur |
| Work status: | Employed Full-Time |
| Website: | http://tomconrad.net |
| Industries: | Entertainment, Internet, Media |
| Skills: | AJAX, Business, C/C++, Databases, Design, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Facebook platform, Flash, HTML / CSS, Human-Computer Interaction, Java, Javascript, Languages and Platforms, Leadership, Management, Marketing, Public speaking, Python, Recruitment, Software Engineering, Web design, Web Development |
| Location: | San Francisco, CA |
| Interested in: | Finding business partners, Meeting new people, Professional opportunities, Promoting my startups, Receiving feedback, Recruiting for my startup |
| Tags: | cto, internet radio, music, pandora |
| Schools: | University of Michigan System - Ann Arbor |
WORK EXPERIENCE
| Employer: | Pandora, Inc. |
| Position: | Chief Technical Officer |
| Time period: | January 2004 - Present |
| Description: | Pandora is a personalized radio service. Our goal is to help people discover new music that they'll love. As CTO, I manage the teams that design, develop, qualify, and maintain the Pandora product family. |
| Employer: | Kenamea, Inc. |
| Position: | Vice President of Engineering |
| Time period: | January 2000 - December 2004 |
| Description: | * hire and retain the team that designs, develops, qualifies, and supports the Kenamea platform
* manage the on-time and on-budget delivery of 3-4 major software releases per year * direct the evolution of the company as a member of the executive team * work with marketing to articulate the Kenamea product offering to the marketplace * act as the company's technology spokesperson in front of customers and at industry events * author white papers, prototypes, slide decks and other sales tools * articulate customer requirements to engineering; establish the product roadmap As Kenamea's VP of Engineering, I was responsible for the teams that design, develop, package, qualify and deliver Kenamea's award-winning technology stack (Infoworld "Technology of the Year 2002"). The Kenamea product includes an internet-scale messaging tier, a presentation framework and component architecture for creating AJAX applications, and a packaged application for workflow task management and collaboration. Managing all aspects of product development - from product management through product delivery - I lead the team through all phases of the evolution of the company. We successfully delivered three distinct product families to market under very tight budgetary and time pressures. I've also worked very closely with the sales and marketing teams to help articulate Kenamea's business value in the marketplace. |
| Employer: | Pets.com |
| Position: | Senior Director of Engineering |
| Time period: | January 1999 - December 2000 |
| Description: | * recruited and retained a team of exceptional software engineers and content managers
* architected an award winning e-commerce web site that serviced millions of visitors a week * managed the development of middleware to integrate the web store and warehouses * led the development of tools for managing editorial, promotional, and merchandising content * led the development of a sophisticated internal tool for customer relationship management At Pets.com my team and I built and managed a highly scalable 24 x 7 consumer web site that integrated with a national network of distribution centers. I was responsible for staffing up a team of software engineers, release engineers, tool developers, and content managers while simultaneously delivering the all versions of the Pets.com technology platform including the web site, order management system, customer support tools, and merchandising technology. |
| Employer: | Documentum, Inc. |
| Position: | Principal Software Engineer |
| Time period: | May 1998 - December 1999 |
| Description: | * led engineering staff of 150 as one of 5 principal engineers
* architected Documentum's Java presentation server technology * designed and developed Documentum's framework for building web applications Documentum acquired Relevance Technologies (see below) to help speed their transformation from a client-server document repository provider to a developer of web application solutions. As a director-level Principal Engineer, my role was to lead the design and development of a web-centric application architecture that would form the heart of the new Documentum platform. These technologies were brought to market in 1999 and were instrumental in Documentum's successful transformation to a Web-based architecture. |
| Employer: | Relevance Technologies, Inc. |
| Position: | Senior Software Engineer |
| Time period: | January 1997 - May 1998 |
| Description: | * contributed to the development of a semantic-network-based content personalization system
* developed a Java presentation server platform * designed the user interface for a sophisticated enterprise application for sales support * instrumental in the process that led to Documentum's $40M acquisition of Relevance The Relevance product had three main components: a novel personalization engine based on a semantic document analyzer, a Java-based presentation server, and a sophisticated enterprise application for salespeople called the Sales Intelligence Center. As the first employee, I contributed in all areas of product development, but my main focus was on the architecture and development of the application server and the Sales Intelligence Center application. I also designed the application's patented user interface. The sophistication of this application and its underlying infrastructure figured materially in Documentum's decision to acquire Relevance in the spring of 1998. |
| Employer: | Berkeley Systems, Inc. |
| Position: | Technical Director |
| Time period: | January 1995 - December 1997 |
| Description: | * led the engineering team responsible for the popular You Don't Know Jack franchise
* architected the design and C++ development of the You Don't Know Jack platform (Win/Mac) * developed new gameplay and engine features for a number of You Don't Know Jack variants * designed and implemented the game's multi-channel sound mixer At Berkeley Systems, I was the Technical Director for the You Don't Know Jack franchise. My mission was to lead a team in refactoring the YDKJ game engine so it could serve as a robust platform for future variants - YDKJ Sports, YDKJ Volume 2, YDKJ Movies, YDKJ Online, etc. - while at the same time delivering the first of those products to retail. We were successful on both counts, and the You Don't Know Jack series went on to become one of the longest running, most successful video game franchises in PC history - in fact, it is still alive and well today almost 10 years later. |
| Employer: | Apple Computer, Inc. |
| Position: | Senior Software Engineer - System Software |
| Time period: | January 1991 - December 1995 |
| Description: | * led the design effort for elements of the user interface of MacOS 8 and MacOS 9
* designed and implemented UI elements for the MacOS 8 desktop (C++) * spearheaded an effort to modernize the Macintosh user interface and codebase * wrote user interface test plans and led usability testing efforts * developed UI prototypes for numerous projects and presented them to Apple's executive team While at Apple I designed and developed several user interface features that would go on to become key differentiators in the Mac OS - Spring Loaded Folders and Popup Windows to name two. I also applied for, and was granted, US patents on these UI inventions. Later I worked in the areas of configurable UI and multi-user support which would go on to figure in the Mac OS 9 feature set. |
EDUCATION
| University: | University of Michigan System - Ann Arbor |
| Time period: | 1988 - 1992 |
| Degree: | Computer Engineering, BSc |
PUBLICATIONS
| Patents: | Computer system with graphical user interface including spring-loaded enclosures (US, 06061061)
Computer system with graphical user interface including drawer-like windows (US, 06133918) Multi-dimensional analysis of objects by manipulating discovered semantic properties (US, 06028605) |
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Rajesh Patil
An inspiring technical leader and IT manager with extensive experience in software development, quality assurance and high-tech operations with more than 9 years of experience building state of art IT solutions facilitating corporate growth.
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