Donald Larson, MBA

Experience

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  Kraft Foods

  Jan 1988 - Jan 2000

  Director

  Lead teams in multiple roles from architecture through production support and program delivery. Accountable for all areas of infrastructure including computing, storage and network platforms. Consolidated network services across Kraft, General Foods, and Oscar Mayer as part of the food products unit of Philip Morris. Additionally, led data warehousing, database management systems, information management strategy and software engineering supporting 700 developers and enterprise master data applications. Show less

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  CNA Insurance

  Jan 2000 - Jan 2007

  Led internal Program Management Office (PMO) supporting all infrastructure delivery programs. Line manager for multiple program directors/managers with programs ranging in size up to $100mm in investment. Full program life cycle support and continuous executive interaction to assure alignment. Led three program managers in delivering all platform and technology elements to support a strategic multi-year expansion into new markets by implementing new systems for policy management, risk assessment and STP small policy handling. Led engineering teams in Europe and the US delivering various server platforms and network services such as e-mail, messaging, document management and other application services. Supported 10,000+ internal users, thousands of external business partners, and a majority owned subsidiary (CNA Surety). Founding member of team that developed a 3-year strategic vision for the global information management of CNA’s newly centralized Technology Solutions Group including application architecture, development methodology, production infrastructure architecture, structured and unstructured information, application integration and workflow architectures. Delivered all business intelligence applications within the Commercial Property and Casualty sector. This included data warehousing, modeling, analysis and reporting technologies and associated custom code solutions. Also led delivery of infrastructure services from external or internal service partners.

  • Director - IT Program Consulting

    Jan 2005 - Jan 2007

  • Infrastructure Program Director

    Jan 2004 - Jan 2005

  • Director, Infrastructure Engineering and Operations

    Jan 2002 - Jan 2004

  • Enterprise Senior Architect and Director - Information Architecture

    Jan 2001 - Jan 2002

  • AVP - Infrastructure and Decision Support Systems

    Jan 2000 - Jan 2001
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  Tek Ark Consulting, Inc

  Aug 2008 - Aug 2012

  President

  Principal of consulting firm focused on the creation, management and delivery of enterprise technology architectures and associated technology platforms for small and large businesses.

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  Northwestern Mutual

  Jun 2012 - Apr 2017

  Driving delivery and client experience for several service units, my teams support infrastructure service delivery in Server, Storage, Network, Middleware, and End User Security. Our recent alignment to delivering infrastructure using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) model has positioned us to explore the integration of DevOps and ITIL based service management, critical to Northwestern Mutual's focus on delivering a deeply integrated client experience using both digital and interpersonal experiences. Show less Responsible for Service Management as well as Network Operations, my team aligns the enterprise's efforts in service development and delivery, as well as the delivery of network services, to our employees, producers and clients. Northwestern Mutual uses the ITIL framework as a design schema for creating support processes and teams that assure our business partners and clients receive the services they expect. We embrace new delivery models and are adapting our processes and tooling in support of agile delivery (building upon the SAFe model) , Continuous Integration/Delivery techniques, and the emergence of DevOps. Show less

  • Director - IT Operations & Infrastructure / Service Delivery Operations

    Aug 2016 - Apr 2017

  • Director - IT Operations and Infrastructure / Service Management

    Jun 2012 - Aug 2016