Fazal MAJID

Mobile phone:	+1 415 244-1337
Website:	www.majid.info/resume
Email:	fazal (at) majid (dot) org
	Printable version (US Letter PDF) ISO A4 PDF version

Profile

I am a successful entrepreneur and hands-on CTO with a proven track record in the competitive and time-driven Internet industry. I also have international experience in the Telecommunications and Networking fields. This background gives me a unique perspective across the entire application stack.

Skills

• Founding and growing startups
• Building and managing engineering teams
• Network architecture
• Scalable web architectures
• Telecommunications OSS and BSS architecture
• Expert in Python, C and JavaScript on UNIX platforms
• Extensive experience with client/server, grid and cloud technologies
• Project management
• I was granted two patents and have a third pending

Experience

Apsalar Inc.

Founder and CTO

As CTO, I am responsible for the architecture, implementation and operations of the Apsalar platform, and building a top-notch engineering team to develop it.

Acxiom Corp.

Architect (one of only a dozen or so senior architects within the firm)

I worked on the architecture for Acxiom’s next-generation multi-channel marketing platform, integrating the Kefta technology with Acxiom’s other online marketing channels. Some of the work covered scalable, yet ultra-low latency OLTP database technology for demanding online applications, where every millisecond counts.

Kefta Inc.

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

I started the company with two partners (both Harvard MBAs), as the founder with a technology background.

I recruited, managed and mentored the engineering team (14 engineers at peak)

I defined the technology vision and led its implementation, including much of the coding.

I was the technical face of the company on client pitches and public speaking engagements.

As a founder, I was ultimately responsible for getting things done. Just one example: after an unavoidable round of downsizing in 2003, I assumed the role of sole systems and database administrator until 2005.

I led the business’ reinvention several times to ensure its survival and renewal in the face of the dot-com nuclear winter of 2000-2004, one of the most challenging environments ever for technology startups.

I ran a tight ship and found ways to stretch our infrastructure dollars. One way to achieve that was insisting on performance optimization and efficiency.

EuroNet Internet BV

Technical Director, Operations Manager, deputy to the CEO and interim CIO.

I performed technical due diligence for France Telecom’s acquisition of the company in 1998, and stayed on to overhaul it.

I managed the core operations department with a 1999 budget of €5M in capital expenditures, €4.5M in operating expenses, and over 20 employees.

I upgraded the technical platforms (service, network and IS), reorganized operations and project management.

I limited post-acquisition turnover and recruited to stabilize the workforce, while shedding non-strategic activities such as custom web development.

I led the design of the long-term technical architecture for data services (IP and ATM) for all of France Telecom’s Dutch affiliates . The first phase was an ambitious IP over SDH network of Cisco 12000 and 7500 routers, spanning over 29 POPs in the Netherlands, with an initial capacity of 155 Mbps and scalability to 40 Gbps.

France Telecom Interactive (FTI)

Deputy to the Vice-President of Engineering. Acting as Chief Technology Officer for the division.

I designed Wanadoo‘s technical architecture to scale to 1 million subscribers and beyond by 1999, ran the RFPs and oversaw their implementation. This included the network architecture, the web portal and email services platform, the Business Support System (provisioning, billing and CRM) and the OSS. The first phase was completed in August 1997, the second in February 1999, when it served over 560.000 dialup, cable and ADSL subscribers. FT was still using the same basic architecture for over 5 million subscribers across all retail Internet services, as recently as 2007.

I set up much-needed QA and project management groups, to improve reliability, quality of service and reduce time to market for introducing new features.

Service d’Études Communes des Postes et Télécommunications (SEPT)

Project Manager

I led Project Mercure to produce a prototype ISP platform for FT with electronic commerce capabilities, as a successor to the legacy French Minitel system. The project was successfully completed, on time and within budget, in collaboration with Netscape Communications, with a total budget of €500K and a staff of 15 engineers. The payment feature was patented and later commercialized in Wanadoo. It was generating well over €2M in yearly revenues by 2002.

Education

Télécom Paris (French National Higher Institute for Telecommunications)

MS in Telecommunications Engineering

Telecom ParisTech is one of France’s leading graduate engineering schools and is considered the school in the field of IT.

Yale University Mathematics Department

Research Assistant

I investigated noise reduction using wavelet packet analysis, leading to an international publication and a scientific software package. My research was awarded first prize for Mathematics in 1992 by the École Polytechnique.

École Polytechnique

MS in Mathematics and Computer Science

The top French engineering institute or “Grande École”. It has trained France’s scientific and industrial elite and the upper echelons of its civil and military services since its inception, and it continues to do so today. Of the fifty most important corporations in France, nearly half are headed by a polytechnicien.

Skills detail

Technical skills

• Python, Python C extension modules, Pyrex
• Tcl/Tk, Tcl C extensions and embedding
• PHP, Cheetah, Freemarker, Zope
• C, C++, Java
• HTML, CSS, HTTP, JavaScript, AJAX, Comet, DOM, XML, JSON, RSS, WebDAV, Postscript
• iOS and Android mobile app development
• Oracle SQL, PL/SQL, Pro*C, OCI and JDBC
• PostgreSQL, PL/pgsql, PL/proxy and writing C extensions for PostgreSQL
• MySQL, SQLite
• Performance optimization and application tuning
• Apache, nginx, NSAPI and AOLserver extension programming
• CGI, FastCGI
• Solaris, OS X and Linux systems administration
• UNIX systems and network programming
• Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Sybase and SQL Server DBA
• CORBA, REST, AMQP, XML-RPC
• X11/Athena and Motif, OS X Quartz and Cocoa
• WordPress extensions and themes, MoinMoin, TWiki
• Microsoft Project, including VBA extensions
• RCS, CVS, Subversion, Mercurial
• Memcached, Postfix, Dovecot, Cyrus, BIND, DJBDNS, Unbound, SAMBA admin
• Cisco IOS, SNMP, NetFlow, MRTG, Cacti
• VMware, Xen, Solaris 10 Zones, Parallels and VirtualBox
• Amazon EC2 and AWS
• Photoshop, InDesign, Lightroom

International exposure

• 2000–Present: San Francisco, California, USA
• 1999–2000: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 1992, 1993: New Haven, Connecticut, USA
• 1982–1985: Tokyo, Japan
• 1981: London, England
• 1978–1980: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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