Georgia Institute of Technology

VP Technology - Core Software Engineering at Equifax

Atlanta, Georgia

Equifax Summary:  I've held numerous senior leadership positions in IT and Business areas focused on adding value to Equifax's core information management lines of business. These leadership roles focused on business growth and innovative solutions development in the areas of big data processing, data architecture & governance, financial services solutions, and new product innovation.  I have expertise in:       •	Aligning application development efforts with business priorities, especially with complex data analytics systems, process governance, budgets management, staffing, and products delivery       •	Leading and consulting in Data Governance best practices and Data Lifecycle Management engagements, including PCI and PII compliance assurance and audits       •	Balancing strategic and tactical focus to ensure short term deliveries which are aligned with long term business objectives       •	Building and managing highly effective teams and enabling them to become a competitive differentiator utilizing industry leading practices, including Agile methodologies       •	Defining and applying best practices for Software Engineering and Design to maximize project deliverables and optimize overall program investments       •	Representing Equifax IT to external audiences, including strategic partners, key customers, industry groups, and suppliers & vendors       •	Leading solutions development efforts from ideation to analysis to prototyping to a best in class product offerings       •	Ensuring I'm constantly engaged with the industry & local technical groups and remaining technically fluent and hands-on...while ensuring my teams and I have fun!         •	Recent project Technologies include:  AWS Native Data Services, Hadoop (CDH), Spark, Kafka, JSON/Avro, YARN, Docker, ELK, Hive/Impala, Postgres, Jaspersoft, Superset, Jenkins, Cask CDAP, Pentaho, and Spring Cloud Data Flow.    See below for my current and past specific Equifax job roles and responsibilities.

Equifax

VP Technology

My current role is as a leader of our Equifax Core Software Engineering teams.  The Data Services teams deliver several new big data platforms focused on creating globally deployed common large data ingestion & quality platforms, online data repositories & management systems, and custom large batch data analytics & scoring delivery systems.  We also manage a Data Analytics and Visualizations team and Platform Manager UI/UX team.  Our teams are tasked with defining, designing, building, and then orchestrating the global deployment of these core platforms into the business and operational Equifax business units in various regions and geographies.  Our solutions serve as Equifax's key reusable Core Bureau Platform components used to ingest, manage, perform analytics, and sell various domains of Equifax core data assets (Credit, Fraud, Employment, Auto, Wealth, Property, ...) and related products and services around the world.  I am responsible for technical designs focusing on our Hadoop ecosystems (AWS, CDH, Java, Spark, Kafka, Cassandra, Hive, Impala, etc.) and DevOps best practices and toolsets that allow us to support and improve decision-making and product delivery across organizations which, ultimately, drive competitive advantage around our unique data assets.  I lead my teams to work with a diverse and global set of business, product, operational, financial, and technical stakeholders as well as local business unit teams to achieve these goals.

VP Technology - Core Software Engineering

As the lead Enterprise Data Architect, I led global oversight efforts for Equifax's strategic core assets, our data.  My unique and deep knowledge of the Equifax business model, data assets, and technology footprint (both domestic and international) allows me to partner with strategic senior leaders in Marketing, Sales, Business Operations, Security, and Technology.  The overarching governance and stewardship of our data, metadata, master data, data factory processes, business rules (including IP), and their security are my primary responsibility.•	Acted as Technology lead for Equifax's cross-functional Big Data assessment, including tools, vendor, and solution capabilities reviews, meetings with JV Partners, and creating our Equifax Big Data Investment Roadmap.•	Defined the enterprise data governance model with focus on Permissible Data Usage together with the Chief Data Officer and executive steering committee for the new Enterprise Data Governance Council (EDC).  •	Supported the EDC mission to enable growth while protecting our strategic data assets and customer relationships by defining and automating the review and tracking of new data product initiatives (NPIs) and their deployments.•	Led a cross-functional data inventory and assessment delivering quarter-by-quarter improvements focused on data compliance improvements, creating a unified information metadata catalog, and providing data analytics insights to key business partners.•	Strategic leader and facilitator for the UK Data Foundations initiative implementing Data Quality and Hit Rate improvements for the UK Consumer and Commercial solutions.•	Defined and published the Equifax Attribution and Scoring model framework for the simplification, optimization, validation, and modernization of these core Equifax capabilities.•	Facilitated and provided key contributions to Equifax’s yearly Growth Playbook initiatives by working with key Global Data Operations, Marketing, and Business leaders.

VP Technology - Enterprise Data Architecture and Governance

As the technology leader for the green-field Equifax India Credit Bureau team, beginning in 2007, I grew my responsibilities from IT Lead to CIO and added COO and finally CISO responsibilities as we brought Equifax India to life over a three year period, from proposal to live operations.  I led the business requirements gathering, definition, design, acquisition, and ultimate deployment of our data center in support of the India platforms and products (including consumer credit reporting, identity verification, dispute and disclosure, analytics and risk models, account management, marketing solutions, and dispute & disclosure processes).  All solutions were analyzed against local business needs customized to beat the existing India consumer banking, finance, and risk management market offerings.•	As a knowledgeable CRA business and technology leader, I met with numerous JV partners, customers, and regulatory leaders in the India market to gather market intelligence and provide guidance for launching Equifax’s first ever green-field credit bureau. •	As the Equifax India CIO and lead Architect I analyzed, designed, estimated, procured, and led the implementation and deployment of the overall solution for the India applications, data model, data center, product delivery, and dispute/disclosure systems.•	Managed the India IT budget planning, contract negotiations, hiring, purchasing, and application builds by working closely with the India GM, CEO, CFO, and US Finance team over three budget year cycles.•	As COO, I defined, documented, interviewed, staffed, and managed the Equifax India JV Business Operations unit (20+ h/c) before hiring and turning this over to a new India-based COO.•	Defined and implemented the comprehensive Equifax India Credit Bureau Compliance and Security Policies and Procedures as acting CISO, covering data center, software, data management, and data operations.  Validated and approved by external auditors and government regulators.

CIO, COO, CISO Equifax India

As an Enterprise Architect I have been responsible for ensuring the alignment of multiple business units’ Growth Playbooks with the IT Architecture Roadmap.  I have worked with numerous business unit teams as their chief architect covering numerous key US and International business, application, platform, data, process, and product initiatives for both the consumer and commercial (business) domains. •	Coordinated the Enterprise Architecture activities and business alignment for all strategic investment projects for the Equifax LATAM countries (9) and Emerging Markets (2 – India/Russia).•	Established the global IT consolidation, simplification, and governance guidelines and programs to support Business Unit strategies for platform portfolio alignment management.•	Developed As-Is functional blueprints, To-Be architecture templates, IT Roadmaps, and gap analyses to align our IT strategies with the business/product roadmaps for Equifax’s strategic application portfolios.•	Led an enterprise-wide strategic initiative to document and consolidate Equifax’s 3rd party software standards, including establishing an enterprise software acquisition charter process and software licensing terms and conditions standards resulting in significant efficiencies and software savings.•	Established Equifax’s Open Source usage policy in close coordination with corporate legal counsel; including standardized permissible use packages which enabled cost savings and mitigated copyright infringement liabilities.•	Established the EA “Investment Navigator” review processes to provide governance on strategic IT initiatives and to ensure alignment with IT goals, roadmaps, and technology standards.•	Defined the architectural requirements and tollgate criteria for enterprise-wide New Product Initiatives from inception to delivery.  These processes ensure alignment with financial controls, procurement pipelines, capacity planning, IT governance best practices, and portfolio prioritization.

Vice-President of Enterprise Architecture

As a leader in Equifax’s core Information Services division for consumer and commercial data, I led a 20+ person development team responsible for critical data acquisition and data quality processes (DataQA).  I was the primary liaison to multiple business units including downstream operations, product, and data services teams.•	Multiple roles as the DataQA technical lead, systems architect, and development, test, release, and support manager.•	Defined and executed a team-based approach to quickly extend the DataQA consumer credit capabilities into the business (commercial) credit arena; now a $100+ million revenue business unit.•	Led the growth of the original core DataQA consumer credit processing system into additional data quality area including collections, bankruptcies, judgments/liens, phone, “opt-out”, and utilities data.•	Led the adoption and deployments of multiple global DataQA instances to drive efficiency, quality, and operational consistency to various Equifax business units. •	Managed all DataQA IT and business partner relationships including establishment of a Change Management Board, its charter and processes to ensure alignment with corporate goals and priorities.•	Established and managed SOX and SAS-70 audit procedures, processes, and documents for DataQA and related core system teams by working closely with Equifax Legal and Internal Audit specialists.•	Successfully redesigned and redeployed DataQA’s “artificial intelligence” rule-based subsystems to a more cost effective, maintainable, and sustainable standard; saving over $100,000 annually.

Senior Director of Development

Senior System Designer and Development Manager •	Led the IBM technology team’s engagement for the assessment and analysis of sunsetting and replacing Equifax’s core legacy mainframe COBOL/ASM system which was aging and unsupportable.•	Led the IBM technical design team in defining the new Equifax end-to-end data acquisition and data refinery processes based on a scalable, high performance, and flexible midrange systems solution.•	Managed all aspects of this DataQA project’s multi-year development and deployment, including business requirements gathering and documentation, systems design, proof of concepts, project staffing, hardware and software evaluation and selection, change and release management, project prioritization, management reporting, data quality assurance testing, and end user acceptance testing.•	Designed and led the implementation of DataQA’s operational management and customer-facing user interfaces, data warehousing, scorecards, and business intelligence and reporting systems.•	As the lead IBM project manager, I was accountable to Equifax for all aspects of delivery and deployment for this high performance data quality system which currently processes all of Equifax’s key Global Consumer and Commercial inbound data; over 2 billion records per month from 20,000+ data providers for numerous highly regulated and extremely sensitive data domains.

Senior System Designer and Development Manager

Data Access System (DAS) Technical Lead	•	Designed and developed IBM’s internal data warehouse access system used by US Sales and Marketing teams.  Our focus was on providing real-time desktop (field) access to IBM’s Master Customer, Product, Sales, and Inventory & Backorder DB2 mainframe databases, centrally housed in Sterling Forest, NY.•	Led the OS/2 object oriented design team for core data access layer and user interfaces development.•	Led the code management, build/configuration, release planning & management, and deployment teams over a span of six years with this project.•	Managed the Quality Assurance team and Lab responsible for DAS test case design, creation, validation, and end user (Customer Acceptance Test) planning, execution, and sign-off.Territory Management System (TMS) Developer•		Developed key components including user interfaces, reporting schemas, report layouts, campaign and opportunity management subsystems, and comprehensive marketing data extraction and manipulation routines for deployment to and use by IBM’s US Territory Marketing Services team. •		Ensured flexible database-driven designs were applied to the TMS system components to ensure quick response to the regular US Marketing and Territory hierarchy reorganizations and coverage changes.

Technical Development Leader

Automated Document Generation (ADG) Developer•		Designed and developed Series/1 Assembler then Mainframe TSO PL/I versions of the IBM US Sales branch office tool used to create customer-ready letters, order forms, envelopes, attachments, and schedules.•	Responsible for monitoring and troubleshooting the ADG SNA-based US network of Series/1 servers deployed in each IBM branch office, including remote O/S, application, and database change management.•	Responsible for 2nd, and 3rd level Help Desk support for the Branch Office ADG users.  I played a key role in the overall ADG Help Desk system design, process optimization, automation, and reporting.•	I held numerous Co-Op development, test, analysis, and system design positions with MAPICS and various other IBM projects between 1982-1986, when I became a full time IBM employee.

Tony Noto

Tony Noto