Harvey Mudd College

Pomona College

Senior Director, Cloud Architecture at Avaya

Avaya

Senior Director, Cloud Architecture

Senior Director, Architecture and Experience Platforms

Director, Experience Avaya & Architecture

Ensure the functional success of all technical consultants in meeting their goal of executing cloud migrations for clients. Supported by a wider management team encompassing a Project Management Office, Chief Technology Officer, Head of Managed Services and Head of Sales.

Wider responsibilities include:
- Leading from the front and presenting the vision of our team and cloud computing directly to clients
- Shaping the culture of the technical team and aligning towards company goals
- Mentoring and coaching technical consultants in their professional development
- Development and roll-out of best practice technical and engagement methodologies
- Creating a system to select, train and develop industry leading talent
- Providing support to your team in client engagements
- Acting as a technical escalation point
- Personal management including goal setting and monitoring

Key Accomplishments:
- Grew AWS professional services business by 138%
- Established capabilities structure within AWS consulting business, including Cloud Migrations, DevOps, Big Data, and Cloud Architecture; exited 2016 with 20 headcount versus 9 for 2015 (122% increase).
- Developed and launched offers aligned to services capabilities, including Discovery-Design, Migration, Data Warehouse and Data Lake, Well Architected, Operational Wellness, and CI/CD
- Exceeded 2016 goal of 100 AWS certifications, growing from 38 in 2015
- Implemented key Human Resources practices - talent acquisition, on-boarding, professional development, and employee benefits
- Developed relationships with key business partners, including AWS professional services

CorpInfo

Director of Professional Services

As a key leader of the business development and sales management team, John Akerboom ensures success in the building and migration of applications, software, and services on the AWS platform. John is responsible for hiring, on-boarding, training, and developing Solutions Architects from internal and external sources who support the Americas Enterprise business.
The team is responsible for building deep relationships with senior technical individuals within customer accounts to enable them to be “Cloud advocates”. Furthermore, the team educates customers of all sizes on the value proposition of AWS, and participates in deep architectural discussions to ensure solutions are designed for successful deployment and operation in the cloud. 
John and his leadership team coach Solutions Architects in the skills needed to conduct one-to-few and one-to-many knowledge transfers to further enable customers who are considering or currently using AWS. The team captures and shares best-practice knowledge amongst the AWS solution architect community, and guide and motivate the development of whitepapers, data sheets, and other high leverage customer-facing guidance and best practices. Finally, the Enterprise SA team acts as a technical conduit and liaison between customers, service engineering teams and support.

Key Accomplishments:
Developed the technical and sales acumen required to support the Americas Enterprise business of $518M (108% attainment).
Grew the team from 32 (SAs and Managers) to 94.
Established a self-service skills inventory to support greater visibility of strength and gaps. This data was used by the field to "find an expert" and to better training and hiring activities.
Codified the roles and responsibilities, and engagement methodology for the SA and Professional Services teams in the Americas.
Achieved 65% SA attach to closed-won opportunities as measured by Salesforce.com.

Amazon Web Services

Leader, Americas Enterprise Solutions Architecture

Responsible for developing the technical acumen required to drive $350M in customer experience solution sales. Aligned a team of Solution Architects against key business initiatives in order to drive customer adoption of next-generation collaboration and customer experience solutions. Facilitated ongoing business unit interlock to ensure roadmap alignment with customer needs and a business plan based on market conditions and customer feedback. Provided customer insight and feedback on future Avaya collaboration and customer experience solutions. Obtained funding to implement an innovation and proof-on-concept lab to enable greater hands-on knowledge and the means to demonstrate new and innovative approaches to customer experience to customers. Ensured account alignment with an assigned area sales vice president. Implemented a process to reduce collaborative roadblocks and enable the smooth exchange of information between the sales organization and implementation services.

Director Solutions Architecture

Part of a team responsible for driving $192M in collaboration and customer experience solution sales. Lead architect for several strategic customer engagements, including Wells Fargo, UBS, and AAA. Developed reference architectures on a global basis for assigned strategic accounts. Successfully oversaw the implementation of two complex customer proof-on-concept deployments. Provided technical leadership and coordination of Avaya's targeted business solutions. Created strategic business plans in new and existing verticals to promote continued account penetration and customer satisfaction with a multi-year focus. Developed high-level executive relationships within the business and system integrator communities. Created several sets of sales blueprint documents that focused on emerging architectures and paradigms.

Solutions Architect

Provided deep technical expertise in the areas of IP telephony and collaboration for a targeted set of strategic customers. Created and demonstrated lab and proof-of-concept solution deployments for large enterprise customers. Created several best-practice white-papers in the areas of IP telephony, business continuity, and performance.