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Mark Steven Katsouros(717) 746-6275 (Google Voice)Email: mark@katsouros.comWeb: http://work.katsouros.com, s.comHIGH-LEVEL SUMMARY OF ACHIEVMENT Worked four jobs simultaneously while attending college (Computer Science),often full-time, and graduated debt-free. Founded several businesses focused on IT consulting (MicroBrains andVisionary Automation Logic / TechnologyHeroes.com); served as ChiefTechnology Officer and Interim Chief Executive Officer for a Maryland dotcom startup specializing in patent-pending, phonetic-transcription-based,search engine technology (Hang40/Fo-net’ikTM); and aided my brother infounding Matthewmatics.net, a Maryland-based mathematics tutoringbusiness. Developed keen business acumen along the way. Designed and developed some of the nation’s first software applications thatutilized speaker-independent speech recognition as the primary user interface,and ultimately licensed that technology to AT&T. Selected by the (Bill) Clinton Administration to design, develop, andimplement public opinion polling software for the White House, which wasutilized during President Clinton’s first State of the Union Address andbeyond. Was the first administrative employee at the University of Maryland to benamed the Graduate Studies and Research Outstanding Inventor of theYear. NACUBO/USX Cost Reduction Incentive Award winner. Designed and managed the development of the University of Maryland’snetwork monitoring software, including its communications architecture,which was eventually realized as a suite of commercial products and licensedto Cabletron Systems, Inc. Chaired many national consortia in the areas of communications technologies,data networking, and leadership. Recognized as a national expert on communications technology andemergency communications management. Many years of experience in directly managing / being responsible for anannual IT budget of 12-16 million dollars.Page 1 of 27
Highly published on IT topics, including communications technology,emergency communications management, institutional collaboration, ITleadership, mobile application development, and IT service management.30-plus years of experience working in higher-education IT (mostly inleadership roles), spanning three large research universities, and thusdeveloped a broad awareness of how to effectively and efficiently deliver ITto such constituents.Designed, developed, and implemented the University of Iowa’s Hawk Alertsystem for broad emergency notification on campus, including attributedesign, backend processing/architecture, marketing, policy and proceduredefinition, training, and so on. (This was seen as a model by ENSimplementers across the country.)Fostered LAN convergence, consolidation, and virtualization, and thestrategic move towards a completely wireless user edge (sans big-dataresearch, for which I led our grant-funded-research-network implementation),at Penn State, to increase cost savings, resource utilization, and serviceeffectiveness and flexibility.Developed formal change management processes, service request fulfillmentworkflow, data stewardship practices, project and portfolio managementstandards, and the telecommunications service catalog, which dramaticallyimproved my unit’s effectiveness and efficiency.Co-authored a thought piece that ultimately led to Penn State’s ITTransformation Program, towards formalizing IT service management(portfolio and resource management) for all of Penn State IT.Presently involved in a Pennsylvania dot-com startup, CommunityVines.com,focusing on community development, commerce, and social responsibility.2014 “Keeping It Positive” Information Technology Services Award winnerfor fostering a positive and productive work environment.I’m always hungry for victory—for myself, my team, my institution, and mycustomers—and I’ll run through walls to achieve it.CAREER ASPIRATIONSNew opportunities in leadership that will enable me to continue utilizing andexpanding my analytical, managerial, marketing, problem-solving, budgeting, andproject management experience and skills, as well as my strong interpersonalskills. I also hope to apply my extensive knowledge ofcollaboration/communication systems integration, design, and development, andof enterprise IT services in general. In essence, I’m an energetic individuallooking for the best opportunity to be truly relevant, grow, and make a difference.I consider myself to be a solid leader who (1) keeps cool under pressure, (2)clearly explains missions, standards, and priorities, (3) sees the big picture, andprovides context and perspective, (4) makes tough, sound decisions on time, (5)adapts quickly to new situations, (6) sets a high ethical tone, and (7) is positive,encouraging, and realistically optimistic. My ultimate career aspiration is tocontinue demonstrating these qualities, as well as my technical competence andhawk-like focus, to tackle new challenges and change the world for the better.Page 2 of 27
EDUCATION Penn State Excellence in Executive Management, a six-week (48-hour)certificate program for senior IT leaders at Penn State, Penn State University.(January 2016 – February 2016) Various ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) and ITSM (IT Service Management)courses. (June 2011 – May 2013) MOR Associates Senior IT Leaders Program, a nine-month (64-hour)certificate program for senior IT leaders in higher education, Dallas,Boston/MIT, University of Minnesota, and Indiana University. (February2008 – October 2008) Leadership Development Institute, Foundations of Leadership, a ten-week(107-hour) certificate program for effective University leadership, Universityof Maryland, College Park. (September 2003 – December 2003) Postgraduate studies (6 credits) in advanced Computer and InformationScience at the University of Maryland, University College. (February 2000 –December 2000) Postgraduate studies (13 credits) towards Cross-Disciplinary M.S. inE.E./Telecommunications from the University of Maryland, College Park.(September 1996 - December 1997) B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.(December 1988)PROFESSIONAL HISTORYDuquesne University, Computing and Technology Services(CTS), Pittsburgh, PAJanuary 2021 to PresentDirector, IT Support Services (ITSS)Summary: Report directly to the VP for IT and CIO as a member of the CTSLeadership Team. Responsible for implementing and overseeing the ITSS directorate withinCTS, Duquesne University’s central IT organization.o Help Desk (physical and virtual)o Computer Store (consumers and departments)o Learning Labs (digital classrooms) and Collaboration Commonso Technical Services (deskside support and endpoint operations)o Endpoint Engineering (enterprise configuration and mobilitymanagement) Responsible for developing and implementing an overall IT engagement,service, and support strategy that reflects the values of CTS and DuquesneUniversity. In partnership with the VP for IT and CIO, and the CTS Leadership Team,responsible for cultivating and maintaining excellent relationships withour user community, business partners, and higher education colleagues,utilizing continuous needs assessments, feedback loops, and prioritization.Page 3 of 27
Responsible for leading, supervising, and managing all aspects of assigneddepartmental groups and activities as organized and operated by CTS.Work with CTS leadership, CTS staff, and key university stakeholders toassess, develop, and maintain a comprehensive suite of services thatsupport the Duquesne University user community.Provide leadership in continuing a culture of innovation, and partner withappropriate campus constituencies and vendor partner in developing longrange planning for the suite of services that support the DuquesneUniversity user community.Monitor new developments and current industry best practices andincorporate those as appropriate into the operational management andplanning of the ITSS directorate.In partnership with key university stakeholders, oversee and assist with thedefinition of business and academic requirements (business processmapping, cost-benefit analysis, ROI, TCO, etc), propose solutions, andensure that on-going and proposed projects remain consistent with thelong-term direction of the university’s technology support models. Workwith these stakeholders to analyze potential new services and prioritizeprojects.Encourage innovation in the systems, applications, and services thatsupport the administration, faculty, and students of the university,leveraging current investments while identifying and implementing bestof-breed solutions and current best practices to improve the efficiency andeffectiveness of university operations, including the operations of CTS andthe ITSS directorate. Work with CTS staff and key universitystakeholders to develop solutions with a focus on the customer experience.Liaise with key university stakeholders and CTS team members to ensurethe timely delivery of projects (including meeting estimates of timeframe,cost, and delivery), and assist in issue resolution, risk mitigation, andstatus communication when appropriate. This includes working closelywith various business leaders to ensure effective development andexecution of short- and long-term plans.Lead complex, institution-wide deployments of technology solutions andservices, and assist in determining the most appropriate projectimplementation. Develop, manage, and lead large projects and programsthat support the administrative, educational, and research needs of theUniversity. These efforts require broad resources from across theinstitution and often outside of the University (contractors, vendors, peerinstitutions, and others).Direct resources (staff and outside consultants as needed) in theevaluation, prioritization, implementation, maintenance, replacement, andretirement of IT services. Ensure scalability and accessibility of thoseservices. Create and execute a roadmap for deliverables based onrequirements, projects, and support functions.Page 4 of 27
Participate as a creative, supportive peer in strategic planning and tacticalreporting processes, in addition to specific financial, personnel, project,and service planning activities that occur on an annual basis.Assist in mentoring activities with personnel inside and outside areas ofdirect responsibility.Manage complex, long-term, and dynamic vendor relationships, includingcontract negotiations.Participate in external community outreach and professional activitiesrelated to my field and affected by relevance to key challenges for CTSand/or Duquesne University. Work with external organizations, e.g.,EDUCAUSE, on projects and efforts that enhance the reputation of theuniversity as well as maintain my own proficiency and/or contribute to myown professional development.Oversee groups of technical, operational managers and staff.Lead and supervise managers and professionals, lead and assume responsibilityfor all major financial and personnel decisions in service of the individualmissions of assigned departmental groups and in context of the collective missionof CTS.Lead, manage, and evaluate performance for all members of the ITSS directorate,including highly technically skilled full-time, part-time, and student employees.Ensure delivery of IT infrastructure and services to the university community.Working with the CTS Leadership Team, develop and maintain a sense ofconfidence and trust in CTS across the campus community to include faculty,students, and staff.Oversee and direct an end-user support organization and supporting systems thateffectively and efficiently triages and addresses end-user support needs withspecial sensitivity to our academic mission and institutional strategic goals.Effectively gather and utilize client satisfaction and service-use data to inform thework of CTS.Set and manage expectations, standards, and protocols for problem resolution andescalation; actively monitor and measures service performance.Maintain the CTS service catalog and service level agreements.Communicate on behalf of CTS, including management of the CTS website andvarious newsletters, with a focus on keeping our community informed of ourwork; celebrating the innovative use of technology by faculty, students and staff;maximizing the benefits of our service catalog; and maintaining a clearunderstanding of all IT-related policies and processes.Page 5 of 27
Community Vines, State College, PAFebruary 2013 to PresentExecutive-Level Support and Product DesignProvide executive-level support and product design for a Pennsylvania dot-comstartup focusing on community development, commerce, and social responsibilityvia a community networking platform that supports skills monetization,asynchronous bartering, crowd-sourced causes, and volunteerism. Participated inPenn State University’s Ben Franklin TechCelerator program, formed variouspartnerships, including with a large credit union consortium and Penn State’sexecutive leadership, and presently leveraging the “Invent Penn State” HappyValley LaunchBox, a no-cost business accelerator program with co-working spacein downtown State College. Currently in the product development and earlymarketing phase.The Pennsylvania State University, Enterprise InformationTechnology, Enterprise Networking and CommunicationServices (ENCS), University Park, PA, January 2011 toOctober 2020Director, Network Planning, Service Design, and Voice &VideoOctober 2018 to October 2020Director, Voice & Video (V&V)Summary: Mission-focused unit head responsible for design, development,provisioning, and operational support of all voice and video services (IPtelephony, unified communications, Zoom, video conferencing rooms,video transmission, CA/IPTV, digital signage, video surveillance, etc.)across 23 campuses. Managed annual budget of 9.5 million (operations and capital),including 25,000 VoIP endpoints and hundreds of video rooms across 23campuses (and 67 extension centers), and approximately 30 support staff. Understand enterprise communication services from the ground up. Active in a wide variety of national networking and convergence contexts,often in a leadership role. Effectively communicated up and down the central IT organization, acrossthe institution, with partners and vendors, and within various consortia. Passionate about customer service, employee well-being, creativity andinnovation, proactive planning, operational excellence, process efficiency,and effective communication and execution.Page 6 of 27
Continuously demonstrated a value-focused, data-driven, and humancentered mindset, and a solid “Plan, Do, Check” approach to problemsolving.Head of unit responsible for evaluating, testing, developing,deploying, and supporting new communication andcollaboration applications for University use, and forevolving all voice and video services. V&V’s mission isto (1) Connect Penn Staters to each other and the world;(2) Develop the next generation of communication and collaboration services,including unified communications and collaboration platforms (and tocontinuously evolve them); and(3) Provide unparalleled customer service excellence by making customerfeedback our number-one metric.Led strategic roadmap for voice and video, including unifiedcommunications/messaging (with Cisco Jabber and Office 365), presence, end-toend encryption, voicemail transcription, self-service portals, performanceinstrumentation dashboards, interoperable/cloud-powered videoconferencingrooms, CATV IPTV BYOTV, Vyvx wide-area video transmission, digitalsignage, video surveillance, various collaboration platforms, and more. ZoomService Manager, responsible for all Zoom operations (account/subaccountprovisioning, incident response, white-glove instructional support, and so on).Helped found a national IT mentoring program within the EDUCAUSEecosystem. Presently serving on the Penn State IT mentoring steering committee.January 2011 to October 2018Director, Network Planning & Integration / Service Design & Development(SD&D)Summary: Mission-focused unit head responsible for design and development ofnetworking and telecommunications services available across 23campuses, including the University Enterprise Network that ties all of thevarious local area networks at all of the campuses together, connectingthem to each other, and to the Internet and other national networks. Managed annual budget of 12-14 million (operations and capital),including approximately 30 support staff. Significantly contributed to the institution’s move from having verydecentralized, non-standard, duplicative IT services to a highlycoordinated, ITSM-best-practice-based “One IT.” Service owner of all telecommunication and networking services. Frequently cited and published.Page 7 of 27
Head of unit responsible for evaluating, testing, developing,and deploying new communication underpinnings andcollaboration systems for University use, and for designingexpansions and evolving services. SD&D’s mission is to (1) Connect Penn Staters to each other and the world;(2) Develop the next generation of enterprise networking and communicationservices, including datacenter and cloud services (and to continuouslyevolve them); and(3) Provide technical/engineering (“Tier 4”) support of our productionservices.Cultivated a workplace culture of accountability, transparency, mutual respect,and team success, and provide executive-level support and decision-making to theENCS Administrative Unit as a whole, consisting of approximately 120employees, with a constituency of over 120,000 people (students, faculty, andstaff) across 23 campuses, and to the Associate Vice President and ChiefInformation Officer. Rigorously document policies and guidelines, and set clearexpectations for staff. Garner needed resources, but, more importantly, garnerneeded resourcefulness.Co-chaired the ECAR (EDCUAUSE Center for Applied Research)Communications Infrastructure and Applications Working Groupand Constituent/Community Group, and chaired the Committee onInstitutional Cooperation (a consortium of 15 large researchuniversities, now the Big Ten Academic Alliance) IT NetworkingGroup. Created and led the IT Connects – IT Learns – “Read toLead” program. Served as an IT Mentor for the IT Mentorsprogram. (Participated on the IT Mentors program steering committee, andproviding “mentor training.”) Served on the President’s Commission onRacial/Ethnic Diversity (CORED), and actively participated on its Staff IssuesManagement Team.Was one of the founding members of ITSCollab, a communityof practice around IT leadership, consolidation/deduplication,managing change, resource utilization, and overallorganizational effectiveness and efficiency. Served on thesteering committee. Co-authored a thought piece that ultimatelyled to Penn State’s IT Transformation Program, towardsformalizing IT service management (portfolio and resourcemanagement) for all of Penn State IT. Service Owner of (overall accountabilityfor) the “Telecommunications Services” umbrella, responsible for businessservice strategy, service-specific customer engagement, and being the high-levelpoint of contact.Page 8 of 27
Fostered LAN convergence, consolidation, and virtualization,towards increased cost savings and service flexibility. Participatedin various PSU IT endeavors, from IT strategic planning to serviceextensibility, all towards consolidation and standardization, andultimately “One IT.” Expanded our VoIP service to the rest of thePenn State campuses, providing advanced features, cloud contact centers, selfservice, and unified communications integrated with Microsoft Office 365.Developed formal change management processes, service request fulfillmentworkflow, data stewardship practices, and project and portfolio managementstandards, and performance management feedback loops for self-imp
Various ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) and ITSM (IT Service Management) courses. (June 2011 – May 2013) MOR Associates Senior IT Leaders Program, a nine-month (64-hour) certificate program for senior IT leaders in higher education, Dallas, Boston/MIT, University of Minnesot
