Summary


Senior Technology and Business Executive
Consumer Goods Industry
Highly accomplished executive with a successful career creating vision, identifying opportunities and delivering strong revenues and profits in highly competitive markets for Le Gourmet Chef, Kitchen Collection and Herman s Sporting Goods. Proven ability to understand business needs and strategize profitable executions to enable business growth.
Change agent with strong innovation, transformation and turnaround leadership. Skilled in building, integrating, optimizing and expanding enterprise technologies, teams, operations and processes to reduce costs, increase market share, enhance employee or customer satisfaction and improve time-to-market.
Natural team leader with proven ability to motivate, energize and lead to success. Strength in staffing, coaching, motivating and guiding teams sharing common vision and goals.
Core Competencies
Aligning technology investments and operational strategies with business goals to drive continued competitive growth.
Applying technology, process and people to bring about operational transformation in complex business environments.
Negotiating profitable contracts with vendors to achieve economy of scale and minimize overall operating costs.
Building and enhancing IT, Replenishment, Allocation, Merchandising, Distribution or Logistics and Store operations.



Employment

2007 -  April, 2009
Chief Information Officer

Recruited to define technology vision and roadmap ; integrate disparate systems and teams ; and introduce technologies and best practices to enhance overall operations for this leading charitable funder and advocate of juvenile diabetes research.
Provided leadership and framework to identify organizational needs and resolve critical issues. Oversaw the evaluation, recommendation and rollout of technical, operational and process improvement solutions to meet evolving organizational goals. Guided teams in designing, implementing and supporting key systems, applications, processes, tools and infrastructure to automate and integrate core business operations. Held complete accountability for team of 24 through 3 direct reports supporting 600 employees nationwide across 100 locations and budgets of up to $6 million.
Leadership and Strategy

Established organization s technical strategy and direction ; realigned and strengthen teams ; created clear goals and responsibilities ; and built a high-performance team recognized for outstanding customer service.
Initiated a major cost reduction effort to eliminate redundancy and increase economy of scale. Negotiated national telecommunications contract with new vendor, reducing local voice services costs by 50%. Renegotiated broadband, messaging hosting, disaster recovery and audio conferencing service contracts, capturing $400K in yearly savings.
Created Business Continuity plan ; defined data security policies and procedures ; and standardized application development, network administration and technical support processes, increasing efficiency while minimizing risks.
Technology and Business Solutions
Spearheaded the launch of Juvenation. org social networking site in 3 months, an interactive portal for teens with Type 1 diabetes to connect with their peers and receive relevant information and advice on managing their disease.

Directed the evaluation, selection and customization of Personify membership technology platform across the enterprise to replace 3 disparate applications while providing more robust functionality and lowering yearly costs by $300K Partnered with vendor to develop and integrate new event management module into the base product and negotiated 20% royalty package for future sale of the module, enabling the capture of additional operating revenues.
Introduced low-cost, online file sharing and workgroup collaboration platform leveraging MS SharePoint and WebEx or Adobe Connect conferencing tools, increasing efficiency and capability.
Managed the rollout of Oracle HRIS and iExpense systems, automating manually intensive processes ; and development and implementation of Type 1 diabetes clinical trials search registry.

1998 -  2007
LE GOURMET CHEF

Built an impressive record of achievements through a series of increasingly responsible positions for these specialty retailers providing packaged gourmet foods, professional grade cookware and cutlery and decorative home products and serveware.

2001 -  2007
Chief Information Officer

Promoted by new CEO to strengthen Information Technology, Merchandising, Replenishment or Allocation, Distribution and Logistics operations as company grew from 20 to 80 stores and launched eCommerce business.
Scope of accountability spanned strategic planning, team development, vendor relations, program design and launch, productivity and efficiency improvement and cost reduction. Introduced effective technologies, processes and programs to drive continued revenue and market growth. Managed team of 22 and third-party distribution facility and logistics vendors.
Leadership and Strategy
Championed a complete transformation of warehouse distribution operations, doubling throughput while maintaining operating costs. Oversaw the reconfiguration of fixtures to meet product assortment, implemented cross-docking process and installed conveyor systems, reducing distribution costs from 5% of sales to 3% and cost per carton from $5 to $2.25
restructured disparate Replenishment and Buying Departments into integrated teams, enhancing overall collaboration, eliminating turnover and contributing to increasing sales between 10 - 20% in 1 year.
Managed the successful relocation of distribution center from New Jersey to South Carolina in 3 months, reducing distribution costs by 22% ; and identified space, negotiated lease and orchestrated the relocation of corporate offices.

Designed New Store Opening process and associated technologies, enabling the opening of new stores in 2 weeks of receiving Certificate of Occupancy. Strategy enabled organization to expand from 20 to 80 stores in 5 years.
Established new Gift Basket Assembly process in the distribution center, increasing gift basket sales by 50%.
Technology and Business Solutions
Led the continuous design and implementation of major enhancements into Automatic Allocation or Replenishment system to support New Store Opening and Gift Basket Assembly processes.
Managed the creation and launch of eCommerce site to capture new revenue stream. Partnered with vendors to introduce Gift Card and Loyalty Club programs into eBusiness site to enhance customer retention.
Contributed to converting and integrating systems in response to acquisition by the Kitchen Collection.

1998 -  2001
Chief Information Officer

Brought on to establish a dedicated IT Department and drive the rollout of emerging technologies to replace legacy systems and support rapid business growth nationally.
Built and led team of 4 in designing, developing, implementing and supporting core business applications, interfaces and analytics to enhance decision-making. Planned, tracked and monitored all aspects of projects ; and resolved all issues.
Leadership and Strategy
Recognized as 1 of the Top 10 CIO s of the Year in 2000 by RetailTech Magazine for defining technology roadmap and strategy and implementing processes, applications and services to support growth from 9 stores to 20 in 2 years.

Pivotal role in integrating and automating all aspects of supply chain operations ; and building organization s 1st warehouse or distribution center, reducing total operating costs while increasing sales.
Project managed the relocation of distribution center from Linden, NJ to third-party logistics company in Edison, NJ. Planned and led the integration of existing Automatic Allocation or Replenishment system with partner s Picking system.
Technology and Business Solutions
Managed the migration of legacy retail system from VMS to AIX platform to ensure Y2K compliancy. Drove the development, implementation and integration of new Automatic Allocation or Replenishment system with Retail system, achieving double-digit comparative sales while reducing merchandising payroll costs by 30% in 1st year.

Led the creation of a custom Data Warehouse and Reporting system for all key business data, enabling leadership and business teams to generate reports to desired level of summary or detail.
Oversaw the build out of EDI platform to ensure optimal integration and information access with 200 suppliers ; and rollout of VPN communication links between corporate and remote offices, retail outlets and suppliers.

1996 -  1998
Vice President

Chosen to manage team in developing new and enhancing existing applications for the Benefits Services business providing 401K profit sharing, pension and stock option administration services to Fortune 500 businesses.
Held complete responsibility for team of 40 in the full life cycle design, development, implementation and supporting of revenue-generating applications.
Technology and Business Solutions
Led the design and rollout of centralized dashboard application to enable Customer Service teams to access key client and account data through a single interface.
Based upon success, requested by leadership to define turnaround strategy for 2 - year behind Defined Benefits system development effort. Built and led cross-functional team of 20 in delivering a prototype of multi-tiered application to enable Marketing Teams to introduce new service to clients. Managed the subsequent development and rollout of full system in 4 months.

1984 -  1996

1994 -  1996
Vice President

1987 -  1990
Manager

Education

Miscellaneous

Fast-track promotions through a dedicated 12 - year career with this $800 million sporting goods retail chain with over 300 stores nationwide. Promoted to highest technical position based on consistent contributions to technology advancement, process improvement and profitable business growth.
Technology and Business Solutions
As Manager of Merchandising and Distribution Systems, designed and implemented an Automatic Replenishment system, increasing overall in-stock position while reducing dedicated resources in the Allocation or Replenishment Department by 80%. Additionally, rolled out a custom Warehouse Distribution system, reducing overall costs by 50%.
As MIS Director, conceptualized, gained approval and led all efforts to migrate legacy infrastructure to client-server environment ; and oversaw the outsourcing IBM Mainframe support operations to partner, reducing annual costs by $5 million. Managed the deployment of custom Warehouse Conveyor Scanning and Pallet Scanning or Mobile Pick and Pack Systems and replacement of fixed scanning stations with RF Portable Data Terminals PDT, improving distribution turnaround time by 3 days while reducing annual distribution costs by $500K
As Vice President of Systems and Technology, drove a major standardization of applications leveraging PowerBuilder and Sql Server platforms. Led the complete rewrite of Automated Allocation or Replenishment system ; and design of new Data Warehouse, Attribute Maintenance, General Ledger and Accounts Payable systems supporting 300 retail stores.
Previous experience as Senior Programmer Analyst for Worthington Pump ; Programmer Analyst for Mayfair Supermarkets ; and Branch Manager for Raritan Savings Bank **
Associates of Applied Science in Banking or Business Management
RARITAN VALLEY COLLEGE
Diploma in Application Programming and Design
CHUBB INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY
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Charles J. LaPlaca Page 3
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