CHARLES D.

RIDLON
San Francisco, CA 415.680.6814 charlie.ridlon@gmail.com

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LEADER
Dynamic, qualified, and highly skilled Information Technology Leader with more than 20 years of extensive
experience in Information Technology. Skilled in building enduring relationships with business partners.
Strong project management capabilities and ability to efficiently manage multimillion dollar budgets. Expert
in analyzing procedures and systems; and in gathering pertinent data needed to propose effective products
and develop creative strategies to achieve and exceed business goals. Experienced in developing process
improvements that streamline workflow, reduce costs, and increase company revenue. Accomplished in
managing change, risk, implementation, vendor relationships, and product testing. Articulate speaker with
demonstrated ability to present complex information to a diverse audience in easy to understand terms.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE





Strategic Planning
Client Relationships
Excellent Collaborator
Business & Systems Analysis
Project Management
Consensus Builder
Process Improvement
Budget Management
Customer Service
Team Building
Vendor Management
Company Presentations
TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE

Simultaneously managed multiple complex and mission critical projects throughout the complete life-
cycle of applications development within strict time and budget constraints.
Supported a wide range of business functions throughout the firm including but not limited to trading,
mutual funds, cashiering, retail branches, insurance, marketing, payroll, and disaster recovery of
internally developed and third party systems that were internal, customer-facing, and street-facing.
Led organizations of up to 30 multi-level employees and contractors including Senior Managers, Project
Managers, and Developers; managed multimillion dollar budgets in excess of $10 Million.
Prepared and delivered insightful and informative presentations for a wide range of audiences including
IT Staff, IT Management, Business Partners, Vendors, and C-Level Executives.
Explored possible business opportunities and joint development ventures in support of the firms entry
into online trading. As a result, Charles Schwab was the first brokerage firm to have online trading
available to customers.
Successfully directed extensive analysis and engineering of technical infrastructure and applications
software that led to reduced processing time as well as reduced production support calls.
Key Accomplishments:
Led the team that increased assets by $40 Million in only 3 months through the development of a flexible
electronic funds transfer application.
Improved competitive positioning of customer asset accounts which led to increased assets by
implementing an account structure to separate investing assets from payment assets.
Successfully launched new retirement and education savings accounts, which attracted more clients,
under short timeframes during heavy regulatory fluctuation.
Reduced costs through transferring 99% of stock and mutual funds quotes from live operators to
electronic channels, saving thousands of company dollars.
Significantly lowered company financial loss exposure during market hours outages by adding mutual
funds trading at a backup datacenter.
Promoted multiple times while employed with Charles Schwab, started as a Senior Systems Engineer in
1992, promoted to Associate Manager in 1993, promoted to Manager in 1994, promoted to Senior Manager
in 1995 and then in 1996, was promoted to Managing Director due to professional work ethic and ability to
exceed goals and expectations consistently.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT EXPERIENCE

Evaluated existing business requirements, elicitation, and management practices as well as the systems
development life cycle; documented findings and recommended improvements.
CHARLES D. RIDLON Resume, Page 2

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT EXPERIENCE (CONTINUED)

Researched, discovered, and evaluated requirements management software tools in order to gain
efficiencies, to improve accuracy of software development, to reduce the number of defects in production
and to give business owners greater visibility in project progress.
Partnered with vendors to coordinate remote and on-site informative demonstrations and working sessions
for IT Personnel and business stakeholders.
Key Accomplishments:
Selected software products that ensured all requirements were elicited saving costs by eliminating
missing, inconsistent and incorrect requirements, resulting in identifying defects earlier in the lifecycle.
Implemented requirements management product into production environment including but not limited to
configuration, integration with development environments, and start of rollout to business analysts,
business systems analysts, development team, quality assurance, and business stakeholders.
Collaborated with Quality Assurance in the integration of the requirements management product into
testing processes to obtain forward and backward traceability from goals through requirements and from
testing to defects analysis, ensuring that every requirement was tested thoroughly.
Designed and coordinated training for over 100 employees on best practices for requirements, elicitation,
and management, software training, introduction to Use Cases and other tools.

SALES EXPERIENCE

Assisted clients in achieving their financial goals through preparation of effective investment strategies;
offered financially sound advice and educated clients on viable options.
Constantly maintained knowledge of current trends and products through reviewing internal and third
party financial reports, stock and bond reports, and business publications.
Monitored investment portfolios frequently to ensure maximum performance; tracked results and made
adjustments as needed in a timely manner; and prepared client reviews of portfolio positions.
Represented clients in the purchase, sale, and rental of residential and commercial real estate which
included advising clients on market conditions, prices, mortgages, and legal requirements.
Facilitated in closing transactions through reviewing internal and third-coordination of escrow companies,
lenders, home and pest inspectors, and by attending closing procedures to oversee document signing and
disbursement of funds.

WORK HISTORY

ESURANCE, IT CONSULTANT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 2013 2014
WELLS FARGO ADVISORS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR, RANCHO MIRAGE, CA, 2007 2010
ZEPHYR REAL ESTATE, SALES ASSOCIATE/BROKER, SAN FRANCISCO/PALM SPRINGS, CA, 1999-2007
CHARLES SCHWAB, MANAGING DIRECTOR, IT, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, 1992-1999
Additional professional experience as a Programmer/Analyst, University of California, Oakland, CA, 1989-
1992; Systems Programmer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Portland, ME, 1987-1988; Senior Programmer/Analyst,
UNUM Insurance, Portland, ME, 1985-1986; and Programmer/Analyst/Project Leader, Blue Cross Blue Shield,
Portland, ME, 1979-1985.

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATION

Bachelor of Science Degree, Business Administration, Summa Cum Laude, University of Southern Maine,
Portland, ME
Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC), College of Financial Planning