Hassan Syed

Hassan Syed: Bringing People, Ideas, and Solutions together

Hassan Syed: Global Business Executive skilled at aligning business goals, organizational needs and technology to deliver high impact initiatives that facilitate growth. Visionary leader with exceptional record in converting customers, employees and vendors into a network of partners, finding opportunities with an entrepreneurial spirit. Team motivator with keen ability to leverage technical expertise in providing business value through innovative solutions. 26+ years of broad technology experience from IT Infrastructure to Technology Services and from Software Development to Large Scale Deployments. Successful track record of establishing and improving enterprise-wide business processes, both in startup and mature environments, with a focus on efficiency and effectiveness.

Chief Executive Officer at Bir Ventures International

September 2012 - Present | Minneapolis, MN

Executive Director of Resources at Twycross Zoo

April 2011 - September 2012 | Twycross, UK

Direct and manage all financial plans including cash flow and forecasting, ensuring that sufficient funding is in place at all times. Direct IT strategy to ensure appropriate IT is in place to meet organisational needs in a cost effective manner and ensure availability of all business critical applications Lead the development of HR strategy and ensuring HR policies and procedures are implemented. Oversee reporting and monitoring of organizational performance metrics. Lead the preparation of Management Accounting reports and present them to CEO/Trustees/Directorial team. Manage and oversee the human resource function including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, benefits administration, professional training and development, new employee induction, retention strategies, regulatory oversight and legal compliance Oversee risk management and legal activities: letters of agreement, contracts, leases, and other legal documents and agreements

Chief Information Officer at International Species Information System

June 2003 - April 2011

Spearheaded business and technology transformation initiative to improve management of animal population and care in aquariums and zoos worldwide. This initiative – Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) realizes the vision that fundamentally changes how aquariums and zoos manage animal populations worldwide and improve lives of animals in their care. ZIMS is currently in use by 50+ aquariums and zoos worldwide. ZIMS is Software as a Service (SaaS) based product using Microsoft Stack, providing one, single, real-time, animal record on the web. ZIMS Release 1.0 was developed with an investment of ~$5M, valued at $19M by a third party assessment of total earned value.

IT Manager at Toronto Zoo

July 2002 - June 2003

Initiated Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) program and introduced the business concept to the executive management. Prepared business cases with ROI projections and secured funding from the City of Toronto for the Project.

Vice President / CIO at Xentek Corporation

October 1996 - April 2002

Radically transformed Xentek by adopting best project management and software development practices. This restructuring helped improve repeat business from existing customers and referrals from clients. The services revenue grew from CAD$500K to $4.5M in four years

Client Server Specialist at Kellogg Company

August 1995 - September 1996

Initiated and developed once a day automated backup solution for hundreds of laptop users across Canada which resulted in better disaster recovery and reduced data losses for the users. Initiated network storage analysis tool to maximize the server storage investment.

IT Manager at Hempel A/S

October 1992 - July 1995

Led development and enhancement of Quotation, Sales Order Processing (SOP), Bill of Materials (BOM), Material Requirement Planning (MRP), Production and Inventory Modules of Hempel Information Management System and its integration with accounting software which resulted in operational efficiencies throughout the organization.

Business Systems Analyst at Softek W.L.L.

December 1991 - September 1992

IT Manager at Sind Agriculture Development Association

March 1991 - August 1991

Led the implementation of a hospital management system project and successfully implemented it ahead of schedule.

IT Manager at Abbas Bhai Sons

October 1989 - March 1991

Led development of the computer financial model ($340M) for a Thermal Power Generation Unit. In-sourcing of this initiative helped saving more than $1M in consulting services.

Developer and System Analyst at Fateh Group

1986 - 1989

Initiated and developed remote print and job queuing on different VAX/VMS servers which distributed the workload on multiple machines. This initiative saved an investment of $0.5M in VMS Cluster.

University of Sindh

1985 – 1991

BSc

Hyderabad Institute of Computer Science

1984 – 1988

Government Collage Hyderabad

Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences

Mehran University of Engineering and Technology Jamshoro

Technology Innovation, Technology Startup, Software Development, Infrastructure Design, Knowledge Management, Partnership Building, Vendor Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, Team Building, Operational Efficiency, Business Strategy and Planning