Russell F. Holt

Extremely technical system architect / developer who has built entire transaction -based systems in production at banks including Bank of America, First USA, and The Northern Trust. Knowledge of all aspects of web development - having built from scratch most of the components in use today.

Experience

Since 2000 I have been a stay-at-home Dad, but I continued to work on independent projects, for the iPhone/iPad, and including small web design projects for friends (Horizons Montessori School, Anne Consults, Packing House Center for the Arts) and co-founding a company.

2005 - 2007: co-founder/architect, Cuts.com

Concieved and co-founded Cuts.com which enabled legal, real-time editing of protected commercial DVDs by consumers and sharing of edits in the form of scripts to a software DVD player. Launched at DEMO, sold to RiffTrax.

1994-2000 Destiny Software / Destiny WebSolutions

Destiny was a venture capital-backed startup that built online financial systems for top 20 banks.

1999-2000 WebCycle team

proposed that Destiny's consulting approach, WebCycle, be conceived and organized as a 'pattern language'
articulated this vision through writing and meeting with project teams, backed by technology demos
created a web application, the pattern server, to facilitate pattern access, definition and review (in Java)
released the pattern server's XML parser as a separate freeware project, hexml, as part of a larger open source plan
published a paper Pattern Languages in Practice in the Cutter IT Journal about WebCycle

1997-1998 Chief Architect

architected a scalable distributed network architecture for Granite Foundation, successfully deployed to several bank clients.
created a high level dynamic C++ library featuring smart pointers, garbage collection, serialization, improved templating language and code generation tools
created a tool to transform a web application prototype (hundreds of HTML files) into a working app framework
wrote extensive, detailed programming documentation
worked closely with application development teams in an open space environment for rapid education and bug fixing
granite Foundation 2.1 was used to build a giant wealth management system for The Northern Trust

1996-1997 Lead Developer

redesigned and reimplemented the Granite Foundation app server from the ground up
wrote RSL2 as a fully OO web application language, implemented in C++ using gnu tools to provide better RSL to C++ integration. Supported shared libraries, code generation, application versioning
granite Foundation 2 deployed to First USA and The Northern Trust
interviewed job candidates (including one hearing-impaired person) and participated in hiring decisions

1995-1996 Bank of America HomeBanking under AOL

the key technical person on a distributed team of up to 5 developers
created the application server Granite Foundation and its application development language RSL, which powered BofA's AOL HomeBanking from 1996 to 1999.
extended Granite Foundation to support web applications from the same application code base

1995 first employee at Destiny Software

established the technical direction for Destiny
developed a web server in C++ that ran Destiny's website for almost three years
managed all the startup company necessities: server admin, sendmail config, backups, upgrades, security (tripwire, skey), web site design & maintenance
relocated from Purdue U. to Elverson, PA (precisely in the middle of nowhere) sight unseen, and worked from the founder's basement for 2 years

1994 Oct-Dec

offsite consultant to Destiny (while at Purdue University)
developed CGI application in C to manage and serve a flat-file database; installed and configured NCSA web server for Destiny's client

Skills

11+ years of professional software development, 25+ years of programming experience, self taught and motivated early on. Experience in the design, implementation, and use of all aspects of web development from web servers to programming languages and template systems. Able to present and speak to groups.

Software Architect