Stew Sutton leads the enterprise-wide Knowledge Management program for The Aerospace Corporation. He is accountable for both technology validation and process changes for improving collaboration and stewardship within the enterprise. The Aerospace Corporation is recognized as one of the five best organizations in the world for knowledge retention and transfer by APQC.
Stew also co-founded the Southern California Knowledge Management Exchange. The SoCal KM Exchange is a cross-organization collaborative of industry and academic practitioners who are shaping the knowledge management discipline through free exchange of best practices.
Week in the life...
Stew is fortunate to be employed by a company that values diversity, creativity, initiative, and passion for strategic forecasting. In a typical week, Stew will collaborate with his faculty friends at multiple Southern California universities to review leading-edge research, he will coordinate with multiple development teams experimenting with and adapting new technologies for KM. There are internal projects and initiatives that require coordination and facilitation including the knowledge management council, and providing guidance for multiple internal communities of practice. New technology experimentation is typically a key part of the week. Tech experiments are directed at solutions that are 3-5 years in the future. In 2004, a major experiment was Second Life addressing high-fidelity cross-geography multi-participant design and simulation. The "before the buzz" initiative also included an internal copy of the technology for technical review and analysis. In 2007 the technologies undergoing internal review prior to an organizational clinical trial include construction of internal social networking applications and the application of pen computers and paper for efficient knowledge capture.
Specialties:
Research and development, professional publishing, teaching, staff mentorship, leading cross-organizational teams, integrating the collective wisdom of diverse groups, refining and adapting technology for cultural fit, coordinating and evolving collaboration and stewardship solutions within a highly technical workforce.
Experience
Principal Scientist for Knowledge Management
The Aerospace Corporation - El Segundo, CA
(Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Defense & Space Industry)
September 2002 – Present (5 years)
Knowledge Management leader for the corporation. Director of the Knowledge Management Office, Lead for the Knowledge Management Subcouncil, and Knowledge Management Community of Practice. Overseeing technology and process evolution supporting improvements to knowledge retention and transfer among corporate staff.
Senior Manager
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young - Irvine, CA
(Privately Held; 5001-10,000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
July 2000 – September 2002 (2 years 3 months)
Ernst & Young Accelerated Development Center in Irvine, CA
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Principal author of enterprise access architecture for a major managed care provider. This definition included formulation of business patterns / use cases to articulate architecture priorities within the enterprise, templates for ongoing business patterns formulation, a detailed technology / standards roadmap, and a structured process for enterprise technology standards refinement.
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Led the R&D effort to prove out a fully automated solution to enhance speed of service and order accuracy for TRICON's fast-serve food industry operations by integrating a combination of adaptive technologies including Linux-based appliances, voice synthesis, speaker-independent voice recognition, and 2-way wireless audio.
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Led the technical architecture assessment of a major Japanese auto manufacturer
CTO
Magellan Software / Gauss Interprise AG - Irvine, CA
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)
January 2000 – August 2000 ( 8 months)
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As CTO for Magellan Software prior to its acquisition by Gauss Interprise AG of Germany (and eventually OpenText). Product development modernization efforts included: massive adjustments to accommodate multi-platform (Win NT/2000, Solaris, HP-UX, Linux, etc.) quality assurance (addressing unit and integration testing modes spanning performance, usability, compatibility, functional, and regression)
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UML-based training for staff and design process standardization, application server compatibility planning and migration planning, and standardizing the software development environment including source code control, defect tracking, and developer information exchange.
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Duties included setting and managing project development schedules, selection of standard UML design environments, formulation of a common Java and EJB development environment linking in-house and external development staff.
CTO
Exist - Santa Monica, CA
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)
December 1999 – July 2000 ( 8 months)
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As CTO of a B2B exchange was responsible for overall technology planning and management. Coordinated rapid staffing and team integration (from 1 to 20 FTE) of high-demand technology professionals in less than one quarter. Specified and managed deployment of a massively scaleable and richly appointed B-B information architecture.
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Oversaw a east-to-west coast data center migration. Specification and deployment of a scaleable unitized testing architecture within a high-bandwidth data center for integration and performance testing. Development of a 30+ server scaleable 24/7 operations architecture to host multiple database, app server, and EJB components.
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Management of multiple offshore development resources working in conjunction with in-house development staff to meet an aggressive quarterly development, test, and integration schedule. Directed an outsourced QA program for independent testing and certification of functionality, compatibility, regression and performance-based testing.
Regional Manager
Data Dimensions - El Segundo, CA
(Privately Held; 501-1000 employees; Computer Software industry)
July 1998 – December 1999 (1 year 6 months)
Senior Technologist for software testing services and eBusiness infrastructure development. Oversaw software performance and load testing, Dynamic web applications development and operational infrastructure for early-stage “dot-com” startups.
Regional Manager
SAIC Center for Information Security Technology - San Diego, CA
(Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Computer & Network Security industry)
September 1996 – August 1998 (2 years)
Regional manager for information security-based managed service offerings addressing healthcare, financial services, and high technology market segments; Project Manager for multiple information security and enterprise risk assessments; ISO-9000 Coordinator.
Director of Technology
Intercare - Irvine, CA
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Hospital & Health Care industry)
July 1995 – September 1996 (1 year 3 months)
Chief architect for a distance education system serving the healthcare industry -- responsibilities as Information Technology Operations Manager included overseeing manufacturing of custom multimedia hardware; specification and design of product interface to medical devices; coordinating production of interactive programs for multiple clients; and architecture of corporate web and Internet-based information exchange services and electronic messaging services
President
Digital Tribe, Inc. - Irvine, CA
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology Research)
March 1994– (13 years 5 months)
Founder of digital media publishing company - authored Zoobooks Animazing Adventures CD-ROM based on the popular Zoobooks monthly publication for children ages 6-12. Developed a 3D Video Capture System for virtual tours. Authored multiple small business websites and consulted information systems architectures for small businesses.
Manager
The Aerospace Corporation - El Segundo, CA
(Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Aviation & Aerospace industry)
July 1985 – July 1995 (10 years 1 month)
In support of a Federally Funded Research and Development Center, multiple roles included: Founder and Mgr of a corporate media lab providing multimedia and content production services; Manager of corporate Internet-hosted computer based training and education applications; Industrial Facilitator for education network linking multiple California universities; Principal Investigator of neural networks, expert systems, and multimedia and Internet/Web; Director of multiple research programs building automated decision support systems; Project Manager for expert system based trend processor for satellite maintenance environment; Senior staff architect for computing infrastructure modernization projects serving multiple satellite data communications systems
R&D Manager
Ford Aerospace
(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Aviation & Aerospace industry)
January 1982 – July 1985 (3 years 7 months)
Research and development engineer of client-server test software for control center data network; Design architect for high-performance, redundant computer network for workstation-based data processing; Lead hardware testing and inspection engineer for custom-built telemetry data processing systems; Systems engineer for design architectures developed in support of new business.
Education
- University of Houston-Clear Lake - 1982 – 1985 MS Computer Science and Engineering
- University of Houston-Clear Lake - 1978 – 1982 B.S. Electro Optical Science & Physics
Graduate with honors: Magna Cum Laude
Publications / Presentations
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1984 Conference Paper: NASA JSC Technology Conference, Houston, TX – Multi-Net - A High-speed Telemetry Data Network Built From Multiple Ethernet Trunks
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1986 Conference Paper: International Neural Network Conference, San Diego, CA – A Hybrid Expert System and Neural Method for Real-time Control Applications
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1987 Conference Paper: International Neural Network Conference – A Multi-Algorithm Neural Network Simulator
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1988 Conference Paper: International Telemetry Conference – An Integrated Decision Support Environment for Satellite Control
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1989 Conference Paper: International Telemetry Conference – A Telemetry-driven Interactive Instructional Guide for Satellite Control
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1995 K-6 Education Publication: Zoobooks Interactive – A Hybrid CD-ROM learning series for K-6
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1999 White paper: 5 Steps to e-Business Readiness