Supplement to Jon Strong's CV / resume - highlights Innovation and Value Creation across Jon's career in roles from developer through CIO, CTO and executive consultant

1. Jonathan Strong
A pattern of innovation
A history of successful outcomes

2. Preface
• This is a supplement to Jonathan Strong’s résumé, with a focus on the role
of Innovation in leadership in general and across Jon’s career.

3. Considerations when bringing in an Innovator
• Why Innovate in the first place?
• Status quo yields predictable results – nothing new here
• New concepts and practices offer the potential for improved outcomes
• New and improved products
• Reduced costs
• Shorter time to market
• Customer satisfaction (both internal and external)
• Previously unimaginable outcomes - market disruption
• Competitive advantage
• Virtually every business claims to value innovation and creativity
…but that leads to a question…

4. Why is real innovation so rare?
source: Forbes, Business, 7/25/11, excerpt from:
“Business Innovation: Why It Is So Rare, So Prized And So Feared”
“For those of you who have ever taken any psychological profiling or testing for work, you have probably run across
The Myers-Briggs test (called MBTI). The MBTI is frequently used in business settings as it is an indicator of how we
see the world and are inclined to make decisions. The personalities were given 16 names and put into 4 groups by
psychologist David Keirsey. The largest group, The Guardians, are as large as 53% of the population. Guardians are
primarily concerned with order, stability, seeking security, and have a strong sense of duty. They are called Protectors,
Inspectors, or Supervisors. Well-known Guardians are Queen Victoria, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and former
President George H.W. Bush.
The idea of being “disruptive” or “innovative” is so very counter-intuitive to most Guardians. While they vary on how
they handle and approach what is “new,” they will not instinctively embrace it. For many, it is contempt without
investigation or “what we are doing today is perfectly fine – we have a system in place.” What is inherent in this
sentiment is “I have my place in this world, this new idea threatens that place.” They are neither good nor bad, they
are just do’ers, they are dependable – they get in there, they find and then they implement a process.”
Forbes on innovation:

5. A word of caution
• Organizations need to be clear about this:
➢ Do we now, or do we truly want to, embrace innovation?
➢ Or do we prefer a leader who will execute a known formula?
• Neither is inherently right or wrong – but the distinction is critical
➢ Must honestly assess organization culture, needs and
strategy, and align leadership accordingly

6. How to recognize a true innovator?
Innovation is not something you can just decide to do one day
Companies may resolve to
innovate…
Innovators should be sought for leadership roles
How can we recognize them?
Innovation is an art, informed by experience and knowledge
But creativity, along with skill, experience, knowledge and
business judgment cannot just be created by fiat

7. How to recognize a true innovator?
Some Telltale Characteristics of an Innovator
Bright (but that much was obvious…)
Broad experience from which to draw and connect information
Able to recognize and abstract patterns from what might seem chaotic
Deep experience to inform the invention process and facilitate judgment
Typically feel obligated to question the status quo, albeit constructively
Able to envision and plan new models with confidence that they will succeed
Generally demonstrate this kind of mindset throughout a career
Valued innovators work their magic in service of organization objectives

8. Innovation examples from Jon’s background – 1
Invented a new banking platform
For a bank where all prior systems were based on traditional technology, created a
new retail credit platform based on new technologies that shortened the
development cycle from 2 years to 6 months, cutting cost dramatically and letting
the bank take on new business significantly faster.
Invented mainframe laser printer font manager
The bank built numerous mission critical systems using APL – a language with
complex special characters, but no legible APL printer fonts were available for the
bank’s IBM mainframe laser printer. Jon invented an interactive visual font editor
and manager that allowed creation, italicization, bolding and dynamically
smoothed scaling to any printable size for their enterprise printers. IBM adopted
the tool and promoted it across their customer base.
“Jonathan Strong is one of those rare individuals that you get a chance to work with that brings intelligence, passion and
caring to what ever he does. I would welcome the opportunity to work with him or for him on any type of project knowing
that it will be successful and that my skills would be used to deliver true value.”
Michael Meyerkopf
Solution Partner - Health Sciences EMC
Consulting at EMC

9. Innovation examples from Jon’s background – 2
Created the first full-screen financial apps at RCA
Designed and developed the first full screen 3270 applications used at RCA for
interactive financial planning, budget tracking, analysis and reporting. Adopted by
several RCA and NBC divisions. Shortened RCA and NBC development cycle from 2
years to less than 6 months for typical projects.
Invented commercial Business Intelligence platform
Jon led the concept, architecture and development of RCA’s first global,
performance reporting and business intelligence platform spanning all 31
divisions. This was adopted by GE, then spun off as a separate company, acquired
by Cognos, and wound up marketed as IBM Cognos Finance.
“I had the wonderful opportunity of working with Jon at MRU Holdings at which time he was the Chief Technology Officer… Jon’s knowledge
and competence in business technology and experience in multiple industries allows him to turn any information technology group into a
world-class organization. Jon has experience in directing and navigating teams and organizations through a myriad of scenarios and
circumstances with very successful and beneficial end results for the organizations and teams. Jon both understands and can excellently guide
and mentor teams towards achieving key performance indicators to help maximize business revenue and profitability and reduce information
technology costs. Overall Jon has an excellent track record of creating, building and maintaining world-class business focused organizations
and would be an excellent leader for any company”
Kirk Rohani
Software Development Manager, Computer Science
UT Austin

10. Innovation examples from Jon’s background – 3
Co-developed the first mainframe spreadsheet
Designed and developed the first spreadsheet program to run on an IBM
mainframe as a commercial product, mimicking all the capabilities of a PC
spreadsheet.
Built first mainframe spreadsheet graphics product
Designed and developed the first mainframe spreadsheet graphics product to run
on an IBM mainframe, compatible with leading spreadsheets, and mimicking the
capabilities of Visiplot.
Created Northeast A.I. Practice at Deloitte
Researched the Artificial Intelligence field, evaluated and selected products, and
planned and led the first Artificial Intelligence engagements conducted by Touche
Ross (now Deloitte) in the Northeast.

11. Innovation examples from Jon’s background – 4
Invented Credit Portfolio Risk Analytics Platform
Jon designed a new methodology and led creation of an AI-based Credit Risk
Portfolio Analytics and monitoring platform for a major national bank, integrating
bank data, econometric data and models, non-financial measures and newsfeed
analysis to forecast potential credit defaults. Using historical data, tool identified
failures 6 months in advance of insolvencies, and would have saved the bank over
$60 million for this one time period, and more than $300 million over two years.
Created and led Northeast PMO for Cap Gemini
Created and led the first PMO for Cap Gemini in the Northeast. Hired, certified
and managed all Project Managers, and presided over the creation of the projects
practice in the region. Grew region to $40 million while doubling profit margin in
less than 2 years.
“Jon was an acting CTO for a small startup financial data company. His technical and leadership
skills were exceptional, allowing for a small team to overachieve on tight budgets and the enormous
stress that exists in start up environments. People under his leadership over-performed, primarily,
due to the respect they had for Jon, myself included.”
Pippin Gilman
Business Transformation Leader, Process
Engineering, Global Enterprise Architecture
Verizon

12. Innovation examples from Jon’s background – 5
Created IT/Management Consulting firm
Created firm and methodologies, led and built practice, supporting numerous
clients over many years, from small to Fortune 100, in several industries.
Led creation of a world-class casual gaming site
Conceived and led design, development and operation of one of the top ranked
casual gaming websites. Early on the site developed close to a million members
purely due to word of mouth references, and audience retention and repeat visits
were ranked by Comscore as being the best among casual gaming sites, beyond
properties built and operated by both Electronic Arts and Vivendi.
“Jon is a charismatic, action-oriented leader who is constantly seeking a better way to execute.
While at TEKsystems Jon has been responsible for leading and mentoring a group of Delivery
Managers that relied heavily upon him to help troubleshoot delivery issues within our
engagement portfolio. He used his well developed communications skills to be thoughtful of his
audience... he was a considerate speaker and a compassionate listener. His leadership style is
sincere, direct and personal...he wants those around him to succeed. Jon believes in investing in
people…he always made time for me when I asked for his help, even though he did not directly
benefit. Jon is exactly the person you want leading, because he is a compassionate, determined
self-starter.”
Bill Jones
Solutions Architect at
TEKsystems

13. Innovation examples from Jon’s background – 6
Created IT organization and transformed operations
Took over as CIO/CTO for a student loan company and lead the transformation of
the IT organization from startup mode to world class 24x7 operation. Introduced
methodologies, rigor, enterprise architecture, business intelligence and real-time
marketing analytics, allowing the firm to go head-to-head with billion dollar
competition. Achieved 200% ROI on IT in less than two years. Served in other CIO
and CTO roles since then.
“I have worked closely with Jon over 18 months. Jon is one of the brightest IT visionaries I know. He has deep insight
into both the analytics, online, and development aspects of business. Jon was working on developing a robust platform
for processing customers in an efficient and optimized fashion. The IT department always research and tested the latest
technology and methods for improvement. The techniques used were cutting edge and stressed vendors into
developing innovative solutions.
Jon clearly understood the objective of the business and marketing's approach to customer acquisition, and worked
closely to accommodate all levels of analysis and growth.
I would be happy to serve as a reference to Jon, and would highly recommend him.”
Michael Kaushansky
EVP, Chief Analytics Officer at Havas Media

14. A brief list of a few more innovations…
First compressed storage database management system at RCA, with 80% reduction in storage space
and faster response time – custom design and architecture
First CMMi evaluation performed for Swiss Bank
First online real-time display of S&P Global Equity Indices “live” on the web
Fault tolerant self-scaling game server architecture that provided better than 99.99% uptime as site
membership grew from 500 to 1 million users, able to redistribute its own workload from one server
to an entire server farm autonomously in a lights out environment
Meta-server for online website advertising, dynamically switching among multiple ad providers in
each online ad space based on based on combination of user-specified ad preferences and real-time
selection of highest paid ad campaigns, optimizing ad placement, fill rate and revenue.
In every instance, the solution required new thought, process, technology – innovation – to
solve real-world business challenges and yield meaningful business benefit. Jon’s history is
as a serial innovator, creator of value, and a seasoned leader.

15. Excerpts Only
A brief document like this can only touch on a few highlights out of a
lengthy career. This was just a brief introduction.
If an innovator with leadership skills, technology expertise and
extensive value creation experience could benefit your organization,
we should talk.
Jonathan R. Strong
jonathanrstrong@gmail.com
609-532-1715

16. Thank you for your time.
I look forward to hearing from you!