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Work experience

Feb 2012Present

Technology Consultant

PeakePro

Providing structured analysis and practical implementation and enhancement of complex web-based systems including e-commerce, online communities, and content management and marketing solutions. Specialist in LAMP-based solutions with strong operational and systems administration capabilities and a significant leadership background.

Aug 2012Present

Senior Associate

Next Action Associates

Helping people to live and work smarter through the principles of GTD®.

May 2011May 2012

Chief Technology Officer

BraveNewtTalent

Grew Engineering team from 4 to 20, hiring Europe's top LAMP talent. Board-level report. Transitioned to interim/consulting role in February 2012 to ensure appropriate succession plan and handover to new CTO.

Jan 2005May 2011

Chief Technology Officer / Chief Information Officer

The David Allen Company

Designed and implemented online productivity enhancement system from ground upKey features include:

  • eCommerce, subscription membership, CRM, CMS, customer service
  • high-volume email delivery and newsletter management
  • online media delivery and corporate online learning system
  • Built on open source LAMP technology stack

Built a team of developers, engineers, and systems administration staff from scratch Consulted with customers including top-tier investment banks and innovative technology companiesMaintained an outstanding track record of system security and uptime

Jun 2004Dec 2004

Interim CTO (Consulting Basis)

TrustCommerce

Architected a large-scale eCommerce solution for a leading national radio network

  • Designed to scale for extreme traffic spikes promoted by calls to action during national broadcasts
  • Praised by senior engineers and executive management alike

Refactored critical components of the company infrastructure using open source stack technologies Redesigned CRM schema into a more efficient, normalized structure in PosgreSQLHelped recruit and hire technical staff including engineers, system administrators, and project managers

Jan 2004Dec 2004

Technology Consultant

PeakePro

Built content management, eCommerce, and corporate training sites; partnered with design and film production companies to develop buisness opportunities with Fortune-500 and cottage-industry clients.

20032004

Manager Of Information Systems

MSIA (Large Church)
  • Managed leading-edge online strategy and implementation for this large-scale religious organization
  • Overall IT manager for over a dozen web properties with thousands of pages, including tithing.org
  • Developed systems including membership, eCommerce, subscription services, audio/video delivery, catalog distribution, and marketing programs
  • Responsible for all staffing in Information Systems Team
20002003

Network Administrator, Web Developer, And Webcast Systems Manager

MSIA

Webcast Systems Manager

  • Built world-class live and on-demand streaming media infrastructure on top of Akamai servers
  • Built reporting systems to monitor system effectiveness and use as well as audience feedback mechanisms to improve experience

Web Developer

  • Built and maintained thousands of pages of content on dozens of sites
  • Upgraded and improved sites with dynamic, database-driven features
  • Integrated sites with email lists, internal database information, streaming media infrastructure, mail servers, and other applications

Web System Network Administrator

  • Responsible for uptime and availability of all web sites, web applications, integrated web components, and database backend
  • Responsible for availability and security of web server
  • Responsible for site-wide Network Administration of the inter-organizational WAN
  • Implemented industry-standard security and routing using Cisco routers and firewalls
19981999

Asst. Systems Administrator

TransBay.NET (Leading Early-Market Bay-Area ISP)

UNIX-based systems management Developed new business opportunities for the company

  • Developed a value-added reseller relationship with major hardware vendors
  • Negotiated with U.C. Berkeley about outsourcing their then extensive modem pool
19971998

"Tutor" (Undergraduate Educator), Self-Paced Computer Science Center

UC Berkeley

Taught undergraduate students learning new programming languages such as Scheme/Lisp, Java, and C

Education

Certifications

2005Present

Zend Certified Engineer For PHP

Zend

Web Systems

Portfolio

Technical Articles

Skills

Organizational And Management Skills
Expert in David Allen's Getting Things Done (R) methodology Evangelist of agile programming techniques Strong leader experienced in building accountable teams
Technical Skills
Languages:     C/C++, PHP/Perl, Java/JavaScript, Lisp/Scheme, Shell Scripting Operating Systems:     Linux (including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Debian and others), UNIX (Solaris/HP/BSD), Mac OS X, Windows NT/200x Server Relational Databases:     MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL Network Protocols:    Cisco IOS, TCP/IP Packet Debugging (Wireshark), HTTP (including cookies/sessions), SMTP, SNMP, DNS, PPTP, IPSec, SSL/SSH tunneling System Scalability:    Radware WSD Load Balancers, RRDNS, Cacti/RRDTool monitoring, memcached, rsync System Security:    CISP/PCI compliance, OWASP standards, Snort, Tripwire equivalent IDS, chkrootkit

Summary

Prior to the existence of the internet, Robert Peake wrote games in Hypercard and posted files to BBSes using xmodem. With the advent of the web, Robert began writing interactive educational software using the CGI interface in C. As interpreted languages became popular, he shifted to PHP and began writing about how to bring software design best practices to the web. His expertise ranges from providing technical guidance for web programming books from O'Reilly to having innovative new software featured on Slashdot.

Robert is, above all, a highly creative, innovative, big-picture thinker who values practicality, elegance, and keeping his word. 

He is also:

  • A hands-on technologist experienced in open source architecture and LAMP stack implementation at all levels.
  • An experienced manager capable of recruiting, building, and motivating top-caliber technical teams.
  • A strong contributor to the open source community through regular contributions to technical publications related to software design best practices as well as source code for a variety of open source web applications.

Partial List of Publications

International PHP magazine

  • "Introducing Design Patterns: Practical, Reusable Solutions To Common Web Development Problems"
  • (2-part series)
  • "Farming PHP: An Introduction To PHP Web Server Farms"
  • "Geopositioning In PHP: Finding The Space Behind Cyberspace"
  • "PHP Cryptography: An Introduction Using Mcrypt"
  • "The Pleasures Of Ming: Dynamically Generating SWF Content In PHP"
  • "Optimizing, Staticizing, and Caching PHP: How To Get The Most Out Of Your Precious PHP Code"
  • "Contributing To Pear: An Insider's Look At The Process Behind The Packages"
  • "Queue It!: A Better Way To Send Mail Using PHP"
  • "Enterprise PHP Coding Standards: Bringing Quality Control To Business Critical PHP Applications"
  • "Inside The Zend Certified Engineer Exam: Bringing PHP To The Enterprise, One Test At A Time"
  • "Shopping For Carts: Choosing The PHP Shopping Cart That Is Right For Your Application"

Zend.com DevZone

Sitepoint

Open Source Software

Interest

Poetry

Click here for a list of degrees, honors, awards, and publications in the field of contemporary poetry.