Gordon Jackson

It is a pleasure to work with Gordon, a rock star manager and Director of IT. He has a knack for balancing deep technical knowledge with unimpeachable people skills, a rare trait. Results-oriented, his team is always clear about the objectives and goals and how those dovetail into the company's business objectives. He fosters a team atmosphere among his reports while providing a culture of accountability as well as an atmosphere where everyone strives to contribute their best. It's been impressive to watch how he has increased IT's visibility throughout the organization by insisting on accessible transparency into our group and our activities. He won over skeptics by implementing Agile methodologies into the IT organization, run with daily scrums, a clearly prioritized backlog, and productive sprints. Under his leadership, IT is now considered a partner with our stakeholders, and they trust us to deliver solutions and results. Gordon excels at being the well-informed voice of calm and reason when issues are escalated, and this gift makes him the perfect person to represent our group to our internal clients. He is a keen listener who is able to see all points of view when there is conflict, and then offer a reasonable solution with buy-in from the group at large. Lastly, as a manager, you will find none better. Gordon inspires his team to willingly contribute 150%, while making sure they are given frequent feedback and that their extra effort is acknowledged and rewarded. He effectively handles personnel issues directly but tactfully, inspiring the person in question to strive higher. He's not a micro-manager, yet his team's performance is above par. I cannot recommend Gordon highly enough, and any organization would be instantly more valuable with his addition to their team.

Gordon's high competency in IT, technical depth and breadth of knowledge, and ability to stay up-to-date with the latest in technology are all great traits, but his leadership skills are his distinguishing characteristic. Gordon is a leader, showing all the aspects of great leaders; leading his team to success, collaborating with and positively influencing his peers, listening to the experts to augment his own skill and experience, timely removing roadblocks, acting thoughtfully yet decisively, and maintaining optimism and calm in calamitous situations. That's just scratching the surface, because anyone who has worked with Gordon also knows he's easy to talk to, listens well, and is passionate about doing the right thing. It was a pleasure working with Gordon and I highly recommend him for any leadership role, technical or otherwise.

Gordon is respected leader at Calumet Photographic. He is a take-charge person who is able to develop and present creative ideas and communicate the benefits. He has successfully created several development plans for the Calumet Photographic global e-commerce website as well as several other key technology initiatives. These successfully implemented plans have resulted in increased revenue and a more efficient information technology department. One of Gordon’s key strengths is his ability to identify new technology trends and their benefits to the company. He also places great importance in motivating and mentoring of his direct reports. I highly recommend Gordon for employment. He is a visionary and team player and would make a great asset to any organization.

Gordon was a key member of my technical leadership team. He was critical in our turnaround effort to stabilize, extend and re-architect a legacy infrastructure that had been pushed to to its limit as the digital publishing marketplace and industry experienced tremendous growth. He personally contributed to solving technical challenges, while leading his team with passion.

Gordon has an exceptional talent for designing software and infrastructure that takes both an architectural and business perspective into account. He has an exceptional level of dedication to accompany his talents, and was an extraordinary member of my team. Given the chance, I'd hire him again in a second.