= Contact Information = Niall Kennedy 747 Natoma Street, #203 San Francisco, CA 94103 E-mail: jobs@niallkennedy.com Weblog: http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/ Mobile Phone: +1 415-425-2417 = Employment history = Fearless Leader Hat Trick Media August 2006-present * Build web product teams for Fortune 500 companies. Specializing in front-end engineering, feed syndication, widgets, API platforms, and high-performance global distribution networks. * Produce annual widget conference, Widget Summit, sold-out since 2006 covering major widget platforms and their implementation best practices. 250 attendees, 40 speakers, 25 sessions, and 5-10 sponsors across a two-day event in San Francisco. * Develop conference management software, credit card processing systems, and customer and vendor relationship management functions to power Widget Summit and its web presence. * Develop Startup Search, a critically-acclaimed industry intelligence tool data mining web technology startup companies, products, key employees, and investors in the United States market. Python and Django server-side development with YUI-enhanced front-end. Featured YUI project for JavaScript excellence. * Globally-recognized speaker on the Web as a platform, content syndication best practices, and widget integration. Guest lecturer on Web development at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Spring 2008. * Creating social media analytics tools to track the people-based Web and its connections. Gathering large correlated data sets for deep author knowledge. Product Lead, Windows Live RSS Platform Microsoft April 2006-August 2006 * Build a centralized data store and distribution hub for syndicated data feeds including RSS, RDF, Atom, and iCalendar. Service internal client teams including Windows Live Hotmail, My Live, Messenger, Alerts, and more. * Authored corporate strategy and product specifications for syndication-powered services across over 30 product groups. * Presented corporate vision to top executive teams for widespread adoption. * Wrote detailed product specifications, led product review process, assisted with database design considerations, and wrote wireframe code for beta systems. * Managed a small team of shared development, administrators, and QA resources in coordination with a shared development manager. Product Manager, Community Technorati February 2005-February 2006 * Discover, index, and resyndicate the world of weblogs within minutes of third-party publication. * Product lead for syndicated data consumption and distribution across tens of millions of blogs. Developed widgets to extend the reach of core products. * Identify, specify, and communicate the largest outstanding product issues demanded by company's audience of publishers, readers, and brand managers. * Oversee search quality and web content policy enforcement efforts including anti-spam. Led two industry summits to define best practices and promote collaboration among over 20 peers. * Manage and support the Technorati developer community including partnerships with blog hosting providers, independent developers, and foreign-language joint ventures. Product Manager, Search NexTag November 2004-January 2005 * Managed site migration to web-standard markup for high-performance websites using xHTML and CSS. Product lead on a team of 4 developers, one designer, and one statistician. * Added RSS syndication to over five million webpages including private feeds serving site partners such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL. * Direct profit and loss responsibility for unpaid referral traffic including search engines, developer APIs, self-serve affiliates, and co-brand partners. Product Manager, Search Callan Associates February 2002-October 2004 * Collected and analyzed traditionally dark data on behalf of institutional investors requesting fiduciary oversight for billions of dollars worth of assets. * Authored data collection and analysis tools for a quantitative approach to venture capital funds, private real estate, hedge funds, and emerging markets. * Responsible for converting the finely-honed market specializations and industry knowledge of top company executives into actionable data-driven processes. * Expanded serviceable markets through intelligent data gathering ahead of market needs including socially-responsible investing, minority ownership, and any custom client requirements. * Built distributed data gathering tools for remote submission of up-to-date data by fund managers and their staff. Custom software written in JSP, powered by Tomcat, and displayed to the end-user using PDF workflows backed by XML. Founder, CEO AEOsports January 2001-December 2002 * Technical founder of high-end sporting goods e-commerce site and traditional retail business located in Southern California. * Built and managed retail website as a central processing hub between syndicated storefronts such as eBay, Yahoo!, or Major League Baseball. Web operations leveraged J2EE, EJB, Oracle, and Linux. * Negotiated preferred pricing and procurement relationships with large distributors and manufacturers. * Created custom supply chain software to link remote offices and key suppliers. Product Lead American Express (formerly AutoBill Auction) February 2001-June 2001 * Rearchitected business software and operations leading to company sale within 6 months. * Managed two programmers and four web designers. * Redesigned an online marketplace and billing system for small business owners. Incorporated partner technology and straight-through-processing into a seamless integrated storefront. * Migrated company technology from Visual Basic and SQL Server to C# and Oracle 9i. * Prepared web properties to enter the international marketplace, incorporating privacy and legal concerns. Lead Programmer Personal Spider July 2000-September 2000 * Developed search and data relevancy programs for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory analysis of the Mars rover program (Athena). * Created web crawling agents for persistent search, analysis, and ranking of corporate and scientific data sets. Custom-built servers and software to handle specialized tasks and provide optimal power consumption, data I/O, and low bandwidth consumption. * Authored Python notification libraries to enable immediate action including the first integrated SMS messaging public library. * Presented detailed technical concepts before potential clients and closed sales. Content Manager PriceGrabber.com September 1999-June 2000 * Manage site data content accuracy and content partner relationships in computing, electronics, photography, and video game categories. * Reverse engineered merchant pricing structures to predict accurate shipping and tax data for any ZIP Code in the United States. * Worked with Red Hat Linux and customized MySQL cluster implementations supporting multiple languages and hundreds of external partners. = Education = BA in Economics, minor in Computer Science University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) September 1997-June 2001 = Publications = "Spidering Hacks" O'Reilly & Associates, October 2003