George Rapp has over 25 years of experience in technical and project management roles, including 19 years providing client support to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). He has a proven track record of successfully managing projects and teams, including leading initiatives on a $50 million outsourcing contract with AbbVie pharmaceuticals. Rapp holds a PMP certification and a computer science degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
1. George Rapp, PMP Profile
Contact Information
Telephone: +1 740 936 7277
Email: george.rapp@gmail.com
Strengths/Skills
More than 25 years of technical and
management experience; 19 years
of client-facing support to the
Defense Finance and Accounting
Service (DFAS)
Project management
Information Technology
Outsourcing (ITO)
Transition and transformation
Client-facing roles
People management
Financial management
Business development
High availability design
Web service development
Team leadership
Software management
Relational database
administration
Network design &
troubleshooting
Linux/open source software
deployment
Certifications
Project Management Professional
(PMP) #1773346
Education:
Bachelor of Science
Computer Science & Engineering
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, Nebraska
Volunteer activities
Peace Lutheran Church, Gahanna,
Ohio – application and network
infrastructure support
Forward-thinking, proactive, data-driven problem solver. Experienced in
data center management and project management in a high-visibility
client environment with strict service level agreements. Also skilled in all
aspects of technical staffing and people management; design,
implementation, and support of high-availability infrastructure; and
crafting winning responses to requests for proposals and quotes.
Professional Experience
Employer: Hewlett - Packard Enterprise Services
Client: AbbVie – North Chicago, Illinois
Project Manager 2015 – present
As a key member of an HP Steady State Program Management Office,
led several information technology outsourcing (ITO) initiatives on a $50
million contract with AbbVie. Steered delayed efforts back on schedule to
meet critical client deadlines, ensured that projects completed under
budget, and managed scope expectations. Recognized by HP and
AbbVie leadership for owning processes and problem management, and
for driving complex projects and initiatives to successful completion.
Managed infrastructure build-out and add-on business for a $20
billion research pharmaceutical client during time-sensitive corporate
separation and migration to a managed services environment.
Coordinated procurement, delivery, installation, configuration, and
qualification of compute, storage, backup, and network devices.
Integrated HP support across multiple geographic locations, including
Asia-Pacific (Singapore), Europe/Middle East/Africa (Ludwigshafen,
Germany), and North America (Elk Grove Village, Illinois and
Alpharetta, Georgia) regions, and local/offshore technical resources.
Performed client-facing risk and issue tracking for Data Center,
Security, Disaster Recovery, Managed Network Services, and Unified
Communication and Collaboration account towers.
Client: Defense Finance and Accounting Service –
Columbus, Ohio
Project / Program Manager 2010 – 2015
As a client-facing task order manager, led the on-site team that provided
HP’s support of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS)
Columbus client. In that role, held responsibility for a $4.25 million annual
profit center, creating margin enhancement plans, financial forecasts, and
successful proposals for US Public Sector business unit. Known for
providing high-quality, responsive staffing support within DFAS’ budget.
Built and supervised a team of 41 employees providing staff
augmentation support to DFAS Information and Technology teams.
Interacted on a daily basis with DFAS senior leaders and program
managers regarding strategic direction, operational planning, and
process improvement and optimization, often opening doors to
opportunities for add-on business or consulting engagements for HP.
Led proposal teams bidding for existing, add-on, and new logo
business within both DFAS and the rest of the Department of
Defense.
Screened candidate resumes, and conducted phone and in-person
behavioral interviews, determining the best fit for the client’s
technology environment and corporate culture.
2. George Rapp, PMP Professional Experience (continued) Page 2
Client: Defense Finance and Accounting Service – Columbus, Ohio (continued)
Production Support Manager 2000 -- 2010
As a production environment manager, led a three-shift team across five geographical locations supporting the
Electronic Document Management (EDM) system, a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product which HP
customized extensively, meeting the specific business needs of DFAS. Initiated and directed upgrades to the
EDM hardware and software suites, increasing system reliability, redundancy, and uptime. Was recognized on
several occasions for thought leadership and technical innovation by DFAS senior management.
Led an HP-initiated project to design, procure, implement, and support a high-availability clustered
environment, using HP-UX blade server technology, running Oracle database and workflow software and
HP’s ServiceGuard software to monitor and manage failover.
Facilitated deployment and administration of two externally-available DFAS Web applications (EDM
Electronic File Room [eFileRoom] and Multi-System Search Tool [MSST]) on Windows Server 2003 and
Server 2008 using Internet Information Services (IIS).
Ensured compliance for all servers in the EDM environment with Defense Information Systems Agency
(DISA) Security Technical Implementation Guidelines (STIGs); Department of Defense security advisories;
DFAS Information Assurance (IA) requirements; and vendor-supplied patch release recommendations.
Led a successful commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) upgrade from Oracle 9i to Oracle 10g, assuring
continued supportability and vulnerability mitigation for the EDM core database instances.
Created, implemented, and led the testing of the continuity of operations (COOP) plan for production
migration to an alternate site, in the event that any production site was out of commission for longer than
two hours.
Planned and executed the implementation of EDM at 16 remote sites, involving network capacity testing;
leadership briefings and buy-in; schedule development and acceptance; coordination of training and
support resources; and frequent site visits.
Planned and managed the subsequent consolidation of many remote sites into five enduring DFAS
locations due to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) legislation, all achieved with no user downtime
and no loss of data.
Planned and executed several data center consolidation and modernization activities, including the
migration of EDM server and storage infrastructure from the Omaha, Nebraska and Charleston, South
Carolina sites.
Led two generations of technical refreshment of the EDM UNIX/Linux server and storage hardware; and a
time-sensitive migration of all production EDM equipment from the DFAS Enterprise Local Area Network
(ELAN) to a dedicated demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Client: Defense Finance and Accounting Service – Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska
Implementation / Data Center Lead 1995 -- 2000
Client: Electronic Data Systems Corporation – Plano, Texas
Research Systems Engineer 1990 -- 1995
Technologies and Tools
ServiceNow service management system
HP Universal Configuration Management Database
(uCMDB)
HP Project and Portfolio Management Center
(PPMC-ES)
Microsoft Office Project 2013
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK,
Fifth Edition)
Microsoft Office Visio 2013
Microsoft Lync 2013
Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365
Adobe Acrobat Pro XI
HP MyRoom collaboration suite
HP-UX v11 deployment and administration
Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Brocade storage fabrics and switches
Oracle relational database management software
HP ServiceGuard
HP C7000 blade enclosure and bl860c blade
servers
Kodak and Bell+Howell high-volume document
scanners
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2