Al Harding
Vancouver, BC, Canada

ph: 604.831.3245
email: al [ at ] alharding.com
web: www.alharding.com


Summary...

A Vancouver software engineer, development manager, and consultant with over 13 years of professional experience with online application development and an extensive background in computer hardware and software applications going back over 25 years. Experience and knowledge in finance, publishing, healthcare, online gaming, and interactive entertainment industries. Highly motivated and passionate individual with strong team and collaboration skills. Relentlessly pushes forward.

Currently working with multiple companies:
LX Interactive, Yellow Pages Group / Trader Corporation.



Employment History...
LX Interactive Sr Software Engineer / Development Director Jan 2006 - Present
Vancouver, Canada
www.lxinteractive.com
2008.ismyyear.com
Currently the lead software architect designing and developing several social media and online community products. Designing and building social, widget, mobile applications using Facebook API, FBML / FQL, Google's OpenSocial platform, Blackberry SDK, and Apple iPhone SDK. Responsible for the design, production, and management of projects using ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET MVC, C#, SQL Server 2005, and ASP.NET AJAX.

Trader Corporation Development Manager Nov 2007 - Present
Burnaby, Canada
www.autotrader.ca
www.canadatrader.com
Currently consulting with Trader Corporation to optimize their automotive web properties including: AutoTrader.ca, CanadaTrader.com, Trader.ca, Hebdo.net, and MSN AutoTrader. Manages a small team of developers in Burnaby, Toronto, and Montreal. Responsibilities include overseeing consolidation of multiple codebases, ongoing feature development and pushing for the transition to agile development methodologies. Technologies include: ASP.NET 2.0, C#, SQL Server 2005, and ASP.NET AJAX.

Blast Radius Sr Interface Developer Mar 2007 - Nov 2007
Vancouver, Canada
www.blastradius.com
www.virtualme.pl
www.virtualme.fr
Worked as a Senior Interface Developer at Blast Radius at their Vancouver headquarters. Technologies included XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, TrimPath, Dojo Toolkit to create AJAX interfaces for a 3D avatar project titled 'Virtual Me' from video game company Electronic Arts. Was an early contributor on an in-house JavaScript / AJAX Framework. Blast Radius is an award winning Customer Experience agency with clients including: Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Starbucks, BMW, and Nike.

Electronic Arts Development Director Sept 2005 - Jan 2006
Burnaby, Canada
www.eacanada.com
www.ea.com
Responsible for pre-production development of Tiger Woods 2006 for the Sony PSP portable video game system. Managed a team of software engineers, producers, assistant producers, interface designers, audio artists, etc. Responsible for all production deliverables and ensuring a high calibre product was delivered and shipped on time and on budget.


Electronic Arts Development Manager / Sr Web Developer Sept 2004 - Sept 2005
Burnaby, Canada
www.eacanada.com
www.ea.com
Held a dual role managing a small team as well as working as a software engineer. Responsible for day-to-day management of the UI Team on EA Canada's Fusion Team devoted to next generation portable game systems. Key role functions included: creating improved production processes to help streamline production, managing development schedules, and managing a team of 24.


Designed, developed and began implementation of web based executive dashboards for tracking and monitoring digital assets and workflow. Application was developed for Windows Server 2003, IIS 6.0 and engineered in ASP.NET, C#, XML, and SQL Server 2005. Created linked database servers to query data across multiple data stores including DevTrack, PeopleSoft (Oracle database), SharePoint Portal Server and various Wiki applications (MySql database).

EA Canada (EAX) Project Manager / Sr Web Developer Feb 2004 - Sept 2004
Vancouver, Canada
www.eacanada.com
www.ea.com
Was a founding contributor of Electronic Arts' Worldwide Knowledge department. Helped manage and develop strategies for knowledge management projects, team development solutions, competitive intelligence systems, online training systems. Worked with an elite engineering team to plan, strategize, and execute intelligent applications. Technologies and tools used were Visual Studio .NET 2003, C#, ASP.NET 1.1, IIS 6.0, Windows Server 2003, ADO.NET, PeopleSoft, SharePoint (WSS) and SharePoint Portal Server, Active Directory.

EA Canada (EAC) Sr Web Developer May 2001 - Feb 2004
Burnaby, Canada
www.eagames.com
www.easports.com
www.ea.com
Worked with Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios developing and implementing advanced solutions for internal development of technology and knowledge management. Worked on .NET migration of legacy systems as well as developing extensive use of web services to increase department, team and product organization. Develop asset sharing solutions to increase information awareness globally across dozens of development studios. Migration involved moving VB Script ASP applications to C# ASP.NET. Converted database logic from ADO to ADO.NET on existing SQL Server 2000 databases. Created Web Services model, where appropriate, as projects queried data from multiple studio locations and server farms.

Modern Groove Ent. Sr Web Developer / ProgrammerFeb 2001 - Apr 2001
Vancouver, Canada
www.moderngroove.com
Worked in the moderngroove on-line programming team, which handled the design and development of moderngroove's on-line properties. Developed in a Windows 2000 environment with InterDev/ASP/VB and using a SQL Server 7 database back-end.

Earthramp Inc. Sr Web Developer / Programmer Jun 2000 - Jan 2001
Vancouver, Canada
www.quotescanada.com
www.earthramp.com
Developed web based financial/investment tools, managed databases with raw data and participated in the development of business to business products. Worked at storing, parsing and delivering real-time news and stock market data from most of the North American exchanges. Worked primarily in ColdFusion and SQL Server (stored procedures, triggers) for our web based applications in a Windows 2000 environment (Advanced Server with Load Balancing and Clustering).

Global Interactive &
Digital Eyes
Sr Web Developer Jun 1999 - Oct 1999
Vancouver, Canada
Managed several gambling / gaming portals. Was in charge of content; creating contests, finding people to write articles, moderated and created discussion forums. Also created and developed on-line casinos. Worked primarily with Perl in a UNIX environment.

Spinnaker Publishing Graphic Designer, Web Dev..,IT & IS Jan 1995 - Feb 1996
Gibsons, BC, Canada
www.spinn.com
Gained detailed knowledge and experience being a part of an Internet Service Provider startup. Was an integral part in the development of a new digital ISP in Gibsons -- setting up T-1 connectivity (a first for Gibsons), DEC Alpha Servers, email, ftp / web accounts for subscribers. Was involved in all aspects of the business - customer service, technical support, onsite installations, hardware and software configuration.

Worked on an 88 page monthly real estate newspaper. Responsible for design and layout of property listings.

Liquid FX Interactive Web Developer Dec 1993 - Jun 1999
Gibsons, BC, Canada
www.liquidfx.com
Personal company started in late 1993 that did contract work for other companies as well as developed own projects. Projects included everything from graphic design for web, print and cd-roms, consulting, network system administration for an ISP, database design, web development, marketing, promotions and on-line research. Travelled to the Virgin Islands and various US cities to consult or aid in the completion of projects.



Skills, Software and Languages...
Platforms : Mostly Windows and Mac environments lately. Did majority of 'LAMP' development from 1997-2001 on UNIX/Apache/MySQL. Continues to stay active in keeping up to date with those communities.
Software : Familiar with lots of software... able to adapt to different environments, tools, and software easily.
Skills :
Languages / Experience Levels
ASP.NET MVC0.5 yrs
ASP.NET 3.0/3.51.0 yrs
ASP.NET 2.03.5 yrs
ASP.NET 1.0/1.16.5 yrs
ADO.NET6.0 yrs
C#6.0 yrs
SharePoint 2003 / WSS4.0 yrs
ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 / Atlas (CTP - Beta 2)1.5 yrs
AtlasControlToolkit / AJAX Control Toolkit0.7 yrs
AJAX2.5 yrs
JavaScript5.5 yrs (off and on since '97)
HTML / XHTML / etc13.5 yrs
CSS8.0 yrs
Facebook / FBML / FQL0.5 yrs
Facebook.NET0.5 yrs
 
Databases
MS SQL Server 2000 / MDE / 20057.0 yrs
MySQL4.0 yrs
PostgreSQL1.0 yr
Amazon S30.5 yrs
 
Creative / Graphics
Photoshop11.5 yrs
Image Ready4.0 yrs
Illustrator5.0 yrs
3D Studio Max4.0 yrs
Flash5.0 yrs (off and on since it was called Future Splash) ;)
 
Not as recent...
Perl4.0 yrs (back in '97)
PHP2.0 yrs (back in '99)
ASP / VB3.0 yrs (back in '99)
ColdFusion3.5 yrs (back in '98)


Actively following developments with:
  • Facebook and OpenSocial Platforms
  • Apple iPhone and BlackBerry SDKs
  • Microsoft Silverlight
  • Google Android
Currently working on the following Microsoft Certifications:
  • MSTS
  • MCPD

Other things about me...


Spare Time...

:)




Al Harding is also Allan Harding - 604.831.3245 - al [ at ] alharding.com -- Updated May 2008
© 1995-2008 by Al Harding. All rights reserved
View Al Harding's profile on LinkedIn