michael hargadon

toronto, canada · m-at-mhargadon-dot-ca

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Michael A. Hargadon

#1101-111 Raglan Avenue · Toronto, Ont. · Tel: 416-824-5451 · m-at-mhargadon-dot-ca

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Current Activities

• Candidate: Juris Doctor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, Ontario
• 2010 Recipient: Charles Edward Woodrow Award ($1,000)
• 2008 Recipient: Law Society Foundation Entrance Scholarship ($1,000)
• Secretary, Osgoode Hall Criminal Law Society


• Candidate: Master of Arts (History), Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec (defence in August)
• Thesis: Like City Lights, Receding: ANSI Artwork and the Digital Underground, 1985-2000
• 2007 SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholar ($17,500)
• 2006 Recipient: Special Dean's Top-Up Grant ($5,000)

Education

• May, 2005: Honours BA in History (w/Distinction)
• Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec
• Faculty of Arts and Science Dean's List, 2002-2005
• Nominee: David Fox Prize, Best Undergraduate Thesis in History
• Profiled in Concordia Thursday Report, June 2005

Employment

• April 2009 - Aug. 2009	Administration Officer (contract)
  	Public Service Commission of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

• Project management: Defined timelines and assisted with the delivery of five audit products for tabling in Parliament.
• Project planning: worked with managers, Directors and Directors-General to devise delivery plans for 2009-2010 project year
• Optimized resource use, assisted with determining team composition and defined project milestones and management gates to ensure accountability.
• Evaluated software solutions to automate this process; trained employees on planning methodology and assumptions.

• June 2006 - Present	Systems Administrator, History & New Media Web Server
  	Dr. Elena Razlogova, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

• Implementation/maintenance of high-availability web/database server solution based on sun Sunfire x4100s.
• Operating Environment: Apache2, PHP, PostgreSQL, MySQL on Linux.

• June 2006 - Present	Programmer, Consistory Database Project
  	Dr. Shannon McSheffrey, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

• Designed and implemented a web-accessible database application to track primary source documents of court decisions from medieval Consistory Court of London.
• Development enviroment: PHP, PostgreSQL on Linux.
• Application size: 10,000 lines

• April 2008 - Aug. 2008	Administration Officer (contract)
  	Public Service Commission of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

• Provided administrative assistance to a Director-General in the Audit Operations Directorate of the PSC.
• Direct supervisor of two employees; trained them into their positions, managed their workflow, and provided performance feedback.
• Established and maintained the directorate filing system.
• Wrote and implemented basic adminstrative procedures for other members of the directorate.
• Filed forms, created and reconciled financial reports, arranged travel, requested translation and telecom services, purchased office supplies, prepared documentation for and scheduled meetings, made travel arrangements, and trained my replacement into the position.

• Sept. 2006 - May 2007	Teaching Assistant, HIST201/2
  	Drs. Shannon Mcsheffrey, Norman Ingram, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

• Instructed two groups of students per semester in the use, interpretation and analsis of primary documents.
• Facilitated and moderated classroom discussion; encouraged engagement with the material.
• Graded five short essay assignments per group per semster.
• Provided individual and group coaching on research and writing.
• Designed and delivered lesson plans for each session.

• June 2005 - June 2006	Systems Administrator
  	Lush Cosmetics, Vancouver, British Columbia

• Provided advanced hardware/software/network support to sixty stores within Lush's retail chain and sixty employees at the company's corporate office.
• Re-engineered helpdesk procedures and information systems to enable IT best practices and decrease mean time to problem resolution.
• Re-implemented existing point-of-sale solution, performing chain-wide rolling hardware/software updates to support open standards and enable tighter systems integration.
• Standardized internal network infrastructure to lower total cost of ownership.
• Designed and deployed North America-wide VPN (Virtual Private Network) solution to allow for cost-effective systems management.
• Deployed enterprise-wide network monitoring solution.
• Evaluated, tested, and sourced both PC and point-of-sale hardware; wrote budgets, testing procedures and cost estimates for future POS and network infrastructure implementations.
• Wrote software to allow for automated processing of store-generated sales data and statistical analysis of retail metrics.
• Assisted with setting interview criteria, evaluating resumes, and interviewing prospective candidates for employment within the department.

• June 2004 - April 2005	Network / Systems Administrator (tendered contract)
  	Arts and Science Federation of Associations, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

• Designed, tested and implemented a Linux-based small business network server. Solution provided equivalent functionality to a Windows Domain Controller at significantly reduced cost (70% reduction).
• Submitted detailed tender to secure the contract, documented all aspects of the system for novice end-users and provided training for ASFA staff.
• Provided long-term support to maintain the installed system.

• June 2003 - Sept. 2003	Customer Service Representative
  	Superior Propane Inc., Laval, Quebec

• Provided bilingual, telephone-based billing support to customers in Superior Propane's Quebec area of operations.

• Sept. 2000 - Sept. 2001	Network Operations / Systems Administration
  	The IT Department Inc., Ottawa, Ontario

• Supported clients and administered servers running all Microsoft operating system variants.
• Supported and configured IP firewalls running Linux; configured and maintained switches and routers manufactured by Ascend, Cisco and HP.
• Designed and implemented network monitoring solution based on CA UniCenter TNG. Designed and implemented helpdesk system using CA UniCenter TNG AHD. Wrote administrator and training documentation for both systems and trained ITD staff in their use.
• Implemented separate network monitoring solution using free/open-source software. Customized software for use by The IT Department and wrote documentation to support its installation and use at client sites.
• Wrote and presented business and sales proposals to ITD Associate companies.

• April 2000 - Sept. 2000	Network Operations (Advanced Technical Agent)
  	Bell ActiMedia Inc., Hull, Quebec

• Acted as Level 3 (top tier) support for 400 agents providing phone-based technical support to residential users of Bell ActiMedia's high-speed Internet services. Senior technical agent for 100,000+ customers in two provinces.
• Identified network outages based on reports from first-line agents and notified appropriate third-party Bell business units (Digital Switch Service Center, ATM Operations Group, Bell Nexxia IP-NOC).
• Documented ATA troubleshooting procedures and designed escalation process flow.
• Implemented suite of network tools using PHP/HTML on Linux; wrote documentation and trained agents in the use of same.

• Dec. 1999 - April 2000	Technical Support Agent
  	Bell ActiMedia Inc., Hull, Quebec

• Provided bilingual, telephone-based technical support to users of Bell ActiMedia's high-speed Internet services.
• Wrote training manual used to train agents to support ActiMedia services on Microsoft Windows NT.

• June 1999 - Dec. 1999	Technical Support Agent
  	Taima Corporation (defunct), Ottawa, Ontario

• Provided technical support to subscribers of dial-up Internet services.
• Wrote training documentation and trained agents in the use of Nortel View Manager Software; delivered presentations via telephone and Internet to prospective purchasers of the software.

• Sept. 1997 - Dec. 1997	Software Loadbuilder/Tester (co-op)
  	Nortel, Kanata, Ontario

• Built software loads for low-level operating system engineering team working on DMS-XACORE, PowerPC conversion of Nortel's premier packet-based telephone switching system.
• Maintained group web site.

• June 1997 - Sept. 1997	PC Support Technician
  	Digital Equipment Corporation (defunct), Hull, Quebec

• Provided telephone-based PC hardware and software support to customers running Windows 3.1/95/NT.
• Youngest employee ever hired in this capacity by DEC.

Languages

• English: Oral / written
• French: Oral / written

References

• Academic / employment / character references available upon request.

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