Chip Hartney

I was introduced to the world of computer programming in my high school days in the early 1970s. However, under the advisement of others, I pursued a "more substantial" occupation and earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois. I worked for 3 years as a civil engineer for the U.S. Forest Service in Oregon before following my urge to return to more mathematical pursuits. I studied mathematics and programming for the next two years and taught both topics in a variety of high school, college, and adult education settings. I finally entered the programming field permanently in 1985.

From 1985 to 1989, I worked for Commonwealth Edison Company in Chicago where I worked in the nuclear engineering department of the computer systems organization. Having recently studied database theory, I was assigned to work on ComEd's first relational database applications (DB2) and led the development of these initial systems. They managed engineering documents for ComEd's nuclear power plants.

In 1989, I moved to Platinum Technology, a commercial software development firm which had been recently founded in the Chicago area. I remained there for 10 years as we grew into the 9th largest software vendor in the world by specializing in relational database tools and utilities. I left when we were acquired by Computer Associates in what was, at the time, the largest cash deal in the history of the software industry.

For a majority of my years at Platinum, I worked on our end-user products with an emphasis on reporting tools. Primarily, I led the development of PRF, an ad hoc query and reporting tool for DB2. This product quickly became the second leading seller in its market segment and remains there to this day. I also was involved in our integration efforts with other reporting tools and our efforts to expand our presence from the mainframe world to the client/server environment. For three years, I worked in our data warehousing organization and led the development of InfoRefiner, our mainframe-to-client/server-platform ETL and change-propagation tool.

After leaving Platinum, I worked for a year as a consultant with an emphasis on VB- and Java-based desktop data analysis programs for Windows computers.

In 2000, I joined Brightware (which was acquired by Firepond shortly after that) in the San Francisco bay area. Here I had two primary responsibilities. The first was as a database programmer and architect for Analytics, Brightware's proprietary analysis tool for its CRM product suite. This product utilized a configurable ETL program, multidimensional datamart, and various end-user reporting tools to support analysis of customer data. The second role was as a database architect and software engineer for the CRM product suite, itself. In this role, I was responsible for the design of the transactional databases and implementation of the EJB-based data persistence layer of the web applications that comprised the product suite.

In 2002, I joined a colleague (from my Platinum days) and his partner to found The Datamology Company. He had created VisiCube, a spreadsheet-based data analysis product for Windows, and wanted to expand its scope and release it to the public. We built VisiCube into what it is today, releasing the first complete version in May, 2004, just before my partners decided to retire.

From 2004 through the end of 2006, I worked as a web and database architect, in a consulting capacity, in the financial services industry. Specifically, I worked with a team of consultants from MindBox, an AI-based technology solutions company, for Ownit Mortgage Solutions in Los Angeles. In this role, I developed web applications in Java and SQL while also designing and developing the databases used by those apps. My focus was on interfaces to commercial loan-origination applications and web services used in document drawing and loan funding.

I am now working for Assured Systems, Inc, of Yonkers, NY. My responsibilities with ASI include converting their legacy ERP system to Java.