Chris Tham: Resume


Contact Details
WWW: http://www.fortunecity.com/westwood/chanel/1/index.html

Email: Chris_Tham@hp.com

Personal Details
Nationality AUSTRALIAN citizen
Birth 8 August 1964
Kelang, Selangor, MALAYSIA
Marital Status Married since 1989, no children
Interests
  • Aerobics
  • Playing music (keyboards)
  • Books (humour,romance, science fiction, philosophy)
  • Music (classical, opera, jazz, new age)
  • Movies (romantic comedies)
  • Travel (domestic and overseas)

Education Summary

Professional Affiliations

Career History
Term Company Position
1995-present Hewlett-Packard Australia Senior Consultant
1994-1995 AT&T Global Information Solutions Architecture Consultant
1992-1993 NCR Australia UNIX/RDBMS Consultant
1990-1991 State Bank Victoria Treasury Analyst
Database Administrator
1988-1989 Optech International Systems Analyst
Architect/Team Leader
1986-1987 Bain & Company UNIX Administrator
Systems Programmer
1985 Rational Research Software Engineer

Education Achievements

NSW Higher School Certificate

NSW Department of Education and Training, Board of Studies

School Randwich High (Centre Number 571)
Candidate No. 682872
Aggregate Mark 488/500
Ranking NSW Top 1%
Subject Units Mark
English 2 General 87
Mathematics 3 Common 98
Mathematics 4 Additional 100
Physics 2 98
Chemistry 2 98
Industrial Arts (Engineering Sc.) 2 95

University of Sydney

The University of Sydney

I was admitted as a candidate for the combined Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Electrical Engineering in 1984. However, I chose not to complete the Bachelor of Electrical Engineering component of the program.

During my first three years, I was awarded the E. Trenchard Miller Memorial Scholarship for outstanding academic performance in my chosen field of study.

My honours thesis was entitled Rubato: A Music Input and Performance System. It details the design and implementation of a music input language together with a music performance system that generates real time MIDI (Musical Instruments Digital Interface) messages. The music input language is a block structured, concurrent, algorithmic language allowing concise notation of music scores and the implementation utilises established compiler construction techniques to create an environment consisting of a compiler, assembler, linker and debugger. The music generated by the music performance system may be realised on any MIDI musical instrument.

I graduated in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) with first class honours and I was awarded with the University Medal (award for the highest-ranking student in each class).

Year Course Result
1984 Combined B.Sc./B.E. (Elec.)  
  Pure/Applied Mathematics 1H (Hons.) Distinction
  Physics 1D (Distinction) High Distinction
  Chemistry 1A (Advanced) High Distinction
  Computer Science 1 High Distinction
  Electrical Circuit Theory Distinction
1985 Combined B.Sc./B.E. (Elec.)  
  Pure/Applied Mathematics 2A/D (Hons.) Distinction
  Physics 2D (Distinction) Distinction
  Computer Science 2 High Distinction
  Introductory Electrical Engineering Distinction
  Digital Logic Distinction
  Machine Drawing and Descriptive Geometry Credit
1986 B.Sc. (Pure Maths/Comp. Sc.)  
  Pure Mathematics 3 (Hons.) Distinction
  Computer Science 3 High Distinction
1987 B.Sc. (Pure Maths/Comp. Sc.)  
  Computer Science (Hons.) First Class with University Medal

Securities Institute of Australia

Securities Institute of Australia

I graduated in 1992 with a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and am currently an Associate of the Securities Institute of Australia.

Semester Course Results
1990/2 The Securities Industry Distinction
  Financial Statement Analysis Credit
1991/1 Securities Industry Economics Credit
  Foreign Exchange High Distinction
1991/2 Money Market & Fixed Investments Distinction
  Australian Futures Trading Distinction
1992/1 Securities Industry Law Credit
  Options Markets and Trading Credit

Macquarie University

Macquarie University

I graduated in 1994 with a Master of Applied Finance and won the Australian Institute of Banker's Prize for Management of Financial Institutions as well as "The Institute Prize" for outstanding academic performance in banking and finance studies at Macquarie University.

Semester Course Result
1992/1 Corporate Finance 1 A
  Financial Markets 1 A
1992/2 Corporate Finance 2 A
  Financial Markets 2 A
1993/1 Finance Law and Tax A
  Swap Financing A
  Applied Portfolio Management A
1993/2 Treasury Risk Management B
  Management of Financial Institutions A
  Derivative Products and Markets A

Awards and Scholarships

Courses / Conferences

Publications

I have published the following papers:

  1. Chris Tham, Rubato: A Music Input and Performance System, Computer Science Honours 1987 Thesis, Basser Department of Computer Science, University of Sydney.
  2. Chris Tham & Tim Posney, Distributed Computing and Risk Management, SunTech Journal Vol 3 No 1 (Winter 1990) pp. 46-52.
  3. Philip Leong & Chris Tham, UNIX Password Encryption Considered Insecure, USENIX Winder '91 Conference, Dallas, Texas.
  4. Chris Tham, Performance Tuning for Relational Database Applications, AUUG'93 Conference, Sydney.
  5. Chris Tham, Distributed Client/Server Architectures and Transaction Processing on Open Systems, AUUG'94 Conference, Melbourne.
  6. Chris Tham, Distributed Client/Server Architectures and Transaction Processing on Open Systems, OracleWorld 1994 Conference, Melbourne.
  7. Chris Tham, Distributed Client/Server Architectures: What Are The Options, Client/Server Strategies Seminar 1995, Sydney.
  8. Chris Tham, Electronic Commerce and the Consumer, Finance Industry Reform conference, Sydney (1997).

Career History

Hewlett-Packard Australia (HP)

HP

I am currently employed (since October 1995) as a Senior Consultant within the HP Professional Services Organisation. I specialise in providing strategic technology planning and IT architecture services within the Software, Architecture & Methods practice.

Role

 I focus on providing services to HP's customers in formulating strategic business information systems strategies and addressing the development of a flexible and open IT infrastructure or "blue print" that matches their business goals. These services include:
IT Strategy
I help customers define an appropriate strategy for their IT infrastructure based on an understanding of their business objectives.
IT Assessment
I help customers understand at a high level how well their current IT infrastructure support their business objectives and IT Strategy. I make recommendations that improve the way IT enables these objectives and strategies to be met.
Enterprise IT Architecture
I provide recommendations for enterprise-wide IT architectural components required by the customer to support their IT Strategy.
IT Architecture Review
I help customers review their existing IT Architecture and determine their readiness to adopt suitable emerging technologies. I verify that selected technologies meet architectural guidelines and provide advice on the use of standards and guidelines for interoperability.
Transition Services
I help customers develop a comprehensive plan to ensure a smooth transition to a new environment.

Achievements

 Some of my achievements to date at HP include:
  • Acted as the chief architect of a major joint project between HP, Telstra and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation to develop an interactive on-line environment targetted at school children based on multimedia content creation and collaboration.
  • Acted as the Technology Strategist/Architect for Unix Servers for a major Australian building products, contruction materials and energy corporation.  In this role, I helped define the implementation and deploynment strategies and was responsible for the initiation of several multi-million dollar projects.
  • Assisted in providing a migration strategy and project plan for upgrading the systems infrastructure of a major division of a large Australian telecommunications corporation.
  • Provided an architecture review of an imaging and workflow project (claims processing) that uses client/server technology at a major insurance company.
  • Acted as a lead architect during the initial phases of a enterprise-wide client/server architecture for a major bank. These phases include Scoping, Readiness Assessment, Business Alignment and IT Assessment.
  • Performed system architecture reviews of several mission critical applications of a major telecommunications company.
  • Acted as a Solution Architect and Technical Team Leader for several tender responses.
  • Assisted a major insurance company in extending their existing IT Strategy by developing an enterprise-wide applications architecture.
  • As a team leader for the IT Strategy/Architecture practice in FY'95, I was responsible for formulating the practice plan, including the Hoshin and Implementation plans and coordinating team meetings.
  • I manage and run a mailing list for IT Architecture on behalf on HP consultants who engage in architecture activities.

Papers

 I presented a session on Electronic Commerce and the Consumer at the Finance Industry Reform conference held in Sydney in 1997.

AT&T Global Information Solutions (AT&T/GIS)

attgis.gif (2198 bytes)

In late 1993, NCR Australia underwent a major organisational restructure with a name change to AT&T Global Information Solutions and my role in the new structure was redefined to that of an Architecture Consultant within the Professional Services Division.

Role

 I worked with AT&T/GIS customers, internal AT&T organisations and business units, as well as third party solution providers to guide them on technology strategies. My role is to provide strategic advice and high level assistance, primarily in respect of:
  • Enterprise architecture and planning,
  • Selection of standards and protocols to meet business objectives,
  • Use of methodologies and tools in the design of overall solutions,
  • Defining, describing and documenting enterprise and specialised systems, and
  • Policies and procedures for procuring, implementing and deploying enterprise systems.

Achievements

 During this period, some of my achievements included:
  • Designed an enterprise-wide architecture for a branch automation and sales platform for a major retail bank. Subsequently, I was invited to participate as part of a worldwide solutions development and marketing team to extend the architecture. The objective is to create an architecture framework for a Retail Delivery Management Solution that will assist retail banks in effectively managing the presentation of multiple products through multiple delivery channels together with a single view of the customer.
  • Assisted a major bank in the implementation of a management information and funds transfer pricing system. This involved an initial business analysis phase to determine requirements and to select appropriate funds transfer pricing methodologies, followed by a data extract phase to determine how to extract data from current operational systems into the management reporting system.
  • Assisted a major bank in performing the business analysis to determine the requirements for implementing a system to track and measure the Key Performance Indicators of chief managers.
  • Conducted an extensive analysis of the support services that NCR was offering to a major banking customer and formulated a unified services strategic plan that linked the various services already offered and identified additional services that could be of value to the customer.
  • Evaluated the technical merits of several third party products and technologies for possible inclusion in AT&T product offerings. This included a client/server development environment and a performance analysis and benchmarking tool.
  • Assisted a major building society in developing a client/server architecture and applications development environment based on NCR TOP END as a middleware environment.

Papers

 I presented several papers on client/server architectures to several seminars and conferences:

AT&T/NCR Australia (NCR)

auug9301.gif (3936 bytes)

I was employed in February 1992 as a UNIX and Relational Databases Technical Consultant working in the Systems Engineering Division. I was responsible for providing in-depth technical knowledge and support in the following technologies and products:

Role

 My areas of responsibility included:
  • Providing systems analysis and design consulting
  • Acting as technical leader for pre-sale and post-sale situations (coordination of technical team)
  • Project management of customer installations
  • Pre-sale activities (account planning, customer presentations, proposal preparation, demonstrations and benchmarking)
  • Migration planning and application porting (help identify issues and develop plan)
  • Technology selection consulting (such as choosing a relational database or development environment)
  • System performance consulting and capacity analysis/planning
  • Operational procedures consulting and disaster recovery planning
  • Third level support for client/server technologies like NCR TOP END

Achievements

 My major achievements at NCR included:
  • Awarded the NSW Branch Employee of the Month twice: once for outstanding work in supervising the resolution of a customer incident, and again for the design, project management and delivery of a system to a customer
  • Assisted in the porting of several major applications to the NCR platform
  • Helped supervise, construct and execute several major performance benchmarks on behalf of customers and vendors.
  • Provided course instruction (on database design)
  • Acted as the primary technical liaison to several major database and UNIX software vendors
  • Created and maintained an internal mailing list for NCR consultants on UNIX database technologies
  • Designed a special purpose transaction management and load balancing system for regulating access to the Teradata decision support system.
  • Acted as a technical team leader for various pre-sales (demonstrations) and post-sales (implementations) projects.
  • Acted as a project manager for several critical large-scale installation projects, including for a large telecommunications company.
  • Supervised the resolution of severe performance issues on two customer sites: a ladies fashion retail chain; and an electrical product distributor. On the first site, the customer was deeply dissatisfied and was threatening litigation if the problem is not resolved within two weeks.

Papers

 I presented a session on Performance Tuning for Relational Database Applications in the AUUG'93 (Australian UNIX Users Group) conference.

State Bank Victoria / CBA (SBV)

CBA-LogoStill.gif (535 bytes)

I joined in February 1990 as a Treasury Analyst within Treasury Systems, which forms part of the Domestic Treasury Division of the bank. My objective is to assist the Division by providing the systems and the functionality that is necessary to give the dealers a competitive edge in the financial markets, especially in the area of derivatives.

Role

 My role within SBV included:
Business Analysis
I was responsible for assisting the Bank in determining algorithms and formulae in the area of financial modelling and risk management, including bond hedging strategies, the construction of special purpose zero coupon curves, exotic option pricing and risk analysis.
Systems Analysis and Design
This involved evaluating proposals for new systems development projects, analysing business requirements and converting business specifications into system designs. I also acted as a technical liaison with the Information Systems Division who was responsible for the implementation of the systems. This involved working closely with the dealing team and their managers in understanding the issues involved and designing a solution that met the business requirements. We typically used the SBV Workbench (based on Excelerator) as a CASE tool, and systems development was done using C and Oracle development tools such as SQL*Forms, SQL*Menu and SQL*Report. Data was stored in the Oracle RDBMS as well as within a proprietary record manager.
Technology Architecture
I was required to evaluate new and upcoming technologies and trends in information system design, including new user interfaces, deal capture and information retrieval, object-oriented design and development, and new hardware platforms.
Systems Maintenance
I was partly or wholly responsible for coordinating the maintenance of some production applications. This includes designing, implementing, and supporting the applications, which included pricing, risk management, trading, deal capture, management reporting and arbitrage.
Database Administration
I was also given the responsibility of administering the Oracle RDBMS, which is used manage the data stored by the trading systems. This involved coordinating and managing development activity involving Oracle, providing technical support to database designers and programmers, capacity planning, and evaluating new tools for database connectivity and access.

Achievements

 Some of my achievements included:
  • Designed and implemented various pricing tools.
  • Designed and implemented a new zero coupon curve for hedging options.
  • Consulted on option pricing formulae for the new options trading system.
  • Reorganised the Oracle physical database layout and implemented procedures for database backup and recovery.
  • Designed a disaster recovery strategy. The strategy describes procedures for migrating users and data from the production machine to the development system in the event of a loss of service.
  • Migrated the majority of existing applications from using a proprietary flat-file record manager for data storage to a fully relational data model on Oracle.
  • Migrated existing applications from the OSx BSD to System V environment for enhanced portability and long term supportability.

Papers

 I wrote a paper on UNIX password security (entitled UNIX Password Encryption Considered Insecure) in conjunction with Philip Leong for the USENIX Winter 1991 conference held in Dallas, Texas.

New Role at CBA

 After the merger of SBV with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in early 1991, I was briefly involved as an IT Architect the Treasury Architecture Project in Institutional Banking, which had the charter of defining the technology and architectural infrastructure for Institutional Banking systems.

Optech International (Optech)

I was employed in March 1988 as a Systems Analyst. Initially, I worked on enhancing the in-house synthetic option trading and management system, which was written in a combination of C and Ingres/ABF (a 4GL).

Role

 Subsequently, however, I became one of the lead architects responsible for the design of a Foreign Exchange Options Trading System to be marketed and sold to major banks and option traders. The project was codenamed "Tesla" and was designed to take advantage of a distributed client/server processing features such as concurrency, collaborative processing and fault tolerance. Tesla was implemented using Sun workstations (running SunOS), the X Window System and Sun servers (running Sybase). The system was implemented using a combination of C and C++.

I was responsible for part of the data design of Tesla, and wrote the functional specifications and detailed design of several major components of the system, including:

  • A custom-built transaction processor that monitored all database access and auditing,
  • Security access services,
  • Implementation of all option and hedging instrument pricing models,
  • A distributed, real-time fault-tolerant portfolio position evaluation and re-balancing service that replicates and distributes itself across idle network nodes, and
  • Graphical display and charting facilities.

Papers

 The design and architecture of Tesla is documented in a paper (entitled Distributed Computing and Risk Management) that I wrote in conjunction with Tim Posney (who was one of the architects of the TOPS system, a sister product designed for interest rate over-the-counter options trading). The paper was published in the SunTech Journal (Vol 3 No 1 (Winter 1990) pp. 46-52).

Bain & Company (Bain)

I was employed as a part time UNIX System Administrator and Systems Programmer in July 1986 for the Fixed Interest Division. Initially, my job involved administering the division's HP 9000 Series 320 system running HP/UX.

Role

 My job responsibilities involved:
  • Writing UNIX systems software in C and the Bourne/C shells,
  • Installing and updating in-house and packaged software,
  • Designing and implementing a backup and restore strategy design, and
  • Other systems administration related tasks.

Achievements

My major systems project involved the design and implementation of a device independent screen manipulation and forms handling library (a library is a set of routines callable from application programs) that allowed programmers to easily generate and manipulate data entry screens on character terminals in a consistent way.

I also participated in the design of a generic Bond pricing library that allowed various types of bond-like financial securities to be priced.

One of my major achievements was porting the money market pricing tools and other applications from UNIX to MS-DOS, allowing the smaller overseas branches of the company access to a critical subset of the dealing applications that ran on the UNIX system. This involved converting all UNIX dependent code to MS-DOS and attempting to fit a large application within the memory constraints of personal computers.

Rational Research

I was employed on a casual basis in July 1985 as a Software Engineer. Rational Research was the research & development subsidiary of Thomas Clark & Sons and was engaged in the development of security access and environmental control systems. These systems are based on custom-designed 8088 motherboards connected to peripherals such as access key readers, lift controllers and environment sensors.

Each motherboard runs a proprietary in-house developed real-time, multi-tasking operating system (written in C and 8088 assembler) plus a control program (written in C). Motherboards are connected to one another via a proprietary message-passing network based on RS-422 connections. An RS-232 connection to a PC allows a user to change access control list and modify system settings via a friendly user interface. Another RS-232 connection allows a terminal to be hooked up for interactive diagnostic activity.

Achievements

 During my period at Rational Research, I designed and implemented door access and lift security control programs. The door access control program performs access validation when a magnetic key is inserted into a key reader (based on an access control list stored in memory). The lift security control program is an extension of this concept controlling entry into various floors within a building based on the access level of the key holder.

I also participated in implementing some components of the proprietary operating system for the motherboards, including:

  • the diagnostic interface (which allows an RS-232 terminal connected to the motherboard to change system parameters and monitor system status) and
  • a machine language monitor (which allows interactive real-time debugging of the operating system and control programs).

University of Sydney

syduni.gif (6944 bytes)

I was employed on a casual basis by the University of Sydney in various capacities:

As a programmer, I was responsible for developing programs and tools for analysing laboratory data.

As a tutor, I was responsible for supervising computer science labs and tutorial sessions and assessing student performance in assignments and lab exercises.

Strengths and Skills

Professional Strengths

Technical Exposure