Paul Shelman

tl;dr

I'm a long-time software geek / leader / architect / product owner / innovator. I code in many languages, grow and mentor teams, and ensure big systems get built right. I have a history of repeatedly delivering real production software, that has actually been scaled out and proven to be maintainable over many years. I believe in the symbiosis between good code and good teams. You have to be nice to both. After a few decades, I've gotten pretty good at it.

bio

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CLARITY

Global network of air quality monitoring. Sensing-as-a-service.
Doing something good for the world.
Current gig

VP Software

Clarity builds low-cost sensing devices that measure air pollutants and environmental metrics. These devices are solar powered and relay the data over cellular connections to the cloud. In the cloud, reference data is collected from much more expensive monitoring stations and then custom logic (statistical and machine-learned) calibrates the low-cost sensed measurements for scientific accuracy. All this information is enhanced for analysis, made available by API, and presented on public and subscription web apps.

Paul leads the globally-distributed software team. The work is heavy on IoT, Web, Eventing, and AWS back-end processing. All modern technology. It's both fun and we're making a difference. Turned the company technology from quick startup code to reliable, production engineered systems. Made it easy for less technically savvy customers to deploy and operate networks of sensors around the world. Created a high-leverage engineering team where few people manage a lot of ongoing development and operations.

VISTAPRINT / CIMPRESS

Seriously scaled out e-commerce and innovation in computerized graphic design.
Rocketship growth: Pre-IPO to over 10,000 people and $2.5B in revenue
15 years

VP Technology

Vistaprint lets anybody create a graphic design online, that will get custom manufactured and delivered to their doorstep. Everything runs globally and at web-scale.

Paul's focused on Vistaprint's Design & Content systems, re-casting about fifteen years of legacy capabilities into microservices for an inversion of control world. On an innovation kick, he built algorithms and machine intelligence for dynamic designs. The software ensures that every customer can create attractive, unique & personalized products - that look like they were professionally designed - even if the customer doesn't have graphics expertise. A design might be cast onto any of thousands of products/variations, adapting itself to the physical properites of each custom product (size, shape, opacity, substrate, resolution, manufacturing technology, etc).

Previously, he led the Omnichannel Experience technology team building cloud apps, in-store technology and click & mortar integration between the Vistaprint website and Vistaprint's physical presence -- Vistaprint STUDIO. Customers walk into a retail setting and collaborate via remote technology with graphics professionals to achieve a customized design.

Paul was in charge of the Commerce & Customization engineering teams at Cimpress, the parent company of Vistaprint and of many acquired custom printing companies. These teams launched a global web platform for commerce in custom manufactured products -- cloud-based microservices for merchant websites and manufacturing plants to tie together into a custom-print wholesale network. While leading this effort, Paul was tickled to be a finalist for the first Boston's Best Technology Manager award by Tech In Motion, in 2015.

Cimpress was born as the original Vistaprint became quite large and reorganized into multiple businesses. Prior to that, Paul led the Generate Demand engineering teams at Vistaprint, responsible for attracting new customers, product selection, design customization, global payments, pre-press processing, and white-label integration for Fortune 500 partners.

Four patents (three pending, one issued).

EVARE

Processing a boatload of financial data for the big guys.
2.5 years

CTO at Evare, leading the technology groups responsible for the Evare Data Network™. The EDN was a high-availability service that linked financial institutions around the world, performing acquisition, transformation, and delivery of critical financial data. This service was particularly valuable in STP (straight through processing) applications or when financial data must be quickly consolidated/distributed in one-to-many and many-to-one situations. The EDN was used for portfolio synchronization, treasury management, trade allocation, clearance & settlement, custody reconciliation, and securities lending. Evare was acquired by SS&C in 2009.

MERRILL ITG and D.E.SHAW

Brokerage and wealth management brought to the web, when it was all just getting started.
Startup → sold → big company.
10 years

First Vice President of Merrill Lynch Intelligent Technologies Group where he led the Merrill development group based in Cambridge MA. This group specialized in web-enabled financial services for finance professionals (investment advisors, money managers, and middle office), online client access, and the back-end technologies to support that access. Paul was responsible for bringing Merrill Lynch to the internet for domestic retail access ( Merrill Lynch Online and Merrill Lynch Direct), for making Merrill professional tools available via the internet ( TGA Online, Money Manager Services), and for creating a suite of Wealth Management tools that let advisors apply Modern Portfolio Theory techniques to high-net-worth households. While at Merrill, Paul assisted Merrill's venture arm in Boston-area venture capital activity, served on the Board of Directors of InteQ, and advised the allocation of a $20M research partnership with MIT (funding programs at the Media Lab, Lab for Financial Engineering and CSAIL).

ITG was acquired from D. E. Shaw & Co by Merrill Lynch in 1999. Prior to the acquisition, Paul was Senior Vice President of D. E. Shaw Financial Technology, LP. (DESoFT), where he built the team and the technology responsible for the ORBIT^™ system. ORBIT was a real-time online brokerage product that enabled financial institutions to rapidly bring their traditional investment services available to their clients over the web. ORBIT was first deployed for FarSight Financial Services in 1995 and then provided on an OEM and ASP basis to larger institutions, eventually leading to the Merrill Lynch acquisition.

At DESoFT, Paul ran a design/build team across three locations (Cambridge, Santa Clara, and Hyderabad, India). He participated in the hire of the senior management team and in the sales and development of OEM applications to national banks and brokerages. Paul was intimately responsible for the technical architecture, user experience, and external APIs. Paul also served as a member of the IT Executive Committee for the parent company, responsible for coordinating the enterprise use of all technology for D.E. Shaw & Co, a prominent hedge fund in NYC.

ATTAIN

Retail desktop productivity app for Windows/Mac.
2.5 years

Vice President of R&D at Attain, where he built groupware applications for Windows and Mac. The flagship product was called InControl - a personal information manager with a hierarchical grid vibe. Paul brought it from the Mac to Windows.

NETG

Startup → sold → acquiring other companies. Cool interactive technologies.
12 years

A founder and the technical lead of New England Technology Group. Led the development of innovative public interaction systems for large corporations, government agencies and public institutions. NETG was one of the first companies to commercialize interactive video and computer graphics technology developed at the MIT Media Lab. Had a lot of fun designing and building engaging interactive exhibits for preeminent museums around the world. Paul was instrumental in the sale of NETG to Dynatech Corporation in 1987.

MIT

Interactive computer graphics and video systems
EECS

Graduated from MIT in 1980 with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Paul worked at the MIT Architecture Machine Group and Media Lab developing user-interfaces, highly graphical database systems and interactive video applications.


tl;dr		I'm a long-time software geek / leader / architect / product owner / innovator. I code in many languages, grow and mentor teams, and ensure big systems get built right. I have a history of repeatedly delivering real production software, that has actually been scaled out and proven to be maintainable over many years. I believe in the symbiosis between good code and good teams. You have to be nice to both. After a few decades, I've gotten pretty good at it.
bio click to open sections		CLARITY Global network of air quality monitoring. Sensing-as-a-service. Doing something good for the world. Current gig VP Software Clarity builds low-cost sensing devices that measure air pollutants and environmental metrics. These devices are solar powered and relay the data over cellular connections to the cloud. In the cloud, reference data is collected from much more expensive monitoring stations and then custom logic (statistical and machine-learned) calibrates the low-cost sensed measurements for scientific accuracy. All this information is enhanced for analysis, made available by API, and presented on public and subscription web apps. Paul leads the globally-distributed software team. The work is heavy on IoT, Web, Eventing, and AWS back-end processing. All modern technology. It's both fun and we're making a difference. Turned the company technology from quick startup code to reliable, production engineered systems. Made it easy for less technically savvy customers to deploy and operate networks of sensors around the world. Created a high-leverage engineering team where few people manage a lot of ongoing development and operations. VISTAPRINT / CIMPRESS Seriously scaled out e-commerce and innovation in computerized graphic design. Rocketship growth: Pre-IPO to over 10,000 people and $2.5B in revenue 15 years VP Technology Vistaprint lets anybody create a graphic design online, that will get custom manufactured and delivered to their doorstep. Everything runs globally and at web-scale. Paul's focused on Vistaprint's Design & Content systems, re-casting about fifteen years of legacy capabilities into microservices for an inversion of control world. On an innovation kick, he built algorithms and machine intelligence for dynamic designs. The software ensures that every customer can create attractive, unique & personalized products - that look like they were professionally designed - even if the customer doesn't have graphics expertise. A design might be cast onto any of thousands of products/variations, adapting itself to the physical properites of each custom product (size, shape, opacity, substrate, resolution, manufacturing technology, etc). Previously, he led the Omnichannel Experience technology team building cloud apps, in-store technology and click & mortar integration between the Vistaprint website and Vistaprint's physical presence -- Vistaprint STUDIO. Customers walk into a retail setting and collaborate via remote technology with graphics professionals to achieve a customized design. Paul was in charge of the Commerce & Customization engineering teams at Cimpress, the parent company of Vistaprint and of many acquired custom printing companies. These teams launched a global web platform for commerce in custom manufactured products -- cloud-based microservices for merchant websites and manufacturing plants to tie together into a custom-print wholesale network. While leading this effort, Paul was tickled to be a finalist for the first Boston's Best Technology Manager award by Tech In Motion, in 2015. Cimpress was born as the original Vistaprint became quite large and reorganized into multiple businesses. Prior to that, Paul led the Generate Demand engineering teams at Vistaprint, responsible for attracting new customers, product selection, design customization, global payments, pre-press processing, and white-label integration for Fortune 500 partners. Four patents (three pending, one issued). EVARE Processing a boatload of financial data for the big guys. 2.5 years CTO at Evare, leading the technology groups responsible for the Evare Data Network™. The EDN was a high-availability service that linked financial institutions around the world, performing acquisition, transformation, and delivery of critical financial data. This service was particularly valuable in STP (straight through processing) applications or when financial data must be quickly consolidated/distributed in one-to-many and many-to-one situations. The EDN was used for portfolio synchronization, treasury management, trade allocation, clearance & settlement, custody reconciliation, and securities lending. Evare was acquired by SS&C in 2009. MERRILL ITG and D.E.SHAW Brokerage and wealth management brought to the web, when it was all just getting started. Startup → sold → big company. 10 years First Vice President of Merrill Lynch Intelligent Technologies Group where he led the Merrill development group based in Cambridge MA. This group specialized in web-enabled financial services for finance professionals (investment advisors, money managers, and middle office), online client access, and the back-end technologies to support that access. Paul was responsible for bringing Merrill Lynch to the internet for domestic retail access ( Merrill Lynch Online and Merrill Lynch Direct), for making Merrill professional tools available via the internet ( TGA Online, Money Manager Services), and for creating a suite of Wealth Management tools that let advisors apply Modern Portfolio Theory techniques to high-net-worth households. While at Merrill, Paul assisted Merrill's venture arm in Boston-area venture capital activity, served on the Board of Directors of InteQ, and advised the allocation of a $20M research partnership with MIT (funding programs at the Media Lab, Lab for Financial Engineering and CSAIL). ITG was acquired from D. E. Shaw & Co by Merrill Lynch in 1999. Prior to the acquisition, Paul was Senior Vice President of D. E. Shaw Financial Technology, LP. (DESoFT), where he built the team and the technology responsible for the ORBIT^™ system. ORBIT was a real-time online brokerage product that enabled financial institutions to rapidly bring their traditional investment services available to their clients over the web. ORBIT was first deployed for FarSight Financial Services in 1995 and then provided on an OEM and ASP basis to larger institutions, eventually leading to the Merrill Lynch acquisition. At DESoFT, Paul ran a design/build team across three locations (Cambridge, Santa Clara, and Hyderabad, India). He participated in the hire of the senior management team and in the sales and development of OEM applications to national banks and brokerages. Paul was intimately responsible for the technical architecture, user experience, and external APIs. Paul also served as a member of the IT Executive Committee for the parent company, responsible for coordinating the enterprise use of all technology for D.E. Shaw & Co, a prominent hedge fund in NYC. ATTAIN Retail desktop productivity app for Windows/Mac. 2.5 years Vice President of R&D at Attain, where he built groupware applications for Windows and Mac. The flagship product was called InControl - a personal information manager with a hierarchical grid vibe. Paul brought it from the Mac to Windows. NETG Startup → sold → acquiring other companies. Cool interactive technologies. 12 years A founder and the technical lead of New England Technology Group. Led the development of innovative public interaction systems for large corporations, government agencies and public institutions. NETG was one of the first companies to commercialize interactive video and computer graphics technology developed at the MIT Media Lab. Had a lot of fun designing and building engaging interactive exhibits for preeminent museums around the world. Paul was instrumental in the sale of NETG to Dynatech Corporation in 1987. MIT Interactive computer graphics and video systems EECS Graduated from MIT in 1980 with a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Paul worked at the MIT Architecture Machine Group and Media Lab developing user-interfaces, highly graphical database systems and interactive video applications.