Home - Curriculum Vitae

This page shows my full CV.

First, last name:Giulio Zambon
Email:
Home phone:omitted
Cell phone:omitted
Address:omitted
Citizenship:Australian & Italian
Marital status:Married (no children)

EDUCATION

Doctor of Philosophy in Communication at the University of Canberra, conferred on June 24th, 2016. The title of thesis was Hyperlinks in E-books – Expanding the functionality of end-notes. You can download it from its permanent link.
Doctor of Physics (cum Laude) at the University of Rome (I) on July 20th, 1973. The title of the thesis, in Astrophysics, was Spectral Evolution of a non-thermal Source. You can view the scan of the original certificate in Italian, or its English translation.
Completed for personal interest two Computer Science courses at the Australian National University (Canberra, AU): Artificial Intelligence and Denotational Semantics (C15, High Distinction) and Operating Systems Design (C17, Distinction).
Attended many courses covering technical matters, general and project management, presentation techniques, high performance teams, risk management in projects, and process improvement. List available on request.

LANGUAGES

readingwriting
Italian*fluentfluent
Englishfluentfluent
Germanfluentfair
Frenchgoodfair
(*) Mother tongue

WORK HISTORY

2017-02 - today: Tutor - University of Canberra - Faculty of Science, Technology, and Math.
Introduction to Software Engineering
Software Technology 1
Visual and Interactive Computing
2016-11 - today: Professional Associate - University of Canberra - Faculty of Arts and Design.
2007-02 - today: Author.
Published four books under contract with Apress, an imprint of Springer Publishing of New York, NY (U.S.A.).
Published twelve books of numeric puzzles under contract with MatheMagics Asia, a Math learning centre based in Singapore.
Self-published eight books of IT and numeric puzzles.
Published and self-published several short pieces of fiction and non-fiction, including a blog with 227 posts and more than 140,000 words.
Published an iPad app.
2005-07 - 2007-01: World Television - Glattbrugg (CH)
World Television (Switzerland) was a branch of World Television plc headquartered in London with offices in Zurich, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Madrid, and Sydney (Australia). Approximately half of WTV's 10MGBP/y revenue was generated by providing streaming/webcast services to major corporations and organisations. The Swiss office was responsible for delivering all European webcasts. We developed and maintained our webcasting platform; maintained and operate the IT infrastructure; acquired video signals via telephone/data networks or satellites; generated live and on-demand video streams in multiple languages; produced the webcasts.
Job titles: Head of Technology and Operations (a corporate role)
Chief Operating Officer Switzerland
Letter of reference
Job description: I led a team of 14, 12 of whom were technical (2 developers, 3 IT, 4 technical producers, 3 signal acquisition engineers), and the remaining two administrative staff (finance manager / accountant, office administrator).
In my corporate role I was responsible for all aspects of webcast delivery and act as a technical advisor to the group's executives as member of the group's Senior Management Team. It was also my responsibility to coordinate and authorise the acquisition of IT equipment groupwide as well as plan IT and SW development activities.
As the Head of Technology, I was responsible for all SW development activities and took a direct interest in the maintenance and enhancement of StreamStudio, our webcasting platform. Its design was based on clustered media, database, and Java servers.
As COO of the Swiss office, I was responsible for the day to day management of the branch, deal with public offices, banks, and suppliers, formulate and implement the cost budget (approx 2MCHF/y), HR of the staff including performance appraisals and development plans. In particular, I defined and implemented procedures concerning expense claims, use of corporate credit cards, recording of effort, overtime, and acquisition of equipment. I also reviewed the employment contracts (in German and in English) to ensure their consistency, and standardised the bonus scheme. I wrote job specifications and hired both technical and non technical staff. At a corporate level, I defined the parameters and the procedure to calculate intra-group recharging of effort and capitalisation of development. I wrote strategy documents concerning acquisition of IT equipment, IT security, and ROI-based development. As part of the budgeting process, I wrote a plan to gradually introduce IT virtualisation.
My signature was registered with the Commercial Registry of Canton Zurich ("Kollektivunterschrift zu Zweien"). I reported directly to the Group CEO as no Swiss CEO had been appointed.
The contract was terminated by WTV as part of a company reorganisation, following the nomination of a new Chairman of the Board.
 
2002-01 - 2006-10: SynerVox AG - Adliswil (CH)
Hosting of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) services. All SynerVox's telephone services were designed to be configured by the customers in real time via the Web. The applications ran on a network of MS-Windows and Linux servers, relied on the Jakarta-Tomcat web server and the Firebird relational database, and included modules in Java, Java Server Pages, and XML.
Job title: Co-founder and President
Job description: I did it all, from the mounting of the servers in the racks and their setting up (Windows and Linux), to the development of all services in JSP, Java, XML, and HTML. I also financed the business and took care of all non technical aspects (accounting, invoicing, mailings, social benefits, value added tax, interaction with government institutions ...)
I developed the IVR platform in the Envox environment running under Windows, while the web services were provided via Tomcat on Linux systems. The two environments were connected via a point to point Ethernet link and exchanged information via HTTP. This architecture made possible to provide telephone services that were configured and interrogated by the customers via a web interface. Every change performed by a customer via the web was immediately operational on the telephone side. Customers could also receive notifications of particular events via encrypted email or SMS. The platform I developed made possible to deliver new integrated services within days of their specification.
I reached a maximum turnover of 65kCHF/month and managed to negotiate a contract with Blick, the largest Swiss daily newspaper. Nevertheless, the yearly revenue never reached the levels I had hoped for. I ceased operating the company in October 2006 and sold it on October 15th, 2007.
 
2000-08 - 2002-01: Worldzap - Zug (CH)
Worldzap attempted to bring live video clips to mobile devices, but the technology was not ready. We ran a pilot with Sonera of Finland during the ice hockey world championship and were the first to deliver near-live video to mobile devices (iPaq with HSCSD backpack). The company folded in 2002 partly because of lack of support from the major shareholder (the Kirch Media Group).
Job title: VP Product Development
Letter of reference
Job description:
  • Development concepts with regard to Worldzap's services.
  • Process design and implementation for Worldzap's services.
  • Supply management and procurement.
  • Supervision of service development, both internal and outsourced.
  • HR of the technical staff and hiring of product development engineers.
  • Technical roadmaps and requirement specifications.
  • Budget responsibility related to the tasks.
  • Getting things running in Perl, Java, and JavaScript when needed.
 
1998-11 - 2000-07: Alcatel Group - Alcatel Switzerland - Zurich (CH)
The Swiss subsidiary of one of the major telecommunication corporations.
Job titles: Software Engineering Process Group Leader
Project Manager
Scan of the original letter of reference in German, English translation.
Job description:
  • Initiate, plan, and coordinate SPI activities within the Swiss Development Centre of the Switching and Routing Division (SRD), counting approximately 30 engineers. This involved leading Capability Maturity Model (CMM) self-assessments and integrating corporate improvement actions into the local SPI plan.
  • Contribute to the corporate SPI effort, including participation to SRD-wide CMM assessments and authorship of General Process Descriptions.
  • Support project managers and software practitioners in implementing Alcatel's recommended practices, key rules, and processes.
  • Performed together with SRD's Quality Manager an EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) self-assessment of the Business Division.
  • Led a CHF 1M customer project to integrate, deliver, test, and connect an A1000 S12 digital telephone exchange with Intelligent-Network services; the team involved about 30 people. The exchange was made operational to full customer satisfaction in half the time normally needed.
 
1997-01 - 1998-10: Alcatel Group - Research Centre - Marcoussis (F)
The Alcatel corporate research centre in the South of Paris.
Job title: Senior Consultant
Job description: On a rotational assignment from Alcatel Switzerland to the Software Support Group (SSG) of Alcatel's Corporate Research Centre, to study and propose new software development practices.
  • Contributed to formulate corporate strategies linking software development practices to the business cycle.
  • Introduction of continuous Risk Management practices.
  • Direct support to project managers in improving software development practices and introducing project Risk Management in IT projects.
  • Conduction of corporate-wide product surveys to assess the suitability of Rapid Application Development techniques within Alcatel's Business Divisions. I personally conducted most of the interviews to senior managers and directors of business division in France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, USA, and Canada.
  • Presentation of seminars on software development strategies and software quality assurance as part of Alcatel's corporate training for "high-potentials" in France and in the USA.
  • Delivery of Project Management workshops, in particular in the area of Requirements and Configuration Management.
 
1994-11 - 1996-12: Alcatel Group - Alcatel Switzerland - Zurich (CH)
The Swiss subsidiary of one of the major telecommunication corporations.
Job title: Manager of Software Development
Scan of the original letter of reference in German, English translation.
Job description: Leadership of a team of 15 software engineers and computer scientists working on several projects related to Alcatel's Broadband Test System (A8640) for which the total budget was approximately CHF 3.5M. All the SW was developed in "C", either on Sun workstations or embedded on boards running VxWorks.
  • Decisions and strategies in the evolution, design, implementation, and testing of the product as part of the Broadband Test Systems management team.
  • Coordination of the activities leading to customer releases.
  • Liaison with other teams of the Alcatel Telecom group.
  • Contacts with customers concerning technical issues.
  • Contacts with suppliers of software and hardware concerning technical and commercial issues.
  • Development plan and yearly performance appraisals of the software team engineers. Hiring of software engineers.
 
1992-02 - 1994-10: Rainbow Hill Pty Ltd - Perth (AU)
A company I founded in February 1992 to carry on a consulting contract I had with Alcatel when the previous contracting company was liquidated.
Job title: Director
  • With Alcatel SEL of Stuttgart (D) as a System Consultant to provide Specification and Top Level Design of Network Elements, feasibility of implementation of SMDS and ETSI standards, technical advice to Management and Customer Service. This was an Alcatel Group project involving participants from several Alcatel companies from Europe, USA, and Australia.
  • With the State Electricity Commission of Western Australia to modify a package controlling their experimental aeolic generator.
  • Development, documentation, and marketing of MacDOS, an application providing a Command Line Interface for the Apple Macintosh. I managed to sell it in Europe and the USA at a time when there was no Web and the Internet was non-commercial. MacUser Australian edition gave MacDOS 4 mice out of 5. The application was developed in "C" for MacOS 7.0 but worked on all MacOS releases from 6.0 to 9.2.
 
1990-12 - 1992-06: Xdel Technology Pty Ltd - Perth (AU)
A small engineering company formed to market technical consulting services.
Job title: Director
Job description: I acquired 1/8 of the company to be able to offer the consulting contract (see above) to Alcatel SEL of Stuttgart (D). I also negotiated a contract with Alcatel STR of Zurich (CH). Over the following couple of years, the cumulative revenue generated was of the order of USD 1M.
I Established skeleton operations in Germany and performed all necessary financial transactions, including invoicing, budgeting, bookkeeping, and bank operations. XDEL Technology was liquidated in June 1992 when it became clear that no common vision and strategy was achievable among the six directors. The contract with Alcatel SEL was then transferred to Rainbow Hill Pty Ltd
 
1989-03 - 1990-11: QPSX Communications Ltd - Perth (AU)
QPSX developed the IEEE 802.6 MAN standard into a product that was then licensed to Alcatel and Siemens. The product was organised in four projects: three real-time controllers (Packet Processor, Router, and Cluster Management), and the Network Management platform. IEEE 802.6 was a precursor of ATM.
Job title: Project Manager
Job description: I led the software development for the Packet Processor Access Unit (PPAU). It was a team of 11 engineers. The code was in "C" on the bare board (without OS). I was also responsible for the technology transfer to the major QPSX partners. My responsibilities included both technical and HR related aspects. More in detail:
  • Supervision and guidance of the team throughout all phases of the project.
  • Decisions and strategies in the design, implementation, and testing of the product.
  • Software quality assurance within the project.
  • Project planning and control.
  • Liaison with other QPSX teams and divisions.
  • Technology transfer to the major QPSX partners (Alcatel & Siemens).
  • Yearly performance appraisals and salary reviews of the team engineers.
  • Initiation and drafting of the procedures for source control and configuration management later adopted by QPSX.
 
1986-05 - 1989-02: Prime R&D Australia - Canberra (AU)
The Australian branch of Prime R&D, at the time one of leading manufacturers of minicomputers. We developed datacom software. All development was done in "C".
Job title: Technical Team Leader in the Telecommunications Group
Job description: The Comms Group was in charge of implementing synchronous and asynchronous protocols on Prime's intelligent communication controllers.
My role was to lead a small team through specification, design, implementation, and validation of a product implementing the CCITT X.25 Level-2 recommendation. The target system was the ICS3 Sync/Async Controller and the software was developed with extensive use of protocol analysers and HP 64000 Micro Development Systems.
Main responsibilities:
  • All technical decisions in design, coding, and testing of the product.
  • Coding, testing, and integration of a significant part of the product.
  • Organisation of formal reviews of the project.
  • Quality control of code and procedures within the team.
  • Project planning and control.
  • Preparation of regular status reports.
  • Liaison with other Prime groups based in Australia, the U.S.A., and Europe.
  • Presentations to major clients, both in Australia and in the U.S.A.
  • Six-monthly performance appraisals of the team members.
  • Maintenance of Prime's proprietary Half-Duplex communication protocol.
 
1984-08 - 1986-04: Mount Stromlo Observatory - Canberra (AU)
Mount Stromlo was a division of the Australian National University. I worked in the Starlab project, which was a collaborative effort of the ANU, British Aerospace Australia, and Matra Espace of France.
Job title: Professional Engineer
Job description: I was the only team member working full time on software development. As such, I was responsible for the following:
  • Design and develop the software model of a CCD-based light detector. The difficulty of the model was in understanding the physical processes involved, rather than in the complexity of the coding. It was developed in Pascal under VMS.
  • Design of the software for the Endeavour Experiment, to be flown on the space shuttle. The design involved complex algorithms to ensure the reliable execution of the experiment despite the presence of soft errors due to the presence of cosmic rays.
 
1984-06 - 1984-07: Computer People - Melbourne (AU)
Job title: Software Contractor
Assignment to Elston Micro Pty Ltd, to improve the performance of an existing real time system written in "C".
 
1984-05 - 1984-06: Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology - Melbourne (AU)
Job title: Temporary Lecturer of Pascal
 
1983-12 - 1984-05: University of Melbourne - Melbourne (AU)
Job title: Visiting Fellow
Job description: I had a research grant from NATO to work with the Physics (RAAF) department. My activities were:
  • Development of computer models of atmospheric phenomena, in "C" under Unix.
  • Development of a BASIC interpreter under Unix with YACC.
 
1982-01 - 1983-11: Self employed - Rome (I)
Job title: Software Consultant
Job description: I completed the following contracts:
  • With the Municipality of Rome to develop Health Information Systems in collaboration with the Institute for Biomedical Technologies of the CNR (Italian National Research Council, Rome, Italy).
  • With the Institute for Space Astrophysics of the CNR (Frascati, Italy), to process astronomical observation results in the X-Ray range of the spectrum (enhancement and filtering).
  • With the Veroli spa (Rome, Italy), to write commercial applications in COBOL on Prime systems (stock management, invoicing, bookkeeping).
 
1979-04 - 1981-11: AEG-Telefunken - Wedel (D)
Job title: Development Engineer
Job description: I worked on military application of automatic testing. In particular:
  • I was responsible for designing and developing the software to drive AEG's Digital Test Unit (DTU). The software was written in Siemens assembly language.
  • I developed a program to parse ATLAS source code and automatically generate flow charts.
 
1978-11 - 1979-03: Klaus Schomacker Ingenieurbüro - Wedel (D)
Job title: Development Engineer
Job description: Development of utilities for a Z80-based system
 
1976-09 - 1978-08: Euro-bit srl - Rome (I)
Job title: Programmer / Systems Analyst
Job description: Analysis and development of a model of the Italian Public Telephone Network. It was a substantial development project written in Fortran 77 for HP3000 computers. The model consisted of an indexed sequential database capable of managing telephone connections (several level of modulation, from circuits to quinary groups) and equipment (multiplexers, line terminations, and other equipment found in telephone exchanges). The software package was able to follow individual circuits and suggest re-routings in case of line failure.
 
1975-08 - 1976-07: Centre for Military Applications of the Nuclear Energy - Pisa (I)
Job title: Second Lieutenant of the Technical Corps for Chemistry and Physics
Job description: Analysis of plasma Physics experiments and development of simulation programs.
 
1975-04 - 1975-07: Military School - Rome (I)
Training to serve as a commissioned officer in the Italian army.
 
1974-10 - 1975-04: Public Technical Institute "G. Marconi" - Civitavecchia (I)
Job title: Teacher of Electrical Engineering
 
1973-09 - 1974-10: Laboratory for Biomedical Technologies of the CNR - Rome (I)
Job title: External Consultant
Job description: I supported the research activities of the Laboratory, concentrating on:
  • Organisation of the computer centre.
  • Image processing of epidemiological data.
 
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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