China General Manager, April 2007
Established Geni's China Representative Office.
Singapore Entrepreneurs' interview of me.
APAC Strategy Director, February - March 2006
I unofficially started my new role as Asia Pacific's strategy director, but
before I could accept the formal offer and move to Singapore, I got the Geni.com
offer.
China Country Product Manager, July 2005 - Jan 2006
After successfully
launching PayPal China, Alan relocates to Shanghai and becomes the China
Country Product Manager. A crazy year and a half goes by, where Alan is
part of the Executive Staff of the China office. We do a ton of EBFs
(Emergency Bug Fixes), EFRs (Emergency Feature Requests), and huge products that
have little effect in the supremely difficult China internet environment.
The competition is fierce, nimble and free. The regulatory environment is
muddy. The financial instrument PayPal assumes - credit cards - are hardly
used in this cash society. So in lieu of successful products, we do
strategy. Believe it or not, it works. We focus on where we're
strong - cross-border - and suddenly all of our numbers are in the positive and
the team is energized. However, payments is the tail on the e-commerce
dog. Once eBay announces a JV with TOM Online, PPCN's future is
diminished. Time for me to move on...
Group Product Manager, June 2004
Alan got promoted to Group Product Manager to lead the development of
PayPal for China.
Senior Product Manager, February 2004
Alan got promoted to Senior PM after a long delay because the merger with
eBay pushed back all promotions. The Merchant Services team expanded to
cover not just
small businesses but also
large. While managing the features to satisfy enterprise customers, he
launched
PayPal Web Services (APIs).
Check it out at
https://developer.paypal.com.
Product Manager, August 2002 - February 2004
Alan is a Product Manager on Paypal's
Merchant Services team. He is
responsible for increasing revenues from small businesses with tools such as
Merchant Referral Bonus,
Subscriptions,
Mass Pay,
Instant Payment Notification
(IPN), and hopefully one day, APIs.
I had this "ReBay" idea originally on 11/26/01.
On 3/1/03, this article on
AuctionDrop was
printed in the SJ Mercury News.
Senior Product Manager, April 2000 - July 2002
Alan is the Senior Product Manager for the Jamcracker Platform. He defines vision, strategy, and functional requirements for Jamcracker's
web services delivery platform. He also develops the pricing strategy, interacts
with media and analysts, trains sales, and assists on customer visits. He
represented the company for WS-I (Web Services
Interoperability).
Prior to the layoffs, his "SUMO" team of 4 handled the workspace (GUI), data
warehouse, and syndication.. He drove the portal builder
software selection process for the redesign of the portal. He also created
the 2001 Corporate Roadmap working with the leadership team, marketing,
architecture, engineering, customer care, web design, and customers. As
the interim Customer Support PM, he introduced several new support products
desperately needed by the field.
Prior to his promotion, he was the Product Manager for the Marketplace,
during which he developed the strategy for the marketplace, identified and
evaluated potential ASP partners, worked with Business Development to negotiate
the contract, managed Engineering and Service Delivery to introduce the service,
and delivered collateral to Marketing and Sales.
Partner Manager, July 1999 - April 2000
Alan was a Partner Manager at Worldprints.com.
His business development role in the West Coast office includes promoting the
Private Label Partnership (PLP) program. He was only there for 6 months
before Excite@Home acquired the company.
Worldprints was a consumer marketing company building customer loyalty and affinity with
image-based products and services.
Director, 1998 - June 1999
Manager, 1994 - 97
Used to be called Andersen Consulting when I worked there.
San Francisco office
Senior Consultant, 1993 - 94
Staff, 1991 - 1993
Other Miscellaneous Jobs
- summer internship at Teradyne
- 3 summer internships at Electric Boat, a division of General Dynamics
that makes the nuclear
submarines - even boarded a nuclear sub as it was being built
- Jack's Corncrib - popcorn store in the Crystal Mall
- tried to sell Cutco knives but my mom ended that pretty quick
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Consulting Experience
WESTT, Inc.
Alan was a Director in WESTT’s Consulting Services Group. He
was responsible for managing business process design and implementing information
technology projects. He worked at WESTT for over 5 years, helping the company grow
from building GUI's for the factory floor to helping HP come up with their e-commerce
strategy.
Mr. Tien has over 8 years of consulting experience designing and
implementing new information technology tools based on core business processes. Mr. Tien
has worked with Fortune 500 clients in the food processing, high technology,
telecommunication, and service industry. He specializes in delivering mission-critical
solutions developed from a deep understanding of the client’s business processes. He
works closely with users from all levels and departments to ensure the new technology will
support business objectives. Technically, he has been programming for ten years, with
experience in most major languages and databases on many significant computer platforms.
This technical breadth of experience gives him a solid foundation to estimate application
development and implementation effort accurately and create practical system designs.
Alan has experience in leading technical teams in systems
development and functional teams in business process and system design. Prior to joining
WESTT, he was a Senior Consultant within the Technology Integration Services arm of
Andersen Consulting, where he gained practical experience building large computer systems
using a proven methodology.
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Consulting Projects
- Hewlett-Packard - As
Project Manager, I developed the e-commerce strategy pilot for the Resins group in the IPO
(International Procurement Organization). The pilot not only required the
development of the e-commerce technical infrastructure but also the day-to-day business
processes.
- E-Commerce - Installed a pilot TRADEX
Procurement 5.0 e-commerce package on an NT platform. The installation used
Netscape Enterprise Server 3.6 as the webserver, Netscape Directory Server 4.0 for the
LDAP authentication, and Oracle 8.0 as the database. The TRADEX solution uses Java
applets to provide a richer user-interface than the common HTML interface found in other
e-commerce solutions.
- Merger & Acquisition - Project managed the implementation of a
modified Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
package at Sentex, which had been acquired by
the much larger company, The Chamberlain Group
(mostly known for making garage door openers for Sears). Helped define the new
business processes and then ensured proper decision support from the information
systems. Successfully brought on-line order processing, accounts receivable, general
ledger, accounts payable, inventory, purchasing and receiving. Created Desktop Help
of the Business Processes in Lotus Notes, providing step-by-step, drill-down instructions
on how to follow the new business processes using the new computer system.
- Semiconductor - Advised on an internal project for the SiPER
Division of WESTT (SiPER addresses the semiconductor fab productivity and operational
performance improvement in an exciting new way). Developed an OEE (Overall
Equipment Effectiveness) module to measure a semiconductor workcell's performance.
- Food Processing - Designed and developed much of CROP, which won the Food Processing magazine's Editor's Choice.
- Smucker's - Performed the
software selection for a MES (Manufacturing
Execution System) for Smucker's, the jam &
jelly company.
- Fresh Express - Assisted
in the high-level design of the Order Fulfillment Process (OFP) for Fresh Express, including the creation of the new
business process for each of the functional areas and the development of the Value Matrix. Wrote the original version of
the Technical Architecture. Managed the Material Acquisition team in the development of
the process design, functions and features, and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) vendor
demonstration scripts.
- Fresh Express - Designed the process for Fresh Express to measure
and predict the quality of lettuce before it is harvested. Information gathered with this
Quality Index process can improve business and operational decisions within the
client’s conversion process. Facilitated the team’s efforts in defining the
index and planned experiments to test it. Designed and managed the development of the
Personal Data Assistant that collects the quality data directly at the field. The project
resulted in a clear, reliable, and objective communication link between field and plant,
allowing the plant to prepare for the incoming lettuce and adjust for quality variations.
This advanced preparation by production should increase Conversion yield, decrease labor
costs and reduce rework.
- Pacific Bell - Designed the
technical architecture of a multi-million dollar inventory control system. As the
technical team lead on the project, I also designed and coded the programming shells for
the client/server system architecture to support both vt100 terminals and handheld
computers. The system used C and 4GL to access an Informix database on an HP 9000 server.
- Sun Microsystems - Led the team
that created the manufacturing "cell" of a critical marketing event for 4,000 of
Sun Microsystems’ key customers. Orchestrated the integration of SAP R/3, Avalon MRP,
i2 Technologies Rhythm Finite Scheduler, and a custom shop-floor application
written in CIMLINC LINKAGE. The integrated applications ran on pre-release Sun servers and
workstations. Wrote the technical script, trained the actors, and provided
behind-the-scenes technical support. Managed the logistics of moving and setting up $100
million of hardware from the development site to Moscone Center in San Francisco.
- Smucker's - Managed the design and implementation of a new step in
the recipe of the cook room batch control system, which integrated Allen-Bradley PLCs,
Intellution DMACS, Gupta SQLWindows and OS/2 Database Manager. Wrote an overview of the
system functionality and technical architecture.
- Disk Media - Designed an automated cassette tracking system using
the Wonderware MES package InTrack with auto-sensing barcodes. The system ran on Windows
NT with Microsoft SQL-Server as the database.
- DHL - Created the functional
designs for a complex service directory system. As programming supervisor of a team of 5
developers, helped deliver the system in a record 7 months. The system was cutting-edge
technology at the time, being one of the first Unix and C implementations undertaken by
the San Francisco office of Andersen Consulting.
- Conner Peripherals - Wrote a Common User Interface using Gupta
SQL-Windows to allow management to easily and graphically access data from disparate data
sources on several different computer platforms. Added database links to key Wonderware
systems to insert real-time production data into an Oracle database on a Sun server.
Designed and managed the implementation of a quality data collection system using a
client/server architecture.
- StorMedia - Designed and managed the implementation of a
client/server data collection and analysis system that replaced an error-prone manual data
collection process. The system ran in a Class-5 cleanroom with many poorly-educated
workers; thus, the system had to be robust yet user-friendly. The tool not only simplified
the data collection process but also provided graphical history and trend reports directly
to the production and quality managers’ desks.
- Pacific Bell - Programmed conversion modules for the major billing
project on an IBM mainframe. Performed several data conversions bringing applications
on-line into production. Wrote the programs to handle the "NPA Split"
(converting telephone numbers of the Los Angeles area during the introduction of the 310
area code).
- Advanced Micro Devices - Programmed
and tested an asynchronous module in a warehouse distribution control system on the VAX.
Investigated the effort required to convert the corporate database from the hierarchical
IMS structure to the relational DB/2 structure.
At WESTT, Mr. Tien performed many essential internal tasks such as
recruiting, proposal writing, sales calls, methodology development, and web site
maintenance. He also initiated and heads up the partnership with ORSI America and
GE Fanuc. With GE, WESTT successfully
developed a Target Control System for the GM Shanghai plant.
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Education and Training
Mr. Tien graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. in Electrical
Engineering with a concentration in Computer Software. He has also attended several
Andersen Consulting training classes, including Systems Integration, Technical
Architecture Design, Client/Server Development, and Distribution Management. Furthermore,
he has been formally trained on the software packages SCT Adage, Microsoft SQL-Server,
Borland Delphi, Gupta SQLWindows, ORSI CUBE, GE Fanuc CIMPLICITY and Tracker, Wonderware
InTrack, AT&T ISTEL Witness, and Informix database. As part of his initiation
into the e-commerce world, he was trained in Java at Sun and then in TRADEX's e-commerce
package.
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Technical Skills
Standards
Software Packages
- TRADEX Commerce Center (acquired by Ariba)
- SCT Adage
- Microsoft FrontPage, Image Composer, and GIF Animator
- ORSI CUBE
- Wonderware InTrack and InTouch
- GE Fanuc CIMPLICITY and Tracker
- AT&T (now owned by Lanner) Witness
GUI Development Environments
- Microsoft J++
- Borland JBuilder
- Microsoft Access
- Borland Delphi
- Gupta (now called Centura) SQLWindows
Programming Languages
- Java 2.0
- C
- COBOL
- BASIC
- FORTRAN
- Prolog
- Smalltalk
- Ada
- Lisp
- Assembly
Databases
- Oracle 8.0
- Microsoft SQL-Server
- Microsoft Access
- Informix
- SQL, Stored Procedures, and ODBC
Platforms
- Microsoft NT, 95, 3.1, DOS
- Unix
- VMS
- IBM
Presented at the ISA 42nd International Instrumentation Symposium on Automated
Manufacturing Systems Using the Client/Server Model.
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