Tomasz Kotarba

Past

IT Manager at Land Securities Group PLC
CTO at Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund
Software Engineer at SourceForge

Independent IT Consultant (Self-employed)
Senior IT Specialist at Agencja Reklamowa S4
Chief Network Administrator / IT Manager at ACN Joint
System Administrator, IT Director at ICON Polska / Internet Construction

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Education

The Open University
Akademia Ekonomiczna w Krakowie
Profesjonalna Szkola Biznesu Szkola Wyzsza w Krakowie

Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie
Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie
Dynamind School in Cracow
Policealna Szkola Technik Informatycznych in Cracow

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Recommended

12 people have recommended Tomasz

Connections

137 connections

Industry

Information Technology and Services

Tomasz Kotarba’s Summary

Experienced postgraduate with excellent academic background. True computer geek who learnt his first programming language in 1986 at the age of 12, before even getting his first microcomputer (and learnt over a dozen computer languages since then). Extensive knowledge of GNU/Linux Systems Administration (over 10 years experience), computer networking and internet security, application servers and middleware. About ten years commercial experience in IT. Knowledge of OO (object-oriented technology), UML, C++, Java, Python, PHP (and more). Experience in managing projects and working in multicultural environments for organisations of all sizes, including FTSE100.

Tomasz Kotarba’s Specialties:

- IT management

- information systems

- middleware

- web development

- object-oriented software engineering (OOA/OOD/OOP, UML, Coad-Yourdon Methodology, C++, Java, Python, PHP, JavaScript, shell programming and more)

- system & network administration and security

Tomasz Kotarba’s Experience

IT Manager

Land Securities Group PLC

(Public Company; LAND; Real Estate industry)

April 2007 — February 2009 (1 year 11 months)

Following Land Securities Group's (one of the FTSE100 corporations and the world’s third largest real estate investment trust) acquisition of SMIF in February 2007, and after the successful integration with the new company's ICT infrastructure, my main responsibility is to maintain and further develop the specialized PPP/PFI management information system I single-handedly created for SMIF (main focus: business intelligence). Apart from the virtualisation platform (VMware) I used as a foundation for the load-balancing cluster with fail-over capabilities to host the system, all technologies employed by me to build the system are Open Source. For example:

- Debian GNU/Linux operating system

- Python programming language

- ZODB (Zope Object Database) and ZEO (Zope Enterprise Objects) ZODB storage implementation

- Zope (Z Object Publishing Environment) application server

- Apache web server

- CMF (Content Management Framework) for Zope

- Plone content management system
CTO

Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund

(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

January 2006 — April 2007 (1 year 4 months)

I am in charge of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) for SMIF (Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund) which is the biggest secondary private finance initiative investor in Europe and one of the largest European infrastructure investment and management groups. It is a leading provider of liquidity to infrastructure project investors and developers in the UK and European PFI/PPP market.
Software Engineer

SourceForge

(Public Company; social work; Information Technology and Services industry)

2005 — 2006 (1 year )

CACANMS is an Open Source project hosted by SourceForge.net.

I designed, implemented, deployed and maintained a library of about 60 classes and a distributed system that can automatise many network administration tasks (e.g. firewall rules generation, internet links load-balancing and failover, traffic control, client authorization, keeping hosts database etc.).
Independent IT Consultant

Self-employed

(Self-Employed; Information Technology and Services industry)

1998 — 2006 (8 years )

Some of my Clients:

2001 to 2003 (several contracts) - PASTAN-POL - hired as a System Administrator, Software Developer, Network Security Expert

1999 (several contracts) - PROINWEST ART - hired as a Network Administrator

1998 to 1999 (several contracts) - ABA (a part of Polish Linux Companies' Consortium) - hired as a teacher of GNU/Linux operating system
Senior IT Specialist

Agencja Reklamowa S4

(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)

2005 — 2005 (less than a year)

Three month contract.

S4 is/was ranked as 11th advertising agency in Poland.

Reference letter (excerpts):

'During relatively short period of his employment, Mr Tomasz J. Kotarba managed to identify and resolve all major IT-related problems affecting our company'

'... thanks to his ability to apply Open Source solutions wherever possible, our company was able to make substantial savings'

'... was able to make a very significant improvements to our IT infrastructure'

'... demonstrated professional competence, maturity, and good judgement'

'... positive attitude and has earned the trust and friendship of all his colleagues'

Skills used:

- database, network & system administration (several different operating systems)

- internet security

- software development

- computer & network technical support

- information systems (procedures and organizational structure; groupware solutions)
Chief Network Administrator / IT Manager

ACN Joint

(Non-Profit; social work; Computer Networking industry)

1999 — 2004 (5 years )

ACN Joint is/was the largest ACN network in Cracow:

- over a dozen of volunteer network administrators

- several hundred machines

- more than 20 buildings connected

- a few dozen kilometres of cabling (fiber-optics and copper & some use of wireless technology)

- several different servers and routers

- several internet links

- many different services (e.g. IRC, WWW, FTP, Jabber, samba, Direct Connect, WWW proxy etc.)

Duties and achievements:
Designed organisation and procedures. Managed a group of volunteers. Negotiated contracts and interacted with the outside world on behalf of ACN Joint. Made financial decisions. Created and managed all the main servers (including internet routers and firewalls). Designed, implemented, deployed and maintained software supporting the network.
System Administrator, IT Director

ICON Polska / Internet Construction

(Internet industry)

1999 — 2000 (1 year )

Managed IT infrastructure: a few dozen DNS domains, virtual servers, mail servers, DNS servers, FTP servers, WWW servers etc..

Interacted with clients as a consultant and support specialist.

Partook in the company strategy planning (advisory powers only).

Tomasz Kotarba’s Education

The Open University

Certificate , Contemporary Science , 2008 — 2009

- cosmology,
- particle physics,
- biochemistry,
- genetics,
- molecular biology
Akademia Ekonomiczna w Krakowie

Master's Degree (postgraduate) , Informatics and Econometrics , 2002 — 2004

1st Class Honours POSTGRADUATE MASTER'S DEGREE.

Major: Information Systems

Master's Thesis entitled 'Theoretical Foundations and Implementation of Computer Aided CAN Management System' (written entirely in english). Final examination performance and master's thesis AWARDED WITH DISTINCTION.

Graduated FIRST IN FACULTY (20 000 – 30 000 students & four faculties at my alma mater).
Profesjonalna Szkola Biznesu Szkola Wyzsza w Krakowie

Bachelor's Degree (Hons) , Management and Marketing , 1998 — 2002

1ST CLASS HONOURS Bachelor's Degree.

Major: Business Management

Bachelor's Thesis in Software Engineering. Its title can be translated into english as 'Computer Accountancy System : Analysis and Design UML Model'. Final examination performance and bachelor's thesis both AWARDED WITH DISTINCTION.
Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie

Psychology 1999 — 2000
Uniwersytet Jagiellonski w Krakowie

Physics 1996 — 1998
Dynamind School in Cracow

advanced learning techniques 1997

Training in advanced learning techniques (mnemotechniques, speed reading, time management, effective concentration, heuristics, mind mapping).
Policealna Szkola Technik Informatycznych in Cracow

Associate's Degree , Computer Science , 1994 — 1996

Additional Information

Tomasz Kotarba’s Interests:

systems science, bioscience & biotechnology (genetics, gene therapy, cancer research, life extension), nanotechnology, cryonics, computer science, open source, business intelligence