Mark S. Choate Resume¶

Mark S. Choate & Co., LLC: 2017-Present¶

Senior technical consultant for the deployment of new enterprise applications:

• Design data and integration architecture strategy for the implementation of a new title management system using an api gateway, micro services and Informatica.
• Establish hybrid cloud/on-premise infrastructure architecture with Amazon AWS, EC2, DirectConnect.

Hachette Book Group, New York, NY: 2016-2017¶

Launched HBG’s enterprise architecture practice. Architect and design web applications and business information systems at Hachette Book Group:

• Formalized the architecture role at Hachette Book Group and created new positions of Data Architect and Solution Architect.
• Created standard templates for architecture artifacts, introduced an application inventory, application profiles, data flow diagrams, deployment diagrams, integration inventories, and established technology and development standards.
• Prepared 5-year application architecture roadmap.
• Served as solution architect for HBG’s author portal, using Liferay, AngularJS, and SQL Server, deployed in Microsoft Azure with integrated reporting using Microstrategy APIs.
• Designed the architecture for refactoring legacy applications to use Microservices based on the Spring Framework.
• Performed an architectural assessment of Informatica’s data integration tools in use by Hachette Book Group as part of a strategy to move away from a batch-oriented integration strategy to a strategy that prioritizes real-time or near real-time integration.

Hachette Book Group, New York, NY: 2013-2016¶

Directed the development of all web applications and business information systems at Hachette Book Group:

• Managed on-shore and offshore development teams, using Java, PL/SQL, and Python languages.
• Defined, documented and deployed new software development process to improve quality through code 
reviews, automated testing and continuous integration.
• Launched B2B portal for customers of Hachette Book Group using Python, Django, MongoDB, and Oracle.

Hachette Book Group, New York, NY: 2010-2013¶

Technical lead for all external-facing Web application development. Accomplishments include the development of Hachette Digital Platform (HDP), a Django-based application that provides a ReSTful interface used by a variety of mobile applications to maintain up-to-date content about authors, or to facilitate purchases of content through iTunes.

Transparensee Systems, Inc., New York, NY: 2009-2010¶

Transparensee is a fuzzy matching and faceted search solutions provider serving media and related industries.

• Automated build and deploy environment solution in Amazon AWS, using EC2, with Auto Scaling.
• News, events and venues faceted search implementation for Newsday.
• Next generation classified advertising fuzzy matching search application for Atex (written in Django).
• A system of JavaScript-powered widgets used to filter and display search results, streamlining deployment of Transparensee search interfaces.

The Choate Group, Washington DC: 2003-2009¶

Provided consulting services in interactive content development and technical communication serving news media, and marketing organizations. During this time, I accomplished the following:

• Development projects with meprice.com, The Athens News, Future Systems Consulting, Capstrat.
• Development and strategy consulting services to a wide variety of clients, including The United States Patent and Trademark Office, The North Carolina Community College System, and The Samueli Institute.

Georgetown University, Washington, DC: 2007-2008¶

• Thesis Advisor: Served as a faculty advisor to a graduate student thesis project that examined the issues surrounding Net Neutrality and its potential impact on the coverage of news.
• Computer Programming for the Humanities (CCTP-713-01): Taught students the Python programming skills required to produce innovative content in the new Web 2.0 world.
• The Technology of News: Implications for public policy, journalism, and the news business (CCTP-671-01): This course examined newspapers as a technology, as a product that is bought and sold within a broader economic environment, and as a product of the institution of journalism that serves a special role in democratic societies.

The News & Observer, Raleigh, NC: 1994-2003¶

Directed all Internet publishing initiatives throughout the company, managed a department of 20 employees. Under my leadership, we established a content strategy for newsobserver.com that emphasized breaking news, interactivity and multimedia that achieved the following:

• newsobserver.com became the leading local news site in the Raleigh/Durham region, and ranked third in the nation in terms of local market penetration, behind Austin and Washington D.C, according to The Media Audit (2001).
• newsobserver.com was named the best newspaper online service in its circulation category by Editor & Publisher magazine in the 2001 EPpy Awards.
• Developed systems and processes that reduced operational costs, reduced head-count, and increased revenue by streamlining the news production, news archiving and online publishing efforts.
• Led the company-wide effort to publish classified advertising on the Web and developed innovative products that lead to several “firsts” for the industry. We were one of the very first newspapers to do the following: Develop online-only classified advertising products.