Pioneering
the intersection

of Solar Energy and Digital Information

since the 1970's

Specialties

Specializing in Solar Energy Information Systems, Solar-powered Digital Infrastructure, Clean Technology, Comprehensive Architecture, Sustainable Economics, and Responsible Entrepreneurship.

Supporting Healthy Ecology via Creative Technology:

Environmentally-responsible initiatives within the Energy, Finance, Logistics, Manufacturing, Distribution, Retail, Ecommerce, Entrepreneurial, Utility, Recycling, Governmental, Meteorological, Geospatial, Agricultural, Biotech, Medical, Research, Educational, Publishing, Travel, Hospitality, Telecom, Media, Software, Hardware, Electronics, and Semiconductor sectors since 1975.

Services

Expertise on Systems Strategy and WebApp Tactics (Browser / Mobile / Embedded / Enterprise)

Providing strategic technology platform and planning advice; Web-integrated digital systems architecture, design, and prototyping; plus implementation, tech transfer, training, tuning, mentoring, consulting, advisory board, fractional-CXO, and strategic lifecycle support services.

Perspectives

I tune my entrepreneurial ventures toward maximizing ecosystemic health, by forming win-win-win relationships: you benefit, I benefit, and the wider ecosystem benefits.

I tune my professional services to your goals, your constraints, your priorities, and your people.

Clients

My development and consulting clients have included NASA, Xerox, Disney, HP, Apple, EPA, D&B, CBS, Kodak, Epson, Fujitsu, Valtech, DBR, Elixir, InterBit, CSC, Stereographics, SGI, Cable & Wireless, Unisys, SoftwareAG, Conexant, Symantec, SunGard, CapitalOne, Apax Partners, Bankers Trust, and The Financial Times.

I have also been paid to present (trainings, seminars, workshops, keynotes, briefings) to professionals from JPMorgan, GoldmanSachs, Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, EDS, CSC, Barclays, One2One, Orange, Reach, Amdocs, Nokia, Comverse, Earth Island Institute (pro bono), Friends of the Earth, NASA, Xerox, SGI, Compaq, Motorola, and hundreds of other organizations ranging from large energy, environmental, financial, media, telecom, government, and industrial enterprises to entrepreneurs, startups, consultancies, and R&D organizations across 5 continents.

Foundations

Back 30 years ago, there were very few of us in CleanTech. Bridging Ecology and Technology was a risky venture into interdisciplinary synthesis, and not for the faint of heart. But my ecosystems (solar, wind, weather, climate) simulation & visualization "eco tech" beachhead was already well established by [March 1981]: I had just finished creating a 700 page study for NASA Ames Research Center entitled "Interactive Computer Graphics: The Human Interface to Dynamic Simulation" capping off a 6 year period during which I:

  • [1975] began putting my FORTRAN skills to profitable use by coding exploded bill of materials and streamlined design and cost estimation for electric power substation development for a utility industry client (which opened my eyes to early opportunities for applying software to improve the grid)...

  • [1974-76] as a high school senior and then Princeton freshman, analyzed original source materials and over 80 commentaries on the pioneering Forrester World Model / Club of Rome / Limits to Growth global systems dynamics simulation initiatives, and refuted each point of critique via academic paper and in debate against several dozen Woodrow Wilson School grad students in Prof Richard Falk's Systems of World Order seminar...

  • [1977-78] founded my first software development consultancy, in alliance with a regional minicomputer salesforce which doubled its sales due to my availability as a custom software development resource...

  • [1979] wrote a 15-year-future supercomputer market study for top management at the second largest computer company in the world...

  • [1978-79] wrote the first MIMD parallel processing version of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies atmospheric model (including solar income, wind flows, temperature dynamics; implementing the Navier-Stokes equations of Computational Fluid Dynamics at planetary scale) to simulate the atmosphere of the earth for weather prediction and climate modeling...

  • [1979] wrote more CFD code for numerical windtunnel simulation (for airfoil (wind turbine, aircraft, Space Shuttle) design) as an employee of the Laboratory for Computer Scienece at MIT...

  • [1979] expressed strategic perspectives on Solar Energy that [1980] made it onto US national television...

  • [1975-81] met and was inspired by Buckminster Fuller, Jay Forrester, Richard Falk, Amory Lovins, John Todd, Barry Commoner, John Archibald Wheeler, Andrew Weil, William Irwin Thompson, Richard Rorty, Sheldon Wolin, James Beniger, Langdon Winner, Chuck Moore, John Whitney, Donald Knuth, and other key interdisciplinary luminaries... and

  • [1978-79] helped invent for NASA Ames Research Center a parallel processing architecture to become the world's fastest supercomputer (20 times faster than the Cray).

That 1975-1981 slice is a 6 year sampling out of 4 active decades.

Big Picture

2013 is the 40 year anniversary of when I woke up to the planetary-scale environmental challenges facing our species (and largely caused *by* the success of our species). I had already been an electronics hobbyist since age 7 in 1964, and on TV as a computer enthusiast in 1968, and writing computer programs since I began high school in 1971.

But in it was in 1973-74 that I realized I could apply my gifts in computer programming and digital graphics as a contribution toward solution of our most pressing public challenges. After 1974-75 newspaper articles chronicled my dedication to apply computer simulation and visualization to help solve our global environmental problems, the 1975-1981 Foundations naturally followed.

Since 1981, the trajectory has accelerated. You're welcome to ask for details; here are just a few highlights:

  • energy-efficiency educational videogame for Disney EPCOT;

  • award-winning "Ecological Design: Inventing the Future" documentary film animation;

  • founding companies in the 1980's delivering pioneering management tools to environmental/design/geospatial markets;

  • hosting of a few dozen of the world's first environmental websites;

  • sponsoring over 40 creative, cocreative, and ecocreative events;

  • serving on the Board of Directors for the El Paso Solar Energy Association and other green organizations;

  • serving on the Board of Advisors for TerraCycle and other green startups;

  • founding companies in the 2010's to synergize solar energy and digital technology;

  • and throughout it all, developing a wide range of software technologies implementing the above themes and customizing those technologies to meet the business needs of clients, partners, licensees, and marketplaces.

Hardcore

2012 December update: Integration Architect for a $1B+ company about to merge with another $1B+ company. Preparing and delivering strategic high level briefings. Interviewing stakeholders to learn perspectives, goals, preferences, constraints. Crafting our medium- and long-term Integration Architecture. Research of upcoming SOA & ESB market dynamics and maturing platform alternatives. (Coverage includes topics, categories, standards, interfaces, products and modules including ESB, SOA, Governance, WebServices, WSDL, SOAP, REST, JCA, JMS, SCA, EIP, BPMN2, jBPM, Drools, TIBCO, webMethods, Mule, Apache CXF, RESTeasy, IronJacamar, Infinispan, ActiveMQ, HornetQ, Spring Integration, ServiceMix, JBossESB, FuseESB, Apache Camel, Switchyard.) Hands-on ESB qualification and prototyping working toward demonstration (demo based upon selection of several of the foregoing plus JMS, JPA, EJB3, CDI, Ajax/Comet, GWT), proof of concept, and pilot stages. Planning leading to parallel and phased buildouts and rollouts.


2012 August update: My work continues to center on HTML5, GWT, JBoss, and Cloud. For a multinational client who is a global player in internet infrastructure, content hosting, and media delivery, I architected and implemented the first generation of CDN-class video streaming network diagnostic framework and initial toolset. Included clientside java network diagnostic agents, html5/gwt/browser admin console, JavaEE6 serverside service suite, JPA2 relational persistence, CDI injection & events, COMET, REST, JSON, Maven, Git. For a startup consumer products client I implemented a prototype image-centric rich-media HTML5 cloud-based showroom for display of designer products. During telephone sales conversations with potential distribution channel partners or buyers at major retailers, my web application will support tactical marketing goals of presentation and promotion, and as public website will support strategic marketing goals of brand positioning and style leadership (while in both cases gathering market data). Substantial work this year has been with SVG in the HTML5 context, along with HTML5 video output (and cutting edge video input), Canvas, DnD, and HTML5 browser-to-native Filesystem APIs. The foregoing involved architectural-level and hands-on development and administrative work with JBoss AS7 and over a dozen JBoss subprojects. I managed multiple PaaS cloud accounts from multiple cloud service providers (as fractional-CIO for 2 startup clients, as consultant providing a collaboration and demonstration space for a corporate client, and as researcher doing cloud technology development.)


2011 October update: I've been creating webapps for Sustainability (tracking/tracing environmental impacts throughout the supply chain and product lifecycle) for one client and for Solar Energy (accelerating legal and business processes for electric utility renewable energy generation adoption and grid connection) for another. My webapps are graphically-rich, open-standards-based, state-of-the-art: JPA2 (Object Relational) & RDF (Semantic Web) backends... my own topology & geometry processors.... my own GWT2 layout & HTML5 Canvas & SVG diagrammatic frontends. As I pass my 40th anniversary of first cutting computer code (FORTRAN in Sept 1971), I am grateful for the open-source tools and open-standard platforms that are making my life so much fun: HTML5, GWT, Errai, JBoss7, and the Java-centric clouds I deploy to..... allowing me to develop full public interactive webapp slices including rich frontend and solid backend and everything in between in record time – yep, we're now hitting on all cylinders!


2011 March update: My primary work over the past 2 years has been architecting/designing/prototyping/developing web applications for healthcare IT, plus for advertising media and solar energy vertical markets. 2 recent successful national launches: my Fortune 50 healthcare IT client (see 2010, below) has achieved full certification, including "meaningful use" requirements for federal stimulus funds under the Recovery Act; our team at my other healthcare IT client completed and demonstrated several weeks ago a breakthrough advance of being the first ever to implement and harmonize both the Direct Protocol and the Connect Protocol of the new US Nationwide Health Information Network. Some of the interesting technical aspects of my work over the past 9 months include: advanced asynchronous (push) messaging among collections of web browsers and/or cloud servers; Google cloud (GAE) Datastore graph persistence tools; advanced tabular reporting capabilities based on the GWT2.1 widget set; demonstrating a range of my GWT/HTML5/GAE/JavaEE apps running successfully on iPad/iPhone/iPod/iOS devices; further deepening JavaEE-interoperating HTML5 capabilities via GWT, including integrating dynamic 2D graphics via Canvas and SVG into the GWT2 LayoutPanel UI model; JBoss async messaging clustering / high availability; GWT-cloud end-to-end integration test architecture; strategizing Android-GWT synergies; extending the HTML5 media envelope into 3D via WebGL, solidifying the cloud platform via JavaEE6, JBAS6, and CDI (and assembling the next-generation tooling to support the foregoing).


2010 September update: In preparation for October overseas, I am now wrapping up deliverables on several prototyping and teleconsulting projects, which include: architecture review and verification ("second-opinion" services), and architecting/prototyping web applications for healthcare vertical, media vertical, and solar energy vertical market customers. Some of the interesting technical aspects of these current projects include: advanced tabular reporting capabilities based on the upcoming GWT2.1 widget set; advanced asynchronous (push) messaging among collections of web browsers and/or cloud servers; Google cloud (GAE Java) Datastore graph persistence tools; demonstrating a range of my GWT/HTML5/GAE/JavaEE apps running successfully on iPad/iPhone/iPod/iOS devices; and further deepening JavaEE-interoperating HTML5 capabilities via GWT, including integrating dynamic 2D graphics via Canvas and SVG into the GWT2 LayoutPanel UI model.


2010 June update: Finishing up my primary project with an intra-preneurial team within a Fortune 50 company. The domain is Healthcare IT, with direct relevance to what has been in the headlines nationally, and specifically targets strategic opportunities funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the "Stimulus"). I was one of the 4 foundational Architect-Developers who began the project from scratch, our progress demos have garnered highly positive feedback, the team has since grown larger and continues to grow. I provided the platform strategy, including the JBoss + GWT architecture. As a GWT / AJAX web application, all navigation among hundreds of dynamic screens is provided within a single webpage. I have collaborated with other team members across a wide range of issues, and I personally have written multiple chunks of the codebase. Based on my substantial background with computer graphics, human interface, web/cloud architecture, content management, and portal systems (including JBoss Nukes and its successor JBoss Portal), I designed and implemented an entire GWT / AJAX dynamic Portal/Portlet system to serve as dashboard and provide user-configurable high-level summary views onto the substantial complexity of the overall system. All code for our app is in Java: the backend is Cloud/JBoss/EJB3/JPA/Oracle; and the frontend is pure web standard (HTML/CSS/Javascript) with no plugins, all generated from our GWT Java code (including numerous subcomponents using GXT (Ext GWT)). Nevertheless, my portal/dashboard provides realtime interactive features such as drag and drop instantiation and rearrangement of portlets (widgets, gadgets), maximization and minimization of portlets, ondemand entity-based creation and persistence of portlets and portal layout, and other animated context-preserving navigation effects.


2009 mid-year status report: Currently working with JBoss/Seam, Google Web Toolkit (GWT), Google Application Engine / Java (GAE), and Nuxeo 5.2 Enterprise Content Management System. Current application domain focus: SmartGrid, Solar Energy, CleanTech, legal/regulatory document management, energy models, geospatial integration, and content-rich web applications. Current platform focus: Linux+JavaEE config, deployment, monitoring, tuning, scaling, admin; building on 31 years of high-performance (ranging from parallel supercomputing grids down to realtime gaming) computing involvement. As of June 2009, 14 years hands-on with Web/Javascript/Java-based human-facing technologies (including HTML, CSS, AWT, Swing, JSP, Java3D, Struts, JSF, JOGL, AJAX (many), GWT), 12 years hands-on with a wide range of Java development tools (including 9 with Ant and 7 with Eclipse), 12 years hands-on with Java-based object & relational backend and mapping, caching, and cloud solutions (Oracle, MySQL, MSSQLServer, multiple other DBMSs; JDBC; ObjectStore; EJB 1, 2.1, 3; Spring; Hibernate; JBoss Cache, JCache, Infinispan, IMDG; GAE/J; JDO; JPA), 10 years J2EE/JavaEE (WebLogic, WebSphere, Tomcat, JBoss), 5 years with open source Java-based content management systems (JBoss Nukes, JBoss Portal, Jackrabbit, Nuxeo), 4 years of with EJB3 (JPA), 3.5 years with SEAM/Facelets, 3 years AJAX, 2.5 years GWT. From 1997 to 2009, well over 10000 hours of hands-on experience using implementations of JavaEE open standards (>70% of which has been with Open Source implementations); complemented by well over 10000 hours of providing professional IT service at the strategic, architectural, managerial, consulting, advising, mentoring, training, analysis, research, and design levels.




2008: Architected SaaS initiative for a major CleanTech industry venture. Full systems analysis and architecture, including requirements, strategy, platform recommendation, project phasing, resourcing and budgeting. Then implemented proof-of-concept and first generation atop JBoss/Seam. Authored FreeMarker JavaEE code generation templates and meta-data management tools. Created and migrated ~100 EJB3 entities in sync with MySQL schema, through multiple rounds of schema evolution, in collaboration with an international team responsible for realtime global data collection from mobile and fixed sources, satellite and internet transmission, and feeding the MySQL repository shared with my SaaS system. Evaluated AJAX alternatives (incl RichFaces, GWT, Seam Remoting, IceFaces, OracleADF / Apache Trinidad), and then used appropriate components from these, together with Google Maps. Created a charting and data reporting dashboard subpackage, utilizing AJAX, JSF, SEAM, serverside-Java2D graphics, EJB3, JPQL. Then provided custom training and technology transfer to offshore team.


2007: For a multinational client in the (non-GMO) food crop genetics sector, performed a range of strategic services across the IT spectrum directly working with the CIO. Analyzed existing legacy applications and planned future migration path for core proprietary genetics R&D-support app suite. Created IT standardization strategy and JavaEE-based enterprise EAI architechture, bridging Oracle ERP and other proprietary JavaEE packages and scattered MS silos, with JBoss/RedHat open JavaEE + AJAX / GWT platform for future development initiatives. Designed interim initiative to support scanned paper image management, document management, content management, and evolutionary collaboration and knowledge management. Researched and evaluated JCR standard, Apache JackRabbit, Lucene, JBoss Portal, Alfresco (Spring-based), Nuxeo (SEAM-based). Exhaustively tracked (roadmap, mailing lists, JIRA, SVN commits, sourcecode), tested, and qualified over 2 dozen versions and interim builds of Nuxeo to arrive at JBoss/SEAM/OSGi-based ECM solution. Distilled requirements matrix, implemented proof-of-concept against all matrix features (including coding OSGi plugins), trained client sys admin staff, transferred technology, and launched operational pilot. Evaluated and recommended 3rd party service providers for operational, support, and maintenance roles. To add specialized document management/scan/OCR capabilities: identified, negotiated licensing, managed, and co-developed the necessary C & Java code to integrate (via JNI and GlueGen) this multilingual OCR engine written in C.


2006: Using JBoss IDE & Hibernate Tools. Active with AJAX & front-end integration with JBoss Portal, SEAM, and EJB3. JBoss5.x tracking; JIRA voting. JBossWorld 2006. Expertise in Declarative-Configuration/Dependency-Injection/Inversion-of-Control containers (SEAM, Spring). Based on a combination of all of the aforementioned JBoss4.x/EJB3/SEAM/pre-certification-JavaEE5 technologies and associated toolsets, singlehandedly managed, needs-assessed, architected, designed, coded, tested, hosted, solidified, and maintained a complete enterprise-class web application for a client in the international green logistics industry, including EJB3-based ETL functionality for database migration from MS SQLServer to MySQL, custom JSF componentry, and with performance exceeding some Fortune 50 intranet sites.


2005: Participated in the inaugural JBossWorld conference; coded one of the first JBossPortal-compatible (pre-SEAM) EJB3-JSF/Portlets; one of the very first adopters to intensively use SEAM. Trained and mentored a COBOL-era Fortune-50 team to leapfrog into the leading edge of JBoss/EJB3/JavaEE green logistics software -- a 5-generation skills transformation within 1 calendar year -- from COBOL & ISAM/VSAM files, thru hierarchical and network databases and structured programming... thru relational databases, object orientation, markup languages, internet protocols.... thru Java programming syntax & semantics, J2SE, JDK, JRE, JVM.... object-relational mapping, extensibility, and the web paradigm..... thru Servlets, JSP, XML, EJB 1 & 2, J2EE, JNDI, JCA, JMS, JTA, JAAS, Hibernate... to the cutting edge of JBoss4.x, EJB3, JSF, and the other emerging elements of JavaEE5.


2004: Giving back to Open Source. Contributing to the primary JBoss content management system and portal of the era, which was called "JBoss Nukes" -- author of main installation docs wiki; frequent helpful forums postings; advised primary committers on architecture; wrote and committed code to CVS for "CMR proof-of-concept for pure-CMP backend architecture for JbossNukes" plus several plugins. Multiple client projects involving JBoss, J2EE, portals, CMS (Content Management Systems). Telephony software research (Java Media Framework; VOIP, SIP, RTP; JAIN low level JCC/JCAT call control APIs and SLEE & SCE telco standards; proprietary (Dialogic, etc)) and development (prototype built on Voxeo VoiceXML SaaS, and another prototype built on GJTAPI open source implementation of the open standard Java Telephony API; + limited Text-to-Speech(speech synthesis) integration); formulated architecture for repurposing end-of-life modembanks to provide super-cheap web voice services for a client serving the cost-sensitive public school market.


2003: Helped client organizations adopt JBoss for general development and deployment. Coding focus: J2EE-EJB-XML-XSL. 2003 Mid-Atlantic MasterSeries (digital business strategy and architecture in the context of Open Standards & Open Source). By 2003, had delivered management briefings, multimedia events, hands-on workshops, strategic seminars and keynote speeches to professionals from JPMorgan, GoldmanSachs, Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, EDS, CSC, Barclays, One2One, Orange, Reach, Amdocs, Nokia, Comverse, Earth Island Institute, Friends of the Earth, NASA Ames Research Center, Xerox PARC, SGI, Compaq, Motorola, PSA (Port of Singapore Authority), and hundreds of other organizations ranging from large financial, telecom, media, environmental, healthcare, government, logistics, and industrial enterprises to entrepreneurs, start-ups, consultancies, and R&D organizations across 5 continents.


2002: Designed & delivered "IT Architecture MasterSeries" in Perth, Australia covering Java, XML, J2EE, and WebServices architectures -- highlighting the strategic importance of open standards, open source, and JBoss. First person to integrate headless Java3D with JBoss; then used it to design and generate a finished animation for an environmental video. Began using Eclipse heavily. Advised Apple decision makers to adopt JBoss as Mac OSX's bundled J2EE app server.


2001: 11 months in Singapore: First person ever to integrate IBM MQSeries with JBoss (deep JMS and JCA); integrated Oracle backend; then tripled transactional message performance via 2 weeks of tuning (yet still keeping within J2EE standards, MDBs & pure-CMP entity EJBs!).... resulted in better than 50% reduction in HW cost for this Korean banking (mainframe + Oracle CRM) EAI project. (Other major projects while in Singapore included: Advising one of the world's largest telco consortia on data center market strategy, how to host java-based web apps, and where to add value to avoid competing with their wholesale customers. Training domain-name internationalization venture on traditional and Agile Java development methodologies. Training the Java team of the organization that runs the world's busiest shipping port. Training a major wireless carrier's development group how to process XML via Java. Designed and delivered a summit conference (Enterprise Application Integration, and the Strategic Importance of XML) for 50 IT executives impacted by the merger of their employers -- 2 of the 5 largest financial institutions in Singapore. Served on the Board of Directors for an Australian Java-based portal startup, and represented them to the Singaporean VC community. Delivered a number of specialized XML and Java seminars and workshops under the auspices of the largest university in Singapore, and also of the largest European system software vendor.)


2000: When the head of a Sun Microsystems Java R&D lab was hired as CEO of the development arm of a $30M VC-funded online ad/music delivery startup, who did he bring in as his top J2EE guru? Who did he pick to train his team in strategy and architecture? Plus, to give his team a further boost: Architected the entire backend. Developed 4-tier architectural prototype, 200-class UML functional prototype, and human interface prototype -- all based on JBoss2.0 + Tomcat, with tooling from that era including Visual Cafe, Together UML, and early versions of Ant automated build tools. (Additional 2000 engagements (referred to on the testimonials page): "Java Enterprise Architecture" and XML trainings for Capital One, executive briefing on IT Strategy for Goldman Sachs, "What Every IT Manager Must Know About Enterprise Java" for Compaq/Tandem's top-tier clients, plus several more including 2-day JavaOne "Fast Track to Java".)


1998-1999: Leading seminars in Java Enterprise Architecture since 1998; developing and delivering EJB & J2EE trainings since 1999. Close tracking of open source java, especially Tomcat and JBoss since their inception. Open source EJB since EJBHome 1998 (I personally knew the EJBHome authors in London, so I was hot on the lookout for a replacement open source EJB container after they sold out to Iona in 1999); EJBoss/JBoss hands-on since 1999. Evaluated JBoss from adopter perspective since 1999; introducing JBoss to CXO-level clients for increasing range of projects since 2000.


1996-1998: Java programming since 1996; primary programming focus since 1997. Example of one of my pre-J2EE projects.... For a major player in the Digital Factory market (and #1 Computer Aided Production Engineering vendor): Developed a visual, web-enabled Executive Information System / Decision Support System for production-chain oversight. In response to demand from GM, Ford, and other automotive and aerospace customers worldwide, this product allows users to present their robot-automated factory designs for executive sign-off by making animated, 3D, interactive management reports/presentations via web (Netscape browser, Java applet, and VRML (VirtualRealityMarkupLanguage) plugin) to any authorized persons in their company (intranet) and in partner companies (extranet). Managed, designed and implemented from start to finish in only 19 weeks. Authored 100% of all Java application code; personally performed all object-oriented analysis, design, coding, testing, and integration.

Testimonials and Quotations

"Howard combines the visionary talents of a world-class innovator in IT with the synoptic breadth of one who truly cares for this planet and others. He is one of the 1% who look far ahead for our planet -- if you can network, play or work with Howard, I recommend it!"

-- Patricia Rife, Ph.D.
Collegiate Professor, Project Management, University of Maryland University College Graduate School

"No one has a clearer vision for the future of the environmental movement than Howard Pearlmutter"

-- David Brower, the 20th century's #1 environmentalist (Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, League of Conservation Voters, Earth Island Institute; 3-time Nobel Peace nominee), when he convened a conference in 1995 for leaders of environmental organizations to hear Pearlmutter speak on the topic of "Organizing for an Ecologically Healthy Economy"

"Let's get something straight right from the start:

Howard is the rarest of the combination of true genius, diplomacy, and business aptitude.

Howard and I were introduced to one another nearly six years ago, I've hired him on multiple occasions, and we've been cocreating for five years. After having missed -- much to my dismay -- his week-long 'How to Think Like a 21st Century CIO' seminar in 2003, I first hired Howard to present a shorter version hosted by one of my clients. I was so confident in his abilities that I not only put him in front of my own clients, but I opened it up to my network to come in and participate. The feedback (to no one's surprise) was tremendous.

At the time I was providing fractional/interim/outsourced CIO services, as does Howard. He was clearly a consultant's consultant. Since then, I've witnessed and benefited from Howard's prowess mentoring and coaching on many topics at multiple levels of business.

Howard and I have had lengthy and deep discussions about strategy and architecture in many fields of interest: secure development, SmartGrid, Open Standards and Open Source, to name a few. But among his salient themes has always been his 'Goldmine & Greenfield' concept: a metaphor for strategic approaches pertaining to technology responsiveness and investment.

This topic has particular relevance to much of my present work in blending process improvement (CMMI) with Agile development values. The parallels are crisp: if you are always grazing upon the pasture, you may never have deep enough understanding or presence to establish yourself; while if you never emerge from your mine to see what the surface presents or to try to move from one place to the next, you will easily fall behind and by the time the mine runs it course, you're too far back to catch up.

These are parallels to process improvement and agility: all agility and no process and you won't have the maturity to grow or expand; all process and no agility and you won't have worthwhile products or excited customers.

Interestingly enough, Howard had evolved a set of *agile* practices for software development more than 20 years before the 'agile' movement laid its foundation. While he didn't label his ideas 'agile' back then, any review of them would conclude them to be appropriately labeled as *agile* today.

Howard's work crosses many technological and organizational 'silos'. Stemming from his broad hands-on experience (prior to and since his days at Princeton), he can effectively communicate at every level of organization, within any department, and in every culture."

-- Hillel Glazer
Principal & CEO, Entinex, Inc. Author: "High Performance Operations"

"...an adult wearing a kids body... He is also one of those students who may develop our nation's next generation of computers... If we provided these individuals like Howard all the help we could muster, it would speed up the process of change in society... Some who hear Howard's ideas might go farther: That Howard and his kind might save the world."

-- "Few Educational Programs Geared to 'Gifted' Students"
1974 El Paso Times newspaper article

"It has been the highlight of my professional career to be able to work side by side with Howard Pearlmutter. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable about matters of the environment, he is as charismatic of a speaker as I've ever seen. His forward thinking attitude of where the world could go is second to none. If there is one regret regarding my time with Howard is that it didn't last longer. If anyone has an opportunity to work with Howard, they should definitely DO IT! If I had to chance to work with Howard again, I would hop on the opportunity with both feet."

-- Ann Skirvin
President, El Paso Solar Energy Association

"Software AG is proud to present one of the world's top experts in extensible languages, award winning software developer and public speaker Mr. Howard Pearlmutter.

Mr Pearlmutter is known as a world-class technology guru who has a unique ability to accelerate the audience's assimilation of IT knowledge. Since his first international lecture tour on the topic of extensible languages in 1981, he has been in the foreront of helping IT professionals learn about the powerful technologies that have led up to the emergence of XML."

-- Software AG

"The prowess of organizations in harnessing XML technologies is emerging as a key forward-looking indicator of success in ecommerce, in internet service deployment, and in the global financial services competition.

Software AG, as Europe's largest system software vendor and a 30 year veteran in enterprise data management technologies, has taken the lead in addressing the practical and strategic issues raised by XML in enterprise and electronic commerce contexts. This month, Software AG is proud to present internationally known IT expert Howard Pearlmutter to our Singapore business community, in a special series of public XML trainings (in addition to pre-arranged onsite sessions for our strategic clients).

So don't miss this rare opportunity to learn about XML, the standards, and the emerging technologies from a world-class software guru who has unique insight into the issues facing technical professionals today."

-- Software AG, Singapore

"Before you jump on the e-commerce bandwagon... Ask for Howard Pearlmutter -- one of the world's top experts in Java and XML"

-- Software AG

"Howard is a very unique individual. Several years ago I met Howard at an enterprise technology conference when my company was faced with migrating a rather large J2EE application to a new generation JavaEE application server. Howard stood out as somebody with a very broad and realistic view of how the problem should be solved. Having been in the technology business for decades myself, I was initially skeptical that any one person could have such a broad range of expertise and yet also have deep hands-on mastery -- until I met him at his laboratory and worked side-by-side with him for a couple of days.

From the onset, I was struck by the sheer fact that he was still an avid programmer and hadn't veered off into the management world. Also striking: he leaves such a minimal foot print on this planet with no paper, printers or fax machines and no mail, at least of the paper kind. (Howard insists that he is not on a mission to finish off the US postal service... but rather to pioneer ways humans can contribute to a healthier ecosystem.)

I paid Howard at higher rates for those days then I have ever paid anyone in my 25 year technology management career. But the perspectives, insights and knowledge I gained from Howard inspired and empowered me to complete a complex software migration and successfully expand my business domain -- ultimately producing one of the largest healthcare software applications in the world.

If you are fortunate enough to do with business with Howard, keep in mind everything in the workflow is electronic (even down to digital invoicing and payment) and leading-edge. Of all who aided my most recent round of venture success, he's the most colorful. I've told this story many times about Howard; now thanks to LinkedIn, I can share it with the World."

-- Michael Ennis
CEO (multiple successful ventures)

"As a chairman I would like to thank you and your team for the most interesting and professional conference on Java, led by you last Monday.

The presentation given by Mr. Howard Pearlmutter showing the importance of the Java environment was instructive and important. It also showed that Mr. Pearlmuter has a deep understanding and [excels when] explaining and presenting the subject.

Would it be possible to receive the video tape of Mr. Pearlmutter's presentation?"

To: "Rittal, Uzi" <Uzi.Rittal@Compaq.com>
From: Uri Kaufman, Automated Bank Services, and Enterprise Critical Solutions & Products SIG Chairman

"Thanks for the very interesting and useful SIG about J2EE held on Nov 6th, ... by the amazing guest speaker Howard Pearlmutter. This subject is now the hottest in the industry and this SIG opened my eyes and my appetite and I look forward to hear some more of this stuff. Please give Howard my regards and thanks and my hope to see and hear him again."

-- Mati Dgani
IDF

"I wanted to tell you that I have enjoyed very much the Entreprise Java presentation. Howard Pearlmutter has an exceptional gift to give clear and convincing explanations ....You are involved in our new project based on Java and I'm confident that Compaq Israel will be able to help us which such experts in the background.

I'm interested to receive a copy of the video cassette for people from our organization who couldn't attend the presentation."

Best regards
Jacques Klein
(government agency)

"I would like to comment on the lecture that Mr. Howard Pearlmutter held on Monday November 6th, 2000, at Compaq headquarters at Raanana.

I found that session to be a brilliant presentation of Java aspects to the level of managerial and decision takers, who could use the information obtained at this session to start an in-depth evaluation process... for upgrading the organization's IT environment to an up-to-date level.

Please forward this comment to Mr. Pearlmutter together with gratefulness for that wonderful session.

Let me also thank you and Compaq for hosting that event."

Best regards,
Micha Barer,
Yedioth Ahronoth Daily newspaper.

"As Europe's leading consultancy in object and intranet technologies, Valtech has attracted some of the top talent in the field. Our association with over 60 top notch consultants and trainers allows us to be a key enabler of migration to object technology. Howard Pearlmutter's participation has greatly strengthened our offering in this area.

Throughout Howard's association with Valtech in London, beginning in June of 1998, he has generated an exceptional level of benefit for our organisation. Howard was involved with both training and consulting projects, succeeding admirably in both disciplines.

As a trainer, Howard delivered Valtech's flagship Java Enterprise Architectures course, drawing great praise from course attendees. Howard also was responsible for the development of a completely new training course based on Java systems architecture considered to be strategic to Valtech. Howard has always exhibited the two key qualities of a good trainer: contagious enthusiasm and impeccable technical expertise.

As a consultant, Howard was involved with several major consulting missions on which Java and CORBA technologies were used. For example, Howard condensed a 3-day training course into a 1-hour presentation which he then delivered at a high-level briefing at the behest of Sun Microsystems, with which Valtech has a strategic alliance.

Training and consulting do not begin to cover the range of Howard's skills. In his delivery of professional services, he has shown himself to be world class. Any firm should consider itself fortunate to have Howard on their team. We certainly look forward to his future engagements with us."

Sincerely,
Eric Mouilleron
Managing Director, Valtech Ltd.
October 13, 1998

"I would like to take a moment to provide you with information on my professional interaction with Howard Pearlmutter, whom I cannot recommend highly enough to you.

Valtech is a 10-year old, 800-person publicly traded global technology services firm, specialized in training and consulting for international corporations and financial institutions. I was Valtech's sixth employee. I was responsible for launching Valtech's training operations in Paris, London and New York City, and have personally established our business relationships with Lehman Brothers, Alcatel, Goldman Sachs, Verizon Wireless, Circuit City, Bear Stearns, Reuters, Salomon Smith Barney, UBS, Morgan Stanley, JetBlue Airways and many, many other blue chip clients in the US and European markets in a variety of industries.

Valtech's success hinges on the quality of the talent we bring to a situation, and Howard is a perfect example of someone who has helped Valtech by helping our clients to leverage their information assets for business gain.

Howard and I began our professional relationship in 1998 in London, where Howard delivered Valtech's flagship Java Enterprise Architectures course to such prestigious customers as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, EDS, Barclays and Orange Telecommunications. Howard's course evaluations were overwhelmingly positive, and this in turn helped us to solidify our business position with each customer.

Howard also researched and authored a pioneering Java Systems Architecture course. That course leveraged our strong relationship with Alcatel into a foothold in a market which today boasts 200 million Java-based phones, 90% of the world's smart cards, and untold other J2ME-based telematic, embedded, TV, and consumer devices. It's noteworthy that when the Nokia/CSC consortium asked Sun Microsystems for expertise on strategy for embedding Java in next-generation mobile phone infrastructure, Sun turned to their partner Valtech, and Valtech turned to Howard Pearlmutter, who distilled his 3-day intensive course into a successful 60-minute briefing for Sun/Nokia/CSC.

Our team in London, including co-founder and Managing Director Eric Mouilleron, felt strongly enough about Howard's unique value to actively recommend him to counterpart organizations in markets to which Howard was traveling, but in which Valtech had no presence, including Singapore, Israel, and Australia. The reports I received of his performance in these markets were highly positive, and his ambassadorial qualities led to the side effect of Valtech getting the opportunity to license our course material to some of the consultancies he worked with.

After I established the New York operation, I attracted Howard back to additional engagements with us in the UK and US. For example, he delivered our updated Java Enterprise Architectures course - Valtech's most sophisticated - combined with our brand new XML course, to a team of high level developers and architects at Capital One in Richmond, Virginia. This was a rather delicate assignment, as the participants were quite advanced, and required that the combined course be taught in accelerated fashion. As before, Howard's services were extremely well received, and another strategic client was well satisfied.

Howard provided an executive briefing to a select group of technology executives at Goldman Sachs, including Carl Reed, SVP and Global Head of Applications Infrastructure, and Louis Menna, VP Fixed Income, Currency & Commodities IT, and E-commerce. I was in attendance at the briefing and can confirm to you that the participants were strongly impressed not only with Howard's visionary grasp of technology, but his ability to apply it to their vertical domain. In particular, his "Goldmine & Greenfield" model was dead-on for untangling some of their most difficult legacy-migration issues, and demonstrated thought leadership on a par with the best of the management gurus.

I have continued to track Howard Pearlmutter's career, as he has further blossomed into a wide-ranging business seminar leader and keynote speaker. In short, my opinion of Howard is that he packs a top-tier multi-disciplinary international management consultancy into a single body. Whereas most executives are good at providing the vision but aren't endowed with technical proficiency, and in the case of technologists it's the other way around, Howard has impeccable credentials in both respects. I have rarely met a more impressive person overall (and I've met a lot of people, from a decade in top-tier corporate sales), whether in the Information Technology realm or not.

Please don't hesitate to contact me should you need any clarification or further information."

Best regards,
Nick DeToustain
Business Development
Valtech Technologies, Inc.
July 25, 2003

Aditional Info

Additional information available on request:

** Testimonials and references.

** Press clippings.

** Background in Whole Systems, Ecology, Environment, Solar Electicity and Renewable Energy since the 1970's.

** Experience with Java (since 1996) and XML (since 1998); and their precursors (extensible languages) since the 1970's.

** Experience with Web UI (since 1994); digital animation (since 1982); computer graphics programming (since 1974).

** Background with OpenSource (including Free Software back to early 80's and Public Domain back to the 70's), Unix (since 1975; RedHatLinux since 2000), and programming (since 1971).





How can I help you?

I can help you at a variety of levels, from nitty-gritty coding to big-picture strategy -- technology platform and planning advice; systems architecture, design, and prototyping; plus hands-on coding, project implementation, tech transfer, training, tuning, mentoring, advising, and strategic lifecycle support services.


I can bring my expertise in comprehensive systems strategy and state-of-the-art technology tactics to serve your needs in the realms of both Renewable Energy and Digital Information. So whether your interest lies in automating new residential PV business models or in many-megawatt solar power plant EPC, improved GIS for grid-wide innovations or improved lab tools supporting quantum dot breakthroughs, web-based real-time monitoring analytics or mobile/browser-based real-time management dashboards, embedded MPPT algorithms for next generation charge controllers or enterprise-wide IT effectiveness serving sustainability goals, I can help you.


I can even help you by serving on your Board of Advisors or serving in a fractional-CXO capacity. Best of all, you can leverage the full range of expertise I bring as your SolarCIO -- from the widest of big picture ecosystemic perspectives all the way down to digital details.


Pure Web Goodness

In collaboration with your team or individually, I can deliver you pure webapps -- no plugins needed (zero Flash), no platform dependencies (single webapp can handle all desktop and mobile browsers!), no native code (even on Android or iPad/iPhone) --- just pure HTML5, pure CSS, standard media resources (PNG, MP3, etc), and source code in pure JavaScript or pure Google Web Toolkit Java Eclipse/Maven/Git formats.


As appropriate to your priorities... I draw upon my experience in HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, HTTP, AJAX, COMET, REST, XML and the wide open source ecosystem around IETF/Internet & W3C/WorldWideWeb open standards... and I draw upon my experience in persistence, security, scalability, transactionality, asynchronicity and other infrastructure services critical to providing robust multi-tier enterprise-grade webapp deployments to traditional servers, today's IaaS clouds, and tomorrow's emerging PaaS clouds.


A Special Invitation

My passion for healthy ecology has amplified my productivity with creative technology. But to stay productive and keep clear focus, it has often been important to keep a low profile, deter spam, and repel distractions (hard to write code when there are too many invitations to speak at conferences, join speculative startups, etc, etc). I'm grateful for having had a good stream of $1B+ enterprise clients who've highly valued what I brought to the table; delivering that value has occupied quite a big slice of my time (and, while I have rigorously refused to work for polluters and those with below-average environmental trackrecords, many of the projects I've done for the "Better 50%" have not been as directly focused on solar-progress and ecological-benefit as I would like.). Cutting out what could be cut out has been part of my secret to getting so much accomplished, but the cost has been that many on the forefront of the sustainability movement who really could benefit from my services had no way of finding out about me. Or, if they found me, they felt they could not afford me, or I was already overbooked.


Starting today, you and others who would never have found me in the past -- you and others who are doing important work of building a sustainable economy -- can now connect with me directly. And afford to work with me, even if you are a small organization: my technology assets are so large at this point, I likely can invest big chuncks of my past work and accumulated intellectual capital into building your ecologically-responsible project, tuning to your unique priorities in less time than ever before, and thus shift the economics dramatically in your favor. So you now have the opportunity to harness my passion and productivity to boost the probability of your success.


I invite you to connect. Why not collaborate on a project that is profitable for your organization and for me and for the wellbeing of our shared ecosystem? If you aim to bring the power of creative digital technology into service of some aspect of healthy earth ecology, count me in.



(high priority direct email contact)

Moving forward...

Questions? Requirements? What's on your mind? What problems would you like to solve? What opportunities would you like to open up? What would you like to accomplish? How can we help?

You can depend on our maintaining strict confidentiality with your private information. And we certainly will never sell or rent out your email address or phone number. (And never, ever spam you. The problem, if any, would be the opposite -- when we're deep in client project work, we sometimes can't answer all inquiries promptly -- apologies in advance, and please indicate any urgency in your message to us.)

So please enter your email address here:

Please enter your phone number here: