Dr. Richard. S. Wheeldon

Phone: +44 (0) 20 7737 3857

E-Mail: richard@rswheeldon.com

Date of birth: 5^th October 1977

As an experienced Java developer and technical lead with 15 years experience in software development, I have consistently delivered effective, working solutions for leading organizations – mainly in security related areas. I have worked heavily with Java, Linux, SQL databases XML and related technologies.

I have authored several peer-reviewed papers, two conference posters and one patent application. I have also co-authored a book chapter and presented two posters at conferences. A full list of publications is available at http://www.rswheeldon.com/pubs/

My personal interests include SCUBA diving, horse-riding, Go and travel. Since leaving Cisco, I’ve been travelling around the world and am now looking for a new leadership role in London.

Employment History

Technical Lead – Cisco CWS (December 2009 – October 2014)

In 2009 I joined ScanSafe shortly before it was acquired by Cisco to become Cloud Web Security (CWS). Cisco CWS provides secure web browsing for schools, government and companies using a large-scale HTTP proxy that inspects over 6 billion Web requests daily. Having been promoted twice, I eventually took over technical leadership for the entire CWS development team (around 30 engineers). My duties have included:

• Defining and leading new projects to improve the CWS service such as policy tracing, improved anti-malware capabilities, SPDY support, enhanced RBAC.
• Being responsible for the diagnosis, reproduction triage and resolution of escalations from customers and operational teams, including software defects, configuration issues, performance problems, memory and capacity issues and network issues.
• Working with other teams and stakeholders to define the architecture for integration projects with other Cisco technologies (e.g. WSA, ISR, SourceFire, OpenDNS).
• Developing new features and implementing numerous efficacy and performance enhancements
• Presenting talks on Cisco Web Security internally and externally.
• Writing and reviewing Java, XML, SQL, Spring, JNI and similar code in an agile environment.

Technical Specialist – Reuters (June 2007 – December 2010)

My time at Reuters was divided between developing and then supporting three major news agency related projects all with a common tech stack of Java, Tibco JMS and MySQL:

• A web application for video asset management system
• A project to improve online video distribution
• A distribution platform to handle all Reuters agency content (Text, Pictures, Graphics and Video) developed in collaboration with a team in New York.

Senior Software Developer – Geoquip Worldwide (June 2004-June 2007)

Geoquip is a world leader in physical perimeter intrusion detection systems. I was responsible for the development of a Security Management System called GeoLog which was installed in over 150 prisons, military sites and other secure areas throughout EMEA and the US. During my time at Geoquip I:

• Architected and developed a multi-threaded, multi-terminal, message-based, fully internationalized thick-client application using Swing and PostgreSQL running on Linux
• Wrote drivers for communicating with detection systems and CCTV equipment using various protocols via RS232, UDP, TCP/IP and SSL.
• Developed a report generation system using SQL to interrogate the database, XML to structure the data and XSL:FO to format it. Related changes made to the Apache FOP AWT viewer were contributed back to the Apache project.
• Performed numerous management functions, including interviewing candidates, presenting to customers and liaising with out-of-house translators, installers, technical authors and graphic designers.
• Performed system administration tasks on the Linux firewalls, file and print servers.
• Designed the PCB for a new IP-based alarm annunciation panel using Protel

Developer - University College London (June 2002-March 2004)

Taco is a system for the presentation of online coursework, used by members of several departments throughout the University, chiefly the Computer Science department. As the primary developer I:

• Liaised with staff and students to determine the requirements for the new system.
• Redesigned and implemented the entire system in Java using Struts and Oracle.
• Redesigned the Oracle-based database schema and associated SQL migration scripts.

Chief Programmer - NavigationZone (October 2000-May 2002)

Since research into hypertext navigation and trails was central to my PhD thesis, when the company NavigationZone was set-up to develop and exploit this technology, I was offered the job of chief programmer leading a small team collaborating on design, development and testing. During this time I:

• Developed new algorithms for document summarization and indexing and implemented them in Java.
• Designed and implemented a web-based information retrieval system using Berkeley DB, JSPs, servlets and Cocoon (XML/XSLT) under Tomcat.
• Designed and conducted experiments to test accuracy, performance and usability then refined both the algorithms and the implementation.
• Installed and maintained a small cluster of Linux servers.
• Presented work done at NavigationZone at international conferences.

Java Developer - University College London (May 1999-October 2000)

Worked in a small team in UCL's computer science department along with partners in Europe on a authoring system for language tutors during which I:

• Developed sections of the asset base software for XML and metadata processing, security and access control using Java, JDBC, Oracle, XALAN, Xerces, etc.
• Travelled to the sites of European collaborators to present results, demonstrate new prototypes, discuss technical and pedagogic issues and install the developed software.
• Provided technical supervision for MSc students and training for system administrators.

Qualifications

Academic

• PhD Computer Science, 2003, University of London (Birkbeck)
• BSc (Hons) 2:1 Computer Science, 1999, University College London
• A Levels (Computer Science, Maths, Physics), 1996, Mackworth College, Derby

Other

• Cisco “Security Ninja” green belt, 2014
• Rescue Diver, 2010, PADI
• First Aid at Work, 2009, Red Cross
• Java 5 Master, 2007, Brainbench (Highest score in UK, 5^th highest worldwide)
• XML Concepts Master, 2006, Brainbench (2^nd highest score in UK)
• Java 2 – GUI Master, 2006, Brainbench (2^nd highest score in UK)
• Java 2 – Non GUI Master, 2006, Brainbench (7^th highest score in UK)
• SQL (ANSI) Master, 2006, Brainbench (6^th highest score in UK)
• Oracle 9i Administration, 2006, Brainbench
• OO Concepts, 2006, Brainbench
• OO Design Patterns, 2006, Brainbench
• Java 2 Fundamentals Master, 2006, Brainbench (2^nd highest score in UK)
• Bash Shell Scripting, 2006, Brainbench
• Java XML Technologies, 2006, Brainbench
• RDBMS Concepts, 2005, Brainbench
• Information Technology Security Fundamentals, 2005, Brainbench
• Linux Administration (General) Master, 2005, Brainbench
• Sun Certified Java Programmer, 2003, SunEd

References

Vijay Gupta, Manager, Cisco

Paul Bates, Design Manager, Geoquip Worldwide Ltd.

Angela Sasse, Professor of Human Centred Technology, UCL