Managing Director
Randall has been involved in the IT industry since the mid 1970’s and became a software development professional in 1980 when he joined Facet Data Inc. in Montreal as a software developer. With direct mentoring from the President, a Concordia University professor, Randall became adept at building robust, long-term solutions for Facet’s clients. Moving to Toronto in 1982 to study at the University of Toronto specifically to gain strong theoretical understanding of Computer Science, Randall linked up with Vericom Systems Ltd., as a programmer/analyst. With that company, Randall was involved in the development of: a database-engine; bank funds transfer system; satellite communications; and data encoding. As well, Vericom afforded Randall the opportunity to act as a user-liaison for an on-air election forecasting and tabulation system for a TV network.
At University of Toronto, Randall did two undergraduate thesis papers in programming language design and change management of database structures.
In the mid 1980’s Randall moved into the independent consulting world, providing software development and training services to banks, pharmaceutical companies, and software development firms. On one security analyst contract, with Data Design Systems Inc., Randall identified a significant market opportunity to DDS management. This began a decade long relationship.
As Director of Client Services, and Director of Product Management, Randall played a lead role in the overall strategy for the configuration management product set for DDS on the Tandem NonStop™ Kernel (now HP) platform, including supporting facilities. Key products Randall that was directly involved in developing and managing include: The Revision Management System (RMS – now PrimeCode™), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and Remote Procedure Call (RPC).
In 1998, Randall resumed his consulting business including contracts as architect and database administrator for Victoria’s Secret Stores (VSS) data warehouse implementation. Working with the business analysts in the VSS group to deal with rapidly changing requirements, Randall got the push he needed to found Nexbridge Inc. to foster the Product Management approach as a communications vehicle between users, developers, and senior management. He continues to be an active participant on Nexbridge service delivery teams and now leads our Product Architecture group.
Mr. Becker is a published, key subject matter expert in Software Configuration Management, Zero Latency Enterprises, product management, software architecture, change management and agility, solution deployment, and their related business process analysis and design, as well as HP NonStop systems. A selection of his publications are listed below. He also engages in public speaking and has been a keynote within the NonStop/Connect community.
- What Git Means to the NonStop Community, Randall S. Becker, Connection Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015
- Are You Ready For The Zero Hour, Randall S. Becker, CIO Canada, September 2000
- Taking Back What Is Ours, Randall S. Becker, CIO Canada, December 1999
Randall also does some volunteer work, and was on the Board of Directors of the Richmond Hill Board of Trade for six years. He also is a contributor to the ITUGLIB Technical Committee. His Open Source contributions include git and OpenSSL where he is the platform maintainer for the NonStop platforms.
Randall holds a B.Sc., from University of Toronto, where he was also President of the Computer Science Students for two years, and D.E.C. from Vanier College in Montreal. He also reached multi-engine and instrument ratings as a private pilot. His core values are agility, wisdom, passion, leadership, results, and above all, integrity.
Randall can be contacted here.