Rolf Ackermann, PhD
RESEARCH AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE
Product Development • R&D Integration • Financial Management
Research and Development executive with experience leading a dynamic, diverse group of R&D professionals including software developers to develop expert commercial software products and lead R&D initiatives within technical and scientific industries.
Houston, TX 77008
(713) 304-7653
rolf.ackermann@gmail.com
Best Practices
Expertise in implementing code management / defect tracking tools, delivering projects on time / on budget, and introducing software development best practices.
Insightful Strategies
Successful at creating insightful product strategies and forging strong stakeholder relationships.
Team Leadership
Excel at translating between technical staff and management, and utilizing team building and creativity skills.
Achievements
Work History
Vice President of Research and Development
A specialist in geophysical consulting services for reservoir quality prediction generating annual revenues of $10 million. Developed R&D strategies and initiatives managing ten technical professionals focused on R&D in rock physics, controlled source electromagnetics (CSEM), seismic inversion, and high-performance computing.
- $11.5 million sponsorship secured for a software development project with a major international oil company by collaborating with the chief technical officer and executing project by guiding staff through the modified Kanban agile method.
- $1 million in sales generated by directing a migration of a legacy product to an updated, desirable, and reliable viable commercial product with expanded capabilities requested by existing customers.
- Achieved a success by steering down a complex development path to bring a product from concept to market and working with developers on guided user interface (GUI), data flow, and program output.
- 50% more efficient code development, defect fixing and reduced turnaround time realized by introducing software source code control, defect-tracking tools and establishing a quality assurance program.
- Contributed to solving long cycle times and increasing accuracy of computer modeling results by collaborating with technical consulting group, also helping boost additional sales.
- 56% decrease in annual software maintenance costs recorded by renegotiating to a per-user model.
- 45 to 50-point improvement in accuracy rates to 85% to 90% attained by creating a method using rock fracture log data from existing wells and seismic attributes such as coherence, relative acoustic impedance, and multivariate statistics to predict fracturing in future wells.
Technology Marketing Manager
A provider of energy exploration and production (E&P) with 74,600 employees worldwide and revenues of $183 million. Marketed upstream E&P technology internally and externally by serving as the technical liaison between R&D and marketing / communications.
- Improved shareholder / investor awareness by producing 50 one-page technical summaries showcased at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) and two heavily attended internal technology events.
(A Halliburton Company) | Houston, TX
Product Manager
A provider of exploration, production, and data management software at Halliburton. Managed the PowerHub and DecisionSpace software infrastructure product life cycle supporting company strategy.
- $6.5 million funded software development project data component managed by working with project and product managers on requirements to expand the OpenWorks Oracle geodata model to satisfy customer needs.
- Served customers better and leveraged product capabilities by migrating an unsuccessful standalone product to infrastructure status connecting to all of Halliburton’s databases, easing installation.
Manager (Reservoir Modeling Line)
The North American subsidiary of Beicip Franlab, the software and services arm of the French Institute of Petroleum (IFP). Met the technical needs of current and prospective customers and provided information for product development.
- $1 million increase in sales and $200,000 in new maintenance earned by developing expert software strategies by using knowledge gained from user visits.
- $200,000 in additional sales produced by directing software sales, assisting users to achieve results with a minimum of effort and disruption, and meeting technical needs and corporate goals despite an environment of technical tool-kit consolidation.
- 96% customer and $1 million in maintenance retained by driving a turnaround campaign to refocus on customer / user support to avert customer defection including contacting every user in the US and Canada.
(EXXONMOBIL UPSTREAM RESEARCH COMPANY) | Houston, TX
Senior Researcher
The research and development division of Mobil Oil, a major integrated oil exploration and production company. Conducted statistical characterization of geologic systems and fracture / fault network modeling in advance of dynamic simulation.
- 2% cycle time decrease in static reservoir modeling to dynamic simulation by optimizing workflows.
Education
PhD in Geological Sciences
Rutgers University
Master of Science in Geological Sciences
Rutgers University
Bachelor of Science in Geology
Dickinson College
Professional Development
Increasing Software Innovation by Construx
Scrum Software Method by Rally Software
Practical Product Management with Requirements by Pragmatic Marketing