Andrew Winters III

20+ years of experience as Director of IT, CISSP

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

Skills Incident Response Planning, ISO 27001, Disaster Recovery Planning, Cyber Security Architecture, NIST 800-171, IT security audits / remediation, VMware Virtual Architecture, Azure Active Directory, User Training and Development, Remote Workforce Deployment, ERP systems, Vendor Relationship Management, Budget Development, Identify new IT trends, New facility data design, Office 365 / Office suite, Business Continuity, Firewall/router/switch administration, Azure, Microsoft Windows and Windows Server, Teams Live Events, VMWare, Hyperconverged, Wi-Fi, Video Conferencing, VOIP, MDM, Intranet, VDI, Datto, DR, BC, Microsoft Exchange, Varonis, Palo Alto, Fortinet, HP, Salesforce, Epicor ERP, MS-SQL, Progress, SharePoint, SAN, Ruckus, Lenovo, Pure Storage, Proofpoint, InTune, Varonis DLP, Cortex XDR, DarkTrace, Sentinel One, BitLocker, Sysprep, Ghost, PDQ Deploy

About Andrew Winters is keenly focused on driving enterprise-wide success through proactive solution development and strategic initiatives. He has created efficiency and effectiveness in IT by upgrading or replacing underperforming systems and exploring the latest technologies to improve productivity. His track record of researching, recommending, and successfully implementing new systems has allowed him to optimize efficiency and mitigate risks while supporting business objectives.

Highlights of the qualifications that Andrew offers:
• Andrew has a unique background combining hands-on experience and enterprise strategic planning.
• He has an extensive background in IT management and corporate cyber-security with an ISC2 CISSP certification and FBI InfraGard membership.
• He creates and manages a yearly IT budget of over $1.5M.
• He oversees the IT data-sharing, regulatory compliance, and data security for a 2023 technology exchange agreement with the largest auto manufacturer in the US.
• He has been the IT leader for three successful ERP implementations and ongoing ERP/MRP system upgrades.
• He manages and negotiates yearly company contracts with three major cellphone carriers in the US to reduce costs and enhance employee productivity.
• He is currently leading a team that will determine his company’s new DMS (document management system.)
• He has overseen the IT planning (voice, data, AV systems) of new building construction for three headquarters /manufacturing plants in the US.
• Andrew researched, purchased, and implemented a highly scalable Wi-Fi platform which is currently being deployed to all company locations across Europe, South Korea, and the US.
• He has more than 20 years of enterprise IT team leadership. He has managed several IT teams over the years ranging from 2 – 25 engineers with team members based in Europe and the US. Andrew and his IT team continue to support users based in several countries such as the US, Austria, Brazil, Norway, and South Korea. He also supports service technicians, salespeople, and executives who travel to nearly every country in the world.
• He has more than 20 years of experience managing infrastructure and telecommunications services including VOIP systems, Wi-Fi networks, mobile/cell carriers, ISPs and fiberoptic services, switches, routers, firewalls, and more.
• In October 2023, Andrew led a team whose task was to replace the company’s network switches. After weeks of planning, the migration was performed seamlessly over a weekend with no loss in employee productivity.
• Andrew is known for having strong communication skills and an outgoing personality resulting in the ability to create influential and lasting relationships with internal and external stakeholders. He is a critical thinker and has led cross-functional teams to solve problems and introduce new technologies.
• He has a reputation for being able to explain complex technical processes in non-IT terms so that all employees have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and options.
• He has extensive experience in cyber security, Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity, vendor management, system engineering, NIST 800-171, ISO 27001, ITAR compliance, GDPR, vendor management, and budget development.
• In February 2020, as Covid was growing in Italy, Andrew created a rapid deployment plan for a remote workforce in response to the growing possibilities of a pandemic. He quickly purchased new hardware and software and upgraded company Internet services before the pandemic hit the eastern US, which allowed the company to move 100 employees into home offices in a matter of days during March. He developed and implemented procedures for all employees to be able to work from home with little or no interruption. He created educational emails for employees who had never used a VPN and didn’t know how to optimize their home networks.
• He created and implemented the company’s first cyber-security training and phishing campaign program to help reduce the possibility of ransomware, IP exfiltration, and financial loss. In 2022, the program was so successful that it was expanded to all 700 employees world-wide.
• He created and implemented a plan to move 100 employees to cloud-based Office 365 resulting in an immediate $150K cost reduction for software licenses. The pilot program was so successful that it was expanded to include all employees, globally.
• In 2022, Andrew worked with outside security experts and the company’s legal counsel to develop an Incident Response Plan. He created a training program for the business unit and led IR team members through a simulated cyber-attack. Andrew’s IR plan has now been adopted by the parent company to be used in all business units within the corporation.
• Andrew has an internal and external customer-service outlook, which has been a major part of his IT career since he led the training of 1000 employees in “Customer Service Excellence” at a state agency.

Furthermore, he offers essential intangibles such as an engaging and collaborative management style and the clear foresight to navigate around potential operational risks.