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Jim Welch
Engineering and Pre-Sales Solutions Leader

About

At leading mobility and location based services companies, I've recruited, mentored and led technical teams to deliver cloud native solutions that drive sales results. Primary focus areas include new mobility services (MaaS), autonomous mobility on demand, location based services (LBS) and last mile logistics.
  • 2021 - present: Nextbillion.ai - Head of Solutions Engineering
  • 2019 - 2021: DENSO - Head of Mobility Platform Services
  • 2018 - 2019: Bestmile - Senior Director Solutions Engineering
  • 2016 - 2018: Ridecell - Senior Director Solutions Engineering
  • 2007 - 2015: deCarta (acquired by Uber) | Senior Director Professional Services
  • 1993 - 2007: MobileSoft | CTO founder (acquired by Zenitel)
  • Work Experience

    Singapore
    June 2021 – Present
    Head of Solutions Engineering
    Lead sales/services technical team in positioning customized mapping stack for last mile delivery and logistics service customers and prospects. Evangelize APIs and SDKs to developer community across multiple industry verticals and use cases.
    Highlights
    • Cross-organizational responsibilities for map data production, machine learning models, and SaaS based location based services platform
    • Lead product initiatives in development of mapping and navigation SDK's
    • Spearhead the development of new product initiatives for complex vehicle routing problem use cases
      DENSO 
    Southfield, MI
    April 2019 – June 2021
    Head of Mobility Platform Services Architecture
    Member of leadership team tasked with defining all operational support models, customer engagement processes, and associated monitoring metrics for SaaS mobility and logistics services platform.
    Highlights
    • Responsibility for launch of new mobility service initiatives in coordination with OEM partners and platform providers.
    • Successful launch in partnership with leading mobility company of an on-demand, last mile delivery truck sharing service.
    San Francisco, CA
    February 2018 – April 2019
    Global Director Solutions Engineering
    Global director of all pre-sales and launch activities focused on autonomous shuttle programs for public transit agencies/operators and private shared mobility services.
    Highlights
    • Successful launch of a high-growth, differentiated ride hailing mobility service currently launched in six(6) major US markets - Alto - Rideshare. Refined
    San Francisco
    November 2015 – February 2018
    Senior Director Solutions Engineering
    Grew and led a distributed pre-sales engineering team responsible for all technical aspects of pipeline sales opportunities. Acted as player-coach working with the complete end-to-end mobility solution provided by Ridecell - full stack and mobile environments
    Highlights
    • Defined, developed, and delivered the initial version of mobility management platform. Result: close of the contract with the highest profile company in the on-demand, autonomous vehicle space
    San Francisco, CA
    October 2007 – June 2015
    Senior Director Professional Services
    Manage a combined team of internal project managers, offshore development resources, and third party contractors in specifying, designing, and delivering LBS solutions that leverage deCarta's products and services.
    Highlights
    • Coordinated the development and delivery of four private label personal navigation and connected navigation products to a leading consumer electronics retailer in the US. Result: Genesis of a new category of connected personal navigation device for a major US consumer electronics retailer.
    • Spearheaded the pre-sales, solution architecture, and delivery of a mobile, online navigation application for the leading personal navigation provider in Europe. Result: Opened new partnerships and sales channels for the company.
    Seattle, WA
    June 1993 – September 2007
    CTO - Founder
    Dublin, OH/Seattle, WA CTO and founder of company providing fleet management and mobility applications to the transportation industry. Supervise the specification,development,testing,delivery and service of on-demand dispatch solutions.
    Highlights
    • Develop sales and distribution channels for wireless solutions through international divisions of Motorola, Inc. in Europe and the Pacific Rim. Result:launched products in seven international markets with more than 75,000 mobile subscribers.
    • Successfully launched a suite of mobile messaging products in partnership with a major European carrier that leveraged location based services(LBS) and mobile payment services(m-payment).
    • Coordinated the successful partnership among technology providers in the development of a mobility product for a major European transit agency.Result:Solution exceeded the requirements of all of the stakeholders.

    Contact

    Dublin, Ohio
    US
    +1-614-596-9141
    LinkedIn
    Twitter

    Education

    • United States Naval Academy

      BS Computer Science

      Annapolis, MD

      Highlights
      • #1 graduate in major
      • Top 5% of all graduates
    • The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business

      Masters Business Administration

      Columbus, OH

      Highlights
      • Entrepreneurship emphasis

    Skills

    Location Based Services
    Geospatial Technologies
    Telematics
    Navigation Systems
    Map Data Production/ML Pipelines
    Amazon Web Services (AWS)
    Cloud Native Architecture
    Software Development
    Mobile Applications
    Enterprise Software
    Solution Selling
    Integration
    Military Leadership
    SaaS
    Technical Project Leadership
    Cross-functional Team Leadership
    Professional Services
    Agile Methodologies
    Cloud Development
    Product Management
    Mobile Technology
    Mobile Devices

     Speaking/Articles

    2019 Texas Mobility Summit

    Plenary sessions and presentation on Bestmile Service Design

    Smart Columbus - Mobility Hackathon

    Sponsor, speaking and mentoring

    NB.ai VRP Product Video

    NB.ai brings together a collection of services to deliver an end-to-end optimization solution for last mile delivery.

    Spatial Insider Webinar - No-Code/Low-Code Location Based Services Development

    Online webinar, video and code walkthrough.

    Spatial Insider Webinar - Making the Change

    Why (& How) To Break Up With Mapbox’s Proprietary License

    References

    '...incredibly dedicated hard worker, outstanding technical professional and consummate professional.'
    '...works exceedingly well with customers.'
    '...would re-hire Jim in an instant.'
    '...smart and creative great at engaging with customers.'
    '...truly professional in all his interactions with colleagues and customers.
    Tom Sexton
    INRIX/Here Technologies VP Business Development/Senior Partner Manager
    '...very good at everything I have seen him do.'
    '...a tireless advocate for customers inside the company and a tactful representative of the company in front of them.'
    '....a great technical leader.'
    '...hands-on when needed and otherwise comfortable in delegating.'
    '...would love to work with him again.'