ERIC AVANT

GETTING TO KNOW ME: WHO, WHAT & WHY

BRIEF INTRODUCTION
If I had to describe myself with one word, it would be kaizen (改善), the Japanese philosophy meaning “continuous improvement”. With a distinct talent for leveraging technology to enhance business objectives and capabilities, I relish in opportunities to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve workflows. With exceptional analytical and strategic thinking skills, I have developed my technological skills through hands-on experience in many facets of technology. An effective manager, I have spent over a decade leading local-government technology teams and budgets — most recently as Technology Division Director for the Boulder County Clerk & Recorder, leading a Tech Team staff of up to 25 and a $11M+ annual budget and before that as Colleton County's Technology Director, leading a 6-person team on an $900K annual budget. Having experience throughout the entire project lifecycle, from pre-planning to execution to post-deployment support, I have developed strong leadership and communication skills to deliver high-quality results on time and under budget. I excel in high pressure situations, think quickly on my feet, and have experienced and exercised crisis management and disaster recovery in a number of scenarios.

In my leisure time I enjoy various activities such as golf, racquetball, bowling, volleyball, exercising, cooking, music, meeting new people, and participating in community events. I strongly value spending time with my family, wife, and infant son. I have also spent over 15 years of my life training in mixed martial arts with Toe2Toe Dojo (formerly World Jujitsu Academy) studying a variety of martial arts styles (karate, kick boxing, judo, jui-jitsu, and weapons), eventually attaining a Black Belt and Sensi (instructor).

MY MISSION
Soon after graduating college, my father shared with me a video of the great speaker Simon Sinek's TED Talk Start With Why. I learned that in order to become successful, I must first understand my purpose - define my 'why' - before defining how and what I do. This was a pivotal moment for me in my life to take pause and truly define what drives me and makes me happy. What I came to realize is that I feel significant personal satisfaction out of solving problems, even greater satisfaction out of helping others solve problems, and that the more complex the problem, the more satisfying it feels to overcome. With that in mind, I found that my comprehension of technology and the capabilities of technology would fall hand-in-hand with my desire to solve problems for others. Understanding this molded who I am today and would define my purpose and my career. With that, I shifted gears and sought out a career path in technology. Starting at an entry level role, I felt that the scope and reach of my work was limited and I wasn't fully satisfied. As my career progressed, I came to understand that my ability to solve problems grows exponentially when I take a leadership role and coach an entire team to carry out my visions.

My mission is to solve complex problems facing my organization and its customers by cultivating and coaching a team of technicians in technology.

I have a passion for solving problems, improving user experiences and work-flows, developing fault tolerant highly available solutions, and cultivating my team to achieve my ambitions in an efficient manner. As Technology Director for Colleton County, my team and I administered the full technology environment — hardware, software, databases, applications, networking, storage, telephony, and IoT systems — for roughly 450 users across 30 departments and 90+ sites, including 120+ switches, 350+ cameras, a virtualized datacenter (12 physical and 36 virtual servers), multiple SAN/NAS systems, and an in-house help desk. Today, as Technology Division Director for the Boulder County Clerk & Recorder, I lead technology, cybersecurity, and continuity of operations across the Elections, Recording, Motor Vehicle, and Administrative divisions. In my current role, I support up to 500 users (90 FTE) across 3 permanent sites and as many as 20 temporary vote center sites.

No one likes change, but technology is the future and I absolutely love being in the forefront leading change in an organization.

WHAT'S NEXT
There are a few reasons for my interest in a new position with a new organization at this time in my life. I absolutely love my organization and the people in my organization after spending years building relationships with my peers and developing trust and respect in my role as Technology Director. I have built great relationships within my very effective team of technicians that support me in achieving our objectives. So it does bring me some degree of heartache to leave behind so many positive relationships.

After nearly a decade leading technology for Colleton County — and now as Technology Division Director for the Boulder County Clerk & Recorder — I am ready for executive leadership of a city- or county-wide IT organization. I am driven by larger, more complex challenges and the chance to shape strategy, governance, and modernization across an entire enterprise.

I am ready for new challenges and I want an opportunity that will provide me that. I feel fully equipped with the skills to succeed with in a new organization. Finally, I recently married and had a child and I want to provide the best possible life for my family. We currently live and work in a more rural community and I believe moving to a more populated area or transitioning from the public sector to the private sector will provide more opportunities and resources to provide for my family.

I am best suited to senior technology leadership in mid-to-large local government — Chief Information Officer, IT Director, or comparable executive roles — where I set organization-wide technology strategy, governance, and capital planning while leading a full IT team in partnership with executive leadership.

I live in the Denver metro area and am focused on local-government technology leadership across the Colorado Front Range.

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