David Rovani, Technology Leadership & Strategic Innovation

Executive Summary

Technology leader with 18+ years of progressive experience driving digital transformation, team development, and strategic innovation across nonprofit and commercial environments. Proven track record of modernizing legacy systems, leading cross-functional teams, and delivering measurable business impact while maintaining operational excellence. Specializes in bridging business strategy with technical execution in organizations ranging from startups to $120M enterprises.

Core Competencies & Leadership Philosophy

Strategic Technology Leadership: Passionate about innovation, team leadership, strategic planning, and mentorship. Career centered on communication, continuous learning, and organizational influence through improvements to people, processes, and technology that deliver increasing value to businesses and customers.

Innovation & Problem-Solving: Thrives on pushing technology boundaries and finding creative solutions to complex challenges. Balances high-level strategic direction with deep technical involvement, particularly when improvements impact company products, services, and customer experience.

Team Development Excellence: Greatest pride comes from building high-performing teams, mentoring talent, creating positive work environments, fostering effective communication, setting clear expectations, and empowering decision-making. These leadership moments represent the most rewarding aspects of career growth and daily inspiration.

Professional Experience

Chief Technology Officer | National Business Institute (NBI, Inc.) | Remote

September 2023 - February 2025

National Business Institute is a nonprofit continuing legal education provider founded in 1983 that serves over 30,000 law firms with live seminars, online courses, and self-study materials across 75+ legal practice areas nationwide.

Executive Responsibilities:

Core executive team member partnering directly with President on strategic organizational direction
Oversaw complete Technology Group encompassing infrastructure, security, IT operations, development, and commerce platforms
Provided regular board presentations and strategic technology advisement
Led cross-functional collaboration with senior leadership team on digital transformation initiatives

Key Achievements:

Security Governance Excellence: Founded and chaired Security Governance Committee, implementing comprehensive physical, cyber, AI, and data security standards meeting industry best practices
Strategic System Modernization: Created detailed transition plan migrating legacy monolithic applications to adaptable microservices architecture with modern platform integration
Organizational Leadership: Planned and hosted inaugural Leadership Team Retreat featuring team building, strategic planning, competitive analysis, and OKR implementation
Team Transformation: Executed comprehensive team restructuring, retraining, and strategic hiring aligned with current and future organizational needs
Vendor Excellence: Created detailed RFPs and led selection processes for Shopify theme development, Learning Management Systems, ERP platforms, and authentication services (Auth0/Okta)
Cost Optimization: Maintained flat spending while optimizing Azure and on-premises infrastructure, eliminating unnecessary service expenditures

Technical Leadership: Directed application development, infrastructure engineering, reporting/analytics, Shopify storefront architecture, and Salesforce administration while ensuring alignment with business objectives.

Solution Strategist | The Maze Group | Remote

June 2021 - August 2023

The Maze Group is a New York-based digital commerce consultancy founded in 2017 that specializes in eCommerce platform implementations (particularly Shopify Plus and Salesforce Commerce Cloud), conversion optimization, and full-funnel marketing for enterprise brands and Fortune 500 companies.

Client Engagement Excellence:

Primary technical liaison with C-level stakeholders, directors, and individual contributors
Led pre-sales discovery, project estimation, and SOW creation in sales engineering capacity
Delivered strategic technology planning, organizational strategy, and business analysis driving revenue growth

Major Project Leadership:

Interim CTO - National Business Institute

Strategic advisor to President for technology planning and business analysis
Enhanced senior management communication regarding development cycles and delivery expectations
Created comprehensive technology roadmap for legacy system modernization
Implemented Backlog Management, UAT/QA processes, and deployment procedures minimizing customer impact
Led Shopify storefront implementation and legacy website migration

Solution Architect - Coty, Inc. (Global Beauty Corporation)

Architected boutique, highly customized Shopify storefront for international beauty brand
Managed complex integrations: Global-E, Klaviyo, OneTrust, Appointedd, Adobe Analytics, Widgetic, ZenDesk
Collaborated with E-Commerce DTC teams, global technology operations, security, and Accenture Managed Services
Delivered technical architecture through requirements gathering, merchant usability, and project prioritization

Interim CTO - BodyBuilding.com (Sports Nutrition Retailer)

Strategic advisor to CEO and CPO during acquisition planning and risk mitigation
Created technology roadmap balancing immediate revenue requirements with future innovation
Developed content modernization strategy enabling personalization and cross-channel publishing
Stabilized Shopify ecommerce platform, resolving traffic and conversion issues
Led Amplience headless CMS implementation hosted by Netlify

Solutions Architect - Zwift (Fitness Gaming Platform)

Provided Shopify expertise for proof-of-concept supporting physical goods and digital subscriptions
Architected Recharge subscription integration with proprietary entitlement services
Designed Multipass authentication integration between Zwift and Shopify platforms

Director of Solution Consulting | BlueBolt Solutions | Chicago, IL

October 2019 - June 2021

BlueBolt Solutions is a Chicago-based full-service digital agency founded in 2005 that specializes in eCommerce development, content management systems, and enterprise search solutions for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, with particular expertise in complex B2B and B2C platform integrations.

Technical Excellence & Team Development:

Advanced from Senior Solutions Architect to Director, leading all sales engineering efforts
Mentored development teams across UX frontend, backend architecture, and system integrations
Created tools and processes streamlining sales engineering approach

Notable Achievements:

Complex E-commerce Integration: Delivered Shopify integration with custom fulfillment workflows for religious publishing company serving 12,000+ products across multiple fulfillment services
Authentication Expertise: Researched and documented Auth0 integrations with Shopify and TalentLMS, contributing to industry knowledge through detailed blog posts
Sales Engineering Leadership: Excelled in communication across organizational levels from C-suite to line employees, capturing workflows, understanding pain points, and delivering empathetic solutions

Director of Information Services | International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) | Chicago, IL

November 2012 - October 2019

Global $220M humanitarian nonprofit with international offices providing aid in eastern Mediterranean and former Soviet Union regions. Operated at enterprise scale within donor stewardship budget constraints.

Leadership & Team Development:

Led cross-functional team of 6: application developers, database administrators, and data specialists
Served dual role as department manager and senior technical resource
Progressive advancement: Senior .NET Developer → Team Lead → Manager of Application Development → Director

Technical Architecture & Innovation:

Custom Donor Management System (KesherNet): Lead architect and developer of comprehensive internal web application built in C#, ASP.NET, EF, and SQL Server
Payment Processing Excellence: Implemented multi-channel payment processing (CC, ACH, PayPal) with templated receipt generation
Data Integration Mastery: Managed data flow from dozens of vendors through file imports, API calls, webhooks, and manual processes
Cloud-Native Evolution: Pioneered Azure Functions, CosmosDB, App Services, and API Management for donation API development

Business Impact:

System Modernization: Successfully replaced legacy end-of-life vendor system with custom solution supporting complex business processes which enabled organizational growth from $85M to $220M donations
Process Optimization: Delivered scheduled gifts management, adaptive list segmentation, and custom business process tools
Secure Data Management: Ensured timely access to accurate, secure data across international offices in Canada, Israel, Brazil, and South Korea
Code Governance: Implemented code review policies and check-in governance preparing for cloud-native architecture transition

Key Features Delivered:

Flexible scheduled giving (weekly/monthly/quarterly/custom cadences)
Advanced donor segmentation and targeting capabilities
Comprehensive reporting and business intelligence tools
Multi-vendor integration and data synchronization
Templated communication and receipt systems

Earlier Career Highlights

Application Development Practice Manager | Falkor Group | Chicago, IL

May 2006 - November 2012

Major Project Leadership:

Enterprise Web Modernization: Led 3-year initiative converting international tire corporation's franchise website from classic ASP to ASP.NET Web Forms, implementing product ordering, event scheduling, and franchise-corporate communication systems
Nonprofit Digital Transformation: Analyzed and documented business processes for large humanitarian nonprofit, designing migration strategy from closed-source Windows application to open-source platform
Custom Application Development: Created property management system replacing 10-year-old Access database and fully customized case management application for Chicago south side community advocacy nonprofit, transitioning paper-driven workflows to electronic processes

Technical Support Specialist | Best Buy (Geek Squad) | Chicago, IL

May 2004 - May 2006

On-premise technical support for home and small businesses
Customer service excellence in networking, Windows systems, and printer diagnostics
Coordination with dispatch and retail teams ensuring customer satisfaction

Technical Proficiencies

Cloud & Modern Architecture

Azure Ecosystem: API Manager, Functions, Cosmos DB, App Services, Storage, Queues, AD B2C, Key Vault, Application Insights
Microservices & APIs: GraphQL, REST APIs, containerization, cloud-native development patterns
AI Integrations:

E-commerce & Frontend Development

Shopify Excellence: Theme architecture, Hydrogen, Remix, Liquid, CSS, HTML, Node, NPM, NVM,
Modern Frontend: React Router, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui, responsive design, progressive web applications

Development & Data Management

Microsoft Stack: C#, .NET Framework/.NET Core, ASP.NET, Entity Framework, SQL Server, Visual Studio
Database Management: RDBMS design, performance optimization, data integration, ETL processes
Development Operations: Azure DevOps (Boards, Repos, Pipelines), CI/CD, Git, automated testing

Project Management & Collaboration

Methodologies: SCRUM, Agile, Waterfall, OKR implementation
Tools Expertise: Capacities, Teams, VS Code, Slack, Jira, Confluence, Project, Office 365 Suite, Google Workspaces
Leadership Tools: Strategic planning, vendor selection, team development, stakeholder management

Education

University of Evansville | Class of 2004

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
Bachelor of Science, Computer Engineering

Leadership Development:

Resident Assistant
Leadership Academy President
Resident Student Association National Ambassador
Student Government Association Resident Hall Senator
Resident Gamers Society President

Personal Interests & Community Engagement

Fitness & Wellness: Marathon runner, Chicago Area Runners Association volunteer (site coordinator and pace leader), #drovani on Peloton leaderboards

Lifelong Learning: Over 2 years of Spanish language study through Duolingo, avid reader across technology and business domains

Creative Pursuits: Passionate cook, handyman, occasional motorcyclist

Professional Development: Continuous learning mindset with focus on emerging technologies, leadership methodologies, and industry best practices

This comprehensive overview represents 18+ years of progressive technology leadership focused on delivering measurable business impact while developing high-performing teams and modernizing organizational capabilities. Available for strategic technology leadership roles where innovation, mentorship, and results-driven execution create sustainable competitive advantage.