Kelvin Sparks

555 Washington Avenue Apt. 1K • Brooklyn, NY 11238 • mobile: (917) 407-4455 • email:
kelvinsparks@yahoo.com

SUMMARY
 Over 15 years of providing solid software solutions to both large and small companies in various languages on multiple
platforms
 Experienced in providing global financial companies with solid, reliable, well-tested software deployed in mission-critical
environments
 Provided software support and solutions for Wall Street traders, front office, and middle office personnel
 Extensive experience in the development life cycle of technology projects including systems analysis, design, development,
integration , testing, and deployment
 Experienced in designing and coding gaming software targeting the K12 market

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
Languages Excel VBA, Python, Perl, Java, C#, VB.net, ASP, C# WPF, MS Access, Visual C++, .NET 4.0,
Transact SQL, XML, Objective C,Pig, Hive, Hadoop, IBM SPSS Data Modeler, R
Concepts OOA/OOD (UML, Design Patterns)
Software SQL Server 2012, Oracle 11g, Sybase, Matlab, MS Visio, Visual Studio 2012, Adobe Flex,
HTML, Visual Foxpro 9.0, Crystal Reports
Systems Windows (NT,XP, Vista), Linux, Mac OS 10

EDUCATION
B.A. Applied Mathematics and Biology Brown University, Providence RI

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
NY Times., New York, NY 6/2013 – present
Consultant – Part of the data analytics team providing analysis and reporting to the marketing and business intelligence teams.
Accomplishments include
 Automation of data reporting using Python and Excel
 Creation of stored procedures and functions for large Oracle tables
 Provided analysis of web traffic and effectiveness of marketing campaigns for customer acquisition and retention

Shiseido, New York, NY 09/2013 – 11/2013

Consultant – Part-time ETL project to consolidate 10 vendor responses to open RFP for new payroll and human resources system
Accomplishments include
 Conversion of Excel data from vendor response of 30 tabs and hundreds of questions of various data types and length to MS
Access database
 Organized MS Access data for easy scoring of vendor resposes

Prada USA., New York, NY 2/2013 – 5/2013

Consultant – Conversion of intranet system written in Visual Studio 2003 to VS 2010 for Prada USA. Intranet system consisted of
applications used by all 200 stores in North America.
Accomplishments include
 Project included changes to ASP pages written in VB.net and C#.net
 Changes to web services code written in C++ and C#.net

Quant Brain, LLC., New York, NY 1/2012 – 1/2013

Consultant – Developing products on a project by project basis for various clients
Accomplishments include
 Excel VBA system for Algorithmic trading company to identify front running in order execution
 Risk Software enhancements in cloud based architecture
 Creating software-based educational products that teach high school science, chemistry, and mathematics. Software tools
include Java and Objective C
Jefferies & Co., New York, NY 9/2009 – 11/2011
Consultant – Fixed income developer working as part of the tactical support team in bringing solutions and maintaining existing
solutions for the product control team, middle office, and trading support operations.
Accomplishments included:
 Architected fixed income data warehouse for all products traded at the firm after switch to ICI Impact (self-clear) from JP
Morgan MORCOM system
 Designed accounting solution for the calculation and aggregation of PnL for each asset class which was then used to post to
firm wide trial balance and other downstream systems
 Designed and developed reports for Repo desk
 Gathered system requirements from middle office and trading desk and wrote detailed specs
 Wrote product control T+1 trade analysis reports reconciling trades on Bloomberg against prime broker records
 Wrote middle office reports to perform cost of carry, cusip netting, and inventory control in Excel VBA
 Wrote end of trade day interest rate curve construction risk analysis report reconciling curve pricing differences between
Bloomberg, Ion and Calypso
 Wrote programs to reconcile files from Bloomberg, JP Morgan, and ICI Impact in Excel VBA
 Wrote and automated Perl scripts which interfaced with MS Excel data to create middle office management reports that were
then attached to lotus notes e-mails.
 Wrote over 50 scripts in python and perl to transfer daily trade and accounting data from files on windows and linux servers to
populate the Sybase tables.
 Created system documentation for all systems created in MS Sharepoint
 Created source code repository using SVN
 Conversion of MS Access data from derivatives trading system to enterprise wide Sybase database

Ramius –Fund of Funds Group, New York, NY 9/2005 – 1/2009

Vice President -Quantitative Developer – Responsible for the development of all quantitative software used for in house and client
analysis. Programming and analysis included the following analytics: Peer group analysis, Stress test, Ror vs Skew, Ror vs Std dev,
Rolling serial correlation, Upcap vs Down cap, Quadratic beta, Linear Regression, Annual performance, Rolling skewness, vol,
beta, alpha, Actual vs Target, Equity long short analysis, VAR, portfolio beta, portfolio attribution, and portfolio optimization.
Accomplishments included:
 Wrote programs to perform both manager and portfolio analysis using C++, Excel VBA ,C# and Matlab and MS Access
 Wrote programs to perform portfolio attribution used in client presentations to prove that the firm excelled at asset allocation
 Saved redemptions by creating a Java application whereby the client could blend different weights of portfolio products and
chart their proforma returns
 Supervised risk intern. Interviewed and helped select risk intern from hundreds of applicants.

Readnet Systems, LLC, New York, NY 1/2002 – 6/2005

COO/CTO – Responsible for the management of all company wide products including systems design and development for
company’s Create-a-Reader.com website. Readnet was the umbrella organization that consisted of three parts: the Readnet
foundation, Readnet Bronx charter school, and Readnet Systems. Responsible for raising capital by meeting with both venture
capitalist and angel investors.
Accomplishments included:
 Organized and lead meetings to gather requirements
 Wrote detailed and functional specs for web programmers for website design
 Wrote all front end data entry systems to manage the creation of all online exercises in Visual C# front end and MS Access
database
 Created all SQL scripts and XML used to populated all MySQL tables used on website
 Directed the research and development of literacy and math software targeting the K – 6 market
 Managed all web programmers, testers, animators, and illustrators
 Supervised the production on all audio components of website and CD ROM including hiring of voice talent, directing sessions,
and post audio production
 Supervised the writing and production of 36 children’s books which were both printed and put in pdf format for website

Insight Out Of Chaos, New York, NY 11/2000 – 1/2002

Senior Systems Analyst – Responsible for writing all in-house systems used to implement customer loyalty programs.
Accomplishments included:
 Wrote remote data entry program and all programs and procedures to transfer the information back to the central office
 Wrote Client Server applications utilizing MS SQL server on the back end

Harry Bachrach, New York, NY 11/1999 – 10/2000

Developer – Wrote accounts receivable and accounts payable system for international men’s neckwear designer
Accomplishments included:
 Developed cross platform, PC and Macintosh, system to create purchase orders, sales orders and invoices
 Responsible for building and maintaining network
 Built custom CAD machines built using PRIMAVISION boards and WACOM tablets

Citibank Investment Services, New York, NY 11/1995 – 10/1999

Developer – Wrote compliance monitoring system used to track all NASD licensed representatives and their state affiliations
reconciled against monthly trade data.
Accomplishments included:
 Integrated licensing data with clearing broker data to flag trade exceptions
 Developed application framework upon which other applications could be built

TEACHING POSITIONS
SAT Math Teacher – Saturday Academy for Achievement First Charter school – 2013 – present
GMAT Math Teacher – Long Island University Continuing Education department – 1994

LICENSES
Series 7 - General Securities Representative
Series 63 – Uniform Securities Exam