Media - Bio

Kevin McGaffey - Principal Consultant

Kevin McGaffey is president and CEO of Caro. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Caro and works with the company's clients on a variety of application development and management consulting projects. Kevin provides leadership in application development methodology and management consulting. He is a PMP and a certified IBM Rational Consultant--Rational Unified Process 2003.

Prior to forming Caro, Kevin was relationship manager for Castek's largest strategic partner and a member of the Senior Management team. He managed Castek's software factory practices, defining, designing and documenting best practices in Component-based Development. At Ernst & Young he developed a worldwide technology infrastructure for the firm; an integrated financial services business model for a Global client; and deployed Ernst & Young's development methodology to a worldwide customer base. Major client engagements with Ernst & Young include; assisting Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) with the development and deployment of the applications to support the Goods and Services Tax (GST) program; delivered over 1000 hours of training to Ernst & Young clients worldwide; and developed a business model for a U.S. lottery corporation. Preceding his initiatives at Ernst & Young, Kevin led development projects at Imperial Oil. Kevin has worked on creating systems development methodologies for a number of management consulting organizations, including developing Caro's own application development methodology.

Kevin brings over 24 years of industry experience to Caro. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, Canada and completed the IVEY Executive Program at the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Keith Matthews - Principal Consultant

Keith is accountable for technology strategy and consulting operations. Keith is one of the most experienced application development managers in Canada. His experience coupled with Caro's methodologies and leading edge development technologies assures that our clients are successful on every project. He is also a certified IBM Rational Consultant--Rational Unified Process 2003.

Keith performs Chief Architect and data architect roles on major client projects including: a major bank consolidation of their lending platforms; a major application for a large insurance organization; the development of an enterprise wide, distributed, object oriented, high transaction volume application for Trader Media Corporation; a large object oriented distributed customer relationship management, dispatch and routing solution for Purolator Courier Limited; and as the chief architect and design team leader for a large distributed enterprise solution for CBS Broadcasting. Keith is an expert on model driven development and the RUP. He has advised many clients on their development methodologies and provides strategies to dramatically improve management of software in enterprise environments.

Prior to forming Caro, Keith honed his skills working on many different development projects for a wide range of industries through his own independent consulting organization. At Healthchex, NY he led the architecture, design and development of an integrated health management claims solution; at Castek he led a team in the development of an Insurance claims application for I.S.I. from Boston. Keith has also lead development projects for Consumers Gas, Royal Bank, Baycom and Crown Life Financial Management and Crown Life Insurance Company.

With over 24 years of experience Keith holds many professional certifications following a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from North Stratfordshire Polytechnic, England.

Jean Mercier - Chief Technology Officer

Jean Mercier is Chief Technology Officer of Caro. At Caro, he is responsible for research and development into new application development technologies and CaroWorks. Jean and his team focus on developing new frameworks for use in Caro's application development practice applying common sense thinking to new and emerging technologies and architectures. Jean has achieved two IBM certifications: IBM Certified Solution Developer--WebSphere Studio V5.0 and WebSphere Solution Professional, as well as the Sun Java certification and is recognized by Sun and IBM as a uniquely skilled rapid application development consultant.

Jean leads Caro’s work with clients on the migration from Forte to Java. He has consulted on 13 enterprise level projects on the strategy and optimization of Forte applications, and the migration strategies, at clients ranging from major banks to tire manufacturers.

Prior to joining Caro, Jean was an independent consultant working in the United States with a premier set of clients providing direction and mentorship to application development teams in building mission-critical transaction intensive applications. Preceding his role as an independent consultant, Jean worked at Ernst & Young where he was instrumental in the introduction of various object oriented development technologies as well as assisting clients in the deployment of these new technologies.

Jean holds a Bachelor of Commerce with Honors majoring in Management Information Systems from the University of Ottawa.

Rob Beckman – Principal Business Architect

Rob Beckmann is Principal Business Architect for Caro. Rob is responsible for the implementation of Caro’s methodology and best practices with our clients. Rob guides and mentors our clients in following a process that will ensure success in delivering applications that meet business requirements. He is a certified IBM Rational Consultant--Rational Unified Process 2003.

Rob has worked with a variety of companies in many different industries including: software product development, publishing, shipping, manufacturing, grocery retail, life and health insurance, casualty-property insurance (in Canada and the United States), and pension administration. Rob has preformed many roles during his career including: data architect, project lead, application architect and component architect.

Since joining Caro in 2000, Rob has worked on a variety of projects including: leading the requirements analysis for a major application within a large insurance organization and leading the requirements gathering, design and delivery of an ad copy capture application integrated with an enterprise-wide customer database and financial application for Trader Media Corporation. Most recently, Rob has been advising clients on the best practices in requirements management and realization with use case methodologies and the IBM Rational Unified Process.

Prior to joining Caro, Rob worked as an independent consultant, counting Castek and Crown Life as major clients. Rob served as project lead for the development of many of Castek’s business components in support of their INSURE3 policy administration product. He also helped spear-head the introduction of the Rational Unified Process® in the initiation of a new Claims product development effort. At Crown Life, Rob filled the role of Data Architect in the delivery of a pension administration system for Crown’s Canadian book of business.

Rob brings over 25 years of systems development experience to Caro. He holds a Business Information Systems diploma from Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. Rob also holds a Fellow, Life Management Institute designation from the Life Office Management Association.

Brian Wood – Lead Components Designer

Brian is the Lead Components Designer at Caro, providing leadership in business modeling, software design, project management, and the development of Caro's intellectual property and assets. An expert software developer with a focus on business analysis, design and application engineering Brian is also a certified IBM Rational Consultant--Rational Unified Process 2003 and an Object Oriented Analysis and Design consultant.

At Caro, Brian has provided his expertise on a number of successful enterprise development projects, including a package track/trace application at Purolator Courier Ltd., a legacy to PeopleSoft HR/Payroll migration at Noranda Inc. and management of the multi year project to automate enterprise ad management and publishing system at Trader Media Corporation. Brian most recently provided consulting guidance on the adoption of RUP at a major public corporation implementing a mega project using component architecture. Brian provides education and mentoring to project managers wishing to apply iterative development practices such as the Rational Unified Process.

Prior to joining Caro, Brian served as a senior business analyst supporting a large-scale legacy modernization initiative at Enbridge Inc. In this position, he lead the software analysis, design, development, implementation, and testing activities for a customized time reporting application integrating with PeopleSoft HR/Payroll.

Brian has over 15 years' experience in software development and is a graduate of DeVry College of Technology (Hons).