About

Work Experience

• Chief Technology Officer, PermaPlate

  Jan, 2024 - Present

  PermaPlate is a trusted provider of aftermarket vehicle protection (F&I) products, offered by hundreds of dealers in the U.S. and Canada.

• Chief Technology Officer, RumbleOn

  Jun, 2022 - Oct, 20231 year 4 months

  Responsible for all information technology at this $1.6 billion-dollar powersports retailer, including applications development, data services, cybersecurity, and cloud infrastructure for omnichannel and our 60-store retail chain.

  • Launched e-commerce website, implemented new inventory system using Document DB.

  • Cut cloud spend by implementing serverless Redshift and consolidating EC2 servers.

  • Modernized the department with staffing model, steering committee, roadmaps, and budget.

  • Reorganized development into agile teams with product management and scrum training.

• VP, eCommerce, Safe-Guard Products

  Dec, 2016 - Mar, 20203 years 3 months

  • Created new e-commerce function, including API support and vendor liaison for digital retail.

  • Established relationships with ten dealer point-of-sale and five online retail system vendors.

  • Pioneered new Direct to Consumer (D2C) marketing function.

  • Drafted D2C business plan, set marketing and technical direction, developed organization.

  • Implemented Safe-Guard's first use of dedicated Product Managers for UX and API.

  • First-year results from menu training alone produced $18.5 million incremental revenue.

• Founder and CEO, Virag Consulting

  Dec, 2003 - Dec, 201613 years

  High-value engagements in automotive F&I software. Route One, GMAC, Open Dealer Exchange, LoJack, JD Power, Safe-Guard, U.S. Equity Advantage, Palm Beach Auto Club, Cox Automotive.

  • Software design and contract administration for Route One credit system.

  • Lifecycle API design for GMAC Insurance.

  • DMS interface research and development for Superior Integrated Solutions.

  • Technical design and API development for F&I Express.

• Founder and MD, Provider Exchange Network

  Nov, 2009 - Feb, 20122 years 3 months

  Created PEN as new unit of CDK-Reynolds joint venture. Wrote the business plan and negotiated our initial $1.75 million JV funding.

  • Managed every aspect of the business including sales, operations, and product development.

  • Added the first four delivery partners and 22 administrators.

  • Company today has 200 administrators and bills over $1 million monthly.

  • Worked with law firm to patent the core technology.

• Founder and CTO, MenuVantage

  May, 2004 - Jun, 20095 years 1 month

  Founded MenuVantage, a web-based platform for selling vehicle service contracts. Exited after six years, selling the company for $20 million. At the time of its sale in 2009, MenuVantage was in use at more than 2,500 dealerships.

  • Prepared business plan, market analysis, and obtained venture capital.

  • Wrote the initial system specification and directed all product development.

• VP, Information Technology, AutoNation Financial Services

  Jan, 1999 - Nov, 20034 years 10 months

  Launched captive finance unit of this $20 billion automotive retailer

  • Designed implementation programs for each new department of the finance company.

  • Developed e-commerce software for electronic direct and indirect lending.

  • Led consortium of seven leading finance sources in developing an open standard for online credit.

  • Implementation of best practices increased F&I gross profit by 50%.

• VP, Information Technology, BMW Financial Services

  Jan, 1992 - Oct, 19997 years 9 months

  Launched new unit of BMW-AG, with assets over $8 billion

  • Directed all technology initiatives in North and South America.

  • Managed staff of 60 professionals in five cities, with a $19 million budget and consistently the most cost-efficient operation in the Finanzabteilung.

  • Formulated global technology strategy with headquarters staff in Munich.

  • Invented the first web-based automotive credit system, InfoBahn, serving 350 BMW dealers and 100 Land Rover dealers.

Projects Experience

• Binary Classification

  Nov, 2023 - Dec, 20231 month

  Threshold selection tool for binary classification models

  • C#

• Generative AI

  Jan, 2025 - Jan, 20251 day

  Demonstrates ability to generate scripts, voices, and avatars

  • Eleven Labs, Heygen

• Retrieval Augmented Generation

  Sep, 2024 - Dec, 20243 months

  Create and search vector database

  • LangChain, Chroma, Python

• AI-Based Risk Rating

  Mar, 2020 - Mar, 20211 year

  Quantitative AI modeling for insurance risk

  • Python, Scikit, Tensorflow

Skills

Education

Certificates

Publications