Johnathan Lightfoot

Information Security Officer / Director Information Technology Assessments and Services

Symbiont, Inc

As President of Symbiont, Inc., I lead with a forward-thinking approach, staying at the cutting edge of AI and automation solutions that drive transformative change for our clients. With over a decade of executive management experience, I guide cross-functional teams in delivering innovative, secure-first IT solutions that align with our clients' strategic goals.

At Symbiont, we’re not just adapting to the future—we’re creating it. My expertise in professional services metrics, combined with a strong foundation in data-driven decision-making, enables me to implement AI-driven strategies that optimize resource utilization and enhance profitability. We’re pioneering AI solutions that streamline operations, boost productivity, and empower businesses to thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape.

I’m proud of our track record in leading successful AI and ERP implementations, where we’ve integrated advanced technologies to solve complex business challenges. My leadership extends to building strong, collaborative relationships across all organizational levels, ensuring that our AI solutions are not just technologically advanced, but also practical and impactful for our clients.

In my previous roles, I have developed and mentored teams to embrace the latest in AI and automation, ensuring we remain at the forefront of the industry. My commitment to innovation, resilience, and operational excellence continues to position Symbiont as a leader in the AI and IT services space, dedicated to driving meaningful results for our clients.

President

As Director of Professional Services, I led cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality IT implementations and projects, consistently exceeding client expectations. My expertise in professional services metrics like revenue, margin, and billable utilization enabled me to create a services capacity model that optimized resources and maintained profitability.

I drove the maturation and scaling of Symbiont, Inc., incorporating secure-first solutions into templates and processes that improved operational excellence and customer satisfaction. I collaborated with Sales, PMO, and Managed Services to ensure the success of projects from scoping to delivery, fostering a customer-centric approach that increased satisfaction, profitability, and market growth.

With strong technical acumen and people management skills, I led complex IT consulting projects, built consensus across departments, and mentored teams to consistently achieve results. My ability to influence and negotiate, combined with acute attention to detail, ensured that Symbiont delivered exceptional service and value to our clients.

kashkids

Empowering the next generation with financial literacy, Kash Kids is a beacon of innovation in educational nonprofit management. We provide comprehensive courses for K-12 students, focusing on financial basics, investing, and economic principles. Our mission is to cultivate a financially savvy future, offering the tools and knowledge necessary for economic independence. As we expand our impact, we invite investors and partners to join us in shaping financially empowered youth. Together, we can build a foundation for lifelong success. Learn more about our transformative work at kashkids.org.

Board Member

TechForce LLC

As the Founder and CEO of TechForce, I was a high-energy technology leader and business strategist, dedicated to shaping the future of innovation and driving significant revenue growth. My leadership was recognized for aligning cutting-edge technologies, such as SharePoint, Office 365, Azure, and AI systems, with the strategic goals of diverse clients—from SMEs to Fortune 100 companies.

At TechForce, I specialized in harnessing advanced technologies to deliver tailored solutions that met the unique needs of each client. My expertise spanned information solutions, natural language processing, chatbot creation, Ethereum smart contract development, and joint application development. I was particularly adept at integrating AI systems to enhance business processes, optimize performance, and deliver measurable results.

My role involved leading cross-functional teams and managing complex projects with a focus on resource optimization and capacity management. I was committed to fostering a culture of innovation, ensuring that every solution not only aligned with the client's objectives but also reflected the core values and culture of their organization.

Throughout my tenure, I built a reputation for delivering high-impact, customized services that fueled client success and positioned TechForce as a trusted partner in the technology space.

Owner, SharePoint, Office 365, and Azure Expert Consultant

Tower Education Technologies

As Vice President of Application Development at Tower, I led large-scale mobile and SharePoint initiatives, driving significant improvements in efficiency and project completion times. My strategic oversight across planning, budgeting, and application support resulted in a 20% increase in efficiency and a 15% reduction in project timelines.

I managed multiple delivery teams, ensuring alignment with organizational software engineering standards and successfully implementing CI/CD pipeline automation, which increased release frequency by 25%. My focus on high-quality, secure software systems contributed to a 25% increase in project success rates and a 10% boost in customer satisfaction.

Collaborating closely with HR and other technology leaders, I enhanced team morale and retention by 15% and 10%, respectively, through targeted recruiting, retention, and continuous learning initiatives. I also partnered with product teams to build and prioritize technical roadmaps, achieving a 20% increase in project alignment with business goals.

Through my collaboration with engineering and architecture teams, I spearheaded the adoption of new technologies, driving a 15% increase in innovation and enhancing the overall quality of our applications.

Vice President, Application Development

Howard Community College

As an Associate Professor at Howard Community College, I developed and delivered educational lectures, curricula, and training sessions focused on SharePoint and Microsoft Office, ensuring students gained practical, job-ready skills. I collaborated with the department chair to create relevant, supportive materials that enhanced the learning experience.

Key strategies I implemented included:

 - Providing personalized, meaningful feedback to help students achieve competency in SharePoint and Microsoft Office, setting clear priorities and milestones for success.
 - Employing adaptive instructional methodologies to accommodate diverse learning styles, ensuring every student had the opportunity to excel.
 - Offering one-on-one guidance to help students develop effective strategies and utilize academic tools, fostering positive attitudes toward the IT environment.
 - Encouraging collaborative working relationships among students, which proved essential for managing assignments and resolving classroom challenges.

My approach was centered on empowering students to reach their full potential while fostering a deep understanding and appreciation of IT.

Adjunct Professor (Collaborative Technologies)

Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (SGT)

As a key member of SGT’s innovation leadership team, I managed strategic relationships between internal IT resources, corporate business units, client programs, and external entities, including government vendors and partner organizations. My role encompassed strategic planning, fiscal accountability, acquisition strategies, governance, and leading a team of 30 software development and project management professionals.

Notable accomplishments include:

 - Building and leading the long-term strategic roadmap for the organization’s IT infrastructure, driving the development and maturity of key applications.
 - Representing SGT’s IT department at company-wide meetings, forging cooperative outsourcing partnerships to tackle complex technical challenges.
 - Overseeing the planning, forecasting, and reporting of technology strategies and roadmaps across Azure, AWS, and on-premises platforms, ensuring alignment with corporate goals.
 - Developing and managing the department’s IT budget, guiding capital planning, investment control, and resource allocation through strategic policy agendas.
 - Leading agile software development projects, establishing performance metrics, and reporting on project status and team velocity to leadership, resulting in improved project outcomes and accelerated time to market.

My leadership was pivotal in aligning IT strategies with business objectives, optimizing resources, and enhancing the company’s technological capabilities.

Director, Applications Development

GP Strategies Corporation

As the Principal SharePoint Architect at GP Strategies, I provided architectural leadership to a national team of 30 developers, project managers, and business analysts, overseeing the company’s Information Technology Infrastructure and Operations (ITIO). My leadership in the first year alone generated over $300,000 in additional revenue through strategic thought leadership and evangelism for the Practice’s solutions.

Enterprise-Level Performance Management Results:

 - Led the design, development, and testing of solutions to support business requirements, while analyzing existing systems to recommend improvements.
 - Spearheaded the development of new Azure-based environments, implementing 10 Enterprise Level applications that enhanced processes and introduced new capabilities.
 - Developed solutions to integration and interoperability challenges, ensuring seamless operation across the enterprise.
 - Monitored and optimized the performance of newly implemented solutions, driving continuous improvement.

Key Strategies:

 - Coordinated technical projects by gathering requirements, producing quality deliverables, and adhering to aggressive timelines.
 - Directed and monitored the integration of department information systems with ITIO, ensuring alignment with business objectives and strategic plans.
 - Provided authoritative guidance on complex issues, collaborating with stakeholders to deliver solutions that met business needs.

My role was critical in driving technological advancements, optimizing operations, and delivering solutions that supported the company’s strategic growth.

Principal SharePoint Architect

TechForce, Inc.

As President of TechForce, I led the company in delivering innovative IT solutions, with a focus on software development, cybersecurity, and operational management.

Software Development: Spearheaded the production of a software package for the Training Industry by collaborating with offshore development teams. Managed IT specialists and analysts, setting work schedules, deadlines, and performance standards to ensure successful service integration of IT programs.

Information Technology Security: Directed the company’s cybersecurity initiatives, balancing the benefits and risks of information sharing. Implemented secure information sharing protocols within the company and with vendor organizations, ensuring robust cybersecurity across all operations.

Operational Management: Coordinated and approved technical projects, providing oversight and technical assistance for automated systems. Directed the integration of department information systems with the company’s IT infrastructure, optimizing efficiency and program operations.

My leadership at TechForce was instrumental in driving technological innovation, enhancing cybersecurity, and ensuring operational excellence across all IT functions.

President/CEO

US Securities and Exchange Commission

As a Senior Consultant at the SEC, I played a pivotal role in the information architecture and change management for the rollout of a major SharePoint-based solution.

Technical Oversight: Ensured best practices were adhered to in the development of programs, information systems, and technology, providing critical technical oversight throughout the project.

Process Improvement: Contributed to the creation of the Commission’s SharePoint Governance Plan, offering strategic guidance to enhance the platform’s effectiveness and governance.

Database Administration: Led data integrity efforts for the division, achieving an 87% customer satisfaction rating by instilling confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the data provided by the solution.

My contributions were instrumental in ensuring the successful implementation and adoption of SharePoint, enhancing the Commission’s operational efficiency and data integrity.

Senior Consultant

The Training Associates

As a consultant with The Training Consultants, I specialized in developing and delivering IT training programs that empowered clients to excel in computer hardware and software technology.

IT Training: Designed and conducted professional training courses for customers and engineers, covering all aspects of computer hardware and software technology, ensuring participants gained practical, hands-on skills.

Curriculum Design: Created and refined course content, set clear student learning objectives, and developed comprehensive syllabi and lesson plans. Managed all aspects of the training process, including maintaining records, administering assessments, and creating detailed student manuals.

Course Evaluation: Continuously evaluated and updated training materials and procedures to ensure courses remained current with the latest software and equipment advancements, enhancing the effectiveness of the training programs.

My work ensured that training programs were not only educational but also aligned with the latest technological developments, providing clients with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed.

Consultant

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How I Help: 
With advanced AI technology, NEXUS AI Hub automates core business functions, streamlining your operations and empowering you to drive growth. 

Whether you’re a seasoned executive or a fast-scaling startup, NEXUS AI Hub provides the tools you need to operate efficiently and effectively.

Contact me today to explore how NEXUS AI Hub can help you scale your business and optimize performance.

As a seasoned executive with over 10 years of management experience in services, professional services, consulting, and project management, I am confident in my ability to lead multiple functional teams to ensure the delivery of high-quality implementations and projects to our customers.

My strong working knowledge of key professional services metrics such as revenue, margin, and billable utilization, as well as my data and analytical skills and experience making data-driven decisions, make me well-suited to build and run a services capacity model that ensures adequate resource availability while maintaining profitable margins.

I have a successful track record of managing and leading growing teams, and am proficient in collaboration, conflict resolution, group interaction and dynamics, project management, and facilitation of significant projects. I am able to evaluate and balance team and individual workloads through effective time management, prioritization, and organizational skills.

As a change leader, I lead through vision and values, and model leadership behaviors. I have experience leading enterprise ERP and SaaS implementations and can build and maintain relationships with team members, customer stakeholders, peers, and executives across organizational boundaries. I possess a positive, resilient, and tenacious attitude with a propensity to persevere.

In my previous role, I successfully developed a team of delivery professionals with a varied set of skills to address the technical, process, and relationship management aspects of our services. I was also responsible for handling executive escalations and maintained a high level of commitment to superior customer satisfaction throughout the duration of our customer relationships.

EAG Advertising & Marketing

‣ Planning, executing, and sharing experience research to drive analytical insights at one of Kansas City's leading marketing advisories and creative agencies.

‣ Leading human-centered design process integration, training staff in design practices, agile principles, and web accessibility, promoting innovation and collaboration.

‣ Managing client support requests, project kickoffs, workshops, stakeholder engagement, Human-Centered Design (HCD) advocacy, and service delivery enhancements.

Director of Research

USAA

‣ My main project was an independent contribution related to replacing the functionality of a Workday App discontinued in Workday 2023 Release 2 (September 9, 2023). 
 
‣ The app was frequently used (accessed over 1.1 million times since the start of 2023) and is used by all ≈ 37,000 USAA employees 2-3 times each year.  
 
‣ Used methods like contextual inquiry, stakeholder interviews, low-fidelity solution design, concept testing, and usability testing.

‣Presented findings to stakeholders and made recommendations for resource allocation prioritization.

Sr. UX Designer —  Workday Optimization Experience Design

Useagility

I previously lead research, strategy, and design at Useagility—where we shaped high-impact technology improvement projects. Our clients brought the challenges and subject matter experts. We brought a fresh perspective and project launch expertise. Together, we'll aligned their business objectives with project goals and organizational appetite for innovation and improvement.

Experience Design (Lead)

‣ Supported the UMB's marketing team thru a year-long discovery, evaluation, and planning process to prepare for a Q4 2023 / Q1 2024 CMS migration.

‣ Conducted card sorts and tree tests to help the team validate existing user frictions with navigation.

‣ Performed 120 hours of usability testing and heuristic evaluation which resulted in immediate revisions to UMB's existing design language system and the creation of a search- and-product-centric engagement strategy.

+ UMB Bank 

‣ Performed month-long research sprints focused on usability testing + mixed method research (including user interviews) to support the work of a client-side UI development manager working to support an e-commerce site with over 400K monthly sessions on StaplesPromo.com.

‣ Collaborated with conversion rate optimization manager to enrich the team understanding of existing analytics and translate those learnings into improved, customer-centric shopping and checkout workflows, which resulted in an increase of the site's conversion rate.

+ Staples

‣ Led efforts to centralize and prioritize customer learning across multiple listening channels (analytics, customer experience, user experience, customer support) to improve IPFS's ability to synthesize and take coordinated action on customer needs and opportunities.

‣ Increased use of UX research in business-case decision-making while helping to build a culture of iterative experimentation that informed product strategy, product road maps, and resource investment.

‣ Completed end-to-end design (discovery to prototype and testing) of two completely new insurance financing products.

+ Imperial Premium Finance

‣ Segmented and performed behavioral research with donors, business leaders, and community members for a three-year technology modernization project aimed at completely redesigning a donor management portal that connects 280K sponsors with their sponsored friends and has helped to distribute over $2 billion in funds to help families overcome the challenges of poverty.

‣ Completed final visual design of high-fidelity prototype in Figma for hand-off to development team.

+ Unbound

‣ Worked with technical project managers to define and document product requirements based on input from stakeholders across the business.

‣ Translated user need statements, storyboards, and workflows into MVPs of cybersecurity reporting dashboards and widgets using a previously established design language system.

+ Blue Lava

‣ Completed on-site mixed-method usability testing of Blockworks and WorkCenter systems including on-site, ergonomic evaluation of software used in 10K retail tax offices.

‣  Made recommendations that resulted in enterprise-level enhancements aimed at creating a 360° view of the client, identifying new service opportunities and improving retail office operational efficiencies.

+ H&R Block

‣ Led research and strategy activities (stakeholder research and contextual inquiry) to help build the business case for additional resources.

‣ Designed templates used in organization-wide deployment of training, and support documentation used by 6K employees to create custom dashboards, reports, workbooks, datasets, and data flows without involving an organization's BI and IT teams.

+ KC Southern Railroad

‣ Served as a third-party arbitrator between Bailey Lauerman and one of their institutional clients in higher education pertaining to website usability, accessibility compliance, content strategy, recruitment, form conversion strategies, and document storage.

+ Bailey Lauerman 

White Elephant XD

Maintained graphic design clients that included the player development office of three NFL teams, two NFL-associated 501c3 organizations, and a Grammy award-winning Jazz artist. Created brand identities and visual design documentation for early-stage businesses, including product package design. Performed 100+ hour learning-validation, customer, and product research consulting for launch and growth phase companies like Startup High Country, MountainDev, physical Product Design for Pushing Excellence, and a company that repurposed mobile escape room games for DEI education. Provided custom KPIs, design sprints, and cultural index measurement tools for organizations committed to quickly accelerating their commitment to workplace change initiatives.

Independent Contractor

William Jewell College

‣ Taught over 100 sections of interdisciplinary communication courses on topics from rhetoric to UX research.

‣ Worked with innovative students conducting research using lean methods, HCD design-thinking, service blueprinting, and guerrilla UX research. 

‣ Participated in thousands of hours of Diversity and Inclusion Faculty Steering Committee and other anti-racism work where we usually unsuccessfully agitated against college administration for better anti-oppressive college programming, core curriculum, student safety and HR policies.

‣ Advised incredible students, research projects, and debaters—successfully hosting dozens of thoughtfully planned anti-oppressive educational events that the administration tried to find reasons to cancel. 

‣ Implemented student-controlled active learning platforms and pedagogies which the administration (admittedly) didn't appreciate as much as any of us would have hoped. 🤣🤷🏻

Professor

Northwest Missouri State University

Public Speaking Professor 

Texas Tech University

Graduate Teaching Instructor 

📫 kyle.dennis@hey.com
--
I specialize in listening to users and amplifying their voices, which allows me to present my team with evidence-backed arguments for immediately impactful design improvements that solve complex customer experience and interface challenges.

taplio

The Battle

Johnathan Lightfoot

Kyle B. Dennis

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