Who We Are
Founded in 2003, Strategic Solutions Group (SSG) has team members with over 20 years of collective experience in operations management, requirements gathering, project management, implementation support, and information technology solutions. SSG provides efficient, value-driven solutions for the public sector.
The project teams of SSG have successfully dedicated themselves to excellence and to serving customers through teamwork, continuous quality improvement and anticipating client needs. One of SSG's culture tenets is the quality of service delivered. SSG continuously solicits feedback from clients and subjects itself, and programs, to meticulous evaluation. All SSG associates understand the customers' focus and dedicate themselves to ensure all their business and IT requirements are met.
Managing Partners
John Schaeffer
John leads SSG with a vision to apply his combined IT and management consulting experience to enhance public sector organizations. "It's great to apply technology and process re-engineering to support important public services." John has seen SSG prosper and is encouraged by the strong support from customers who value the SSG focus on quality delivery. John has over a decade of expertise in project management, technology strategy, implementation of IT solutions and change management within the public sector.
Prior to SSG, John worked on a consulting basis within financial services for Goldman Sachs, Prudential Investments and Credit Suisse First Boston. Learning from that experience and gaining a solid foundation in business management, he decided to follow his passion to support government infrastructure and services. This new venture allowed him to pursue his belief in the value of government and the public sector to support citizens and promote public health and safety. John also has previous experience in business analysis, software development and performed laboratory research with the Boston Heart Foundation. He holds his BS in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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Jennifer Graves, MBA
Jennifer leads SSG with a passion for customer service. "The strong working and personal relationships here at SSG are instrumental to our success and customer satisfaction." Utilizing nearly a decade of experience in health care and health policy consulting Jennifer has skills in project management, strategic planning and software implementation which represent SSG's overall strength as a consulting firm with a public sector focus. Jennifer also has past experience in health policy research, including writing reports for the federal government.
Jennifer previously worked at the University of Massachusetts Medical School where she preformed health policy research, consulting, and teaching assistance with medical school clerkships. She also has previous work experience with the Hospital Association of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Department of Public Health. Jennifer has an MBA from Clark University and a BS in Health Policy and Management from Providence College.
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Team Members
Kunal Bafna, MS Information Technology
IT Systems Analyst
Kunal Bafna joined SSG as an IT Systems Analyst after completing his Masters of Science with a concentration in Information Systems. Kunal applies his JAVA software programming knowledge and IT skills to support our clients in designing, developing and implementing enterprise web based software solutions. As an IT enthusiast, Kunal combines IT and analysis skills to benefit our customers and ensure project success.
Kunal received his Master of Science in Information Systems from Northeastern and holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computers. He has previous software engineering experience within the Global services group at EMC.
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Bindi Doshi, MBA
Business Analyst
Bindi is a business analyst with several years of experience working in IT and networking. She has experience managing IT projects involving server migrations and enhancements to web-based applications. Ms. Doshi has previous experience in technical operations and project management at Partners Health Care System. She has worked on several management consulting projects including one with National Grid to make recommendations on a unified safety and quality oriented workforce. Bindi combines her past IT background and management education to support the successful completion of multi-faceted and cross-functional projects. She applies her experience and skills with a pro-active and team oriented approach.
Bindi received her MBA from Bentley University, McCallum Graduate School of Business in Waltham, MA and she holds a BS in Electronics and Telecommunications. She served as an International Peer Advisor for prospective international graduate students attending Bentley University.
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Mike Drummond
Technical Project Manager
Mike is a Senior Technical Engineer with 15+ years experience building data-driven web and client/server applications on multiple platforms. At SSG he has developed custom Windows and web-based applications and has rolled out enterprise IT solutions for clients. Mike is a hands-on solutions provider. His troubleshooting and technical skills ensure that customers have tangible, value-added solutions that meet their business needs. Mike has developed in J2EE and .NET environments and has experience as a LAN administrator. His thoughtful approach to problem solving and devotion to customer satisfaction has led to numerous successful projects and repeat business. Mike has worked within a wide range of development environments and utilized many project management methodologies which provide a breadth and depth of experience to support our customers.
Mike has held Senior Programmer and Technical Consultant positions at Verizon, Zefer and State Street Bank. He has an Object Oriented Programming certificate from Northeastern University and has his BA in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
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Beau Gaerlan, MBA, MS Information Technology
Project Manager / Business Analyst
As a project manager Beau has over 7 years of professional experience in business analysis and IT consulting, specializing in both strategic planning and operations-oriented on-the-ground implementation. Beau has spearheaded several high profile projects for our clients including a NIMS compliant, full scale public safety exercise, establishing ambulance task force teams, and leading the implementation and maintenance of an enterprise disease surveillance system. Beau's strength lies in building strong and personal customer relationships, and balancing the needs of stakeholders in larger multi-faceted projects. His active work within the Massachusetts enterprise architecture hosting environment and Project Management Office has brought programmatic success while also supporting the envisioned shared services architecture and unified process project management methodologies of the Commonwealth.
Beau received his MBA with an MS in Information Systems from Boston University in 2006 and has a BS in Information Science and Policy at the State University of New York at Albany. His background and experience in IT consulting includes playing a key research role in the Boston University Institute for Leading in a Dynamic Economy where he made key strategy recommendations used by global firms.
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Kathleen Gallagher, PMP
Project Manager / Business Analyst
Kathy is a Project Management Professional (PMP) certified project manager with 20 years experience managing client relationships and rolling out complex IT systems. Kathy is a leader in managing SSG enterprise IT system projects. Her skill sets and experience enable her to pro-actively bring success at all phases of the system development lifecycle. Kathy is experienced in project management, requirements definition and prioritization, system implementation strategy, system testing and system roll-out. Her expertise in leading organizational change and designing innovative solutions allows our customers to realize improved productivity, efficiency and cost savings. From project kick-off, our customers realize the value of Kathy's hands-on, professional and cross-functional project management approach.
Kathy has held project manager positions at Fidelity Investments and the Houghton Mifflin Company where she spearheaded quality assurance processes. She holds a BS from Framingham State College and has a Project Management Certificate from Boston University.
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Peter Mark, MBA, MS Information Technology
Project Manager / Business Analyst
Peter has over 10 years of industry and consulting experience where he has participated in all phases of the system dvelopment lifecycle in roles such as project manager, business analyst, software developer, and change management analyst. Equipped with both business expertise and IT knowledge, Peter is able to quickly and effectively comprehend a situation and design an optimized process with the appropriate techncial solution. Throughout his career, he has been successfully in reaching across business and IT barriers in furthering organizational goals. Peter is very detail and goal oriented and effective in achieving quality results. He has earned the reputation of being able to meet very demanding deadlines while also producing high quality work.
Prior to SSG, Peter was at the consulting firm Capgemini LLC where he helped steer large scale implementation projects. He received his MBA and an MS in Information Systems from Boston University in 2008 and also holds a BS in Management Information Systems from Boston University.
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Avinash Martis, MS Information Technology
IT Systems Analyst
Avinash brings experience in data analytics, software development and business analysis to the SSG team. He has worked in a wide range of industries, including IT and healthcare. Currently, Avinash leads SSG efforts in IT systems testing, maintenance and data migration.
Avinash has previous working experience as a Software Engineer with Juniper Networks and EMC Corporation where he was involved in gathering client requirements and developing test plans for customization of the EMC Storage Systems. He has also worked as a Business Analyst in the healthcare sector where he was involved in requirement gathering, system analysis and data migration for a wide array of client projects. He has received his Masters of Science Degree in Information Systems from Northeastern University, Boston and a Bachelors Degree in Engineering majoring in Information Technology.
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Max Milendorf
Project Manager
Max has 10 years for experience in project management and IT product development. Focusing on work within the healthcare and software industries, Max has actively led efforts in project management, requirements definition, software development, online training courses, e-commerce applications, IT infrastructure planning, QA process design, budget creation, and resource hiring. His past project work includes implementation of electronic medical records (EMR) solutions, educational applications, and medical devices. Max's strategic approach to problem solving has brought success to numerous such companies including Prentice Hall and 3M.
Prior to SSG, Max worked at Wellogic where he lead the effort in maintaining client relationships, and implementing EMR software in healthcare communities. In addition, he has past experience creating guidelines and formalizing processes for the successful market release of web-based courses with medical and patient safety content. Max received his BA from Brandeis University and in his spare time produces studio recordings and concerts for various bands and musicians in US and Europe.
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Frank Reilly, MBA, PMP
Project Manager
Frank is a Project Management Professional (PMP) certified Project Manager and Business Analyst with full life-cycle experience in requirements analysis and documentation. Frank's strengths lie is strong communication skills and a very process oriented approach to project management. His work on implementing Electronic Laboratory Reporting to over 60 organizations was a success due in large part to his organizational skills and structured project methodology. Frank also contributes to requirements definition and system test plan creation to ensure that projects meet the needs of our customers.
Prior to SSG, Frank held Assistant Vice President positions at State Street Bank and Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) where he managed technical projects. He received his MBA from Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College, and his BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Frank is also a graduate of the Massachusetts Military Academy Officer Candidate School.
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George Schaeffer
Senior Software Architect
George is an accomplished software engineer with over 25 years of experience. He has proven himself as a project leader with expertise in database design, application design, and system development. Mr. Schaeffer is versed in numerous technology platforms and industry best practices. His extensive IT knowledge and experience ensure optimal system architecture and coding practices within SSG software products and IT services support.
George has worked as a senior software architect and developer for numerous organizations including: Doble Engineering , Imlac Corporation, Hazeltine Corporation and Citibank. He was elected and served as a member of the US delegate to the ISO Working Group on Computer Graphic Standards and served on the ANSI X3H3 computer graphics standardization committee.
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Gregory Wong, MBA
Project Manager / Business Analyst
Greg is a project manager and business analyst with over 9 years of experience. Our customers have achieved project success from his expertise in analyzing business processes, leveraging technology, and developing process oriented project plans. Greg has a strong analytic approach to project work which he has applied to project management, requirements definition, implementation support, and system testing. His attention to detail and foresight to identify potential project risks are key factors to the success of projects under his management.
Greg has held previous positions as a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer and Senior Systems Analyst at Fidelity Investments. He has an MBA from Bentley University and a BS in Bio-Psychology from Tufts University.
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