26 Bay Ridge Drive

Nashua, NH 03062

May 23, 2003

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

This letter is in reference to Paul Avard, who worked for me as Quality Assurance Team Lead in the Engineering department at First Virtual Communications.  Paul and I worked together for three years, from his arrival at the company until my departure in January.  During this time, Paul was responsible for building and growing a quality assurance team for the company’s leading product, Conference Server.  Conference Server accounted for the largest share of company revenues, and was sold both as a standalone product and as a component of most other major products during this period.

 

Paul was given a substantial challenge, which he mastered well, namely to build a professional QA team and to vastly improve the quality of Conference Server.  He hired and mentored a team, growing junior engineers with potential into an effective, organized, nimble, and well-respected group.  Due to budget and resource constraints, Paul’s team was both more junior and smaller than would normally have been required for the task.  Still the same, Paul set out to organize the team, teach it process and practicality, and convert potential into talent and experience.  Paul has a good deal of patience and tenacity, and his efforts resulted in a highly successful, enterprise-caliber product with a reputation for quality and reliability that proved the lynchpin of the company’s success in the web conferencing and videoconferencing markets we served.  Paul guided his team through difficult times at the company and through many high-pressure, short-cycle releases.  He was well-respected by both his team and his peers in engineering, support, and marketing.

 

I would strongly recommend Paul for leadership positions, especially those which require a strong sense of quality, team building, mentoring, process, and patience.  I hope to work with Paul again in the future, and would be happy to discuss his strengths and qualifications with anyone interested in learning more.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

 

Jeffrey B. Krampf

Former VP Engineering

First Virtual Communications