March 1, 2002

Dear prospective employer:

I am very pleased to recommend Bruce McLaren for a senior technical or technical management position with your company.

I have known Bruce for over 15 years. I first worked with him at Carnegie Group, where I was Director of Software Development, including several years as his direct supervisor. In his work there, he displayed great technical insight, produced excellent technical design, did solid and careful development work, and gained the trust of all of the customers he came in contact with. He also showed himself to be one of the most highly focused and self-starting individuals I have ever known. This led him into technical project management, including an overseas assignment, in which he was able to assemble a team and successfully deliver a solution to a demanding customer with little support from the home office. He went on to successfully manage several other substantial projects, making the often-tricky transition from technical leader to project manager with ease.

My experience with Bruce at Carnegie Group led me to recruit him to head a team to extend OpenWebs’ product offering by adding a rule-based Internet trading capability. He did not disappoint me. He was able to combine his project management skills with his abilities to understand and exploit new technology and skills from his PhD in Intelligent Systems to create an innovative capability that greatly enhances our core enterprise product. He did this with careful attention to budget and schedule and with the same calm, but focused, and tenacious demeanor that so impresses his colleagues and customers alike. He delivered a prototype and a production system, meeting schedule and budget goals, while keeping his team extremely productive and personally fulfilled.

In short I recommend Bruce without hesitation for a senior technical position, including any combination of project management, technical architecture, software design and development, and customer relationship management.

Philip J Hayes
Chief Technology Officer