Benjamin Listwon

Developer • Designer • Father

ben@benjaminlistwon.com

Experience

Founder; Consultant; Author

benjaminlistwon.com
  • Architected, designed and built internal project and asset management software for 2nd largest independent board game manufacturing company; 10M+ games manufactured; $20M+ revenue prediction for 2018
  • Providing ongoing frontend, product design and product management consulting for individuals and companies building responsive web applications and single-page JavaScript applications
  • Technical consulting on creation of mobile web applications, and conversion from native to mobile web applications
  • Publishing technical articles on modern software development; average 3,500 readers per article

Consultant, Front End Engineering

Involution Studios LLC
  • Design, build, document and deploy modern, reactive applications, RESTful APIs and end-to-end solutions for the healthcare industry and select individual clients
  • Provide technical oversight and project management for client projects
  • Projects, case studies and more studio information available at http://www.goinvo.com/

Founder; Owner

SchoolHQ LLC
  • Frontend consulting on “modern” web applications, focused on non-profits/not-for-profits, OSS civic tech and developing nations
  • Full stack website and application development for clients with an emphasis on empowering organizational independence post-launch
  • Website and SIS/SMS consulting services for schools, districts and teachers
  • Internally focused on development of a resource marketplace and social platform for parents, teachers and students

Director, Front End Architect

Magento / X.commerce / eBay
  • Responsible for software client interaction with X.commerce platform and Magento integration
  • Technology and design liaison for X.commerce public facing website
  • Coordinated design and development across teams in San Jose, Austin, Culver City and Ukraine
  • Created proof-of-concept applications against X.commerce platform, in multiple front and back end technologies

Co-Founder; UI Lead

Endorse
  • Responsible for design and implementation of front end for a loyalty-based coupon product

Director, UED; Senior Design Prototyper

Yahoo!
  • Managed small, half-dozen member team responsible for prototyping and implementation of the Yahoo! Mail and Messenger redesign and replatform
  • Led complete rewrite of front end in YUI3 running on node.js for 275MM+ users
  • Directed design and brand consistency across web, Android and iOS versions of the product

R & D Program Manager; Platform Lead

Nokia
  • Acted as primary liaison between Business and Product Strategy organizations and the Development organization’s Chief Architect
  • Oversaw implementation of global brand and front end platform on projects reaching 120MM+ users in 150+ countries

Senior R & D Manager; Front End Lead

Nokia
  • Developed front end and technology stack for Nokia app store
  • Responsible for user experience across 100MM+ Series 40 and Series 60 devices in 15+ countries (20+ languages) as well as the web
  • Led virtual teams in Boston, Vancouver and Finland, reporting directly to Nokia’s Chief Architect

Principal; Technology Director

Involution Studios LLC
  • Led implementation of 10+ user interfaces on nearly as many technology platforms
  • Acted as director of front end technology within several client organizations
  • Clients included Oracle, Yahoo!, Mitre, McAfee, Raptr and several startups
  • Responsible for all technology decisions for the studio and those affecting clients and partners

Co-Founder; CTO

Spivot
  • Implemented entire front end of our first in-house product, a newspaper-like RSS aggregator
  • Developed entire backend platform in Python, backed by MySQL
  • Responsible for all technology decisions on the project

Founding Member; Lead UI Architect

Yelp
  • Responsible for design, brand direction and implementation of front end
  • Art directed and produced all collateral, photo shoots, events and merchandise design
  • Implemented custom front end templating system in Python

Lead Architect, Front End Technology

PayPal Inc
  • Oversaw three teams responsible for design and implementation of front end in 30+ countries for 50MM users
  • Led XML / XSLT based rewrite of front end tier
  • Primary design lead for L10N and I18N software used by internal teams and external global organizations

Lead UI Architect, Front End Technology

PayPal Inc
  • Post-merger, reported directly into CTO organization
  • Led front end rollouts of multiple currency support and L10N in 6 countries
  • Revamped internal tools used by 1000+ CSRs, resulting in call time reduction of over 400%
  • Pre-IPO, singlehandedly led conversion of 1,200 hand-coded pages to templated markup, CSS and standards-coompliant HTML

Co-Founder; Lead UI Designer

idealab! Companies
  • Created and implemented user interface for several internally incubated properties
  • Worked closely with Tom Hughes and Kristen Ding to develop design aesthetics and maintain consistency with global brand

Co-Founder; Lead UI Designer; Angel Investor

Jump! / MSN Calendar
  • Post-acquisition, led conversion of front end to IIS / ASP to support growth from 40K to 40MM users
  • Led redesign of entire site to fit with Hotmail / MSN branding guidelines
  • Led original implementation of Jump! design through three iterations of the product

UI Designer

MeetingHouse Technologies
  • Designed and implemented user interfaces for all clients
  • Clients included U.S. Navy, Sears, Cornell University and local startups

Content Editor

theglobe.com
  • Authored and edited content for early social networking company, prior to its $804MM IPO

Education

Cornell University — Architecture (5-Year Program)

The Hotchkiss School — High School

Patents

United States Patent 8,112,353

Payment Service to Efficiently Enable Electronic Payment

Inventors: Benjamin Listwon, David Li, David Kang, Max Levchin

United States Patent 7,930,247

Payment Service to Efficiently Enable Electronic Payment

Inventors: Benjamin Listwon, David Li, David Kang, Max Levchin

United States Patent 7,831,510

Payment Service to Efficiently Enable Electronic Payment

Inventors: Benjamin Listwon, David Li, David Kang, Max Levchin

United States Patent 7,457,778

Method and Architecture for Facilitating Payment to E-commerce Merchants Via a Payment Service

Inventors: Benjamin Listwon, David Li, David Kang, Max Levchin

Awards

Webby Award Winner in Financial Services for PayPal

Webby People’s Voice Winner in Financial Services for PayPal

References & Portfolio

I would be happy to furnish references upon request.

Due to the sensitive nature of some projects not yet in the public domain, the data displayed therein and/or specific NDAs, I prefer to show portfolio samples in person or over Skype, GoToMeeting or similar.

Thank you for your understanding.