Robert W. Rapp, Jr.

Professional

I am Bob Rapp. As an accomplished business and IT executive, I have served in various management and leadership positions in four industries - diversified utilities, oil and gas exploration and production, commercial aviation, and retail. I am a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in the state of Texas.

My career began as a financial systems analyst for Lone Star Gas Company (a division of ENSERCH). Within 5 years, I became the applications development manager for Enserch Exploration where I also served as Director, of Information Systems for 5 years. I was recruited by Pacific Enterprises Oil Company (PEOC) and served as Director, Information Systems. When Pacific Enterprises (Sempra) sold the assets of PEOC, I joined Southwest Airlines as Vice President - Systems during an important transition period. Among our team's accomplishments were the introduction of ticketless travel and Internet booking.

After 5 years at Southwest Airlines, I returned to the energy industry - first at Snyder Oil Company and then I became involved in some entrepreneurial startups, including a venture formed by EDS, Raytheon, and ChevronTexaco. Additionally, I have worked in the energy industry as an independent consultant.

I joined Frontier Airlines in 2004 as Vice President and CIO - a low cost carrier with its major hub in Denver, Colorado. At Frontier, we overhauled the company's online distribution system, transitioned to Sabre, deployed kiosk technology, applied advanced business intelligence technology in the areas of revenue and yield management and re-architected the infrastructure for high availability.

At Rent-A-Center, I served over 5 years as VP, IT and Chief Technology Officer. I was responsible for all infrastructure and information security functions as well as several applications development organizations. In mid-April 2012, I retired from Rent-A-Center to take a short sabbatical to pursue some continuing professional education as well as exploring further career options.

I received my BS as an honors graduate in applied science from Miami University in Ohio. I also earned an MS in management science from the University of Texas at Dallas and attended the Graduate School of Business at Harvard University, in a management program on information service resources. I hold a variety of information technology certifications and the aforementioned CPA license.

My areas of specialization include I/T governance and leadership, project management and applications development, mobility solutions, eBusiness initiatives, and I/T security.

Each position may be referenced upon request.

My blog site can be found at (under development): robertrapp.biz