Ed Thornton:  

Hi Everyone:: After High School, I joined the Army Security Agency (military wing to the NSA) for four years. During my tour of duty in Vietnam, I was in charge of running the war room for the 25th Infantry Division. This included calling in air strikes, artillary strikes, or any other military action that might be needed to both protect our troops and negatively impact the enemy.. Once I left the ASA in June 1969, I started my educational pursuits. I obtained a degree in Finance from LIU ( CW Post Campus) in 1972, and used the degree to perform corporate trust work down on Wall St. I later moved to Salt Lake City in late 1973 to work in the Finace Divsion of Utah Power and LIght. Unfortunately the oil crisis of 1973 forced a freeze on hiring and my job went away. After spending nearlly a year in Salt Lake and enjoying the fantastic skiing but no work, I moved to Denver where I worked in a ski shop repairing and preparing skis and other equipment for individuals and groups. This experience led me to participate in the Denver Metro Ski Races at Vail one year while waiting to earn my Colorado residence. Once, I had my residence, I started taking advanced accounting courses at Colorado University - Denver Branch. By the time I completed all my courses in 1977, my wife, who was a Lupus patient, could no longer work. Because of this and my responsibility for both my wife and my infant son, we moved back to the Island and stayed with my Dad. During this time, I was accepted to Grumman Data Systems school for an IT certification. After completing the course material, I was immediately hired by AIG. Yes, the same firm that has been in the news since the financial meltdown. I stayed with the insurance giant until December 1980. During my time at AIG I helped customize a new G/L System and directly assisted the controllers of AIG's insurance companies in establishing their respective chart of accounts. Because of my work in the IT Department, I was offered a position as an IT Auditor and relocate to Manchester, NH July 1979. By the end of 1980, I was offered an IT Auditor Supervisory position with First City Bancorp in Houston, TX . Thus I moved my yound famiy to Houston, TX. from New Hampshire. As the new IT Audit Supervisor at First City Bancorporatiion, I converted all previous audit software to Informatics Mark IV and establishednew procedures for handling query, created a library of application record layouts / special codes, as well as audit request and reporting procedures for both the IT and Financial auditors the software tools for them to qurey their needs. After the oil bust in the early 80's, I eventually found myself working for Occidental Petroleum in an IT Auditor capaccity by 1984. Working for Occidental was like catching a flying bus every Monday morniing and return on Friday evening. I was in the air every week. This travel also included both domestic and foreign trips too. While at Occidental, I wrote analytical software that lead to a $1.5 million dollar find to reduce wasteful IT operating and processing costs. In Scotland, I helped to identify the weaknesses of an IMS database system for controlling and managing offshore drilling equipment. Had to leave Occidental, because they wanted to relocate me to Los Angeles with the housing market in Houston in the tank and unable to sell the home in a reasonable time frame. By July 1984, I moved over to Texaco where my air travel was significantly reduced and I had some assemblance of a normal home life. At Texaco I developed number of cost saving software for both IT and Financial Auditors. Later in 1989, executive management gave me the opportunity to develop and install a global audit system along with email notifications to management when a questionable or illagal access is picked up by thge system. The interfacing of email with a complex system like mine was quite advanced at the time. It allowed as well as controlled ...Expand for more