Recommendation Letter - Steve Kelly
To whom it may concern:
I have known and worked with Clay Brook since 2000. I was his hiring manager at Raytheon's Secure Networks organization. Clay has a great amount of initiative. He started a Tampa Bay based computer-consulting firm offering network and security administration, custom hardware development, forensics investigations and technical consulting. I was looking for a self-starter with network and computer security experience. He certainly fit the bill.
He was hired to work the Department of Navy's (DON) Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) program. He had many roles but his most significant were at the Architect and Engineer for the NMCI Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Science and Technology (S&T) Terminal Services network interface. The IDS architecture encompassed the entire 3000K NMCI users with 3 separate COTS products. The final S&T architecture secured approximately 300 sites with up to 120K users. The NMCI is a 5-year program and the architecture and design is complete; it is currently in the deployment and maintenance phase.
Clay is an outstanding engineer of impeccable character. Clay was regularly called upon when customer fire drills occurred. He was the "go to person", if a new task with short schedule was forced upon us by the customer. He always took responsibility for his tasks and provided a quality product. He also managed different teams during the 3-year period: a group of 7 engineers for the NMCI's IDS project, 15 engineers for the NMCI's Network team, and 17 researchers for an Independent Research and Development (IRAD) project relating to Intrusion Detection he presented as a Raytheon opportunity. He is a very versatile person with tremendous drive. I will surely miss him as a member of my organization.
Clay is an excellent communicator. From his peers to the site and board level executives, Clay could explain the most complex scenarios and deliver the information at the right level to suit his audience. I whole-heartedly recommend Clay for any higher-level education program he may pursue. Clay is a personable engineer and his verbal and written skills will help any company improve their bottom line, should they hire him, or rehire as I would in a New York minute...
Sincerely,
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Steven P. Kelly
Sr. Manager, Secure Networks
Network Centric Systems, Raytheon Corporation
1501 72nd St. N., M/S 41, St. Petersburg, FL 33710