Bio
Executive Bio
Before joining ZumBox, Mr. Schonholz was the Chief Technology Office at Hoodiny Entertainment Group, a digital media and social networking company featuring web properties targeting primarily the young Hispanic audience, where he was responsible for product definition and development, online and digital operations and technology. As the CTO, Fabian helped in the development of partnerships with Telefonica (Hoodiny powers the Music and Community channels at www.terra.es), Warner Music Latina (www.miwml.com) and EMI.
Before its acquisition by Apax Partners, Mr. Schonholz was the Vice President of Technology for Pictage, Inc. where he was responsible for all areas of technology including System Architecture, Design, Development, System and Web Operations and International Operations. Prior to Pictage, Mr. Schonholz was a Principal at FES Consulting, a technology strategy and systems consulting firm working with domestic and international clients. Clients included Disney Imagineering, L.E.K. Consulting, The WindsEye, and others.
Before FES, Mr. Schonholz was the Chief Java Software Architect at XYLAN, a networking hardware manufacturer where he designed and implemented a distributed Network Management System that scaled to over 1 million managed ports. Previous to XYLAN, Mr. Schonholz was the Manager for Server Software at Disney OnLine. Prior thereto, Mr. Schonholz had two small tenures at JPL and Netcount, and during 1994 and 1995, Mr. Schonholz worked at Prudential Group Insurance - WGO, as a member of the Information Superhighway Committee, where he developed a series of web based applications in Perl, C/C++, HTML and syBase.
Mr. Schonholz graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1993 with a B.A. in Mathematics.
Long Bio
Through a unique combination of experience, opportunity, and knowledge, Fabian Schonholz has developed an expertise in using technology in innovative and visionary ways, which has prospered and advanced the business needs of many types of companies. At the same time, he has proven himself astute and successful in managing and understanding the business needs that must be at the foundation of technology and its many applications.
His experience began, after earning his BA in Mathematics from the University of California at Santa Barbara, in an IT position with Prudential Group Insurance. Schonholz quickly became the “go-to” person for solutions in programming and systems development, so when the company needed data uploaded for a three year audit, Schonholz quickly created a DB written in FoxPro, that enabled the auditors to complete in three days what normally takes five. This would become a recurring theme in Schonholz’s work – opportunity would present a problem, and he would create a solution.
Schonholz’ opportunities, experience, and knowledge continued to grow, as companies continued to seek out his skills. At Prudential, starting in 1994, Schonholz also pioneered the use of web technologies for internal mission critical applications, connecting CGI scripts written in C to a SyBase DBs, providing dynamic HTML content. At NASA, Schonholz maintained the Multiuse Software used to manage near and far earth orbit civilization satellites. At Netcount, Schonholz was responsible for the basic and plus products and implemented web log reporting, making them one of the first companies to use this practice. As Director/Manager for Server Systems Software at Disney Online (DOL) the mission was to develop a distributed desktop environment safe for children. Schonholz was responsible for the architecture and implementation of the Registration and Authorization system. At Xylan, as the Chief Architect of Java NMS project, the goal was to develop a system in Java that could scale to millions of managed ports. He architected, designed, and implemented the back end using an n-tier architecture.
In 1999, Schonholz started his own consulting firm, FES Consulting. Litronic, producers of security software, was his first client. He integrated SmartCards and readers with a web browser installed at users’ workstations, as well as the bank’s account management system. For Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) he helped to develop the architecture and implementation behind ABC’s enhanced television. Other clients included L.E.K. and the Winds Eye, an incubator.
Finally, beginning in October 2000, in two start up opportunities, Schonholz was a major contributor to the rapid growth and success of the companies. For Pictage, an Application Service Provider for professional photographers, Schonholz was responsible for development, project management, QA, IT, and systems operations. The concepts behind the architecture included massive distributed systems, service oriented architecture (SOA), AJAX, and XML/XSL. All systems were implemented in Linux, Java, and Postpresql. Pictage’s server base totaled approximately 1,000 CPU’s distributed in various configurations over two data centers. Due to the nature of the business there were over 50 million stored high resolution images totaling 150TB.
In June, 2006, after almost 6 years at Pictage, Schonholz joined Hoodiny Entertainment Group as their CTO. Schonholz inherited a beta site that was not very stable, requiring the development of a new site based on advance architectures and leading edge technologies. V1.0 was deployed in October 12, 2006. Since then the site has experience 99.999% uptime. In June, 2007, Hoodiny also completed the successful migration from a cabinet to a cage, doubling the server base from 20 to 40 servers.
Of course, technological knowledge alone would not allow anyone to accomplish the types of feats mentioned above. A good sense of business and management is required. At Pictage, Schonholz’ team grew from one part-time consultant and one part-time systems administrator in October of 2000 to over 70 employees, including an overseas office in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During his tenure the company grew from $5,000 monthly revenue to $20 million annualized revenue in 2005.
When Schonholz first joined Hoodiny, there were only 4 employees. The company today counts 40+ employees, distributed through offices in Miami and Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Madrid, Spain.
Schonholz’ overall role at Hoodiny has been very strategic in the development and growth of the company, providing support for a second round of funding exceeding $10M, and the successful completion and execution of contracts with Warner Music, Telefonica and other partners.
Furthermore, since Schonholz immigrated from Buenos Aires to the United States in 1986, his fit into the global nature of business today is strong and an incredible asset in his work.
