DAVID HOLSINGER

holsinger@protonmail.com • Seattle, WA

Career Summary

Currently an academic program director - formerly a product management leader in industry for 20 years, with five patents in natural language technologies. My work experience includes development and product management of cloud-based (SaaS) applications, with a particular focus on data-intensive (big data) analytics applications. Additional past experience includes UX/UI design for speech recognition applications, work with telecommunications platforms to support speech recognition, and development of natural language processing components in Python and Java.                                                                                                     

I hold a Ph.D. in Germanic Linguistics plus post-doctoral study, and have held teaching positions at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.                                                  

Skills

• Product Lifecycle Management
• P&L Management
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Cloud Computing (AWS, Azure, GCP)
• Data Analytics
• New Product Launches
• Natural Language Processing and AI
• Big Data and Streaming Data
• Strategic Planning and Execution

Work Experience

Acting Director / Associate Dean  | Western Governors University                                        May 2025 – Present

Lead Academic Program Manager                                                                     Sept 2022 - Present                                                                                                                 

• Led product lifecycle for academic programs with 3500 students, including Cloud Computing program redevelopment and creation of the new BS in Cloud and Network Engineering..
• Launched 5 new Cloud Computing courses, overseeing concept, content, skill development & assessment creation.
• Increased early-term student retention by 2000 basis points, significantly reducing drop rates.
• Served as a subject matter expert on coursework for both BSCNE and for the cloud/data engineering track of MS in Data Analytics.

Director of Product | Zubie, Inc.                                                                            Jan 2020 – Sep 2022

• Launched cloud-connected dashcams and OEM telematics integrations for the connected car SaaS platform, delivering the company’s first new hardware product in 5 years, achieving profitability in 9 months.
• Delivered hardware and software solutions to support operational analytics for rental car franchises and fleet operators.
• Integrated the product offerings with third-party software, including counter management, routing & workforce management systems.

Senior Product Manager | [redacted company]                                                             Feb 2019 – Oct 2019                      

• Delivered version 1 of the company’s SaaS platform, featuring workforce management, client intake, billing, and analytics.
• Managed digital marketing, mar-com contractors & offshore development team, including product owners & designers.
• Using AWS Textract, created a system for automatically importing paper medical records and billing documents, as well as AI-based text scanning of claims.

Founder/Partner | McGrill Art Associates                                                                    Jul 2018 – Jan 2019    

• Co-founded a marketplace connecting local artists with institutional buyers such as architects, designers, etc.
• Led business development, web design, and product development to facilitate artist-client collaborations and sales.

Senior Product Manager | Reeher LLC  (now Blackbaud)                                                                     Apr 2015 – Mar 2018              

• Created business cases for new product lines and updates for Reeher's higher education fundraising SaaS CRM.
• Oversaw cross-functional teams (engineering, marketing, customer success) to align resources, ensuring successful delivery of new products and enhancements.
• Managed and mentored 3 product owners, leading innovation and improvements to Reeher’s core platform.
• Launched Reeher’s new SaaS Gift Officer Management platform, including components for real-time communications, detailed reporting on financials, and predictive analytics for future donations across the pool of donors.

Director of Product Management | PIERS (A Division of The Journal Of Commerce)                           Feb 2013 – Mar 2015

• Supervised a team of 7 developers, designers and sales/marketing professionals at the global trade data provider.
• Introduced PIERS Analytics, the first new-to-market product in over a decade for PIERS/JOC.
• Consolidated 3 existing product lines into 1, transitioning to a cloud-based, real-time data streaming platform deployed on AWS as part of a SaaS product/platform offering insights and analytics of all containerized shipments imported to the U.S.
• Managed a $35 million P&L, ensuring profitability through strategic product re-architecture and market expansion.

Engineering Manager, Emerging Technologies | Navteq / Nokia / HERE.COM                                        Oct 2011 – Jan 2013

Senior Product Manager, Global Map & Content                                                                    Mar 2008 - Oct 2011

• Led the first Agile/Scrum product development team during NAVTEQ’s transition to scaled Agile/Enterprise Agile.
• Delivered NAVTEQ's 1st global imagery & 3D map API, collaborating with teams across Europe, South America & Asia.
• Managed a $30 million P&L (based on contribution margin), overseeing text-to-speech, speech recognition, and 3D visuals product lines.
• Worked with developers at major automotive partners to refine API features and data formats for global use.

• Awarded Outstanding Product Manager (Global) in 2009 at Navteq.

Academic Experience

..

• Post-doctoral Researcher, Center for General Linguistics, Berlin, Germany.
• Lecturer, Department of Foreign Languages & Linguistics, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.
• Lecturer (formerly Teaching Assistant), Department of German, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Academic Publications

..

• “Germanic prosody and consonantal strength,” Lenition and Fortition 99 (2008): 273-300.
• “Weak position constraints: the role of prosodic templates in contrast distribution.” Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Papers in Linguistics 19 (2001): 91-118.
• Lenition in Germanic: prosodic templates in sound change. Doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison. 2000.
• Salmons, Joseph C. and David J. Holsinger “On regular vs. morpholexical approaches to OHG umlaut.” The Emergence of the Modern Language Sciences: Methodological perspectives and applications 2 (1999): 239.
• Holsinger, David J., and Paul D. Houseman. “Lenition in Hessian: cluster reduction and ‘subtractive plurals’.”  Yearbook of Morphology 1998: Theme: The Nature of Morphological Rules 8 (1998): 159.

Patents

..

• Method of Operating a Navigation System to Provide Route Guidance - US 8,374,791, Issued Jan 28, 2013
• Method of Operating a Navigation System to Provide Route Guidance - US 8,364,398, Issued Jan 9, 2013
• Data mining by retrieving causally-related documents not individually satisfying search criteria used - US 7386439, Issued Jun 10, 2008
• Method and apparatus for sociological data mining - US 7143091 · Issued Nov 28, 2006
• Voice Dialog Server and Method - US 6999930, Issued Feb 14, 2006

Certifications

• Certified Scrum Product Owner, September 2014
• Microsoft Azure AI Foundations, July 2024
• CompTIA Network+, June 2025

Education

Ph.D., German/Linguistics | University of Wisconsin-Madison      

B.A. summa cum laude, Government | University of Notre Dame