Prescott E Small

Prescott Small is an Information Technology and Security Specialist and Evangelist with over 25 years hands-on experience and has the gray hairs to prove it now. Of course, this is not counting the times he spent summers from 6 years old where he would go to work with his father and do 9-Track backups on DEC mainframes all day while standing in a chair during summer breaks.

If you were to sum up Prescott’s career in IT for the many decades of his life so far it is a career of firsts and successes where others had failed. Prescott is the one they call when things go wrong. He is also the one they call when they need to conquer those challenges or find the root cause of a failure in order to change direction and achieve success.

Prescott’s resume includes a wide range of technologies beginning with DEC Mainframes and Apple 512K systems along through the entire evolution of the Windows Operating Systems since DOS and Windows 3. Prescott's real passion is in IT security, including incident management. He has held the GIAC Silver and Gold Security Essentials Certification (GSEC). GSEC certification ensures the holder has real-world security awareness in several areas of IT security including computer, network and software. Prescott’s most recent certification is the completion of his CISSP in 2019.

Prescott began his official IT career with his father at Scientific Placement working on the DEC mainframes and migrating them to the next generation of Apple Macintosh computers. After leaving Scientific Placement, he spent the next several years at Telecheck working in the Shared Global Services division, which handled real-time credit card transaction processing and settlements. His job responsibilities included credit fraud control and profiling to prevent credit card fraud as well as assisting authorities with criminal investigations. Prescott then spent two years at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America (MCFA) operating the desktop support for the Houston offices working for MTI Computers based out of Cleveland Ohio.

Prescott came to Baker Hughes 1998 in the Baker Oil Tools division where he supported field operations for the Eastern United States. After shared services were formed, Prescott went to work in Desktop Support where he was the on-site coordinator at Baker Oil Tools at Navigation Boulevard, Emmett Road and finally at Baker Petrolite in Sugar Land.

Prescott transferred to the Windows 2000 Migration Project where he was part of the team that designed and implemented the global transition to windows 2000, Active Directory and developed many of the enterprise IT standards. Prescott has also worked on several other small and large-scale projects at Baker Hughes during his career.

At the conclusion of the Windows 2000 Migration Project, Prescott transitioned into what became the IT Tools Team. As a member of the IT Tools Team Prescott was responsible for virus incident management and security related software including the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator. His responsibilities also included supporting and designing the McAfee products infrastructure. As a result, the IT Tools Team has greatly reduced the number of virus outbreaks ensuring that the corporate network is operational and secure. During the last phase of Prescott’s career at Baker Hughes he was focused exclusively on New Technology Adaptation, IT Security, Risk Management and Incident Response.

In addition to Prescott's background in IT he is also an accomplished photographer having been published in several newspapers, magazines and a travel guide for San Antonio, Texas.

Prescott's lovely wife Alex is a successful attorney and a Registered Nurse in the Houston area working out of the Museum District. Prescott and Alex have two wonderful boys, Nicolaus and Zachary. Nico is named for Nicolaus Copernicus while Zach is named for Zakk Wylde, where one was an innovator in science and changing how we view our place in the universe, the other is known for his awesome and innovative work with the electric guitar and changing the style of play for heavy metal the world over. Prescott also enjoys playing his guitars, including the Dean Guitar he has that is autographed by Zakk Wylde. Coincidentally Zakk Wylde and Zachary also hare the same birthday of January 14th.

Prescott got into politics, very briefly, in 2006 and discovered a neat trick to get over his fear of speaking in public, Karaoke. Prescott said “Surely, if I can sing terribly in front of 100 people, I can speak to a room full of people.” Prescott also attended formal training for public speaking including training on how to film television commercials with the guidance of his political party members. Prescott has also served as an election judge and a delegate for his district. This experience translated well into his IT career as he took on challenges to provide training over the years.

Prescott and his family now live the new Caney, Texas area on 6 acres. They have been to train with the United States Forestry Service on how to identify and eradicate invasive plant species and participate in citizen scientist programs to help identify them in the wild in state and federal parks using phone cameras and GPS. Their private property has been converted into a haven for wildlife that is certified by the World Wildlife Fund for habitat restoration and are steadily re-introducing native biodiversity each year by planting native plants that belong in the area. They are also thrilled to have found endangered native Texas Orchids thriving on their property and have set aside zones to allow them to thrive uninterrupted. Prescott spends a lot of time walking the property with his camera as well to capture the diversity as it is thriving.

Prescott attended Houston area community colleges and the University of Arizona in Tucson. Prescott has held several IT related certifications over the years now has a SANS affiliated GIAC Silver and Gold Security Essentials Certification (GSEC) and most recently the CISSP certification as of 2019.