SUMMARY:

• Collaborative program manager working across the business and IT through strong relationship building, governance and proactive planning to drive high quality results enabling the business to move forward. Experience in telecom, healthcare, insurance, shared services, portals and infrastructure.
• PMP, ITIL and CSM certified with 15 years of business and IT program/portfolio management, business analysis, strategy, vendor management, and process improvement experience bridging business and IT in healthcare, insurance (front, middle and back - end processing), e-commerce/portal, telecom, regulatory and software/application development environments.
• Manage 5 direct reports and responsible for up to 20+ project managers, developers and analysts across all functional lines of business.
• Deliver complex programs (6 months-2 years) in a matrix environment within established triple constraint variances; drive business analysis; support prototype/POC development and beta testing.
• Experience with SDLC, Agile and CMMI to deliver high visibility initiatives from $1M-100M.
• Considered highly organized, seasoned, detail-oriented, structured, independent and self-driven enabling delivery of desired results in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities.
• Unique, multi-faceted program/portfolio manager responsible for driving vision and change, developing best practices, implementing business processes, soliciting requirements, improving team performance, researching industry trends and aligning with the business portfolio/roadmap.
• Strong, decisive style with highly effective communication and problem solving skills.
• Effective presenter of the big picture project health, budget, resource utilization and complex issues to proactively gain senior management attention and support as required for success.
• Drive commitment exercises and prioritize projects with business/product manager to gain final stakeholder sign-off; monitor and control budget and resources throughout program.
• Act as change agent and liaison between Business and IT with interfaces to portfolio management and councils to maintain and drive the direction of the enterprise strategy and roadmap.
• Establish appropriate, effective metrics and guidelines that drive and do not hinder delivery.
• Interface with multiple vendors to drive SOW, RFP, requirements and on-time deliveries.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

• Program Management
• Business Transformation
• Change Management
• Portfolio Management
• Structure and Governance
• Process Improvement
• Portal/E-Commerce
• Merger and Acquisitions
• Mentoring/Training

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Transformation lead for deployment of corporate-wide infrastructure upgrades, e-commerce/portal developments and ERP system implementation as well as “Big Data” business transformation.
• Develop strategy and drive subsequent business cases, portfolios, SOW’s, budgets and deliverables.
• Generate and develop customer-focused solutions/requirements and execute tactical actions.
• Act as strong leader through effective communication, decision making and team building skills.
• Negotiate project strategy and scope with business and IT to support corporate vision and goals.
• Assess readiness and effective use of resources, tools and finances throughout the project lifecycle.
• Recommend trade-off decisions on business strategies, product features, budget and timelines.
• Manage small to large scale (5-20+ person) projects that are highly complex, interdependent, multi-project programs spanning 6 months to 2+ years and multi-million dollars in scope.
• Condense and communicate critical project issues and risk for stakeholder and executive attention.
• Evaluate business, vendor and project requirements and assumptions for highly successful delivery.
• Develop detailed communication, issue, risk and change management plans.
• Proactively monitor and drive project schedule with quick turn-around issue resolution.
• Define project goals and identify constraints, risks and variances.
• Utilize MS Office/Project, SharePoint, Visio, Clarity, Open Workbench and websites as project tools.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Confidential, Northbrook, IL

Program/Portfolio Manager

Responsibilities:

• Quickly recognized as extraordinary leader, communicator, mentor and collaborator across business and IT departments as well as expert in structure, governance, detailed planning and strategy.
• Deploy websites/portals for digital/content management allowing an e-commerce experience for external customers and clients; applied Agile framework with development, test and user experience.
• Drive corporate business critical global ERP implementation for five business units using Oracle R12. Manage phased approach to align with unique business needs regarding quote to cash processes.
• Lead corporate transformation engaging business, IT enterprise directors (6) and senior management to drive $80M portfolio of corporate-wide global infrastructure refresh, Oracle eBS and portfolio process/tool implementation (Service Now, Planview,) to significantly improve customer and employee experiences as well as increase profitability. Included MS OCS instant messaging, MS Outlook 365 email, Office2010 and upgraded global telephony systems.
• Infuse business with project management best practices such as detailed planning efforts, institution of formal governance structures, stakeholder analysis, development of cross-functional teams and communications and identification of critical paths, risks and triple constraints.
• Design portfolio level kickoff (business/IT) to reignite motivation for the corporate strategy.
• Develop global communication and training plans impacting 7K employees in all departments.

Confidential, Kansas City, MO

Senior Project Manager

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for initiation, planning and implementation of corporate strategy to deliver enterprise-wide, commercially available Case and Disease Management tool ( Confidential ) designed for insurance and clinical application.
• Developed detailed charter and project plan encompassing rules definitions, implementation/phasing strategy and timelines that met the IT and business demands while working closely with vendor’s system analysts, project managers and account managers.
• Interfaced with five senior executives across business and IT divisions to drive quality and meet the objectives of the business-critical software application that will increase proactive and preventative communications with the member which ultimately reduced claims payouts.

Confidential, Chicago, IL

Senior Program Manager Specialist

Responsibilities:

• Specialized role to support the enterprise and portfolio to align with vision, in corporate best practices, mentor team members and research trends across industries. Managed $10M council and account.
• Managed 20 project managers and team members on$100M corporate healthcare insurance merger (for claims, membership and pharmacy) impacting 120M members and interfacing with all areas including business/ IT, front/middle/back offices, billing, marketing, claims processing, business/operations, procurement, Medicare, customer support and call centers. Fully integrated all IT system areas including multiple software platforms, applications, databases, web portals and claims/broker processing.
• Managed program stakeholders, vendors, resource capacity planning, business process improvements, quality management, issues, risks, configuration/change management plans, budget, task/ work plans, status/health reporting and nation-wide virtual teams.
• Provided detailed status for all 20 projects while managing overall program objectives aligned with business strategy. Developed resource capacity plans for all resources.
• Built teams through collaborative detailed planning and execution with agreed upon key program milestones and critical path touch points in the lifecycle.
• Improved product quality and customer satisfaction by soliciting customers for early input to requirements and additional feedback during execution.
• Managed multiple projects supporting a Legacy system acquisition and IT Infrastructure platform.
• Created business case as well as project charter, project plan, financial plan, statement of work (SOW) and executive status reports.
• Facilitated requirements analysis and documented business processes, functional/non-functional requirements; documented required artifacts for defined key project milestones.
• Created comprehensive presentations for stakeholder sign-off of each project phase.

Senior Project Manager

Responsibilities:

• Implemented $45M ITIL, software development and project management process improvement program to achieve enterprise-wide efficiency with targeted 20% cost reductions.
• Managed selected vendors related to the requirements and implementation of all processes.
• Created portfolio and resource capacity status, business case updates, financial reporting and forecasting, risk and issue management and project health presentations to executives, stakeholder and sponsors; monitor and audit process improvement adherence.
• Managed full project lifecycle from initiation to support (SDLC) including business process and requirements analysis, design, development, QA, performance testing and capacity planning.
• Delivered the project on-budget and on-schedule to the expectation of the sponsoring vice president.
• Created proposals, statement of work (SOW), product/project release charter, project plan, resource staffing plan, status reports, schedule and cost variance reports and financial plan.
• Developed necessary project artifacts for various milestones/stage-gates of the project.

Confidential, Naperville, Illinois

Program/ Release Manager

Responsibilities:

• Managed 5 direct reports and directed 15+ managers and 200+ developers across five company-wide departments from concept to on-time delivery; determine resource capacity and skill sets required for the diverse program.
• Managed software and hardware platform introduction program; managed and coordinated multiple releases over two years while addressing software defects and reissuing patches to the customer.
• Functioned in Agile, CMMI level 4 environment and introduced program management process.
• Executed plans for six new applications for new wireless handsets involving gaming, push to talk and video; gathered requirements and develop project statement of work and plans.
• Managed vendor expectations, deliveries and interfaces among 5-20 suppliers. Negotiated project definition, budget and scope with customers. Responsible for hardware expense and capital.

Project/Program Manager

Responsibilities:

• Executed projects from $40K-4M in scope managing capital, expenses and resources.
• Developed highly complex plan to upgrade critical platform operating system from HP-UX 10.0 to 11.0 which supported primary revenue generating stream in Wireless Division.
• Incorporated nine vendors into platform planning activities as well as developed high quality performance and capacity impact analysis for >10 applications.
• Managed vendors from SOW to defect resolution (warranty) to minimize customer impact.
• Author and implementer of the program management process across the enterprise.

Software Validation Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for testing software update releases for customer impacting issues and validating new enhancement functionality to support wireless technology and new/existing handsets.

Confidential, Abbott Park, IL

Software Validation Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Interfaced with developers and engineers from requirements phase through product delivery for increased customer satisfaction with on time release deliveries.
• Constructed valid test cases to verify quality for >$10M new product introduction of a clinical chemistry analyzer.
• Acted as Overall Lab Coordinator for all chemical supplies and necessary equipment.

Confidential, DeKalb, IL

Medical Lab Technologist

Responsibilities:

• Lead general technologist for 6 years; responsible for accurate results and quality control.
• Medical information systems implementation and training/mentor.