Project Manager Insurance

Christopher Jared

Project Manager, Insurance

#***-*** *******, *******

cel. 416-***-****

****************@**.***

Determined Change Advocate

I have lead large and small projects that implemented major organizational change. All with an IT component, most with a difficult human resource side. My experience in the insurance industry include claims, underwriting, IT manage- ment, broker management, compliance & risk management, and facility changes.

Recently I have devoted my energy to Fair Trade, a form of commerce that sup- ports farmers in developing countries. I have developed products, branding, and a supply chain and sell through leaders in the grocery world such as Whole Foods and The Big Carrot.

I pride myself as someone who always stays on strategy. Keeping calm, being able to identify and mitigate the inevitable “red herrings” from project stake- holders or participants. In the end realizing major deliverables. Professional Experience

Project Manager - Peter Piper Pepper

January 2011 – Present - Toronto

Peter Piper Pepper is a fair trade company that imports custom packed food products from developing countries. Using fair trade principles, we support farm- ers co-ops in both India and Thailand.

My role has been all inclusive. Starting with deciding on the parameters around product category choice. Financial modelling. Finding and qualifying suppliers. Package development from a marketing, food safety and regulatory /compli- ance perspective. Supply chain management. Sales and marketing using tradi- tional manufacturer-distributor-retailer process. Managing relationships with 3PL, distributors and their salesforce. Social media marketing. And relationship fair trade NGOs.

Liaison & Program Manager Co-operators

March 2009 - November 2010

Sponsored by The Cooperators Life Insurance as liaison with a third party health claims payer. My work supported a process where Cooperators business needs were prioritized by importance, and built into projects grouped into technically feasible segments. This required extensive on site negotiation and follow up, The result was an evolving list of business needs with over 100 items requiring system changes. The greatest challenge was matching the needs of the sponsor, Co- operators, with the third party claims payer. The designed aim of the projects was to improve insurance product offerings to policy holders with a secondary aim of improving workflow efficiency.

The project list included eligibility automation, value add services around inte- grating policies with provincial plans, strictly up to the date drug and formula data. Up to date price structures for practitioner colleges nationally. GL integra- tion. Branding improvements. And overall greater system integration through APIs.

In addition to meeting business needs, and to match best practice at Coopera- tors, change management process and procedures were implemented, and program scheduling integration with the larger set of projects in progress at Co- operators. This meant negotiating on both sides, the business side at Cooperators and the third party payer with a given set of growth problems smaller tech firms have when maturing their processes.

The largest task was accomplished. By building trust, listening and acting on business needs, the relationship was rebuilt between the two companies. The business relationships exists to this day.

Project Manager - The Co-operators @ NexgenRx

January 08 to July 08 – Toronto

Implemented corporate alliance between NexgenRx and The Co-operators

(CLIC). For overall project description, please see press release: http://www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/2007/Co-operators-Nex- genRx-Agreement-709.php

The project was announced to the insurance industry, clients of The Co-operators and providers with a June 1st effective date, making the launch schedule of crit- ical importance. We met that date without any major post implementation is- sues.

My role was to ensure the June 1st date was met. My experience working within insurance companies became my primary value add to the project. I was able to identify and address when teams on either side, NexgenRx or CLIC had stalled. By continually keeping channels of communication open and ensuring the right people were involved, we were able to convert CLIC business over, do extensive testing, and finally, launch on time. The project had three main deliv- erables:

Account Structures

Conversion of existing business began with manually building the policies within the new technology platform provided by NexgenRx. Most policy characteristics were available using existing modules (drug formulary for example), some benefits scripting was required to deliver contractual par- ticularities for VIP clients.

Eligibility Migration

Eligibility history was layered upon the account structures. Once in place, structures can then be tested along with validating the accuracy of the eligibility migration. The potential for delayed claims submission required two years of history to be loaded and tested.

Claims History Load

With validated policy structures and eligibility data, then, Dental, Drug and EHC claims history could be loaded and tested. Testing was both for load accuracy and claims payment accuracy. The completion of claims history loading enabled full end to end testing to begin, including on fi- nancial reporting and payment.

Other components included making the system bilingual, cheque production, automated interfacing with CLIC financial reporting through scheduled nightly data uploads, automated eligibility synchronization through API, issuing newly branded health cards to current clients.

Project Manager - Aon

June 2007 to December 2007 – Toronto

Performed analysis, developed and managed two projects within a PMO envi- ronment, reporting to both the PMO and senior executive project sponsors. The first project was to apply SOX compliant revenue forecasting to the RFP busi- ness. Through requirements gathering, interviews with end users and discussions with the project sponsor, it became clear that the process had to provide value to end users in order to get buy in and participation. With Canada Life, we had a similar challenge with compliance to FSCO regulations regarding the sales of mutual funds (segregated). I leveraged the same concepts of CRM document- ing the funds sales process (date, time, amounts, validation, etc) to the RFP process. This achieved the SOX compliance goals, and provided users with a tool to improve RFP sales performance. Salesforce.com, a web-based CRM tool was imposed on the business for SOX compliance, and they were struggling to achieve “value add” for the end users, beyond that of regulatory compliance. This project became a “Global Innovation” within the project sponsor’s personal objectives in reporting to the Chicago Head Office, potentially being chosen as a best practice for Aon offices around the globe.

The second project was the result of Head Office mandated cost cuts requiring the HR department to reorganize work processes to both be more efficient and to align with modern web-based “self serve” HR applications. This required a project sensitive to future jobs cuts, process changes, and with very aggressive timelines.

Project Manager - Aviva Canada, Pilot Insurance division March to December 06 - Toronto

Reporting directly to the VP of underwriting, this project was a senior executive initiative to realigned underwriting staff to address their new business reality, web- based portals linked directly with the insurance brokers. The department had operated in a traditional format for more than 75 years, making effective change management essential for success. The underwriting department now runs a team basis assigned to support web-based broker transactions. Training Strategy

The training program was customized to the individual level. The needs were documented through a coordinated effort between HR, the busi- ness, and professional trainers. Eight months of training was scheduled, us- ing internal and external professional trainers and industry experts from CGI. Courses offered ranged from basic to Portfolio Analysis. Facilities Build and Move

Planned and executed a multiple stage facilities build and move. We completed over 150 moves while maintaining business as usual. The de- sign and build of new facilities was done with minimal cost. Telephony

Facilitated consultations between IT, an outside vendor and business partners to re-structured call routing around the new business teams. The new call structure met it’s major requirement, which was to match the customer experience with our new business structure. Managed testing and sign off by IT management of programming required for new call routing. The new call routing structure went live with minimal incident. Communication

Coordinated an external and internal communications program as part of a successful change management plan. Keeping both Brokers and staff informed was critical to project success.

Developed and implemented CRM tool for Broker Management As a separate project for Pilot while the final stages of the training plan were be- ing implemented, I provided consultative advice to the senior VP, resulting in a CRM tool being implemented.

Gathered business requirements and worked with developers to design and launch a CRM tool for broker management. The application addresses the need for an organization wide view of broker activities. It includes the ability to report, monitor progress on goals, and understand resource allocation by broker. Project Manager - Aviva Canada

October 05 to February 06 - Toronto

Project Manager HEAT software upgrade and customization Reporting to AVP of BSD, the HEAT project both upgraded the HEAT application and introduced ITIL compliant processes to Aviva Canada. The upgrade was implemented on time and within budget.

Development

Coordinated design with outside vendor and area managers of “forms” that were added to the HEAT application for Incident, Change, and Re- lease processes. Application upgrade went through full ITIL processes. HEAT database version brought up to current standards. Migration strate- gy of legacy data included upgrades on data for ITIL purposes. Training

Designed, documented and scheduled training targeted for each func- tion, Incident, Change, and Release. This training introduced the ITIL struc- ture to Aviva employees, thus was critical for success. ITIL Release

Created and implemented release schedule to include all appropriate testing, roll-out and sign off points. Fully coordinating application devel- opment, testing, training, and multiple level sign off procedures. Project Manager - Canada Life / Great West Life

September 2001 – September 2005 – Toronto/ London/ Winnipeg Project Implementation Team – claims automation

Planned and executed two successive pilot projects as part of large IT project. As part of an effort to increase automation levels in the payment of medical claims, data entry functions were in-sourced. The first stage in-sourced data entry from an outside vendor for claims already pre-screened and automated using a web-based tool.

Hiring Strategy

Developed hiring strategy for HR which profiled potential candidates with pre-determined success characteristics. Matching skill set with the candi- dates was seen as critical to success for the data entry role. Our criteria went beyond simple typing skill, we included other factors such as quality, simple problem solving and experience.

Facilities

New facilities were built from scratch on a newly leased floor. Planned and coordinated a space that experimented with layout beyond current corporate standards. Light and access to windows was maximized. Cor- porate standard furniture was reconfigured to allow for passive supervi- sion.

Transition from outsourcer

Met with supplier and established smooth transition process. Defined then current quality checks and standards to ensure no loss of quality occurred upon transition. Established document control for transition of work from outside vendor.

The second stage of the pilot introduced claims that had not been previously automated. These claims now included the full spectrum of medical claims with minimal screening.

Process Review

A full process review was completed with the business to streamline paper flow and ensure that quality was maintained. Keeping the “paperless” of- fice objective in mind, minimal handling was achieved. Training

Specialized training was provided due to the dramatic increase in com- plexity. The claims were not screened at this point, and thus included any and all medical procedures. Management of this was critical as a level of skill was required to perform the data entry such that the claim would au- tomate in the “payment engine”.

Productivity

Productivity targets were defined along an experience curve. These tar- gets were met at each experience milestone. The experience curve was derived from data from the first pilot.

Lead Pension Team Canada Life

As part of a corporate integration project, I lead the closure of the pensions call centre. This was a team of senior pension representatives, their functions being moved to London Life (a division of Great-West Life). HR component to leadership

Maintained productivity and moral through a lay off period. Laid off a dozen EEs as part of Great-West takeover of Canada Life. Sought and found alternative positions for a dozen EEs that met Great-West “desired” employee criteria. Around a dozen contracts were timed with closure date and left to expire.

Quality Standards

Maintained call quality standards up to hand over of business to London Life. Aided in the building of a combined quality standard for new Lon- don life call centre.

Training

Trained London Life staff on group investment products and their role in retirement planning. Topics included RPP, DPSP, RRSP, investing, asset allo- cation techniques, and the reasoning behind SOPs.

Visa Service Support Issuer Charge Backs - Royal Bank January 1998 – September 2001 - Toronto

While at RBC I was awarded for outstanding performance in my second quarter of employment and later commended for solving escalated operational issues. Process Development

I developed several processes that became part of standard operating procedures for specific client complaints regarding cash advances and interest accrual.

Training

Developed and trained performance techniques which increased pro- ductivity up to 400%.

Education

• Bachelor of Commerce, Honours – University of Windsor, 1992, Finance and in- ternational business.

• CSC – Honours, 2001

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