Project Manager

Heather L Copeland, MBA, PMP

**** ********* *****, ******, ** 75033

Cell Phone: 443-***-****

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

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS and FINANCE / PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Competitive, innovative leader with extensive experience in steering operational efficiencies, development of organizational strategy, process improvement while managing a multi-million-dollar budget. Excels in project initiation and planning; execution with a clear vision and voice that aligns with core business values of integrity and transparency. Effectively evaluates, analyzes, and presents data; expert SOX compliance. An inspiring leader who demonstrates excellent decision making and problem-solving, analytical, interpersonal and communication skills; reputation for building strong relationships with internal and external customers.

Team Leadership: Recognized for transforming project teams into highly charged and productive resources.

Turnarounds: Transformed financial processes to generate $98M in revenue at 35% margin.

Cost Reduction: Credited for leading innovative projects producing $10M in cost savings.

Certifications: Project Management Professional Certification: 1415500; PDI 9th House L1 Certified Manager Assessment (Permits the management of direct staff).

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Ericsson, Inc., Plano, TX 2006 -Dec. 2017

Program Director, Verizon SE Region/Ericsson Self-Perform (2016 –Dec. 2017)

Program director, regional delivery for Ericsson (Verizon) customer account in the South-East region territory covering: Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Head of National program delivery for Ericsson self-performing tower and ground field operations.

Established project plan baseline through a rigorous toll gating process to define project scope, developed project plan and oversaw entire project life cycle; pre-sales through project closure.

Directed project execution: tracked project activities, monitored change control, conflicts and escalations.

Developed customer relationship and oversaw vendor management.

Directed team of 10 project managers.

Managed revenue of $150M and a cost center budget of $10.8M for field services operations.

Supervised crew utilization on a national level.

Provided guidance on process adherence to construction technical leads and line managers.

Accomplishments:

Managed project finance that ensured success for a $123M project portfolio consisting of 23 projects.

Drove $98M in revenue and invoicing that met monthly and quarterly revenue forecast targets.

Inspired, organized and led the services delivery team and 10 project managers.

Instrumental in delivering record-breaking number of 105 turf construction sites in one month.

Delivered 800 turf sites, 3,000 network roll out sites, and 11 outdoor nodes and three indoor solutions for Distributed Antenna System.

Facilitated project governance and monitored key performance indicators (KPI’s).

Accelerated ramp plan for 130 Ericsson Self-Performing tower and ground crews.

Enabled growth of the Ericsson self-perform business from 4% to 20% of market share.

Nominated and completed the Ericsson global leadership for professional’s program.

Director of Operations, Head of Operational Excellence (2015 – 2016)

Head of Operational excellence for Ericsson Verizon Managed Services organization and accountable for: shared process improvement, innovative partnerships across all engagements, ISO 27001 certification, business continuity planning and financial management of all programs.

Primary customer interface for developing an innovation framework with Verizon for software application development programs. Led end-to-end program processes development.

Managed the development /execution of delivery strategy.

Directed planning, forecasting, resource dimensioning and optimization of delivery based on business needs for the Advanced Communications and Product Design ($80M) program.

Accomplishments:

Drove excellence in the delivery of services: scope, cost, and quality to customer satisfaction.

Accountable for profitability and ensuring business case financials were realized.

Facilitated the development of add-on sales opportunities of $3M while maintaining a positive customer relationship.

Project Financial Management Manager, Business Operations (2013 – 2015)

Reported to VP of project finance and managed 23 direct reports within the project financial management organization. Recruited, hired and developed project financial managers, project coordinators and interns.

Directed financial reporting, financial analysis and corrective actions at customer unit’s executive level.

Drove best-in-class margins of 40% on $3.8B project portfolio for AT&T and Canadian customer units.

Initiated process improvement initiatives with customer units enabling a reduction in Work-in-Progress of $15M and Reserves for Unrealized Cost by $18M.

Delivered a 5% positive margin turnaround on $500M Northern California Turf project.

Project Financial Manager, Project Management Office (2010 – 2013)

Project Financial Manager for AT&T and managed a team of 12 resources utilizing 6 Sigma training to drive continuous improvement initiatives for both AT&T Central and Northern California markets.

Project support professional global process leader for Region North America.

Managed financial aspects of customer projects: project set up, revenue recognition, planned cost quality, percentage of completion, project closure, profit and loss and budget management.

Trained customer project and program managers on end-to-end project financial management from project set up to project closure cutting cost by $6M.

Project Controller, Finance (2006 – 2010)

Managed all aspects of SOX projects key control compliance and accountable for the management of a five-person project closure, SOX and financial reporting team. This team was fully responsible for project controls and the internal self-assessment audit.

Rolled out process improvements and accounting directives to Customer Unit Controllers.

Worked with group finance in Sweden to rewrite and define new SOX control procedures.

Prime point of contact with Price Waterhouse auditors to coordinate all engagements, process reviews, and testing work performed in conjunction with SOX project controls.

Pepco Energy Services, Inc., Arlington, VA 2005 – 2006

Interim Financial Management Consultant

Hired as acting trade accounting group manager. Bridged the leadership gap by managing the day-to-day activities of the gas commodity trade accounts group while preparing the transition plan to transfer the team to a new account manager.

Education

Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA), Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX

B.S. Business Management, Potomac College, Washington, DC, (Board of Trustees Award for Academic Achievement and Graduated Summa cum Laude)

TECHNICAL SKILLS

MS Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint); SAP, Clarity, Business Warehouse, SRM

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