Manager Project

Karlene Crooks, MBA

Whippany, NJ **********@*****.*** 860-***-****

Executive Profile

Senior Project Management professional with experience in agile and waterfall methodologies with a track record and known for high-quality deliverables that meet or exceed timeline and budgetary targets. Led portfolio prioritization, program development, and project management. Drives business/IT alignment to deliver complex projects despite compressed timelines and resource challenges. Builds positive engaged, cross-functional teams that foster collaboration, automation, and availability in decentralized IT environments (SAP applications).

Strengths

Extensive experience managing large technical projects, defining strategic approach and overseeing delivery of broad cross-functional team

Over 15 years product management/owner experience in fortune 100 companies

Led estimation and backlog prioritization sessions to ensure efficient Kanban flow

Five years of agile methodologies, delivering products and solutions across a matrixed environment

Partner with stakeholders and customers, aligned features and epics critical to roadmap success

Defined, developed and analyzed business cases and provide risk assessment to management

Strong articulation visual and written skills/Ability to influence at all level including senior manager

Expert in converting business functionalities into user stories and estimating story points

Experienced in resolving team conflicts and removing obstacles and impediments

Managed third-party vendors and development partners in a global environment.

Professional Experience

Beacon Health Options/Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), Newark, NJ 12/2015-7/2017

Director of Program Manager Office

Defined and led implementation of collaborative IT roadmap, enabling organization to scale and evolve amid multiple integrations post-merger.

Managed executive steering process to secures stakeholder endorsement and financial commitment.

Delivery of multiple strategic initiatives using agile/Scrum methodologies.

Owned $6M budget, managed staff, and drove strategic changes from a development and operations transformation initiatives.

Serve as the primary Scrum coach to the PMO Technology Strategy and Planning team.

Managed and guided day to day functionality of PMO Tools/Solutions in production

Skilled relationship manager that can influence without direct authority across a matrixed environment Utilized company’s vision and roadmap to scoped epics/features into stories

Designed and developed metrics and analytics to track and drive organization

Facilitated weekly status meeting between Project managers and PMO office

Created and maintained information radiators for stakeholders and customers

Pratt & Whitney – a United Technology Corporation (UTC), East Hartford, CT 5/2007 – 12/2015

Sr Project Manager (2010 – 15) & Sr IT Fin Business Consultant (2007 –10)

Spearheaded and led large-scale global application upgrade and integration involving transition from legacy to ERP systems. Performed blueprinting session hands on configuration, testing and provided leadership and decisions on SAP Modeling/Design on various global and localization implementation standards.

Partnered closely with the Financial Business Community and IT Business Partners to create a

3-5-year Roadmap and Strategy to implement various IT Enabling technologies to solve critical business

Managed program through all phases while monitoring cost and schedule and ensured compliance

Managed global project teams from both US and Singapore, providing remote and onsite oversight to ensure availability and accessibility of resources integral to success of the business transformation.

Direct integration of service warranty programs to centralized systems, saving $400K+ annually by reducing application footprint from 5 to 2, and slashed monthly close by 1.5 days

Defined global technology solutions for the consolidation of 9 engine service centers down to 4 spanning across Europe and Asia and multiple time zones

Divestiture and Joint ventures

Managed Department of Defense joint venture engine overhaul shop utilizing Earned Value Management System (EVMS) track schedule and cost

Successfully led and managed global entity divestiture responsibilities included carving out of various functions finance, human resources, information technology, research and development, sales and marketing, and supply chain

Led complex large-scale initiatives with cross-functional cross functional project team

System Implementation/Upgrade

Managed IT finance projects and production support for 21 go-live implementations across functional teams in 5 different countries. In addition to leading numerous SAP integrations, from requirements gathering blueprinting/design, implementation and go-live

Configured and implemented SAP /R3 Enterprise worldwide (Finance and Controlling). Primary responsibilities included: SAP- Product Costing-Project Systems, Cost Center & Profit Center Accounting, Profitability Analysis, Costing Sheets, Fixed Assets and Internal Orders.

Managed R/3 upgrade to 6.0 for 27 company codes, collaborating cross-functionally on projects ranging from project preparation and blueprinting to cutover and go-live

Outsourced SAP production support. Captured $500K annualized savings with minimal impact to business continuity. Expanded help desk from 56 to 200 employees in under 3 years. Improved productivity by 150% through technical/customer service training

Managed and coordinated month-end closing processes and financial systems across multiple time zones to achieve timely, sequential close for 20+ sites in 5 countries

Stanley Black & Decker, New Britain, CT 4/2002 – 5/2007

Senior Business Consultant/ IT SOX Auditor / Account Receivable Supervisor

Promoted into IT audit/SOX compliance role, charged with developing, institutionalizing, enforcing, and analyzing efficacy of internal policies to ensure SOX compliance. Concurrently managed SOX activities in SAP across 3 countries, pulling in corporate and local finance/business leadership for end-to-end configuration, testing, and deployment of FI/CO modules.

Designed finance structure within SAP to meet multi-currency and local financial reporting requirements for implementations in Singapore, UK, and the US

Configured GL, Fixed Assets, Cost Center, Accounting (Internal Orders & Profitability CO-PA), Product Costing (CO-PC), Special Purpose Ledger, and SAP interface in Hyperion HPM

Project-managed full lifecycle implementations from blueprinting/configuration and testing – unit stress, volume, regression, user acceptance, and integration – to training and production support

Created Statement of Work to initiate work for approved project

Education/Certificates

Certification: SAFe Scrum Master-SA, SAFe-POPM, SAFe SM & (PMI-ACP In progress)

University of Hartford, CT -Master of Business Administration (MBA), MIS Concentrations

Central Connecticut State University CT-Bachelor of Science (B), International Business

Contact this candidate