Karen M. Wedding

248-***-**** ac7pu0@r.postjobfree.com

Information Technology Executive

Top IT Strategist / Leading Business Transformation / Success in Cost Containment / Fortune 10 Experience

November 16, 2018

Dear Hiring Manager:

As an accomplished executive with an entrepreneurial spirit, tenacity and extensive experience leading the deployment and support of innovative technologies, applications, and service offerings across multiple industries, with experience in a Fortune 10 corporation, I am confident that I would make an excellent addition to your organization.

●27 years of overall proven success information technology, systems/software development, delivery, and services who offers emotional intelligence in addition to business intelligence.

●Tenaciously delivered and executed a strategy to changed customers perceptions of the IT, to be viewed as a world class organization.

●Engaged with key business constituents to ensure alignment between IT and the operational and strategic goals of the business.

●Reduced the application portfolio at GM, and GDLS using a model I developed at Saturn and templated approach to measure steps, progress, sites, etc.

●Maintained full oversight and delivery of highly complex, often times highly visible programs to 170 American and 3500 Global sites delivering requirements on time, within budget.

●Leadership for up to 12 direct and over 100 cross-matrixed, cross-functional diverse technical team disciplines, leveraging in-house, contract, supplier, onshore/offshore/best shore resources.

●Change agent who delivering digital transformation by centralizing disparate sites into common integrated business solutions with full architectural oversite.

●Delivered service transformation by negotiating a centralized operations contract using lessons learned from years of contracts negotiation at the BU level.

●Held the authority to develop, modify and enforce the process, policy, and procedure documents used by the IT and Security Team to monitor, service, and support to the business.

●Aligned people, process, and technology by engineering solutions and through lean continuous improvement efforts, reengineering business process.

●As part of the leadership team co-developed strategic plans as well as standards.

●Led continuous improvement teams to identify and define potential technical and operational improvement plans.

●Led IT governance teams with influence and grit to ensure changing business needs aligned with IT priorities.

Prior roles have included a series of accomplishment at American Eagle Inc. Co. and General Motors Corporation, where I achieved five promotions over the course of 10 years. This demonstrated record of past and current success provides me with the foundation of skill that would enable me to contribute immediately to your organization’s performance. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss the unique requirements of your position and thank you for reviewing this letter and the accompanying material.

Sincerely,

Karen M. Wedding

Director of Information Technology

Top IT Strategist / Leading Business Transformation / Success in Cost Containment / Fortune 100 Experience

Experienced Information Technology executive with customer-facing, broad based expertise leading strategic planning, solutions architecture, and the development, deployment, and support of innovative technologies, applications, and service offerings across multiple industries. Broad Based strategic thinker with the ability to plan tactical.

Expertise in leveraging best practices to connect technology to address and resolve issues, resulting in substantial measurable gains in technical and business operations performance with delivery of annual savings; with General Dynamics Land Systems, manages a supplier organization engaged in the deployment and support of applications, endpoints, and infrastructure within a $4B organization.

Skilled in building and leading high performing IT teams, consistently delivering positive results in challenging and time-critical environments.

Core Competencies

Seasoned IT Operations Leadership, and Manager of PMs, full SDLC North America and Global

Driving Innovation in Project Management

Building and Leading Strong Technical Teams

Working Across Department Lines

Expertise in Working With OEMs

Skilled in Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma

Builds strong partnerships with the business

Listens carefully and delivers measurable solutions

Experienced in Modernization Initiatives

Exceptional Results in Cost Containment

Maximizing Systems and Application Performance

Implementing Standards and Best Practices

Delivering Status Updates to Executive Leadership

Experience in Business Transformation

A trusted advisor with integrity and honesty

PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

2012 to Present: General Dynamics Land Systems

–Information Technology Manager, Operations Division

Leads vision, strategy, solutions architecture, and execution for the quality, timeliness, and delivery of information systems within the Operations Division of this $4B General Dynamics subsidiary with 12,000 employees dedicated to the design, manufacture, and support of armored weapon systems and electronic products. Maintains the authority to build and revise business processes, develop solutions, and engage in R&D to develop systems aligned with the needs of the organization.

Manages an organization of professionals dedicated to the testing and implementation of software applications, incident management, and requests for IT infrastructure implementation; quickly addressed and reduced a backlog of 1,200 service requests.

Effectively manages relationships with a network of IT suppliers and OEM vendors, software vendor's maintaining accountability for a $7MM annual operating budget; administers the RFP process, statements of work, and award of bids, defining and enforcing Service Level Agreements with each vendor.

Takes all necessary steps to position systems for audits by government agencies and other organizations to measure the effectiveness of internal controls for SOX and information security.

Co-authored the General Dynamics Corporation Security Policy Handbook; leads the deployment of strong information systems that meet the needs of internal clients as well as external security guidelines and regulatory requirements.

Recognized for delivering a 75% gain in the efficiency of request and incident management processes, capturing $1.2MM in annual cost reductions over tenure.

Credited with positioning the information technology function as a key strategic partner invested in the success of internal and external clients, achieving a 150% YOY gain in ratings to reach 4.5 out of scale of 5.0.

2011 to 2012: American Eagle Inc. Co.

–Director of Information Technology

Directed the efforts of a team of 12 professionals, building and executing information technology strategies and roadmaps at this provider of educational supplemental materials in foreign languages, English, social studies, and science.

Revolutionized the effectiveness of the IT function, leading gap analysis to identify opportunities for improvement across IT and telecommunications; designed and implemented formal controls for change management and access management and championed broad improvements to the local area network and other aspects of IT infrastructure.

Coordinated and led training and professional development opportunities for the team, building competencies in project management, statements of work, vendor management, and industry-standard best practices; this training served as the basis for the successful upgrade of the eCometry ERP system to a new version.

Worked with a network of vendors with products and services that served as the foundation for transformation in information systems, technologies, and telecommunications across the organization.

Engaged in requirements gathering and consultations with business owners and product management stakeholders to establish roadmaps of IT milestones and deliverables.

Contributed to a substantial expansion in the company’s portfolio of digital, mobile, and SaaS products while garnering a 90% gain in efficiency.

1999 to 2009: General Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI

–Global Program Manager, Chief Systems and Technology Office

A demonstrated record of success and achievement at this Fortune 10 automaker, marked by a series of promotions to positions of increased influence, authority, and accountability. Advanced from an initial role as a Desktop Operations IT Manager through successive promotions, culminating in a global program management position.

As Global Program Manager, Chief Systems and Technology Office, stepped into a newly-created position with a mandate to build short-term and long-term strategies to govern information system programs, Directed the efforts of a project manager and team engaged in the development and implementation of a Java-based enterprise system for the archival and retrieval of process assembly drawings, rationalizing the number of systems and achieving $1M in savings.

practical solutions in a highly complex cross-functional environment.

Eliminated $1M in annual licensing costs through the leadership of a cost reduction project that identified and eliminated underutilized Microsoft software licenses.

Achieved $2MM in annual savings through the oversight of architecture and development of a Single Sign On solution for IBM Lotus Notes; additionally, executed an enterprise-wide global Microsoft SharePoint deployment encompassing over 3,500 sites that produced $4MM in annual savings.

2006 to 2007: North American Development/Deployment Program Manager

Directed the efforts of a project manager and team engaged in the development and implementation of a Java-based enterprise system for the archival and retrieval of process assembly drawings, rationalizing the number of systems and achieving $1M in savings.

2005 to 2006: Global IT Development Program Manager

Orchestrated the manufacturing IT Enterprise Web Portal program, with authority over product selection, architectural oversight, development, and governance. Supervised a team of three in-house developers and 15 contractors, with a $5.4MM budget. Championed the adoption of Agile methodologies for all development activities, garnering gains in efficiency and productivity. Upon deployment, the Portal produced $4MM in annual savings.

2003 to 2005: North American IT Implementation Program Manager

Maintained accountability for a program to implement a math-based PLM technical solution, with accountability for a $12MM portfolio. Effectively managed a team encompassing a program manager, five project managers, 40 outsourced personnel, and multiple vendors.

Successfully deployed Siemens TeamCenter and VisMockup to 170 sites in half of the budgeted time, serving as the foundation for infrastructure upgrades that positioned the company for growth.

2000 to 2003: Operations Desktop IT Manager, North American Car Group

Launched and served as the Chair of a focus group that documented IS&S requirements for 88,000 computers, delivering $10.56MM in annual savings. Recognized for overseeing programs that delivered 1,800 applications to 170 sites in less than one year.

Earlier in Career

Desktop Operations IT Manager, Small Car, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI, Saturn systems integration & Y2K

1990 - 1999 Multiple Roles manufacturing floor systems team, Saturn Corporation, Spring Hill, TN

EDUCATION & PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS

Master of Information Systems Degree (Grade Point Average 4.0) – University of Phoenix

Bachelor of Information Technology Degree (Grade Point Average 4.0) – University of Phoenix

Certified Six Sigma Green Belt, ITIL v3 Certification

Information Technology Management Certified Professional

“Karen is an accomplished IT leader who brings energy and passion to her work. At GM, Karen was responsible for program managing several high profile initiatives in the office of the CTO. She has a good eye for detail, is a great communicator and highly proficient at multitasking.”

Hemant K., Global Director, CTO Office

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