Steven Grunblatt

SENIOR EXECUTIVE IT LEADER

Mahwah, NJ 212-***-**** ac7yog@r.postjobfree.com linkedin.com/in/stevengrunblatt

DRIVING BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION THROUGH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Offering 20+ years of expertise in planning and executing corporate IT direction and strategy while optimizing system reliability, availability, and functionality. Position IT as a strategic business partner across the organization. Savvy in provisioning global IT tools, processes, and procedures that build collaboration, security, and efficiency. Track record of success in multiple M&A integrations. Foster a culture of innovation, commitment, and service.

Leadership Strategic Planning IT Operations IT Budget Management Project Management Vendor Management

Team Building Coaching & Mentoring Regulatory Compliance System Design, Development & Implementation

Cybersecurity Technology Evaluation Negotiation & Facilitation Outsourcing Integration Telecommunications

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Patriot Bank – Stamford, CT 2014 – Present

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF TECHNOLOGY (2014 – PRESENT)

A nationally-chartered bank with full-service branches in CT and NY; and provides lending products and services nationally.

Steer IT strategy, planning, and execution for a $1B community bank with 9 locations. Hire, coach, and mentor a team of 4 members in leading daily IT operations, key, strategic initiatives, and technical support. Govern full range of IT aspects, including infrastructure, applications, networks, security, disaster recovery, acquisition integration, and communications. Partner across business units to understand IT needs and position solutions. Evaluate capabilities of emerging technologies and vendor solutions to advance organizational agility and effectiveness. Control $3M budget and conduct cost-benefit analysis of proposed purchases.

Communications

Established a new call center, complete with policies and procedures; currently transforming the customer experience by steering implementation of online and mobile chat and call center voice solutions.

Simplified communications support, enabled 4-digit dialing across the firm and virtual user access, and cut costs by $50K annually by implementing VoIP.

Security & Business Continuity

Provided in-branch advertising solution, rolling out and training retail team on digital broadcasting over WAN.

Delivered data center resiliency and security by analyzing network/data center market solutions and comparing to 5-year in-house costs. Deployed solution with 3 UPS, 3 generators, dual power in racks, and secure building.

Additional Transformational Improvements

Tackled and closed an inherited 50+ audit items and transformed an environment rated unsatisfactory; improved replication and accelerated back-up from over 24 hours to 4 hours; expanded network bandwidth.

Collaborated to improve Active Directory best practices; assessed infrastructure equipment and backup/retention solution; built plan/budget for critical infrastructure upgrades; documented/cleaned Firewall rules; created audit calendar; saved $100K/year by migrating servers to hosted data center.

Delivered on-demand, automated reporting; boosted data integrity. Analyzed reporting trends; hired analyst to document requirements; built new reporting system; formed process for requesting new reports or modifications.

Shrank help desk support calls 30% by deploying self-help solutions via secure password management solution.

Provided an archival solution by driving migration of in-house cold storage system to cloud-based solution.

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)

Migrated acquired bank’s data $200K below budget. Headed cross-functional project team in exploring data migration solutions; hired consultant for data mining; led hybrid solution development for secure data sharing.

Cost Control

Trimmed costs by $100K/year by outsourcing infrastructure support; conserved $2M by renegotiating vendor contracts; championed assembly of a Vendor/ Application Committee to manage product costs and approvals.

CBS Corporation – New York, NY 2013 – 2014

INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT MANAGER

American mass media corporation and the world's fifth largest entertainment company.

Directed separation of the CBS Outdoor IT infrastructure from parent company in preparation for an IPO, guiding combined team of 20 IT and infrastructure leaders from both organizations.

Recognized by IS&T Leadership for flawless execution of technology separation for divestiture of CBS Outdoor on-time and 40% below a $5M budget. Prepared strategy and plan, appraised data center and email options, assembled and led team and bi-weekly status meetings with team, senior management, and managers.

Stood up data center supporting 2K people across the Americas. Identified location, designed, and built.

Oversaw infrastructure due diligence, network deployment, cloud email solution, server environment separation, and server migration; collaborated to set monthly billing rates; designed DR plans.

Cowen Group – New York, NY 1998 – 2013

GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF IT INFRASTRUCTURE (2005 – 2013); SENIOR GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGER (1998 – 2005)

Global, diversified financial services company known for successfully identifying disruptive companies and emerging industries.

Managed worldwide infrastructure operations, including planning, implementation, service, and support. Piloted large-scale projects and led all acquisition due diligence. Administered $30 million budget. Acted as IT liaison for all audits.

Business-Critical Projects

Orchestrated integration of personnel and 3rd-party support solution related to company merger. Evaluated and advised CIO on solutions; consolidated 4 data centers into 2’ deployed new phone system, new network, and a hybrid support solution of in-house and 3rd-party teams.

Collaborated to restored business operations after 9/11 catastrophe, enabling live trading on 9/17. Partnered across teams to identify location for traders, purchase computers, relocate direct lines and move and test servers.

Key Transformational Improvements

Optimized project governance by constructing Application Review Committee to evaluate/approve new projects.

Propelled profitability by transforming IT into a strategic business partner. Boosted availability of IT support for Equity Research group and enabled their input on application selections.

Enhanced business continuity by implementing a comprehensive disaster recovery/business continuity plan.

Strengthened trading voice setup by rectifying numerous points of failure and disaster recovery issues. Assessed and advised senior leaders on vendor solutions, collaborated to build solution, and led implementation.

Cost Control

Eliminated $200K in costs. Relocated 6 servers into 2 data centers; migrated all users to a single voice solution.

Slashed IT spend $3.2M+ through architecture refreshes, contract renegotiation, and a virtual desktop solution.

EARLY CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS

IT Manager / Senior Infrastructure Support Manager Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) – New York, NY

Strengthened business continuity planning. Transformed DR from 4-seat cold setup to 30-seat hot site.

Reduced annual market data spend $2M (9%) by implementing new, cutting-edge market data applications.

Delivered: build and launch of 300-seat trading floor; a complete BCP solution; and remote access capabilities.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science, Economics – MIS & Marketing Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

ACTIVITIES & ORGANIZATIONS

Mentor to Baseball Athletes Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Former Youth Sports Coach, 2006 – 2013 Boys’ Baseball, Girls’ AAU Basketball & Soccer

Member InfraGard; Wharton Club of New York; CDO/CIO/CTO Leadership Council

Leadership Strategy System Design & Implementation

“Steve is a proven leader and a great strategist who has the vision of the future.” - John J. Squeo Jr.

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