Executive Leader with Global Experience

Deborah Bennett

*** * **** ********** *****, #*12 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304

571-***-**** Mobile ********@*****.*** Email

https://www.linkedin.com/in/golfncio

Chief Information Officer/Chief Technology Officer

GLOBAL PROGRAM MANAGEMENT IT STRATEGY ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS ARCHITECTURE

Accomplished Information Technology executive with extensive experience in defining IT strategies and building and leading top teams to implement effective global, multi-million-dollar programs. Specializes in optimizing performance, analyzing and resolving technical issues, and executing critical strategic initiatives for various industries. Entrepreneurial, business-centric thinker, with in-depth knowledge of information systems to design complex business solutions, resulting in significant costs savings and increased productivity. Exceptional communicator and team motivator, with the ability to facilitate executive communications and manage relationships with internal and external stakeholders across the business, and technical functions. Trusted technology advisor to investors and VC’s, with a focus on a customer service mindset.

Areas of Expertise

Operations Management

Digital Transformation

Analysis, Strategic Planning

Cost/Benefit Analysis

Enterprise/Cloud/Mobile Applications

Global IT Leadership

Process Improvements

Complex Solutions Design

Budgeting & Management

SOX, ISO, SAS70 Compliance

Change Management

Strategic Initiatives

Diverse Information Systems

Team Communications

IT Governance, Risk, & Compliance

Cybersecurity

Project Management

Due Diligence (M&A)

Professional Qualifications

Strategic and analytical leader with strong general business savvy capable of assessing an organization’s business mission, market, operational priorities and needs while implementing appropriate cost control to core systems.

Led IT planning process, ensuring sound business cases and analyzing key business needs that support, improve and/or transform business strategy, processes, communication, and operations.

Leadership for organizational change and transformation, developing highly efficient and effective teams leveraging and delivering technology to maximize corporate competitiveness and keep pace with the overall growth of business.

Developed the overall information vision, strategy, and processes for the enterprise, including policy and guidelines to achieve internal/external compliance and operational stability / delivery.

Selected Accomplishments

Provided senior leadership in the areas of construction management, facilities management, and a full complement of technologies, for a state of the art $10.5M STEM school being regarded as the standard for STEM schools across the country, 2014.

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Reduced manual processes by 50%, and renegotiated maintenance contracts with resultant reductions in overhead costs by $4.3m over 3 years, 2013.

Selected by the company to become a certified professional leadership coach and was part of small team who provided mentoring to employees chosen for management positions and also senior leadership positions. The program was an 18-month intensive coaching commitment; my commitment was 8 mentees selected for middle management promotions, 2012.

Reduced costs by 25% by negotiating vendor contracts and initiating performance standards, 2010

Successfully developed and implemented the first globally remote workforce with over 300+ staff and over 100 locations (including US, Canada, Brazil, and the Caribbean), 2007.

In 2005, created and developed; and provided leadership for an all-encompassing, technologically advanced way of providing technologies to assist in delivering curriculum through a virtual environment (cloud-based); increased a move positive student experience by 50% during the first year of utilization.

Delivered a multimillion-dollar project in 2005, by reducing and streamlining resources at over 100 locations; centralized all technologies to one data center with a cost savings of over 40% over a 3-year period.

Led, managed, and delivered a $28.5M Science and Technology wing for a private school with over 27 state of the art classrooms, fully equipped with the latest technologies, and provided a successful faculty training program, 2004.

Partnered with Human Resource groups to redesign and implement more efficient and sustainable performance-based systems for employees (multiple companies), reducing costs by one-third and increasing effectiveness of reviews.

Professional Experience

Deberi Group, LLC. 2017 – Present

Co-Founder and CEO Fort Lauderdale, FL

Deberi Group, a member driven angel investment group, invests in companies, leaders, and ideas that positively impact the lives of people through the use of digital technologies. Our aim is to work with entrepreneurs who seek to invent new market categories, or transform and disrupt existing ones by changing the game. Understanding that start-up companies have the ability to transform entire industries, and address urgent business and societal needs, we are here to personally provide our financial and advisory expertise. We believe start-ups can leverage information technology to solve real world problems, and tangibly improve the lives of millions through innovations, specifically in the fields of education and talent management. We are deeply commitment to women entrepreneurs and millennials, with a strong focus on diversity. We believe deeply in the positive impact of technology on our world, and how investing in technology companies has never been more attractive as technology adoption reaches an inflection point.

Ferrilli 2016 – 2017

Chief Information Officer Fort Lauderdale, FL

Higher Education – Served as Interim Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Information Officer for a large community college district in the Bay Area of San Francisco (July 2016 through December 2016)

Interim Senior Leadership on Various Engagements

Fulfill senior leadership positions for clients (for profit, non-profit, and educational institutions)

Burwood Group 2016

Principal Consultant Remote – Chicago, IL

Principal Consultant – Focus on Higher Education (SME) – Short-Term Contract

Higher Education subject matter expert for a major contract with Los Angeles Community College District

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Aurora University 2013 – 2016

Assistant Vice President and Chief Information Officer Aurora, IL

Quickly led buy-in and implementations for IT upgrades at Aurora University and George Williams College of Aurora University, increasing data integrity, cost control, and security via main/secondary data facilities and campus network.

Recruited to streamline operations, secure systems, and improve performance at the university and college. Successfully took primary authority for all IT design, engineering, deployment, support, training, maintenance, and management optimizing infrastructures, through build outs and upgrades for applications development and infrastructure projects.

Improved Network Infrastructures. Elevated performance in alignment with office construction, planning data structure and tapping key vendors to verify/rework telecom infrastructure, cabling, call center switch. Integrated new operations center with campus buildings using fiber optics plus workstation cabling and extension into MPLS connectivity between five remote sites. Oversight of all technology selection and support of a state-of-the-art STEM School, a partnership with four local school districts and the University community.

Technology Upgrades. Met growth needs by guiding creation of main/secondary data facilities transforming the network and adopted Microsoft Cloud Services. Evaluated/updated security through Cisco routers and NextGen firewall.

Secure Web Portal and VPN Access. Installed tunnel/firewall solutions to support remote users, adding intrusion detection devices plus other controls including encrypted backup and off-site storage, anti-virus software, Web monitoring, spam filtering/blocking. Created secured portal for all e-commerce and student financial services.

Restructured IT staffing and organizational structure. Evaluation of staffing needs and skills required to accomplish goals and objects led to writing new job responsibilities and clarifying the areas of IT support for the University. Areas that were established were Application Development, Networking and Infrastructure, Enterprise Architecture, and End-User Support.

DeVry Education Group 2005 – 2013

Senior Director, Global Education Technologies and Innovations Oak Brook, IL

Provided leadership for the overall creation and development of Global Education Technologies and best practices. Led delivery of new online-virtual software environment for all students, faculty, and staff; senior level participation in the Architecture Review Board, and leadership and overall assessment and development of core competencies in IT.

Seamlessly managed teams of over 300 on-site resources and a capitalized budget of over $8 million for education technologies. The expansion of DeVry through merger and acquisitions resulted in a centralized approach to academic technology delivery. Managed a team of 40+ for application development in servicing online services and support.

Strategically developed and led vendor relationship management, selection and alignment, candidate selection and assessment processes for Global DeVry IT. Created organizational effectiveness by mapping out the entire structure featuring, business, IT and vendors. Ensured budgetary alignment and accountability in the multi-

millions through successful implementation of team communication, coordination and collaboration processes. Partnered with CIO, CEO, COO, and legal to review, align & negotiate contracts with all vendors.

Supervised and managed technology staff across multiple locations by developing a shared-services model; leading design and installation of data centers, University information systems, workforce management, access

control systems, telephony, and IT operations.

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Presented executive C-level monthly status and presentations to demonstrate continuous improvement, metrics, and quality delivery.

Implemented Cloud Services for all student and faculty needs. Led all Global Software Licensing for all DeVry Education Group institutions including the Caribbean, Brazil and Europe; student population of 130,000+.

Delivered core solutions in technology while establishing organization leadership through application integration and development, change management, executive team performance, organizational effectiveness, talent recruitment and skills transitioning for the IT organization.

Managed the Governance Risk and Compliance Group with governance activities internal to the IT department, in support of compliance with internal and external bodies.

Holton-Arms School 2002 - 2005

Chief Information Officer Bethesda, MD

Served as a member of the senior administration for the school. Successfully managed all IT operations and technology encompassing business applications, applications development and academic systems. Senior

member responsible for providing state-of-the art technology plans for the future of the school. Collaborated with the Board of Directors to ensure technology efforts were aligned with the school’s strategic plan.

Successfully managed, coordinated, and delivered a major construction project with major technology infrastructure enhancements for the $29M Science and Technology Wing in 2003.

Created and operationalized a successful student laptop program with 1500+ students and faculty.

Coached (Head) JV Basketball, (Head) JV Volleyball and Varsity/JV (Assistant Head) Tennis Coach for the school.

Edelman Financial Services 1998 - 2002

Chief Information Officer Fairfax, VA

Defined strategic directions, selection and implementation of new technology initiatives.

Developed comprehensive a Data Warehouse project to supply critical information for marketing, product development, operations and finance; thus, enabling each business unit to produce reports directly without IT involvement.

Created a business plan and led a group to build several proofs of concepts and initial prototypes.

Designed and led project team through the successful implementation of critical business system replacements, specifically in managing financial portfolios. Project yielded significantly improved quality services for its customers and reduced overall costs by centralizing systems with better reporting for management.

Led the Application Development team and served as lead database designer to replace the company’s critical CRM system. Project resulted in saving $1,500,000 in conversion fees; a direct result of not outsourcing programming and training.

Oversight included IT strategic business planning and development; vendor selection and management process, contract negotiations, project management, change management strategies and senior level recruitment; IT operating and capital budget and directed due diligence and procurement of all IT related areas.

Henry M. Jackson Foundation 1997 - 1998

Chief Information Officer/Director of IT Rockville, MD

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Successfully led efforts to overhaul corporate infrastructure – budget of $7M, all IT operations at corporate headquarters and fifty additional offsite locations with a staff of 15 direct reports and an additional 55 off-site technology field staff.

Advised and participated in the organization’s executive management team, ensuring those capital investments in hardware and software are practical, cost-effective and consistent with company technology standards. Responsible for onsite data center and company-wide telecommunications systems (PBX)

Served as Lead Project Manager for the project to evaluate, select and implement an ERP (PeopleSoft) System to initially replace two legacy systems. The project was designed, managed and implemented successfully within the project timeline and under budget.

Served as Project Manager for Year 2000 Project. Directed and supervised a team of 17 consultants; dedicated to the Y2K project. Project was designed, managed and implemented successfully within the project timeline and under budget.

ULI – The Urban Land Institute 1992 - 1997

Director of Information Systems Washington, DC

Successfully moved entire company from mainframe with terminals to Personal Desktops with Windows. Installed productivity improving applications such as email and shared scheduling.

Responsible for all operations of the IS Department, including strategic planning; staff management; business requirements analysis; project management support; risk management; disaster recovery planning; independent computer security and software compliance reviews; deployment of technology standards, policies and procedures; technical writing and other professional services.

Developed and maintained comprehensive information technology standards and information systems policies and procedures

Advised the organization’s executive management and staff groups, ensuring that capital investments in hardware and software were practical, cost-effective and consistent with company technology standards.

Successfully implemented a private online system and led design and implementation of website in cooperation with the Marketing Department; providing member access to electronic publications and services.

Computer Data Systems, Inc. 1991 - 1992

Senior Systems Analyst Washington, DC

Fairmont State College 1989 - 1991

Manager, Academic Computing Fairmont, WV

Bennett Computer Center 1985 - 1988

President and CEO Fairmont, WV

ITT Information Services 1983 - 1984

Systems Analyst Sarasota, FL

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Education

Master of Public Administration (Finance/Organizational Development), West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, Fairmont State University, Fairmont, WV

Certifications and Personal Achievements

“Most Effective IT Team”, 2012 Annual Award, Association of Information Technology Professionals, 2012

Certified Professional Coach, HR Certification Program (The Executive Edge, Inc.), 2010

Certified SKILLSCOPE Coach (Center for Creative Leadership) 360-Degree Assessment including Executive Dimensions Assessments, 2010

Coach for DeVry Catalyst ASPIRE Program – Up and coming leaders (2011 – 2013)

Corporate Executive Board – IT Leadership Academy (2010)

Published in CRM Magazine – CRM Solutions in Financial Services Organizations (2000)

DeVry Inc. Named to 2010/2012 InformationWeek 500/250 List of Top Technology Innovators in America; DeVry's Virtual Lab Environment recognized for delivering an exceptional student learning experience

Member of SIM (Society of Information Management), Since 1995

Member, (PGTAA) Professional Golf Teaching Association of America, Since 2012

Golf Professional, Executive Links – Chicago (2011-Present)

Board Member, South Florida Alumni Chapter for West Virginia University (2018-Present)

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