STEVEN DARRISH
**** *** ******** **. . 314-***-****(C) . actjyh@r.postjobfree.com . St. Louis MO 63132
SUMMARY
Transformational leader with significant process and product design experience. Strategic and execution
practitioner with deep experience leading companies across manufacturing, financial services and
software development sectors. Change leader with a Big 4 risk, advisory and assurance pedigree. Led
behemoth mergers & acquisitions across financial services businesses with responsibility for large
portfolios of change management, technology, associate and market-facing projects. Significant P&L
responsibility. Sample of companies where I have worked: Microsoft, General Electric,
PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bank of America. Lean Master; First Wave Certified GE Master Black Belt.
Specialize: Product Development and Designfor Six Sigma (DFSS)
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Over 25 years of hands-on experience including marketing and product development,
organizational development, process design, M&A and integration leadership. Thought leader
responsible for end-to-end product and process life cycle management (NPI).
Data-driven senior leader with Big 4 management consulting and re-engineering experience.
Strong Lean Six Sigma program-level practitioner with transactional, manufacturing and software
development and deployment experience.
Trusted advisor and strategic partner to senior leadership. Strategic with a successful track
record for delivery and execution.
Skilled linking program and project activities to business and performance drivers. Strong
strategic planning practitioner: Expertise designing and building market, product and organizational
dashboards, scorecards and reporting to measure organizational/program performance. Leverage
Hoshin Kanri to cascade and align measurement across businesses.
Proficient with identifying market response variables (yield) and predictor drivers (factors)
necessary to drive organizational performance in the market; identify and capitalize on market sweet
spots through analytical methods. Use fact-based tools to deliver product feature sets, functionality
and design to product and development teams. Significantly improve product launch success rate,
yields and market share.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Managing Director WyattJoel Partners St. Louis Missouri
7/2014-Current
Lead transformational and continuous improvement projects with leading financial service institutions and
manufacturers to improve performance and position organizations for future growth. Provide strategic and
execution roadmaps and lead organizational alignment work to improve delivery of products and services in
the marketplace. Partner with other consulting firms to help them deliver consulting services including lean,
continuous improvement and re-engineering.
Designed E2E Complete Customer Journey at TD Bank Canada based on DFSS principles to drive
internally facing re-engineering projects to achieve operational efficiency, effectiveness and quality.
Led work at a large regional bank in response to the Treasury and OCC Cease and Desist Order
regarding catastrophic operating failures of their AML, OFAC and BSA program and associated systems.
Worked closely with the Bank on behalf of Board to respond to the agencies with required quarterly
updates to address the deficiencies identified in the Order and to insure timely remediation.
Created strategic roadmap for a $65 Billion Asset Management company to move them from
manual to automated new account client on boarding with integrated workflow scorecards and
dashboards.
Lead transformational work at Fiserv in conjunction with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to re-
engineer the Credit Union Business from top-to-bottom including consolidation of the front office, back
office, software development and the sales organization. Consolidated and integrated core software
businesses across organization.
Director Lean Transformation- PricewaterhouseCoopers St. Louis Missouri
11/2011-07/2014
Led a lean continuous improvement team transforming the audit practice across PwC. Work closely with audit
teams, assurance partners and the end clients to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of audits
across PwCs client base. Developed leading practices and methods that are changing the way the Big 4
conduct audits across public and private clients. Created an Enterprise Lean business in the Advisory
Services practice.
Stood-up Lean Enterprise team inside the Audit Assurance practice. Work with small team of senior
Lean practitioners and audit leadership to re-engineer the way Big 4 audits are conducted and managed.
Lead due diligence and merger-integration of Sun-Times Media properties including acquisition of 6
daily and 32 weekly suburban newspapers into the Tribune family.
Lead enterprise-wide PeopleSoft engagement across the Los Angeles Times portfolio of
companies.
Designed Firms core process methodology and thought leadership leveraged by advisory teams
across the Firm (Transform)
Performance Improvement Partner- WyattJoel Partners St. Louis Missouri
11/2010-11/2011
Led Lean Six Sigma design advisory firm focusing on deploying next-generation Lean Six Sigma programs to
tier I companies globally. Targeted companies that have not benefited sufficiently from programmatic
performance improvement initiatives and/or have reached program entitlement. Designed programs across
complex environments interlocking governance, compliance, risk, PMO, performance improvement initiatives
and change work into a consistent integrated organization. Provide strategic consultancy to companies that
are committed to building world-class environments.
Created retail strategies at large Canadian bank to strengthen client relationships including creating
micro and regional strategies to optimize demand generation.
Led post-merger work streams at TD Bank US integrating core business systems into the Retail
Bank Operation. Stood-up regulatory & compliance governance to address OCC and Treasury audit
findings.
Created E2E strategic digital document roadmap and execution strategy for TD Insurance Company
Senior Vice President Change Management Lean Six Sigma, Bank of America, Charlotte NC
7/2004 11/2010
Change Executive responsible for leading large landscapes of projects across the business (BAU) and
transitions (M&A Mergers: LaSalle, MBNA Merrill Lynch and Countrywide). Lead large initiatives and project
portfolios through the acquisition, integration, and merger/post merger of companies into the Bank of America
footprint and the execution of BAU projects across the Consumer Bank, Mortgage and the Investment Bank.
Project work focused on developing/re-engineering enterprise level information technology systems, products
and processes and managing complex risk frameworks and governance mechanisms across the enterprise.
Prior to these assignments; Six Sigma Executive with end-to end leadership responsibility for 550 banks in a
ten state Area. Responsible for driving performance improvement and Six Sigma initiatives across the
Central Division. Member of the Core Leadership Team with divisional level responsibility for driving 1.6
million sales units and leading world-class customer delight. Moved Division from 10 (bottom) to number 2 in
18 months.
Led large components of the MBNA BAC transition activity supporting the acquisition and
merger of MBNA ($35 billion) into Bank of America. Lead the design, execution and governance of
projects supporting the merger from assessment through execution. Owned re-branding/marketing
(Target Company), affinity credit card deployment in the Banking Center Channel and managed
portfolios of projects (Products, Process, Services and Technology). This transition made Bank of
America the largest credit card issuer in the U.S, with $143 billion in managed outstanding balances
and 40 million active accounts and 20 million incremental new customers.
Senior leader on the LaSalle-BAC merger/transition. Led large components of the As-Is and
Target State design work across the consumer, commercial credit card, consumer finance, ATM,
Settlement, Claims and Fraud backroom and operations LOBs. Led the Consumer Bank project
portfolio through the execution phase (largest portfolio on the transition). LaSalle was a $21 billion
acquisition that brought 1.4 million customers to Bank of America.
Created Direct Mail strategy in largest Credit Card business in the World with over $100 million
impact (NPV-SV) over five years. Created and executed a data-driven strategy to understand our
customer and move from indiscriminant marketing of credit cards to levering platforms to understand
and market to our target customers based on relationship data.
Led a combined portfolio of $45 million dollars of strategic projects in the Home Loans &
Insurance business (formerly Countrywide Mortgage). Built data analytics and reporting
mechanisms and PMO and governance routines across the Central Change Organization for the
Mortgage Business (the largest mortgage business in the world). Led the Loss Mitigation, Reverse
Mortgage and Home Equity portfolios (change management portfolios)
Director of Quality Engineering Product Development, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA
7/2002 7/2004
Set the vision, strategy and direction in the product development organization at Microsoft. Responsible for
the development, deployment and adoption of product design methodology across the organization.
Responsible for improving core processes within the development organization including New Product
Introduction (NPI), Product Planning (PM), Product Development (PD), Test and Release (Idea development
through commercialization). Focused on driving new methodology into the product life cycle to improve
Microsofts ability to design and deliver targeted products to the marketplace, drive up our share of the wallet
and continue to deliver technology that met the needs of our customers and partners. Transitioned to The
Office of the Chief Architect to work on building better practices and thought leadership around Agile, Extreme
Programming and Lean for Software Development. Responsible for driving thought leadership inside the
software development (engineering) space at Microsoft.
Led development of the first Six Sigma Software package (The Six Sigma Accelerator) released by
Microsoft with $70 million impact to top line. Developers used the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
methodology for the first time ever at Microsoft to commercialize a product. Participated on the Windows
2003 Server design team and successfully shipped the product on-time highly successful product for
Microsoft.
Created and led a data-driven customer-focused design (CFD) strategy to increase Windows
adoption rate from release to release
Partnered with PM and Development teams to improve the user interface speed of OWA- Outlook
Web Access.
Redesigned of the Worldwide Licensing and Pricing CRM System (Siebel-based) to improve
customer, client and employee response time to queries, product and pricing questions, product issues
and licensing agreements. The WWL&P organization is the owner of the revenue stream at Microsoft.
Corporate Vice President - Six Sigma, Bank of America, Charlotte NC
1/2002 7/2002
Senior Executive responsible for developing and growing the Six Sigma and engineering organization across
the Customer Service and Support (CS&S) organization in the Central and Western regions (8 model call
centers). Directly responsible for performance improvement and design activity across the customer contact
centers. Owned project responsibility including P&L for the Centers. Launched 200 projects across region
yielding over $178 million in revenue.
Senior Manager, Strategic Risk PricewaterhouseCoopers (Assurance) Senior manager and principle risk
3/99 to 1/2002
architect in the Strategic Risk Practice. Responsible for design and development of the tactical enterprise risk
methodology across the firm. Led enterprise risk initiatives establishing the risk appetite and tolerance levels for
our clients and responsible for building the risk frameworks including risk models, controls and monitoring
systems to predict, detect, assess and mitigate risk. Partnered with the Committee of Sponsoring
Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) and the PWC partner who founded the COSO framework
(an industry standard in Risk today) to build and deploy the tactical Go-to-Market methodology that the firm uses
today. Led large engagements across select organizations in our Global 1000 customer base. Worked closely
with corporate audit leadership transforming the way they manage operational and strategic risk across their
respective businesses. Developed an operating model that was a precursor to the formation of the Sarbanes-
Oxley consulting practice for the firm. Led projects at the Federal Reserve St. Louis, CAT and Norwest Bank
(Wells Fargo). Also led a number of audit- focused initiatives across the client base.
Senior Manager, PricewaterhouseCoopers (Advisory). Designed, developed and led large global programs
as well as trained (Wave trained Black Belts and Master Black Belts) mentored, coached projects across the
Global 1000 client base. Provided continuous improvement, thought leadership and deployment expertise.
Leader in the development of the PWC Six Sigma global practice based out of Washington D.C. Spearheaded
practice growth and integration of services across the firm. Partial client list of projects I led: LG Industries -
Korea, J.P Morgan Worldwide (NYC/Japan), Dow Chemical Worldwide (Brazil), AIG Insurance, General Electric
(Capital - Europe) and TRW Defense (UK)
Led design and process improvement initiatives across the petrochemical, pharmaceutical and
home product lines of business at LG Industries based in Korea. Mentored and coached projects in 12
petrochemical plants (plastics), and across the Pharmaceuticals and Wood Products Divisions. Lead the
New Product Introduction program across the Enterprise (HQs). Provided strategic deployment planning
(tactical); infrastructure, systems/product design, and project implementation (consulting). Led LGs
Pharmaceutical R&D DFSS effort and successfully designed and created the Hepatitis C Testing kits that
allowed LG to be the sole supplier for the Korean Health Ministry and hospital network. Compressed the
R&D end-to-end product life cycle from 24 months to less than 11 months across Petrochemical and
Wood Products divisions.
The PWC/LG Six Sigma program was one of the largest Six Sigma programs ever attempted
globally. Program yield exceeded $1 billion in net benefit. Led large components of the PWC/George
Group/CAT program leading to top-line benefit of $10 billion.
Master Black Belt Quality Leader, GE Healthcare - Business Solutions. Provide technical and project
2/97 to 3/99
management leadership on Six Sigma, re-engineering and change management (CAP) initiatives. Responsible
for methodology design, training, deployment, mentoring and coaching. Led Six Sigma and change
management (CAP) initiatives for our strategic partners using GEs For the Customer, At the Customer Go-to-
Market Model. Architected and deployed Six Sigma programs across core radiology and hospital systems
nationally. Partial client list includes: MD Anderson Cancer Hospital, Sloan Kettering, Merit Group,
Commonwealth and Kaiser.
Master Black Belt of Quality, GE Capital Mortgage Services. Worked closely with senior business leaders to
provide guidance and technical expertise in development and adoption of an integrated management system
cross the Mortgage Business. First Wave Master Black Belt responsible for deploying Six Sigma across the
business component to drive cost out while increasing customer satisfaction across the business.
EDUCATION
OHIO UNIVERSITY, Athens Ohio
Bachelor Degree: Government / Mathematics