Benjamin Kreischer – MBA, PMP, CSM, CSPO, Lean Six Sigma (WB), CPAinactive

Personal Information

**** * ***** ** *** 363

Fishers, IN 46038

317-***-****

ad4qp2@r.postjobfree.com

linkedin.com/in/benkreischer/

Education

BS Accounting

Manchester University

MA Accountancy

Manchester University

MBA Finance

Indiana University Kelley School of Business

Commercial Skills

Project Management

PMO Liaison/Development

Customer Relationship Management

Predictive Analytics

Stochastic Financial Modeling

Business Intelligence Design

M&A Experience

Capital Asset Valuation

Sales Origination and Engineering

Enterprise Risk Management

Technical Skills

ETRM model development

Sharepoint/Teams Administration

Jira/Confluence/Bitbucket Admin

Jira Admin for Advanced Roadmaps

Jira/Sharepoint On-Prem to Cloud

Cloud Platforms AWS, Azure

Agile/Kanban/Scrum Master/SAFe

Qualys Vulnerability Remediation

Power BI, Power Automate RPA

SharePoint Automation

API Development and Implementation

ServiceNow API Integration

Data Cleansing & Governance

Tableau Server, Desktop, Cloud

@Risk Stochastic Platform

ETL And Data Warehousing Big Data

VS Code Development

UI/UX Development (Miro, Figma)

Summary - Experience of 29+ years, highly skilled Senior Technical and Functional Project Owner/Manager and analytics engineer. Expertise includes ITSM platforms, Org Change Management, Atlassian ecosystem, financial engineering, and serving as a Project Manager/Scrum Master/Product Owner, across various industries with more than 20 years in the energy industry in project and risk management, quantitative/predictive analytics, with extensive experience in business intelligence development, and ETL/data modeling. Skills encompass data analytics, financial system auditing and validation, financial risk modeling, cybersecurity vulnerability remediation (Qualys), and the application of stochastic analytical and AI/ML modeling techniques to identify and mitigate risks. Proven track record in successful oversight of large-scale and long-duration project and risk stewardship, capital budgeting, digital transformation, COTS system integration, SaaS, ITSM platforms, and legacy system data migrations.

Extensive experience implementing multiple frameworks including Kanban, Sprints, Scrum, Scrumban, SAFe, Hybrid, and Waterfall. Strong understanding of SDLC. Experienced with API integration with ITSM platforms including Remedy/ServiceNow/JSM (incident, problem, change, knowledge base). EST time zone, and open to relocation.

STEP UP FOR STUDENTS (02-2024 to PRESENT)

ITSM JIRA SERVICE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT

Implemented a new Jira JSM instance for change management.

SONIC AUTOMOTIVE (12-2022 to 05-2023)

ATLASSIAN ADMIN/PROJECT OWNER (CONTRACTOR)

As the Jira, Confluence, and SharePoint administrator, and project manager for Sonic Automotive, I was brought into manage an enterprise-wide portfolio of projects to implement, customize, and maintain a new Agile-based Jira Cloud environment across the enterprise with DevOps, Project Management, and Service Desk project types, including Kanban, Scrum, and Waterfall structures, as well as build out the SharePoint Cloud environment for multiple teams. I am proficient in creating and managing workflows, fields, screens, schemes, marketplace extensions, automation, advanced JQL filtering and dashboarding, and have a strong understanding of Jira's architecture and data model. I have a proven track record of resolving complex issues, as well as providing ongoing training and support to users.

I have engineered platform data migrations both internally along with 3rd party vendors. Engineered a more dynamic, data driven, collaborative organizational mindset. I was responsible for enterprise planning, communications, resource planning, risk mitigation, execution, and stood up more than 50 projects originating from multiple platforms (MS Project, ADO, Monday.com) and agile frameworks (Kanban, Sprints, Waterfall, Hybrid) to Jira Cloud. Developed multiple SharePoint based RPA Microsoft Power Automate solutions with dynamic multiuser approval and data driven logic workstreams to ingest requests across the entire Sonic enterprise, culminating in API automation of Jira user requests across multiple Jira teams from SharePoint.

CHARLES SCHWAB FINANCIAL (09-2021 to 10-2022)

ATLASSIAN ADMIN/PRODUCT OWNER (CONTRACTOR)

Solutions architect for wholesale development of workflow processes, spanning multiple productivity tools, and external system interfaces. Reengineering email, Jira project management, documentation in Confluence/Sharepoint, meeting space/IM collaboration interface in Teams, Office365 apps, and design for Remedy ITSM integration via reporting and workflow management solutions.

From day 1, I redesigned and implemented Jira, Sharepoint, Confluence and Teams for a geo-located team of 25 network engineers spanning 4 time zones. I developed tools, reporting, and training to manage workflow and grow the team’s agile capabilities to create efficiencies and grow the team workflow into a data driven agile team 30 times larger over a 1 year period, becoming likely the most actively managed Jira instance in the Charles Schwab ecosystem, the largest Atlassian Jira/Confluence Server instance in the world.

Significant Projects Owned

Cisco IOS-XE switch upgrade across 24 service centers, including resourcing, communications, and planning.

PCI, vulnerability, and drift remediation across all service center Schwab devices, switches, terminal servers.

Agile coaching to turn 100’s of individual disorganized projects into a cohesive framework managed by epics.

Built a group of contributors into the arguably the most effective Jira team at Schwab, across 25+ epics.

Scrum Master for a team of 7 engineers/contractors to remediate BMC Remedy incident queue.

Jira

Sole administrator for a geographically dispersed team of 25 network engineers. Reengineered a non-functional workflow into multiple workflows, with simplified transitions and statuses, eliminating redundant and confusing steps. Trained and coached the team to grow Jira 30x larger in 1 year.

Engineered user permission scheme, modified all screens for targeted issue creation and grooming. Added custom fields to simulate a Jira reporting engine with calculations defined by custom automations.

Built complex JQL statements to drive more than 500 filters used as the basis for a complex reporting scheme, to drive 50+ unique dashboards to the limit of Jira’s native capabilities and extending with 3rd party tools such as Dataplane and Checklists and iframes for external system reporting functionality.

Built autonomous standup integration (bots) to facilitate a daily standup for engineers, pulling in current user stories for grooming and transitioning, pushing data back into Jira with a streamlined REST API.

Built an external roadmapping tool for grooming, capacity planning, and overall project planning purposes, exceeding the functionality offered in Jira’s advanced roadmaps, by adding bulk updating and bidirectional Jira updating capabilities.

Confluence

Administered and rebuilt a home-grown Confluence site for better organization and repurposing Confluence to build upon its strengths, namely information dissemination. Tied into Jira instance for real-time updates, slide deck preparation, and external stakeholder information consumption.

Built advanced yet simple to edit and publish data inside multiple team Confluence sites, serving as an SME.

Sharepoint & MS Teams

Migrated on-prem SharePoint to SharePoint Modern Cloud, along with building out an automated reporting framework for intelligent document management, as well as serving as a repository for team tooling and upskill matrixing.

Restructured MS Teams integration into Sharepoint to streamline the document storage and sharing functionality for easier identification and locating of relevant technical documents, in addition to building out the working project library to eliminate document obsolescence and redundancy.

Tied MS Teams into the Jira ecosystem with webhooks for instant notification of critical status changes, i.e., blocked or unblocked, reducing the number of communication channels required for communicating risks.

PROJECT MANAGER / BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE DEVELOPER – AXE ANALYTIX (01-2020 to 09-2021)

Developer of analytical and business intelligence platforms, from ideation to deployment, with ETL processes, AI and ML model design, training, scoring, and application interactivity architecture for data storytelling and consumption in Azure/Dataverse web and mobile environments. AI/ML functionality assist in data discovery, finding program risk and market opportunities, presenting highest potential ROI projects to stakeholders.

PRODUCT OWNER/STRATEGIC SALES ORIGINATOR - DIRECT ENERGY (01-2018 to 01-2020)

Led agile/scrum teams in model/app development, utilizing the Jira/Confluence platform, hosting scrum ceremonies for geo-located teams for multiple high risk/high visibility projects.

Utilized ETRM models/sources across every ISO/RTO (55 zones) for modeling of variable price paths.

Salesforce administrator for local sales office including reporting enhancements.

Agile/Scrum trainer, experienced in talent development leading sprint planning, backlog grooming, user story articulation, RAID log monitoring, project monitoring and controlling, and escalation / communication methods necessary for successful increment and value delivery.

PMP, CSM, certified, SAFe and RTE trained, with expert level project planning, workshop facilitation, UI/UX wireframing, plan monitoring and controlling, risk mitigation, communication, and C-level presentation skills.

Key originator responsibilities included client project management, PMO liaison, energy portfolio interrogation, risk and market opportunity-based strategy development, key deliverables synthesis, with client-facing responsibility negotiating Commercial & Industrial electricity, natural gas, renewables (solar, wind, battery, DER), DR opportunities securing $10M in margin.

Developed and life-cycle managed upgrades to Direct Energy’s analytical model, Grey Matter 2, a stochastically based ML predictive model and presentation development tool universally used throughout the sales team for identifying risk exposure and mitigation opportunities using a portfolio of hedging instruments to identify a multi-commodity product mix aligned with client’s energy budget and risk tolerance goals.

GM2 simulates 55 energy zones (power/gas) in US and Canadian ISO/RTO’s, for up to 20 years, using the current liquid forward curve and extrapolation and predictive techniques beyond the liquidity horizon.

LONG TERM STATISTICAL & ANALYTICAL ENERGY CONSULTANT - RESOLUTION ENERGY (06-2016 to 01-2018)

As the project manager and lead developer, I was responsible for implementing a stochastic-based risk engine using Palisade's @Risk suite and Excel 365. This engine aimed to evaluate various aspects of incremental power supply transactions for energy clients. The evaluations included proposed bilateral transactions, plant acquisitions, retirements, fuel requirements, sensitivity analysis, hedging effectiveness, and risk mitigation.

Additionally, I worked as the sole developer for the Azure SQL Server back-end, model logic streams, Monte-Carlo stochastics, and SQL reporting. These components were crucial for the development of business intelligence (BI) dashboards. Furthermore, I provided training to the client's staff in the discipline of stochastic modeling and modeling risk mitigation best practices.

PROJECT MANAGER / PRODUCT OWNER /SCRUM MASTER – ACES POWER MARKETING (01-2005 to 04-2016)

Led the Special Projects initiative, spanning nearly every domain at ACES. Extensive project success of more than 50 material projects included load forecasting, client salvage and recovery, capital asset valuation, forensic deal review, asset acquisition and retirement analytics, member rate structure review, MISO capacity modeling and forecasting, transmission position consulting, and board / management “state of the union” reporting. Migrated Allegro valuation models, improving, rebuilding, and consulting across the platform to integrate new data sources and valuation methodologies for defensible mark-to-market valuations.

Served in both internal and external client facing roles, reporting to the VP of Business Development and the PMO/CIO office. If a problem, project, or opportunity was multi-department, I managed the projects for 11 years, with guidance from the PMO.

Opened the north office in Minnesota, serving as a bridge to onboarding 15 employees from Great River Energy to ACES Power, assisted in orienting employees to the proper groups at ACES Power. Developed the Budget to Actual platform for 3-day pre-close of operating results of the previous month, vs a 30 day close.

Project lead and solution architect for ACES Portfolio Performance Reporting (PPR) system, a nationwide BI platform, managed geo-located and time zone resources, worked at all levels with internal and external stakeholders to develop market insight for a real-time performance cloud-hosted system incorporating multi-dimensional business intelligence into a framework measuring historical financial, operational, and strategic initiative performance versus established budgets, KPI benchmarks, and variance interrogation.

Led the initiative to incorporate KPI components into the budgeting process to assist in the evaluation of analytical projections from a statistical and empirical perspective to help answer the “How likely”, “What to monitor”, and “What needs further investigation” questions, developing and implementing strategic outcomes designed to improve portfolio performance, addressing critical blind-spots, and evaluating extinction-level event scenarios. Trained internal consultants and end-users in data analytics best practices.

Owned overall project management, internal and external communication, needs analysis, root-cause issue identification, ETL/data table/views design, assisted in SQL development, UI/UX wire framing, KPI development, infrastructure development, resulting in customer implementation and ongoing deliverable refinement. Served as the client champion and product owner using Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Classic Waterfall, and hybrid Waterfall approaches.

Founding member of the Integrated Portfolio Management & Risk Reporting team which developed strategies for analyzing the entire landscape of risks clients faced as well as developed standardized methods for communicating risks. Also, a member of the Coordinated Market Intelligence Team, which developed a reporting framework for consolidating and reporting all sources of market intelligence both internally and externally.

QUANTITATIVE ANALYST / PREDICTIVE MODEL DEVELOPER – ACES POWER MARKETING (12-2000 to 01-2005)

Architect and developer of ACES Power’s stochastic and predictive energy risk model, providing broader capabilities to develop risk mitigation strategies focused on asset optimization, bilateral energy and option evaluation, budgeting-to-actual insight tool development, for cross-commodity recommendations using Palisade’s @Risk platform for stochastic development of price/load/generation iterations.

Provided extensive analytical, consulting, and strategic implementation capabilities across multiple internal and external departments, predominately portfolio strategy, new business development, trading, leading to greater adoption of stochastic based modeling results throughout the customer base.

Modeled all aspects of analytical and strategic development of power and natural gas portfolio recommendations for the majority of the largest energy cooperatives in the country providing portfolio hedging recommendations and strategies valued > $2 billion to C-level executives, and staff SME’s using all available energy technologies, including renewables, carbon-based assets, and fuels procurement strategies. Served as the internal portfolio subject matter expert.

EXTERNAL AUDITOR / ACCOUNTING SYSTEM CONSULTANT – KATZ, SAPPER & MILLER (06-1993 to 12-2000)

External auditor for public and private companies for adherence to bank reporting requirements and US GAAP compliance, spanning a spectrum of industries.

Planned effective auditing processes, audited financial statements and assess accounts for accuracy and regulatory compliance, inspected internal systems and controls, assessed risk management tactics, reported systematic errors or fraud indicators.

Carried out quality audits and assurance services, obtaining all necessary audit working papers, documenting findings, communicating accounting and financial findings to partners and clients.

Performed extensive inventory auditing functions, becoming the firm expert in training incoming auditors on best practices, and efficiency improvements.

Was outsourced to existing client base to backfill temporary open and urgent positions to perform accounting functions in AP, AR, Inventory, GL, financial statement preparation, treasury functions, reconciliations, and management flash reporting.

Implemented accounting software systems for growing clients migrating from desktop off-the-shelf apps like QuickBooks to more robust enterprise level accounting systems (SAGE MAS90), for General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Bank Reconciliation, Budgeting and Planning, Sales Order, Purchase Order, Inventory Management, Bill of Materials, Production Management, Material Requirements Planning (MRP), and Work Orders modules.

Migrated data from retired to new accounting systems, including rigorous validation of data transfer, as well as building data transfer scripts and data cleanup scripts for extraneous data.

Consulted on reporting system packages for a wide variety of industries, including vendor selection, system implementation, client training, and provided ongoing support and report building capabilities.

Provided extensive training in the Microsoft Office suite to clients and internal staff as it started to replace existing software such as Lotus 123 and WordPerfect.

Was outsourced to Proliance Energy for nearly 3 years to rebuild existing home-grown systems into a standard platform, audited, documented, and added needed functionality when required.

Built a standalone contact management system for Proliance Energy to consolidate all customer and prospect information, including funneling, conversations, customer email blasts, Blackberry integration, and deployed Proliance Energy-wide for all staff. This was before the days of Salesforce adoption. Performed all ETL and SQL development.

Performed numerous data auditing and data completeness alongside Arthur Andersen staff preparing Simon Properties Group for public offering.

Developed custom software to perform field claims processing for Dow Agrosciences using Microsoft Outlook remotely, utilizing KPI’s and claims progression processing workflows, before internet connectivity was universally available in the field.

Developed training curriculum for onsite classroom training for Microsoft Office and existing client-based accounting systems, in addition to leading the training, and developing new business opportunities via the process, by offering insight into best practices that were gleaned from the entire client base.

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