Financial Services Senior Director

PAUL PONZO

Palm Beach Gardens, Fl 914-***-**** ********@*****.***

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Senior executive at numerous premier financial services firms with a proven track record of leading customer-focused global organizations through cultural and technology transformations. EXPERIENCE

FELD ENTERTAINMENT

2023 – Present Senior Director – Global Head of AI and Data Current opportunity to lead the transformation of an entertainment conglomerate through a digital and AI transformation, with a strong focus on governance and compliance.

• Leads the development and oversight of a comprehensive AI and Data governance framework, ensuring ethical and responsible use of new technologies.

• Design and execute a targeted communication strategy to senior management that highlighted the practical applications of AI, leading to an uptick in adoption across the firm.

• Leads a cross-functional team to develop and launch an AI-powered Risk assessment tool

• Conducts comprehensive data assessments to ensure compliance with the GDPR and CCPA. DXC / VIRTUAL CLARITY

2016 – 2022 Managing Partner / Partner – Chief Operating Officer Prepared the firm for sale by leading the design and implementation of a complex companywide strategy.

• Aligned all operational areas to ensure optimal efficiencies of systems and processes, allowing for a smooth transition and integration to DXC.

• Supervised architects, engineers, and program managers to create cloud-based solutions for large scale financial services firms.

• Oversaw company-wide Human Resource functions, including identifying optimal staffing levels, talent acquisition, team development as well as oversight of compliance. KKR

2015 – 2016 Director - Global Co-Head of Infrastructure / CISO Centralized a regionally based infrastructure organization to introduce standards and cost efficiencies across the global organization.

• Created and implemented a technology roadmap to move the enterprise into the cloud.

• Redesigned the WAN and IT architecture to ensure full redundancy, resiliency and support.

• Led policy, governance, and compliance activities to define and mediate all physical and technology security issues.

• Led ERP solutions decision and implementation to improve business processes BRIDGEWATER

2011 – 2015 Manager - Global Head of Infrastructure Technology Managed the transformation of the technology organization from product-based to service-based.

• Completed the design and implementation of Bridgewater’s trading floor, which transformed the existing platform to a virtual environment with full redundancy, and pre-built future-failover capability.

• Developed and matured ITSM processes (Change, Incident, Problem, Asset, Configuration, Service Request and Automation) to reduce the frequency and duration of business-impacting outages and use resources more effectively.

• Led an enterprise team to design and implement the new end user compute platform, including all cyber security and employee surveillance monitoring BLACKROCK

2010 – 2011 Managing Director – Global Head of Infrastructure Technology Drove a technical transformation of the company’s global user experience after several mergers.

• Created and led a project team responsible for the architecture, design and rollout of a Windows 7 architecture, globally. This included the remediation and virtualization of all applications.

• Delivered a comprehensive and reliable video conference infrastructure, which included telepresence, HD and automated monitoring to improve support

ALLIANCEBERNSTEIN

2004 – 2009 Senior Vice President – Global Head of Infrastructure 2009 – 2010 Senior Vice President – Fixed Income Development Manager Managed a capital and operating budget of over $500MM. Created a single order management system that took advantage of research driven investments and quantitative modeling to drive portfolio management decisions.

• Responsible for all aspects of technology for over 30 acquisitions including infrastructure and risk review, integration planning, and operational activities. Created an integral assessment scoring system for in-depth analysis and reporting used for purchase evaluation and presentation to leadership.

• Served as a strategic advisor to the Board on all major infrastructure projects in excess of $5MM which included funding and implementation.

• Achieved 15% year-over-year operating expense reductions through server virtualization initiatives, datacenter consolidations and headcount reductions.

• Achieved 10% ROI on support costs through server and desktop virtualization efforts.

• Created a business-aligned plan that reduced headcount redundancy and saved $50MM of recurring operating expense.

• Led an effort to define and implement a third-party Municipal Trading and Allocation system

(Calypso) allowing seamless automated process flow from Portfolio Managers, through Trading and Trading Support

Additional Experience

Held positions in IT for several premier financial services institutions including: First Boston, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank N.A., Sanford C. Bernstein, and IBM Personal

As an enthusiastic amateur photographer, I thrive on capturing the moments that tell compelling stories of the travels of my life. Beyond the lens, I am passionate about developing and mentoring others in the various fields that I have worked. I feel that giving to others has always served me and the companies I have worked in.

EDUCATION

New York University

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