Irene Barsoum, PMP, PRINCE*, CSM, LSSWB

Mississauga, Ontario

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

adbncs@r.postjobfree.com • 416-***-****

Program Manager

Highly respected program manager with expertise in managing large application custom development projects, implementation deliveries and infrastructure upgrade projects. Influential professional with over 20 years of experience in consulting for travel, pharmaceutical, utilities, healthcare, loyalty, marketing, and financial industries. Talent for evaluating and translating client needs and goals into project objectives and calls to action. An Intuitive leader with proven ability to manage large, global (over 30 members in separate geographical locations), cross-functional project teams. Solid history of success in financial management, resource planning, scheduling, risk and issue management, and status and dashboard reporting for all levels of management including executives, directors, and vice presidents.

Areas of Expertise:

Program & Portfolio Management

Project & Operation Budget Management

SCRUM, Agile & Waterfall Methodologies

Stakeholder Management

Technical Team Management

Leadership

Negotiation

Risk & Issue Management

Dashboards and Status Reporting

Change Management

Process Analysis & Automation

Demand Management

RFP/RFI/RFQ Responses

Application Development

Professional Experience

MarKiroTech Inc. – Mississauga, ON, Canada

Program Manager (2012 to Present)

Manage services for high-profile clients including GlaxoSmithKline, CCO, GetReliefPharma, and Others

Founded a consulting services company to provide technical solution delivery and program management consulting services to companies some of which are: PMO leadership, program management, and solutions design and development.

Selected Contributions:

Launched a consulting service to assist clients with their digital media marketing and online presence needs.

Designed and led a team to deliver a new online pharmacist recruitment service and information hub.

Provided PMO consulting services to a major international pharmaceutical company.

Brought structure and prepared the delivery strategy for a key Canadian healthcare digital solution program.

Finastra Inc. – Mississauga, ON, Canada

Program Manager (2018 to 2019)

Oversaw the IT programs’ pipeline for this global financial technology company. The pipeline totals to over $20M annually.

Managed the assessment of IT programs and projects at the inception phase. Owned the engagement process and driving organizational changes to support adoption. Worked with IT PMO leaders to support planning, reporting and sequencing the pipeline based on Tiers and fast-tracking of strategic initiatives to engage senior leaders. Managed the engagement with corporate finance to identify initiatives’ eligibility for capitalizing and identify their capex budget. Consistently worked with IT delivery program managers to ensure delivery lessons are fed back into the process to continually improve the quality of delivery services.

Selected Contributions:

Updated and relaunched the IT Intake process in collaboration within the IT organization.

Fast-tracked the assessments achieving 40% reduction in turnaround time and 30% increase in compliance to intake SLAs.

Enhanced the pipeline reporting using PowerBI and Domo which enhanced leadership visibility to upcoming initiatives and lead the training and change management components of launching these tools.

FD Solutions, First Derivatives Canada Inc. – Mississauga, ON, Canada

Senior Project Manager (2017 to 2018)

Managed public sector clients’ programs and portfolios (IESO, TTC). Clients were from financial, healthcare, and utilities industries totaling over $5M annually.

Managed several major projects and VOR contracts for public sector clients including applications that are managing mission critical operations with heavy business logic, digital solutions, technology upgrades, and multiple initiatives to provide QA and AODA conversion services. Developed status and financial reporting tools to enhance resource planning and budget projection. Onboarded new resources to major projects to enhance their productivity.

Selected Contributions:

Contributed as one of the authors of 5 winning RFP responses that generated over $10M to the company’s sales in 2017/2018.

Made key changes to process and project management tools resulting in improved planning.

Helped build portfolio dashboards and improve client reporting for the organization’s largest client program.

Engage People Inc. – Markham, ON, Canada

Project Manager (2016 to 2017)

Interfaced with global clients in the financial and hospitality sectors to deliver applications and designed Portfolio dashboards that summarized project timelines, important milestones and resource management.

Managed internal and client-facing projects from inception to completion using SCRUM, Waterfall and iterative methodologies. Steered vision, strategy, and execution of some internal initiatives and improved internal processes. Led global project teams on several client loyalty responsive solutions with interfaces to payment gateways utilizing redemption and rewarding tools.

Selected Contributions:

On schedule and within budget delivery of a global credit card loyalty rewarding tool with multiple interfaces to the banking clients in the Asia Pacific region.

Introduced project management structure to a hospitality client project that enhanced stakeholder management and reporting.

Designed project, program and portfolio dashboards that reported progress and forecasted resource needs.

GlaxoSmithKline Inc. – Mississauga, ON, Canada

PMO Lead – eForms Digital Solutions (2012 to 2015)

Managed end-to-end major projects and performed critical PMO leadership tasks.

Lead the eForms team PMO in collaboration with the PM Lead. The eForms service provided solutions to meet the global company workflow and forms solution needs. Assisted with managing the team’s pipeline or projects and served as a member of a gating committee to assess initiatives’ strategic alignment and organizational benefits before authorizing projects for assessment and execution. Worked on key strategic process initiatives including, alignment with the IT global PMO to change the delivery standards from QMS to ITSM, automating demand management using SharePoint and enhancing the PMO tools to improve project health reporting. Managed high profile programs delivered by the service.

Selected Contributions:

Aligned process, goals, and strategies with Technology global PMO to support the organizational launch of ITSM.

Improved the eForms team PMO operation, tools, and processes.

Managed an award-winning project valued at $1M which received several company business processes and solutions design awards.

Maritz Canada Inc. – Mississauga, ON, Canada

Technical Project Manager (2011 to 2012)

Managed a $2M portfolio budget to service concurrent digital solution projects for an automotive industry client.

Worked on a pilot initiative to introduce the Agile methodology using MS tools to the teams delivery model. Proposed process improvements to continuously align with evolving client requirements. Drafted proposals, planned projects, and managed functional specifications gathering, project delivery, coordinating with other project delivery teams, status updates, risk and issue management, technical discussions, QA and UAT activities, and client sign-off for multiple projects. Managed production post-implementation reviews to resolve issues and meet client expectations. Organized and resolved a backlog of client production feedback items to help phase their delivery as part of future client releases.

Selected Contributions:

Played key role in winning new work to grow the size of portfolio work for 2011/2012 from $2M to $16M.

Increased the efficiency of the support operations team by standardizing tracking tools and regularly following up on progress.

Evaluated the use of Agile and Team Foundation Server (TFS) Agile tool through a pilot project allowing management to make educated decisions based on more accurate progress data.

Thomas Cook (Toronto, ON, Canada & Cairo, Egypt

Project Manager (2010 to 2011)

Operated several of the firm’s initiatives with budgets reaching $300K including a B2B solution implementation across Canada, eCommerce sites, and infrastructure upgrades.

Made key changes to project management and business analysis tools. Managed multiple projects: the main brand eCommerce website, an internal B2B solution launched to the company outlets across Canada, and an infrastructure technology upgrade. Managed business requirements, project plans, risks, status reporting, vendor activities, UAT, and launch activities.

Selected Contributions:

Played integral role in the successful launch of the firm’s largest IT project, which consolidated search functions for several brands on the website thomascook.ca.

Managed the launch of a key B2B travel agent booking organizational tool across the North American offices.

System Applications & eBusiness Manager (IT Solutions Portfolio Manager) (2005 to 2010)

Executed roles as project manager, technical team lead for 2 technical teams, and executive management team member of the management board.

Led process change activities of two technical application development and user support service teams. This role entailed communicating with senior stakeholders and end users, identifying and automating internal processes to optimize resource utilization, and initiating new services and technology tools to provide a better service offering to the company individual and corporate clients and partners. The role involved elements of change management that supported introducing and sustaining the introduced systems and processes. Reported to the Senior Directors team as a member of the Executive Management Team board and supported the launch of two new sales channels. Managed multiple technology portfolios of projects including. several B2B and B2C websites, internal portals and solutions, and the call center implementation.

Selected Contributions:

Incorporated outsourced leased technology with in-house travel front-line resources and systems to launch and operate Egypt’s first travel-focused call center.

Helped the company receive the annual Amadeus Global Distribution Systems (GDS) best online sales channel award in the Middle East consecutively from 2007 to 2010 for B2C sales.

As a member of the Executive Management Team, represented the organization at Global Corporate forums.

Additional experience as an Applications Developer (1998 to 2005), Business Analyst (2001 to 2010), and Technical Lead (2005 to 2010) in digital solution management for major clients in Middle Eastern, European and African markets including Microsoft MEA and Egypt e-Government.

Education and Credentials

Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration

Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh Business School – United Kingdom

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Minor Business Administration

The American University in Cairo (AUC) – Cairo, Egypt

Certifications: Project Management Professional (PMP), PRINCE2 Registered Practitioner, Certified SCRUM Master (CSM), Lean Six Sigma White Belt (LSSWB)

Professional Development/Training: Certified SCRUM Master Workshop – SCRUM Alliance, Lean Six Sigma White Belt Certification – MSI Certified, Six Sigma White Belt Training – Finastra, Clarity – GSK, PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner – Advantage Learning LTD, Project Management Course – RITI, How to Setup a High-Impact PMO – PMO Strategies & Impact, How to Measure PMO IMPACT – PMO Strategies & Impact, Mobile Application Development – The Shaw Academy, Oracle 10g – Synergy, Cisco – CCIE, Management and soft skill training – Thomas Cook Egypt

Technical Proficiencies: Microsoft Office Suite, SharePoint, MS Visio, Google Tools, Lucidchart, MS Project and Project Server, Clarity, Smartsheet, Replicon, OpenAir, PlanView, Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow, MS PowerBI, Domo, MS Teams, Slack, Skype for Business, Oracle, MS SQL Server, Cisco Networking, MS TFS, Application Development tools, HP Quality Center.

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