LOKESH GARG

**** ******** *****, **** *****, IL – 60047

www.linkedIn.com/in/lokesh-garg

adduwc@r.postjobfree.com

402-***-****

Offers Innovative Solutions to Maximize Performance & Increase Revenue

Customer focused Strategic visionary with high integrity, focus and proven track record of overcoming operational challenges while leveraging emotional intelligence to implement solutions with minimum risk. Global expert in transforming strategic thinking into tactical initiatives and demonstrated success in delivering cost reduction while improving client satisfaction. Proven track record of leading by example through consistent mentoring, teamwork, resolving issues and combining business acumen with strong critical thinking to align operational excellence with business metrics. Proven reputation as a hands-on detail oriented, passionate, curious, enthusiastic, collaborative, ability to lead and resourceful process improvement leader with strong networking, communication, analytical skills and the ability to inspire/influence/motivate/collaborate with business stakeholders, legal, finance, human resources, marketing and sales support to devise continuous process improvement and incorporate internal controls to increase efficiency and reduce expenses.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

P&L Executive Leadership Skills Acquisitions Due Diligence Coaching & Organizational Development Six Sigma Continuous Improvement Philosophy Cross- Functional Team Building & Mentorship Proficient Organizational Change Management Customer Experience Management Business Management Experience Financial Acumen and Organizational Skills Excellent Interpersonal Skills Excellent Facilitation Skills Excellent Written Communication Skills Project Management Skills

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Heimaey LLC, Chicago, IL 2020 – Present

Business Process Consultant

●Evaluated and increased operational performance of hospitality organizations through collaborative process development and implementation of lean Initiatives, Continuous process Improvements method, standardization and training/coaching program.

●Utilized my problem solving skills and analytical thinking to Identify opportunities within the hospitality environment for proactive productivity improvement and operational efficiencies by installing a system by which the client can measure and realize improvement.

●Audited SOPs to ensure continued compliance to regulatory policies, corporate policy and procedures.

●Conducted end to end business process mapping for accounting & finance, operations, IT departments and applied Problem-solving Lean Methodologies with attention to detail to eliminate wasted resources and time.

●Worked collaboratively with senior managers to manage multiple workflows, facilitate process design, implementation of Performance Standards/Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and management reporting cadence to measure and increase operational efficiencies while proactively identifying business Issues.

Protective Asset Protection, Bannockburn, IL 2018 - 2020

Protective Asset Protection is part of the $5.0B financial services holding company, Protective Life Corporation. Protective Life Corporation provides financial services through the production, distribution and administration of property and casualty insurance and investment products throughout the U.S.

Chief Operating Officer / VP of Operations / General Manager / Managing Director

As Vice President of Operations, I reported into CEO and I provided oversight, partnership and leadership of processes for the continuous improvement of the customer experience with 4 Direct and 147 in-direct reports, managing 3 facilities, and $300M P&L across Call Center/ Contact Center Operations, Claims Management, Customer Training, Technical Support, Project Management (PMO), Payment Operations and Client Solution consulting.

●Used Hands on managerial experience to follow up and drive accountability through setting performance metrics, standard work, and staff development to increase organizational effectiveness, while maximizing utilization, with the mission to become a billion-dollar entity through functional leadership.

●Used resource allocation analytics to refine organizational structure to consolidate, streamline, delineate necessary functions and identify outsourcing opportunities which prepared us for future acquisitions.

●Provided stewardship in Acquisition due diligence process and cost benefit analysis to verify all relevant operational and financial information.

●Spearheaded integration of acquisitions by combining and rearranging business processes to materialize efficiencies and synergies resulting in a positive cash flow of $500,000.

●Track Record of Building high-performance teams by inspiring, collaborating and empowering employees to solve problems using continuous improvement philosophy, aligning decision making with strategic goals, resulting in happy, hardworking employees, emotionally vested in success of the organization.

●Awarded Protective Executive Management Award for my efforts to partner with Business Segment Leaders in solving an organizational problem through passion, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills.

●Advocated for customer service lifecycle internally to improve customer experience; identified root causes to common or high impact client relationships problems and worked with innovation teams across the company to fix them by using emerging technologies, Robotics process automation (RPA), automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and customer needs.

●Executed on strategic growth opportunities by building a high-performance team and culture through talent development activities, hiring, training, positive employee engagement, coaching, performance management and developing exceptional go to market plan with the marketing and sales team.

West Interactive Services, Omaha, NE 2014 - 2018

West Interactive Services, is a $2.6B innovative, cloud-based B2B Software as a Service (SaaS), global Information Technology/ telecom technology partner to clients around the world, whose solutions connect people and organizations, making those mission-critical connections more relevant, engaging, and actionable—turning Information to Insight.

Chief Operating Officer / VP of Operations / General Manager / Managing Director

As Vice President of Operations, I reported into CEO and I led day-to-day account management, annual operating plan, strategic growth initiatives and execution to enhance bottom line profitability, productivity, and efficiency throughout the company’s regional operations with 4 direct, and 100 indirect employees while managing 3 facilities and $200M P&L across Manufacturing, Commercial, Healthcare (HCIT), Media, Insurance, Travel and Utilities division.

●Accountable for corporate strategic plans, business development, high quality standards, financial performance, contract negotiation, customer presentations, roadmap development and review, PMO, BPI, internal and external training and development, call center operations, global client operations, and client solution consulting.

●Served as global client relationship development leader responsible for operational excellence, P&L management and revenue growth, achieving an 8.8% increase on FY17 budget and profitability improvement of 239% in 2017 by streamlining my operations and working with Marketing team on a go to market strategy to educate our clients on our product offering and how it improves their Customer Experience.

●Actively participated in Acquisition due diligence process to verify all relevant operational and financial information as well as development of new business startup efforts.

●Spearheaded strategic initiatives and roadmap for the client relationship management life cycle which effectively managed organizational change and was influential across all matrixed teams. Successful in reducing client revenue attrition by 23.3% YOY and employee attrition by 14% bringing it to single digits.

●Developed and implemented a Net Promoter Score program (NPS) across the client portfolio, increasing customer advocacy and confidence by 40 points within 1-year.

●Partnered with internal stakeholders to implement creative solutions CRM (Slaesforce), utilizing Lean Six Sigma and Kaizen leading to a 20% increase in output with existing staff.

●Led the implementation of Six Sigma curriculum to enable employees to think strategically, resulting in 25% increase in throughput.

●Streamlined SDLC methodologies by Implementing continuous improvement philosophy and Agile Development Practices such as kanban, SCRUM Meetings and Rapid Prototyping, which resulted in cost saving for FY2017 of $600,000, actual reported savings of $175,000 for first quarter 2018.

General Electric Transportation, Omaha, NE 1999 - 2014

GE is $120B Conglomerate that drives the world forward by tackling its biggest challenges: Energy, health, transportation—the essentials of modern life. By combining world-class engineering with software and analytics.

Senior Director of Operations 2011 - 2014

As the Senior Director of Operations, I reported to Chief Operating Officer of Global Services and I was accountable for 6 Manufacturing operations and $150M+ P&L, with 5 Direct, 110 In-Direct and 400 Union employees. Proven track record of developing and executing account strategy to deliver on contractual metrics, including EHS/safety, reliability and availability while managing costs. Coordinated with customers to validated supplier business and production processes.

●Performed comprehensive operating systems health check investigation and gap analysis of all production environment to identify areas of concern and track activities to resolve issues using capital expenditure budget to support the business’ mid- and long-term strategy.

●Defined and implemented a talent retention/recruiting strategy to fulfill business growth, using insightful market data and internal knowledge.

●Utilized OSHA Safety standards, availability & reliability performance key metrics that align with consumer expectations to accurately assess crucial services and open compliance issues.

●Improved management/Union labor relations and reduced employee turnover rate by 110%.

Director of Operations 2009 - 2011

As the Director of Operations, I reported to Senior Director of Operations and I was fully responsible for Supply Chain management, Supply Chain performance, logistics and warehouse management for 6 manufacturing operations with 4 direct reports, and $50M P&L utilizing in-house ERP/SAP system. Oversaw assigned business areas, including business case development, business partner resource strategy, objective setting, project plan, sustainability strategy, and day-to-day management of Logistics, scheduling and Inventory from planning to implementation.

●Led and drove variable cost control idea generation with cross-functional teams, including engineering, product management, sourcing, supply chain, accounting and sales to identify cost out opportunities to help the customer’s organization meet business goals.

●Created/Implemented processes to improve management of vendors leading to 10% improvement to supplier quality.

●Implemented TPM ideas to improve key production and quality control metrics (CTQs & KPIs) for the Union Pacific Services account, resulting in $1.2 M in cost avoidance through the life of the contract.

●Instituted Lean management system and Process technologies like CAPA, Kaizen principles, 5S, PFMEA and Kanban to create a safety culture and improve preventative maintenance practices resulting in 20% improvement in rework.

●Addressed critical OSHA safety regulations (EPA Standards) and manufacturing quality issues with Union Pacific Engineering using best practices, resulting in 15% drop in mission failures.

Global Services Master Black Belt / Operational Excellence Manager 2007 - 2009

As the Global Services Master Black Belt /Operational Excellence Manager I developed strategic Lean Six Sigma and quality improvement vision for Global Services Organization, including identifying critical Y's to reduce process variation by developing design of experiments and applying Lean Six Sigma tools and tactics with 23 Six Sigma Black Belts globally reporting to me.

●Used Quality Management Systems (QMS), sharepoint, Windows, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Excel, ppt, Visio, Word processing software, minitab, FMEA and data visualization tools to Identify & complete root cause analysis for product quality and labor productivity improvement opportunities across Service Teams and drove consistency, resulting in $15MM in labor productivity saving

●Facilitated audit and quantitative data analysis of key technical operations and maintenance standard operating procedures with Union Pacific Railroad’s General Director of Transportation to reduce re-crews by 10% per month

●Led/Developed/Provided documentation and served as a Subject matter expert to facilitated content development with learning and development team to revamp training program for Global Services employees.

●Educated/Served as a mentor & coach to Six Sigma Green Belt candidates on lean six sigma philosophy.

Plant Manager, Commerce, CA 2005 - 2007

Black Belt / Process Engineering, North Platte, NE 2001 - 2005

Field Operations Engineer, Chicago, IL 1999 - 2001

EDUCATION:

Master of Business Administration (MBA), University of Wisconsin, Eau-Claire, WI

Bachelor of Science (BS) Mechanical Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & CERTIFICATIONS:

Workforce of the Future, Protective Life 2019

Effective Leadership Development, Leadership Resources 2015

Lean Manufacturing & Management Certification, General Electric Company 2009

Manager Development Course, General Electric Company 2008

American Society of Quality - CMQ/OE 2008

Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Certification, General Electric Company 2008

Advanced Leadership Program, General Electric Company 2006

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification, General Electric Company 2005

New Manager Development Course, General Electric Company 2004

High Impact Presentation, Dale Carnegie 2003

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification, General Electric Company 2001

AFFILIATIONS:

American Society of Mechanical Engineers

International Association for Six Sigma Certification

International Society for Performance Improvement

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT:

Fundraising Volunteer, Our Lady of the Angels March 2019

Volunteer, Feed My Starving Children 2018 - Present

Ring at the Red Kettle, The Salvation Army 2009 - Present

Contact this candidate