BARTON D. KESNER
816-***-**** **********@*****.***
www.linkedin.com/in/bartkesner
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE, AND CLIENT MANAGEMENT LEADER
Adept at leveraging acuity for project management/execution with background in IT, customer service, support, and advocacy to deliver on innovations and efficiencies to influence the client experience. Expertise in strategic relationship development with extensive experience in facilitated Customer Experience (CX) programs and Process Improvement across the finance, manufacturing, and technology sectors. Strong aptitude for leadership; fostering relationships across internal functions and hierarchies and collaborating with stakeholders to facilitate overall business objectives and project deliverables.
Project Management • Relationship Management
Customer Experience • Strategic Planning
Sales and Marketing Support • Customer Service Support
Process Improvement • Consulting
EXPERIENCE
Stefanini, Overland Park, KS 2019-present
Transformation Leader
Heads global IT transformation office with a focus on Process and Problem Management for $3B+ global engineering and consulting and firm.
Partners with customers using a human centered design approach, and ITIL principles to analyze the delivery and use of IT products and services to enhance overall effectiveness and enjoyment. This requires taking customer provided feedback, inferred insights, and available data, turning them into actionable items, and leading cross functional teams across all vendors for implementation. These efforts have included:
Designing and delivering formalized Problem Management program across the organization and service providers
Leading offshore IT transformation efforts to improve service delivery and reliability of applications, servers, and networks
Leading improvement efforts for critical business line eliminating occurrence of all high priority Incidents
Establishing Incident Management process for Information Security office
Coordinating and leading all critical Root Cause & Corrective Action analysis
Self-employed, Kansas City, MO area 2019-2020
Independent Consultant
Provided businesses and organizations expertise in the areas of service delivery, achieving, and maintaining customer satisfaction, and programs to enhance teamwork and culture. Projects included:
Partnered with Voyage Consulting Group in “Leadership NOW”; an interactive development experience to help leaders capitalize on the volatile complexity of business.
Guest speaker at “Leadership Drive”; A monthly discussion of relevant and timely business and personal leadership topics hosted at Central Exchange in Kansas City.
Allegion, Olathe, KS 2017-2019
Customer Experience Senior Program Manager
Spearheaded Customer Experience (CX) Program with focus on key, strategic accounts and select Go to Market models for $2.5B manufacturing firm. Partnered with customers for immersive, design thinking oriented engagement.
Drove UX/UI projects to further strengthen CX capabilities, including real-time metric dashboard. Utilized structured and unstructured feedback and strategic data to drive investment, systems, and process for intelligent design decisions.
Guided business components of customer facing, large scale technology and process improvement projects in the areas of predictive data analysis, digital customer communication, and field support
Led strategic engagement for 30+ customers with cumulative sales over $330M annually. Partnered throughout the organization (Sales, Marketing, Production, Customer Service, IT, etc.) to drive customer experience ownership, and work with customers directly with a human centered design focus for solution delivery.
Developed and managed strategic closed loop processes for tactical issue resolution. Analyzed data to deliver solutions to improve the intentional experience design.
Aligned with other areas of the company to identify learning opportunities in the areas of teamwork and culture. Developed and facilitated discussions centered around “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”.
Mentored colleagues in corporate global Mentoring Program, offering guidance, advice, and sharing life experiences with others within the organization.
DST, Kansas City, MO 2004-2016
PMO Director; Client Relations Manager/Division Manager
Owned corporate approved programs executed through PMO for Brokerage business units for tech firm in Financial Services. Developed reporting metrics tracking on time delivery, project health, and risk assessment. Led project managers and teams in agile and waterfall development environments and met or exceeded all corporate goals. Ran BPO solution for strategic customer relationships. Contributed to sales and marketing efforts as member of executive team responding to Request for Proposals, client acquisition presentations, and drafting/reviewing Service Level Agreements.
Established and led Project Management Office comprised of 6 PM’s managing over 30 active projects. Met or exceeded all corporate goals regarding On-Time delivery and Project Health for SaaS projects, large data conversions, and system integrations
Drove all projects for largest Brokerage client increasing account base serviced from 2k to 8M resulting in 99% increase in annual revenue. Projects included large scale efforts around data conversions, client onboarding, product development and implementations
Deployed Customer Experience Program within Brokerage business units and mentored management staff regarding survey engagement.
Facilitated client partnerships and led operational teams (foreign and domestic) providing those services including full service/remote operations and client support for SaaS solutions. Obtained top "recommended" rating as measured in relationship surveys and supported 20% increase in client base with no corresponding staff increase.
Cultivated and managed largest Brokerage client relationship. Received highest National Quality Review (NQR) and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) across client base and achieved highest “Recommended” customer rating.
Boston Financial (DST affiliate), Kansas City, MO
Group Manager 1993-2004
Managed all aspects of the service agent relationship for multiple mutual fund companies and led consolidated broker/dealer support area for participating client base. Oversaw day-to-day operations comprised of 35+ associates (call center; customer support), new product implementations, preparation and analysis of budget, fee negotiations, and marketing presentations for current and potential clients.
Member of corporate committee responsible for developing, introducing, and supporting an organizational wide values program. Wrote and was featured in “Values” introduction video.
EDUCATION
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Management
Bloch School of Business and Public Administration, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO
ADDITIONAL RELEVANT INFORMATION
Missouri State University Design Thinking Advisory Board Member
Certified in ITIL v4 Foundations, AXELOS
Certified in Foundations of Design Thinking (based on Lean principles), IDEO U
Member of Kansas City CX Leadership Roundtable
Member of KC Design Thinkers