Certified Leader

Thomas Alston, PMP, SAFe® *

Current Location: Duluth, GA 30096

Summary:

• A Certified Project & Agile, Results-Oriented, and Customer-Focused IT Service Delivery Leader with profound perspective and insight on assessing and planning IT capabilities and transforming large technology programs.

• Years of experience contributing immensely to scrum teams’ growth, agile transformations, organization optimization, and process improvements. An experienced agile professional with a deep understanding of team dynamics, strategy, and leadership skills. Successfully supported teams through end-to-end product delivery using agile (Scrum and Kanban) to drive efficient completion of features with tight timescales and limited resources. A leader with people management skills, highly skilled, and able to implement an innovative approach to business processes and improvements. A servant leader with experience in motivating, developing, and empowering team members at all levels. Excellent communication and collaborative skills with management skills, efficient team collaborating techniques, facilitation, leading, and coaching multiple teams.

• A solid history of building and managing partnerships with key stakeholders, executive leadership, and senior management to support strategic planning and drive continuous process improvement.

o Program & Project Management

o Portfolio Management: Jira, Confluence, and SharePoint o Policy & Procedure Development

o Operational Effectiveness

o Project Lifecycle Coordination

o C-Level Relationship Management

o Budgeting & Resource Allocation

Experience:

KPMG, Atlanta, GA Jan '22 - Mar '23

Director – Transformation Delivery

Partnering with Product and Service Owners and other stakeholders to help ensure global strategy and execution alignment, eliminating redundancy. Held full responsibility for project/program success, including quick resolution of escalations, and chaired biweekly meetings to ensure SLA compliance and continual service improvement in operation.

• Partner with business and technology partners throughout the product lifecycle, including vision, requirements, deployment, and optimization

• Led implementation of program delivery lifecycle focused on simplification of delivery processes and PPM tool integration

• Initiative leader for Agile enablement with a focus on cultural mindset transformation. Helped to implement Agile enablement framework.

• Analyze and focus on efficiency and innovation across the technology portfolio

• Managed strategic initiatives and successfully transformed from traditional process orientation to Agile methodologies for the entire portfolio, using Kanban and Scrum, working with technology and business groups disbursed over broad geographies.

• Lead ongoing portfolio analysis to help KPMG maximize ROI on product investments

• Lead strategic initiative prioritization and tradeoffs

• Manages a portfolio of multi-million-dollar complex programs & projects, and Agile delivery teams. Managed Kanban teams on multiple projects while utilizing Jira and Confluence.

• Developed enterprise-wide Business Agile transformation strategy. Helped develop an agile funding model for new product development and implemented a value-based prioritization model.

• Executed process improvement strategy for IT focusing on Application, Staffing, and Initiative rationalization efforts.

• Define multi-year product roadmaps aligned to business stakeholders’ objectives and priorities. Product Management Operations

• Ensured Agile teams maintained focus on quality and continuous delivery.

• Thought leader in driving and further developing the annual product management calendar

• Quarterly Product Reviews, Annual Product Planning, and budgeting

• Maintain the long-term product vision while guiding delivery teams with an assist in managing applications and products throughout their lifecycle, ensuring business relevance, adoption, and continuous improvement

• Adopt a proactive approach to identifying issues and presenting solutions and options where appropriate

• Articulate executive reporting for C-suite and board-level audiences regularly. Strategic Program Management

• Help enable critical strategic programs (e.g., convergence for KPMG next-generation products)

• Analyze and help proactively address financial/client/macro trends across the National Account Services portfolio

Ernst & Young, Atlanta, GA Jan '16 - Jan '22

Role #1: Associate Director – Delivery & Portfolio Leader Aug '18 - Jan '22 Solicited by management to monitor, control, and support service delivery global programs while ensuring systems, methodologies, and procedures are followed. Tasked with overseeing leadership, strategic planning, and support of the service delivery department while partnering with Product and Service Owners and other stakeholders to help ensure global strategy and execution alignment, eliminating redundancy. Held full responsibility for project/program success, including quick resolution of escalations, and chaired biweekly meetings to ensure SLA compliance and continual service improvement in operation.

• Oversaw the delivery of multiple projects and all development channel activities by management to monitor, control, and support service delivery global programs as defined by the Compute Services Project Management Methodology portfolio value of 50M Cash (28M P&L value)

• Created IT and business portfolio/strategic roadmap and program structure

• Planned and managed stages of related projects and how each affected the business. Approves costs, timelines, and standards to be met and monitor these through each project

• Championed the development of key performance indicators (KPIs), including ROI, to monitor business development functions and the success of the PMO activities across assigned verticals resulting in uniform delivery of all agile projects

• Managed programs for developing, evolving, and migrating mission-critical platforms. Mentored several Scrum and Kanban development and support teams

• Agilist, applying those principles in partnership with their system leaders to achieve an outstanding customer experience and the desired business outcomes

• Developed and maintained comprehensive budget and resource management plans for a blended environment, including running annual budget planning exercises and headcount planning of value through value streams using the Continuous Delivery Pipeline and DevOps

• Responsible for Agile transformation for programs contributing to organizational targets of customer reach, innovative delivery, and high quality

• Lead program a government agency to deploy a pilot automation project with agile practices.

• Ran complex projects/programs from conceptual design to production

• Executed strategies and initiatives to ensure simplification and automation to evolve processes, services, and solutions, aimed at increasing agility and efficiency, likewise lowering costs

• Impact driving force behind partnership development of Power BI customized reports which reduced millions in program/project cost variances

• Aligned the organization for growth by strengthening partnerships with Product and Service Owners and other stakeholders to help ensure strategy and execution alignment, which fostered a 40% increase in quality and customer satisfaction

• Established and maintained procedures that ensure compliance with all applicable SLA and ITS, Risk, Legal, and Privacy policies

• Developed, mentored, and motivated a high-performance team of highly-skilled interdisciplinary staff

Role #2: Associate Director – Forensic & Integrity Services Oct '17 - Jul '18 Promoted based on stellar reputation to direct the global organizational structure, strategic direction, processes, procedures, and resources that oversaw and managed large significant concurrent programs and projects (150+ in total) affecting Forensic & Integrity Services within Assurance (FIS) utilizing eDiscovery tools such as Relativity, Brainspace, Nuix, and Law.

• Utilized an advanced understanding of EY’s business, the interconnectivity to the IT operating model, and the forward strategy to bring about improvements and strategic enhancements in program/project development

• Earned the privilege of directing quality assurance efforts to validate that all programs/projects adhere to compliance and other standards and align to Vision 2020 directives and business mandates

Role #3: Assistant Director – Program/Project Management Jan '16 - Oct '17 Designated to provide proactive and reactive services to address organizations' risks related to fraud, bribery, and corruption in Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services within Assurance (FIDS). Functioned as the primary escalation point of contact for all client and program team account matters, forming results-driven solutions while identifying best practices for potential development, continuous improvements, and added program success between IT departments.

• Turned around culture, creating an employee-engaging and high-performing department by mentoring indirect and matrixed teams to the highest level of performance

• Coached team and peers in implementing best practices in program and project management to promote continuous improvement and cross-unit consistencies between IT departments and the group’s overall efforts

Education & Certifications:

• Master of Science (Human Resources – Employee Relations and Training) The University of Maryland University College, College Park, MD

• Bachelor of Arts (Business Administration – Marketing) North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

• Project Management Professional, PMP - Project Management Institute (PMI), Atlanta, Georgia Chapter

• Certified SAFe 5 Agilist - Scaled Agile Inc.

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