Scrum Master Security Clearance

RICARDO GARCIA

BSC IE, MBA, PMP, ITIL V*

SCRUM MASTER, AGILE MASTER

Secret (Level II) Security Clearance

Phone: 905-***-**** / e-mail: ******@*******.***

Languages: English & Spanish

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Program and Project management

Management of transition and transformation projects

Business & systems analysis

Six Sigma, continuous improvement

Finance, activity-based costing

Change Management.

Requirements gathering and validation

Productivity improvement & cost reduction

RFP, Vendor selection & management

WMS

Develop high performing teams

Performance management and improvement

Managing/guiding teams through difficult and complex situations

Business Process Management & Business Analysis

Software development, Testing, release, and deployment.

Project & data governance

Office 365, SQL Server, MS Access, Azure, ADF, AWS.

Cybersecurity, PAM CyberArk, SSO, IAM.

Visio, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, MS Project, BPMN

.Net, ASP, MVC, Javascript, JQuery.

ITIL v3, ITSM, SIAM

Jira, confluence

Regulatory compliance, PCI compliance

ServiceNow, Remedy, Service Center, OpenView

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

*** Away from Canada from Jan 2023 to Oct 27, 2023 solving a family emergency ***

IT Program Manager (contractor), Product Operations Technology, Bank of the West Merger with BMO Harris USA

Bank Of Montreal, USA Jul 2022-Oct 31, 2023

Responsible for overseeing a $25MM portfolio of projects to integrate Bank of The West into BMO Product Operations Technology: Regulatory and compliance, Fraud Detection System, Primary Payments System, Online Adjustment Transaction System, Check Archival Solution, Branch Settlement, Collections Dialer, call recording migration, Item Processing (Day 1 and Day 2), infrastructure capacity Increase and upgrade, 10 Business Managed Applications (BMAs).

Worked closely with the cybersecurity team to assess potential vulnerabilities and risks associated with data migration and application security. Established robust, secure channels and standardized procedures to safeguard the migration of applications and data from Bank of the West to BMO.

Migration of Bank of the West legal order systems LevyLog (Levies), Appian (subpoenas), and FileNet to SalesForce using agile methodology to speed up delivery since project was identified late in the transition.

Worked with Playbook leads to create the minute-by-minute playbook, command center incident management and escalation processes, command center roles and responsibilities, and command center schedule.

Worked at the integration command center as escalation manager during project mock 1, mock 2, mock 3, and go-live to solve major incidents related to the migration of collections systems, infrastructure, data warehouse, and MIS.

Liaison between business, IT, and the EDL and data governance teams for the migration of Bank of the West collections systems data to BMO on cloud (Azure & AWS).

Structured and helped reach peak performance of a team of Project Managers, QA leads, and Release & Deployment team (playbook leads).

Technical Project Manager, Cybersecurity

Manulife Mar 2021-Jul 2022

Developed and implemented a forward-thinking PAM strategy to proactively manage and remediate unmanaged privileged access across various systems, including Unix/Linux servers, Windows servers, network devices, applications, databases, and cloud servers (Azure and AWS).

Enhanced the security, vulnerability scanning processes and monitoring systems to promptly identify any instances of new, unmanaged privileged access, ensuring immediate action and resolution.

Successfully managed the contractual agreement with IBM to integrate PAM CyberArk solutions for Unix/Linux and Windows/Azure servers under IBM’s hosting, reinforcing security measures.

Directed the Global Access Management team in the systematic onboarding of previously unmanaged access into the CyberArk system, streamlining access control.

New Venture Project (self-employment)

Multi-Income Solar Panel Jun 2019-Mar 2020

Completed patent application process for a new type of solar panel that increases the economic productivity of solar farms. Patent granted in December 2021.

Completed project financials to assess the economic feasibility of the project to present to potential investors.

The project has been put indefinitely on hold due to COVID-19.

Scotiabank, Toronto

Sr. Manager, AML Remediation Project, International Wealth Management (Contractor) April 2019-Jun 2019

Responsible for Project Management, analyzing business needs, gather requirements, and design processes, and establish production lines for Anti Money Laundering (AML) remediation in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru.

Upon completion of phase 1 of the project, it was discovered that the bank already had a team doing this type of work in Mexico and was ready to intake more work as it was finishing the current assignment.

Sr. Manager, Project Management, Integration Change Office (ICO) (Contractor) Jan 2016-Aug 2018

Managed a full cycle portfolio of projects across different domains to integrate Citibank’s collections operations from Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia into Scotiabank: Key responsibilities included but were not limited to, project governance, due diligence, initiation, financial management, business case, gathering of functional and non-functional requirements, design, project planning, resource optimization, project execution, project control, and project closing.

Project areas included business transition, transformation, and business readiness, legal and regulatory compliance, learning and development with a focus on training delivery, and change management. Managed program and project governance, ensuring robust data governance and accurate reporting (MIS). Oversaw human resources, information technology, infrastructure, and real estate projects. Directed cybersecurity initiatives for a new call center and a project to migrate Citibank’s collections data and data warehouse (DWH) to Scotiabank Azure cloud.

Managed project to build and deploy the “Duty Mapping” web application hosted in azure web server with a back end in azure Sql Server to gather information about dily activities of Citibank employees in Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia.

Managed project to design and implement learning and development program for the newly integrated Citi and Scotiabank operation (Requirements, planning, content design, web material development, training delivery & reinforcement).

Applied Change Management methodology to roll out new technology and introduce processes changes into the integrated collections operations. Organized and facilitated two one-week Change Management workshops with main stakeholders to create a shared need, shape vision, mobilize commitment, agree on the change management plan, and agree on change monitoring activities.

Led the regulatory and compliance project to identify and remediate gaps, securing approval from regulatory bodies in Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia. This enabled the consolidation of all call center operations in Colombia and the hosting of core banking applications and client data in Canada.

Managed Cyber Security project to ensure compliance with cybersecurity regulations and Scotiabank’s policies for the new call center in Colombia: Vulnerability scanning, implementation of identity and Access Management (IAM) and Single Sign-On (SSO) across all call center and collections applications. Deployed Privileged Access Management (PAM) for enhanced security on servers, network hardware, and appliances. Conducted comprehensive training on cybersecurity protocols, including a self-service password reset initiative for all personnel.

Ensured that the merged collections operation incorporated all requirements and touchpoints as specified in Scotiabank’s ERM policies and procedures for risk monitoring and management according to the bank’s risk appetite (Products: Credit cards, mortgages, personal loans, Small Business).

Managed relationship with vendors from initiation, RFPs, vendor selection, execution, control, and closure for the following projects: Construction of new call center facilities in Colombia, acquisition of hardware (workstations, telephony, networking, security), office furniture & equipment, development of training program and training web-based content.

Highlights: USD$14M budget, applications upgrades, Implementation of TSYS, migration of BNS and Citibank legacy credit card systems to TSYS. implementation of TRIAD (collections & risk engine), migration of Citibank’s A/R portfolio, opening a call center in Colombia, real estate construction of facilities (USD$5M) for 480 seats, Infrastructure readiness, hiring 334 new positions in Colombia, learning and development project to design and create all training material for the integrated collections operations, and training delivery through in-person sessions and online.

Created of all project management artifacts for all project phases and project streams: Due Diligence, Requirements Document, design document, Change Management Plan, requirements traceability matrix, Stakeholder matrix, project plan, project controls, budget, deliverables matrix, Command Center Playbook (minute-by-minute), etc.

Established the implementation command center to manage the on-time execution of all migration activities. Managed the identification, escalation, and resolution of all major incidents during the implementation of integrated systems.

Applied agile methodologies (scrum and test-driven development) where applicable, ensured adherence to program and project management methodologies, identified, mitigated, or eliminated potential risks. Made sure that delivery of project milestones on time and budget.

Responsible for initiating and overseeing IT change requests and to approve release and deployment of application upgrades. Participated in CAB meetings to assess change risk and approve the change and release plans.

Used process re-engineering expertise, and advanced Robotics Process Automation (RPA) skills to eliminate project risks:

oEvaluated RPA tools to select the most cost-effective choice for the project (Microsoft Power automate, UiPath. Selenium, and Prism).

oDue to a bottleneck in HR Operations, the turnaround time (TAT) for creating new employees in the HR system was three weeks, with an HR Ops analyst taking an average of 10 minutes to complete each entry. Applied agile methodology to quickly deliver RPA application to automate the process and reduce input time to 70 seconds. This eliminated typing errors and decreased the TAT from three weeks to just 24 hours per project, resulting in an approximately 800% increase in productivity.

oUsed RPA to reduce TAT for the creation of user accounts in Windows, email, Debt Manager, TSYS, and Global Dialer.

Helped BBVA Chile transition to automating the process to create 3000+ Position Codes and 2100 new employees in HR System.

Initiated and structured project Columbus (SABE) to move Dominican Republic Collections Call Center to Bogota, Colombia.

Managed project to migrate Collections Data Mart into the Enterprise Data Lake (EDL).

Project Manager/Entrepreneur (self-employment) Jun 2014 – Dec 2015

Worked on two separate startup projects:

oAccepted into the startup incubation program at the Halton Innovation Centre (http://haltech.ca/) to market a framework and related technology that I designed to predict incidents and significantly reduce the number of IT service disruptions in any company. The product used enhanced configuration management to support predictive analytics and has been successfully tested in two companies using ITSM tools such as HP Openview, HP Service Center, and BMC Remedy.

oProject to design a mobile application that allows Professional Services companies in Latin America to track time and cost. Responsible for designing the initial prototype and for providing Program/Project management expertise to develop the methodology for project initiation, resourcing, execution, control, and reporting.

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World Networking Services Oct 2013 – Jun 2014

Program Manager and Interim Problem Manager (Contractor)

Contracted by Capgemini as Service Integration and Management (SIAM) Program/Project manager for a transition and transformation project with Loblaw Companies Ltd. Used standard ITIL Processes to establish a governance framework for vendor integration and management.

Worked on the Remedy upgrade project from version 7.0 to 8.1.

Helped the customer with a temporary role as Problem Manager from Oct 2013 to April 2014. During this time:

oPerformed root cause analysis on major incidents. Identified and implemented improvements for Incident and problem management processes.

oWorked with Loblaw’s command center during the resolution of major incidents and post mortem reviews to initiate root cause analysis during the migration to Remedy 8.1.

oManaged major incidents and root cause analysis to resolve recurrent issues in the loyalty program.

oUsed predictive analytics to identify the top 20% of all the severity 1 incident types.

oIdentified the store locations and the infrastructure with the highest probability of being affected by the top 20% of incident types. Performed root cause analysis in the top 20% of incident types to eliminate them.

GE CAPITAL Working Capital Solutions – EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Nov 2011 - Jun 2013

IT Project Lead Continuous Improvement

Program Manager assigned to recover a troubled 4.5MM USD program to re-engineer GE core account receivables system (following credit card collections model) and to implement CIM dialer (contact center solution). Worked with the business to analyze the troubled program, prepare, present, and get approval for the proposed recovery plan.

Established functional and non-functional requirements review sessions to align work of the different IT with the business objectives in order to eliminate project scope creep.

Led three project managers, one telecom expert, two technical architects, two vendor development teams (14 people), QA vendor team (7 people), and release team (2 people) to complete this program on time, on budget, with the lowest number of defects, no post-implementation issues, and record business satisfaction.

Helped the business transformation team to structure Project Governance, Change Management, and business project plans to roll out new processes and related technology that would affect the work of 680 people across different regions.

Guided the business partners on how to apply the Change Acceleration Process (CAP) framework to effectively make business and organizational changes.

Developed all program/project management artifacts (plans, schedules, milestones, metrics, controls, risk registry, change management plan, issues log, track budget, etc.). Identified regulatory issues and executed remediation plans to ensure that regulatory requirements were met in the 10 countries impacted by the program.

Engaged vendors to submit RFPs for multiple projects, including the development of a collections prioritization and risk management engine, the creation of a new front-end collections system, the licensing and implementation of a dialer, and providing release, deployment, and QA services. Oversaw these initiatives, negotiating and managing vendor contracts to ensure performance met contractual agreements and established SLAs.

Made weekly presentations to executives and all other stakeholders. Made monthly and gate closing presentations to the Project Management Office (PMO). Provided project management expertise to help structure the related business project stream.

Introduced agile methodologies for software development in our division. All best business practices, project management tools, and agile techniques used in this program became the standard for future programs/projects.

Improved business and systems analysis which resulted in improved requirements management and prevented risk of project falling into scope creep.

Successfully set up and led testing center of excellence (CoE): Negotiated contract with vendor of QA services, worked with the vendor to hire QA team (a QA lead and five QA analysts in India and a QA lead in Canada). Established standards and processes for functional, integration, performance, regression, and penetration testing.

Implementation of credit card payments and phase 1 of the project to scan vulnerabilities and establish remediation plan to achieve PCI compliance.

Responsible for ongoing SOX audits as well as planning and execution of remediation activities to maintain Sox compliance.

Re-engineered the release and deployment processes, and introduced the creation of the minute-by minute deployment playbook. This resulted in faster cleaner deployments with significantly reduced post-implementation issues.

Established the release and deployment command center to manage all playbook activities and any incidents during the project go live.

Led implementation of ServiceNow for service delivery in the division to set up incident management, problem management, change management, configuration management, and CMDB.

INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR (self-employment) Jul 2009 - Nov 2011

Worked as an independent contractor due to the lack of opportunities during the great recession

Provided consulting services on program and project management, ITIL & ITSM, business analysis, process improvement, process re-engineering, and process automation. Clients: Home Depot Canada, Kayak Global (United States), and MetroIngenieria (Colombia).

Kayak Global: As Program Manager, helped one of Kayak Global’s customer (Northern Tier Energy) to reorganize a program to implement Oracle Financials and all other systems required to run a new company resulting from spinning off from Marathon Oil (USA) a refinery, 160 gas stations, 160 convenience stores, and a bakery. Worked with the customer to establish the governance framework, program management methodology, change management plan, program governance framework, and communication standards.

HEWLETT-PACKARD CANADA – Toronto Jun 2006 – Jun 2009

Global Problem Manager (2007-2009), Service Segment Manager/ITO Consultant

Client: Weyerhaeuser – HP`s largest global outsourced customer at that time

Promoted to a newly created customer-facing role as the single point of contact for Problem Management between the client and HP service towers (infrastructure and application management).

Represented the global problem management function in the weekly meeting with client executives and consistently delivered above service level agreement (SLA) targets.

Worked with client command center during major incident investigation and resolution. Initiated and performed end to end root cause analysis on major incidents to eliminate the underline cause behind those incidents.

Implemented Problem management, root cause analysis, and proactive problem management for infrastructure and application management.

Created incident trend analysis methodology and application to identify infrastructure incident patterns. This process resulted in a 54% reduction in critical service failures in five months.

Trained global resources on Problem Management, Root Cause Analysis, and trend analysis.

ITIL/ITSM Process Consultant (2006-2007)

Process Engineering, Knowledge Management, and Operational Excellence team

Clients: General Motors, Celestica, Delphi, DirecTV, Hexion, CIBC, ING, KPMG, PepsiCo, Rockwell, Weyerhaeuser

Responsible for leading a portfolio of projects, a budget of 10MM/project, and a team of Process Consultants, tools specialists, and technical writers to implement HP Infrastructure Management and Governance framework, Data Center move, ITIL processes (Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Configuration Management, Service Catalog, and CMDB set up) as part of transition and transformation projects for customers that outsourced IT services (infrastructure & application management) from HP.

Established the project war room (command center) processes and scripts to manage all activities and incidents during the project implementation and post implementation phases.

Movement of infrastructure from customer data centers to HP DCs (i.e. windows servers, Unix servers, Mainframes) and vulnerability scanning and remediation.

Applied Agile methodologies for technical projects with tools specialists and developers to modify tools as per customer requirements to implement ITIL processes in ITSM systems such as Openview, Service Center, and interface with Remedy (case exchange) as part of process implementation in transition projects.

Facilitated working sessions with clients and internal resources to document “As is” processes, gather functional and non-functional requirements, present findings and recommendations, and agree on the “To be” process with all stakeholders.

Developed new standards for problem management process, root cause analysis framework, and training materials that improved the efficiency and effectiveness of problem management in all new accounts.

Worked on client escalations to help existing accounts to improve underperforming processes.

Worked on the design and implementation of ITIL/ITSM process and SLAs for General Motors account in the context of a multi-vendor environment using SIAM principles.

As one of the regional ITIL/ITSM subject matter experts provided support to sales teams during sales pursuit projects, presented HP’s processes and tools to potential customers, and participated in the RFP creation.

APOTEX INC., THE APOTEX GROUP – Toronto Jul 2003 – Sep 2004

Project Manager & Senior Consultant, Consulting Services

Managed the complete lifecycle of a multi-year internal program to re-engineer all applications and remediate regulatory gaps to comply with FDA 21CFR part 11 regulations.

Completed phase 1 of the project:

oPerformed inventory of applications and built project portfolio based on high, medium, and low regulatory non-compliance risk.

oLed application owners through the process of preparing, submitting, and getting approval from the governance committee for projects in the portfolio pipeline.

oSet up standards for project communication, change management framework, and project control.

oCreated application agile application framework based on test driven development and agile best practices, developed standards for business and systems analysis, process mapping, gathering of functional and non-functional requirements, documentation, and testing within an agile environment.

oLed team of business owners, business analysts, validation specialists, and developers to develop, test, and release the first batch of applications that did not comply with FDA 21CFR part 11.

oImplemented application support processes based on the ITIL framework.

HEWLETT-PACKARD FINANCIAL SERVICES (contractor) – Mississauga, Canada Jun 2001 –Jul 2003

Business Process Analyst & Project Consultant, LAR Collections (2001 – 2003)

Re-engineered the cash application process in 8 countries. The main goal of the project was to improve and centralize the consolidation and application of payments from multiple countries and payment channels.

Designed, executed, and monitored the strategy to enhance value creation in a $1 billion portfolio. This resulted in a 50% reduction in the combined collections’ exposure of eight countries, and improved credit approval process for the region.

Created a model to calculate and monitor total risk exposure. Incorporated HP’s enterprise risk management within the re-engineered collections processes to proactively identify and act on HPFS portfolio risk deviations from HPFS risk appetite.

Designed and implemented a governance model for collections in the entire region that defined clear roles and responsibilities for all processes, service level agreements, KPIs, and relationship management with third-party collections service providers.

Successfully applied change management framework to manage change within the scope of the project.

Identified opportunities for improvement and presented project proposals to regional management to obtain approval.

Worked with regional systems analysts and developers to create an application to manage workflow and enforce process governance for leasing contracts, an application to calculate total risk for leasing portfolio, and an application to set collection priorities and manage workflow for delinquent accounts.

Used robotics process automation (RPA) to improve the leasing accounting month-end adjustments process. As a result, the time required to complete the accounting closing was reduced by 97%.

Subject matter expert in the transition from legacy systems to SAP FICO. Responsible for working with SAP functional consultants to gather and document requirements for leasing operations, account receivables, and reporting. Additional responsibilities included the development of test cases and user acceptance testing.

Managed phase 1 of project to remediate regulatory gaps and achieve SOX compliance: Establish SOX compliance team, performed inventory of internal controls, assessed internal controls, identified gap, and prepared remediation plan.

Business project leader responsible for liaising with the IT team for the development and implementation of the new leasing, finance, and accounting systems after merging with Compaq. Responsible for leading UAT and worked with business and systems analysts in the development and execution of test cases.

Project Lead, Re-engineering (6-month assignment) - Mexico City (2001) Mar 2001 – Jun 2001

Accountable for leading a team responsible for reducing collections total exposure in Mexico

Managed project in Mexico to re-engineer collections process, improve reporting, and recover USD$47.5 million dollars in uncollected invoices that were over 90 days old. Led a team composed of one collections manager, one accounting manager, 10 collections analysts, and two business analysts.

Successfully applied CAP (change accelerated process) to manage change to implement new processes.

The streamlined process reduced the work done by ten collections analysts in 10 days to one person working one day.

Ten collections analysts freed from non-value-added activities focused on collecting money. As a result, the collections team recovered USD 45 million in the first three months.

Reviewed and proposed changes to a $1 million/year contract between HP financial services and a third-party collections agency. Changes included adherence to the new process, key performance indicators, and penalties.

HANES CANADA, SARA LEE CORPORATION – Mississauga May 2000 – Mar 2001

Logistics Technologist

(Worked full time between May 2000 and March 2001)

A Key member of Operations Cross-Functional Management Team responsible for project governance, business process and logistics planning, identification of continuous improvement and cost reduction opportunities.

Managed the initiation phase of a project to select and implement new ERP systems. Performed business and systems analysis, gathered requirements, mapped processes and documented all logistics processes, and RFP from vendors to select the ERP system that best fit the company needs.

Managed project to fix the WMS implementation in JBA System 21 which solved all logistics and inventory management problems that caused overstocking, missed SLAs, higher costs, low productivity, and poor use of warehouse space.

Managed project to increase productivity, eliminate waste and reduce production costs using lean six sigma principles, and Activity Based Costing. This resulted in balanced work cells, optimized production floor usage, reduced work in process, and 58% savings in production costs over the first eight months.

Managed a project to identify, select, and implement the best alternative to reduce the cost of waste disposal: identified and invited vendors to submits RFPS, created point-based system to evaluate RFPs, and selected the option with the highest quantitative and qualitative score. As a result, the project achieved 59% savings in the first after completion.

HEWLETT-PACKARD FINANCIAL SERVICES (HPFS) – Mississauga Feb 2000 – May 2000

Contract Administrator

A member of a high-profile project team responsible for setting up the back office to manage operations in eight countries and fourteen leasing entities.

Provided consultative expertise in project management, change management, process re-engineering, and development of governance framework for leasing operations.

Led project to digitalize in FileNet all leasing paper contracts in the Latin America region.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE

CONSULTANT, AISEC International Professional Exchange Program - Mexico Jan 97 - Oct 97

Worked in the following industries and management consulting projects:

Worked on several management consulting projects to reorganize client companies, reduce cost, and improve productivity.

Management Consultant Oct 92 - Jul 96

Most relevant project:

Empresas Publicas de Pereira (1995 – 1996)

Only provider of electricity, telecommunications, water supply, public works, and waste disposal services in a city with 500,000 inhabitants.

Member of General Manager’s consulting team to restructure the entire company and spin it off into five different companies.

The project portfolio included:

-Creation of a new shared services company that would provide Finance, accounting, Human resources, payroll, invoicing, and other services to the other four companies resulting from the spinoff project.

-A new customer service department, reorganization of purchasing department, construction of three new warehouses, and implementation of Warehouse Management System (WMS).

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Propal SA, International Paper – Colombia Feb

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