IT Program & Project Leader with Risk Focus

STEFAN GORECKI

Mobile: +1-309-***-**** Email:***************@*****.***

SUMMARY

Accomplished Information Technology leader. Proficient in software development, program, project, service and risk management. Proven expertise in delivering projects utilizing agile, hybrid and waterfall methodologies, successfully managing various sized projects and/or operational budgets and leading cross-functional teams.

Passionate about building productive teams by fostering inclusive work environments through diversity of thought, mutual respect, professionalism and advocating personal growth through coaching, empowerment and trust.

Practiced in Data and Process Modeling, Software Development Life Cycle, Program, Project and Service Management best practices, ITIL, SAFe, Cyber-Security, IT Risk and IT Governance.

WORK EXPERIENCE

06/2022 – 02/2025

Owner and Operator, The Oyster Grotto (Valletta, Malta)

●Established an oyster bar and restaurant. Collaborated with Maltese compliance and various government agencies to successfully launch this small business.

●Oversaw daily operations including managing a team of three employees, executing weekly, monthly and annual accounting tasks. This included payroll, paying local and Malta taxes and providing detailed financial and operational updates to business partners and investors.

11/2021 – 03/2022

IT Risk Project Manager, Citi Financial (Tampa, Florida)

●Directed an enterprise initiative to ensure compliance with Federal Regulatory Records Management and E-Discovery requirements.

10/2019 – 03/2020

IT Project Risk Manager, Caterpillar (Peoria, Illinois)

●Led a Network Access Control (NAC) initiative to enforce trusted network access and enhance network security using Cisco's Identity Services Engine (ISE). Scope included sites across America, Canada, South America, and Europe.

●Orchestrated a comprehensive project migration of accounts and associated network-connected devices from Cisco Access Control System (ACS) to Cisco ISE and Active Directory, encompassing 76 globally located sites.

06/2015 – 01/2018

IT Program, Project and Risk Manager, State Farm (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Instituted SAFe practices (Essential SAFe) within the IT Risk Management program. The PMO encompassed one year of planning, involved four project managers, and approximately sixty analysts with an annual budget exceeding 10 million dollars.

●A thought leader for IT Risk Management transformation initiatives, integrating risk management awareness and practices into traditional waterfall, hybrid and agile development methodologies resulting in informed risk decisions during earlier phases of solution development. Introduced diverse agile techniques across all program projects, including daily stand-up meetings, product backlogs, sprint backlogs, and Agile/Kanbanboards.

●Eliminated traditional project schedules, reducing administrative time and story and feature milestones through transparent Agile/Kanban boards.

03/2013 – 06/2015

Project Manager, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Researched, developed, and executed an IT Risk Management framework (ISACA’s Risk IT) for State Farm Insurance, enabling proactive risk and compliance activities within IT programs and projects. This strategic initiative leveraged various features to recommend changes that resulted in essential stories needed to implement key components of the framework.

●Led State Farm’s Cyber-Security Defense Center (CSDC) capability assessment and orchestrated multiple initiatives to implement recommended modifications to safeguard policyholder information, transitioning from a reactive incident response approach to a predictive, mission-focused program. Supplemented waterfall projects with agile practices to streamline administrative activities, enhance project transparency, and demonstrate incremental delivery of business value. Managed an annual budget of 8 million dollars with several project teams comprising 10 to 12 analysts.

01/2012 – 03/2013

Project Manager, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Directed multifaceted efforts to deploy and support CISCO's Unified Communications (UC) solution across several large State Farm Operation Centers to enhance internal communication and customer experience.

●Each deployment utilized agile best practices, such as daily stand-up meetings and retrospectives, to expedite delivery, refine processes, and ultimately improve delivery quality. Managed an annual budget of 3.5 million dollars per deployment, leading project teams of 12 to 15 analysts.

05/2010 – 01/2012

Program and Project Manager, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Developed a Digital Development Center PMO and employed agile best practices to direct, educate, and develop resources for planning, designing, and creating IT applications utilizing digital standards, governance, requirements, and methodologies. This two-year project managed an annual budget exceeding 20 million dollars and my scrum team collaborated with a total of 9 projects/scrum development teams.

●Advanced project risk, issue, and dependency management processes with multiple development center PMOs to enhance program and project delivery success rates.

02/2008 – 05/2010

Program Manager, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Enhanced enterprise collaboration by deploying collaborative tools (SharePoint, Instant Messaging, Outlook, and Search Engines like BING) and processes, cultivating end-user skills, and partnering with key departmental executives to create an ‘Information Workplace’ PMO. Projects incorporated Scrum/Agile methodologies to boost delivery speed and improve development team morale.

●The PMO operated for just over 2 years with an annual budget close to 10 million dollars and included 5 project/development teams.

02/2006 – 02/2008

Project Manager, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Improved collaboration between State Farm Agents and customers by implementing social networking capabilities, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. This involved governance and training to ensure information security and brand protection.

02/1999 – 02/2006

Service Manager, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Streamlined IT support operations by spearheading the development of knowledge items and proactive incident monitoring through automation, creating efficient incident/change management technical support teams for the State Farm Enterprise.

●Elevated IT support operations' service levels and accountabilities by promoting Service Management tools, enhancing processes, and advancing Service Level Agreements and objectives.

●Led and developed the first Security Operations Team as a result of the “I Love You” virus event. This team consisted of our best technical leads from various platforms and the mission was to train these individuals in security skills and capabilities as well as research threat detection and response techniques. This team eventually led to the development of our Cyber Security Department.

02/1998 – 02/1999

Project Manager, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Selected as one of the first 50 formal Project Managers at State Farm and led State Farm Property and Casualty's initial major project utilizing offshore resources, which included modernizing 'Fire' Property and Casualty applications and databases. This project encompassed a 10 million dollar budget and concluded within a year with the support of 30 offshore software development resources.

02/1987 – 02/1998

Application Developer/Senior Analyst, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Illinois)

●Boosted the productivity of Property and Casualty Insurance Underwriting operations through the development and support of numerous batch and online end-user applications including Accounting, Payroll and Underwriter systems.

●Enhanced application development, job control tuning skills and insurance knowledge through mentoring and coaching numerous application developers in my role as a senior analyst. In addition, I led an effort to refresh our application developer orientation and training after advocating for improvements after my own on-boarding experience.

EDUCATION

1983 – 1987

Bradley University, Peoria Illinois

Bachelor's in Science

Major: Computer Science

Minor: Business Finance

CERTIFICATES

●Leading SAFe/SAFe Agilist (SA) - SAFe

●SAFe Scrum Master (SSM) - SAFe

●SAFe Product Owner (POPM) - SAFe

●Certified in Risk and Information Systems Controls (CRISC) - ISACA

●SCRUM Master - SCRUM Alliance

●Certified Project Management (CPM) - Project Management Leadership Group

●ITIL Version 3 Foundation Bridge - ITIL Certified

●Information Privacy and Data Protection Training - IAPP

●Executive Leadership Training - University of Michigan

Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) - Society of CPCU

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