JM Family Enterprises, Inc.

3K+ AUTOMOTIVE DEALER PARTNERS || FINANCE, SERVICE, LEADERSHIP, SALES, COMPLIANCE & SOFT SKILLS TRAINING || INSTRUCTOR-LED, WEB-BASED, VIRTUAL & BLENDED MODALITIES || 

Challenge: Transform outdated industry terms and word tracks and introduce humanized, customer-centric training-and modernize and diversify delivery modalities.

► Played an important leadership role in launching a subscription-based micro-learning and web based learning solutions, delivering on a corporate vision, and driving $500k+ in annual revenue—developing repositories and libraries.

► Led the pioneering integration of Gen-AI and VR for dynamic customer persona creation—enhancing product presentations and driving the sales of new products/services (e.g., the electric vehicle).

► Orchestrated elite sales training modules —skyrocketing post-training sales by 65%+, achieving a 70% learner retention rate, and marking a 52% MoM growth.

►Transformed the flagship F&I skills ILT—wove in VR simulations, prioritized user needs through insightful queries, and streamlined it to a swift web-based format — slashing delivery time by 60%.

► Proactively supported the product development team in designing dynamic multimedia user manual —
bolstering team competencies and leading to further project requests, notable recognition, and subsequent empowerment training for team members to fortify their autonomy.

► Seamlessly blended an array of multimedia components, from instructive videos to immersive simulations —amplifying the depth and richness of the learning journey.

► Developed and presented a vision for learning solutions to prospective C-level clients—opening eyes and minds, proposing a modern, conversational, and customer-centric approach based on competitor and industry trends.

►Partnered closely with SMEs and clients to develop and deliver new learning solutions, ensuring alignmentwith the agreed-upon vision, and incorporating ideas and feedback during regularly scheduled progress checks.

Learning Experience Architect

Ultimate Software

LEARNING DESIGNER || EMPLOYEE LEARNING TEAM || INSTRUCTOR-LED, WEB-BASED, VIRTUAL & BLENDED LEARNING SOLUTIONS

Challenge: Produce, manage, and edit innovative learning content.

► Consulted with program owners and SMEs to identify learning gaps and content requirements, partnering in the development of learning objectives, performance outcomes, and evaluation strategies.

Learning Designer

Forest Bounty LLC

WEB-BASED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS - LOCAL & INTERNATIONAL CLIENTS ||  TRAINING SOLUTIONS FOR POST SECONDARY EDUCATION, HEALTH, CONSTRUCTION, & SALES||

Challenge: Provide instructional design consulting services and build a clientele.

► Built an independent consulting business based on referrals, creating learning solutions for a variety of industries including post-secondary education, healthcare, construction, and hospitality.

► Designed and developed an onboarding training program for an architectural consulting firm, utilizing videos and interactive techniques, and branching scenarios to create engaging and audience-specific content.

►Created online instructional material, eLearning/video storyboards, product
demonstrations/simulations, study guides, scripts, as well as modules for new hires as an
integral part of the onboarding process.

►Provided consulting support to the SMEs in integrating instructional technology in the
design of online courses.

►Provided planning, designing, developing, documenting and evaluation during the
development of new instructor led and online courses.

►Updated outdated courses to contain interactions and engaging layouts with click-to-reveal,
video and slider interactions.

►Evaluated quality, effectiveness and success of online training programs.

► Performed gamification of courses to create better and more exciting courses.

Instructional Designer & E-Learning Developer

Engineering, Old Dominion University

Designed and developed quality advanced interactive education software modules, and elearning programs based on sound adult learning pedagogy and instructional design
practice, for self-study, distance learning, and instructor-led training in multiple delivery
formats.

►Conducted needs assessments and facilitated design sessions with various stakeholders and
SMEs.

►Designed, developed and implemented software training module incorporating
walkthroughs, videos, screencasts and user performance testing using Camtasia and Adobe
Creative Cloud.

►Performed requirements gathering, requirement analysis, and wrote functional specification
documents.

►Participated in regular walkthroughs and review meetings with clients.

►Designed storyboards and and online learning modalities, aligned with course objectives,
using authoring, video editing & design tools such as Flash, 3DS Max, Power Point and
Camtasia.

►Designed & developed e-learning programs to be used in the University's learning
management system (LMS).

►Implemented and evaluated effectiveness of learning solutions.

►Documented user change requests and communicated with users frequently to discuss
impact of change requests and confirmed project priorities throughout development
process.

►Collaborated with SMEs to identify and update course content, graphic images and audio
components.

Instructional Designer & Developer

Designed and developed an inventory management and record keeping database using MS
Access. Designed, developed and implemented software training module incorporating
walkthroughs, videos, screencasts and user performance testing using Camtasia and Adobe
Creative Cloud.

►Performed requirements gathering, requirement analysis, and wrote functional specification
documents.

►Conducted JAD sessions to develop and agree upon a system design that focused on the
users business requirements.

►Participated in regular walkthroughs and review meetings with clients

Database Developer & Instructional Designer

►Assisted project manager through coordinating software development projects from inception to completion.

►Assisted Project Manager with daily duties and review meetings with clients. 

►Created and communicated project status reports to the project manager.

►Developed, maintained & analyzed performance data, and interpreted the insights to the project manager for practical improvements.

►Identified, analyzed and prioritized project risks, and communicated with project manager for developing mitigation strategies.

►Created and updated meeting minutes. 

►Acted as point of contact for clients, and liaison between key stakeholders while keeping in close contact with key project members and decision makers. 

►Employed JAD technique for rapid software development.

►Used interviews and surveys to collect client requirements.

►Reviewed the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery, and created test cases.

Project Coordinator

Learning Experience Architect @ JM Family | End-to-End Learning Solutions | Global Transformation

With over 10 years of experience in learning design, curriculum development, and multimedia production, I am passionate about creating visually compelling and interactive learning experiences that engage audiences.

I actively gather requirements from subject matter experts (SMEs) to define learning needs, establish consensus on objectives that align with learner outcomes, and swiftly deliver impactful results by implementing programs with agile project management.

Skilled in translating complex technical information into simplified concepts that resonate with diverse audiences. Passionate about incorporating innovative technologies like AI, AR, and generative models to modernize learning modalities and experiences. 

Notable achievements include spearheading digital transformation initiatives, designing subscription-based training products, and boosting sales and revenue through high-impact learning solutions. Excited to bring hands-on experience designing and delivering training in virtual, web-based, and blended formats to reimagining learning.

Pooja Bais

Ford Motor Company

Chief Cloud Transformation, SRE & Operations Director

Head of Cloud Infrastructure Engineering

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞: Drive a transformation to a DevOps/DevSecOps culture, and chart a course to transition from a hybrid infrastructure (public and private cloud) to global public cloud infrastructure—to support customers, and drive growth, and scale.

𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞: Lead a team of 8 direct reports, and 130+ extended staff across Private & Public Clouds, Cloud Infrastructure Engineering, and Site Reliability Engineering—supporting 5.5k+ customers and multi-billions of dollars in revenue. Own a multimillion-dollar budget

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬:

► Introduced the idea of transitioning to Google Public Cloud (GPC), and performed an assessment of AWS and MS Azure—influencing and securing buy-in from senior leaders on the plan, roadmap, deployment, security, etc.—playing an integral leadership role in global expansion to Europe and Asia, and multi-millions of dollars in new revenue.

► Overcame resistance, and gained buy-in to drive deployment through automation—introducing a new team, Group Infrastructure Automation that guided a transformation from an operational culture to a DevOps / DevSecOps culture.

► Modernized architecture and technology stack to improve speed, security, reliability, and availability, transforming a business-critical data center that supported 2k customers in one year.

►Pioneered the design and execution of an integrated customer experience—following the merger with Kronos Group in April 2020, leading efforts to expand the SDN infrastructure.

► Provided internal customers with centralized access to infrastructure services performance and billing metrics, leading the productization of infrastructure services.

► Introduced security governance by creating a niche team to develop cybersecurity strategies, policies, and tools, minimizing cyber risk to achieve zero breaches.

Director, Cloud Engineering

Director, Infrastructure

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞: Transform a hybrid infrastructure (public and private cloud) to improve reliability and availability for internal employee customers. 

𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞: Led a team of 7 direct reports and 10 extended staff across Private & Public Clouds, Network & Systems Engineering, and Site Reliability Engineering—supporting 4k+ employees in 28 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Owned a multimillion-dollar budget

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬:

► Bolstered visibility to infrastructure issues by introducing the ‘health of the infrastructure’ dashboard to C-level leaders, defining metrics to build data sets to rapidly identify and address issues.

► Performed an assessment of infrastructure operations, met with business leaders to understand issues, and prioritized actions and projects, establishing a vision, strategy, and roadmap to turn around underperformance—earning recognition with multiple team and project awards.

► Overhauled the IT/network infrastructure, and re-instilled confidence—achieving a 99.99% uptime, and earning recognition from the CIO, “It no longer keep me awake at night.”

►Built organizational capability with the introduced of subject matter experts (SME)—recruiting and hiring architects, and driving the performance management of underperforming staff.

►Introduced high-density compute and storage capabilities, and facilitated application agility and data center automation—leading the planning and implementation of an industry-leading SDN solution, Cisco ACI.

Sr Mgr, Infrastructure Operations

Tribune Publishing

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞: Tapped by the CIO to consolidate and lead the modernization of the network infrastructure to support an increase in capacity due to 24/7 live streaming across 17 newspapers.

𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞:  Led a team of 8 direct reports, and 30+ extended staff in support of Private & Public Clouds, Network / Telecommunications, and Systems Engineering—with 6k employees in 80 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Owned a multimillion-dollar budget.

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬:

► Spearheaded a transition to AWS and MS Azure, building the business case, and leading the $12M network infrastructure transformation—scaling data centers to support a transition to public cloud, while maintaining a hybrid cloud environment—achieving 99.999% SLA management and high availability of 24x7x365 operations.

► Championed the optimization of the video conferencing system to reduce $1M in travel expenses, designing and deploying a new solution.

► Ensured business continuity and high availability by executing a failover network and storage design, leading and managing enterprise-wide disaster recovery operations across geographically dispersed data centers.

► Directed data center, network, telecom, security, and storage aspects of multiple divestitures, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) projects, integrating and standardizing infrastructure of newly acquired subsidiaries to deliver efficient infrastructure, operational, and capital transitions.

Director, Technology Services

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞: Improve service delivery and lead the day-to-day operations of the nationwide IT, Network, and Telecommunications Group

𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐞: Led a team of 12 direct reports, and 3 extended staff in support of network and telecommunications engineering, billing, inventory, and vendor management—to support 16k employees, in 107 locations, and more than 3k network devices.

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬:

► Managed business-critical cradle-to-grave projects, performing resource, time, and risk management, and collaborating with third-party consultants and vendors.

► Eliminated $5M in telecom expenses, $1M in annual PBX hardware support maintenance expenses, and $12M in capital expenses—identifying and implementing a VoIP system that consolidated 90+ independent phone systems into a single managed platform.

► Championed the deployment of 30 Riverbed Steelhead WAN accelerators for WAN optimization, resulting in higher network throughput and lower response time.

► Developed and implemented an enterprise-side Aruba wireless solution, deploying 30 controllers, and 800 access points—reducing latency and response time for 12k users accessing resources at the local site.

Sr Manager,  Network/Telecommunications

Dominion Enterprises

Deployed and administered storage infrastructure, F5 load balancers, NetApp FAS,500+ Solaris 10 Zones virtualized environment, and VMWare 3.2 infrastructure—significantly reducing capital and operational expenses, and achieving a 99.99% infrastructure uptime.

Sr. System Administrator

Daily Press

Supported production and business operations through the implementation, maintenance, administration, and documentation of UNIX systems—implementing new procedures to optimize performance, establishing disaster recovery processes to maximize availability, and deploying Linux and Solaris systems to drive high availability.

Old Dominion University, Department of Computer Science

Designed and deployed UNIX/Linus servers, and high-performance clusters—supporting services that included network/system security analysis, vulnerability, and penetration testing.

UNIX Administrator & System Security Analyst

Mahakal Institute of Technology

IPerformed installations, troubleshooting, fine tuning, maintenance, configuration, and administration of several types of servers/networks, print servers, proxy servers, hubs, switches, modems, ISDN Tas, modem pools, client connectivity and RAS.

UNIX & Network Administrator

SaaS, IaaS & PaaS ▪ Reliability, Availability & Performance▪ Cloud Technologies

Building, strengthening and scaling IT and product infrastructures are what I do best. Throughout my technology leadership career, I have been continually recognized and tapped to lead the transformation and/or modernization of IT infrastructures, technology operations, and cloud architectures—to drive growth and scale, and support revenue generation. Results have been impressive and include:

► Overhauled the IT infrastructure for Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG)—re-instilling confidence with executive leaders and customers, championing an infrastructure migration from private to public cloud with Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

► Introduced an infrastructure automation group to build a culture focused on DevOps/DevSecOps at UKG, advancing the IaaS ecosystem and culture of technical excellence and delivery.

► Increased the visibility, reliability, and availability of infrastructure and operations at Ultimate Software, leading the planning and implementation of an industry-leading SDN solution (Cisco ACI), introducing high-density compute and storage capabilities, and recruiting higher-skilled personnel.

► Led a $12M network infrastructure transformation for Tribune Publishing Company that supported live streaming of 15+ newspapers, leading a transition to AWS and select systems to MS Azure to ensure 5 nines.

My strengths lie in my strong people leadership skills, and my ability to identify and articulate a problem statement—establishing a clear and actionable vision to solve it. Equally important is my attention and focus on the customer experience—continually looking at the customer’s perspective in relationship to the company’s product, and ability to execute and deliver. I have been recognized for my innate emotional IQ, my ability to deliver innovative technology transformations, and for slashing millions of dollars in operational expenses.

If you are seeking an experienced, hands-on executive leader to transform your technology footprint into modern PaaS- and SaaS-based cloud infrastructures—let’s connect!

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