Deborah Zanders Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Lead Retail operations with indirect oversight for two analysts, driving continuous improvement through innovation and application of best practices. Oversee the end-to-end retail product lifecycle with responsibility for identifying and remediating issues in real time. ● Act as a bridge between the Retail team and a wide range of internal and external stakeholders; strengthened business relationships by conducting bi-monthly out-of-state location visits and increasing external communication.● Implemented best practice supply chain logistics strategies, including inventory reporting and stock management.● Created a dynamic mobile app to audit process adherence at station, in-flight, and airport terminals.● Managed a variety of change, transformation, and continuous improvement projects using scorecards and audit principles.● Pioneered the introduction of brainstorming workshops to stimulate innovation and process improvement.● Project-managed the development of an equipment usage forecasting tool (crystal ball).● Enhanced external feedback and communications by providing staff with expert training and tactics.● Managed vendor relationships, established SLA’s, and monitored performance against contractual obligations.● Fostered a collaborative working environment that resulted in strong employee satisfaction and talent retention.● Developed a variety of reports in support of annual budgeting, cost management, scheduling, and forecasting.● Carried out service delivery checks to identify opportunities for improvement across all products within scope.● Designed an in-flight communication to advise flight attendants of new menu items, retail products, and service charges.● Analyzed the competitive landscape; delivered quarterly presentation to communicate market insights to senior leaders.

• Career break to care for family members and engage in full time education.

Chicago, Il

In this high-pressure role, I orchestrated a portfolio of projects focusing on the optimization of Food & Beverage services as a critical element of customer success, organizational growth, and sustainable profitability. Managed project teams including training, mentoring, and annual evaluation. Achievements included the following:• Communicated with all stakeholders to define project objectives, establish milestones, and track ongoing performance.• Leveraged outstanding blend of project management, leadership, and organizational skills to plan and execute a wide variety of workstreams while balancing core factors including risk, budget, schedule, and resource availability. • Formed cross-functional relationships with executive leaders and managers in various departments to align Food and Beverage strategy with high-level organizational goals.• Collaborated with industry leading chefs to curate first and business class menus in line with evolving trends, tastes, and customer requirements (including options for Diabetic, vegetarian, Kosher, Hindu, and Muslim passengers).• Managed special projects including the development of custom menus for high-profile passengers such as President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, NFL teams, and world-renowned chef Curtis Stone.• Identified opportunities to rationalize costs and reduced budgets by between $50K and $175K across several projects.• Utilized MS Excel to calculate per passenger food costs and market costs, enabling prudent budgeting and forecasting.• Played a key role in enhancing relations with a Pilot union (ALPA) as a leader and key representative of the Food and Beverage division. Opened lines of communication with all stakeholders (legal teams, executive management, and union reps), identified issues causing most difficulty, and designed practical solutions to satisfy all parties.• Recognized as an outstanding performer in this broad-scope role with the 2013 Employee of the Year Division Award.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

In this position, I led a team of 20+ employees with a mandate to maintain a large-scale domestic and international recipe database. Highlights included the following:• Delivered coaching and development for employees to build competency and capacity within the team.• Carried out annual performance evaluations to identify areas for improvement at individual and group levels.• Continually reviewed team output to ensure compliance with policies, procedures, and regulations.

Associate'S Degree, Computer And Information Sciences And Support Services, 4.0

Coursework: Principles of cyber security, network fundamentals, and computer troubleshooting, Microsoft & Linux OS.

Associate'S Degree, Digital Forensics, 4.0

Coursework: Criminal procedures, criminal law, criminology, public speaking, digital device evidence recovery and network fundamentals.

Vocational Certificate, Digital Forensics, 4.0

Coursework: Computer security procedures, cyber security principles.

Bachelor'S Degree, Sociology

Skills received: critical and analytical thinking, diversity appreciation, writing and study skills