Derek Blanton Email & Phone Number

• Rejoined to analyze, strategize and implement enterprise-wide business operations strategy and forward corporate transformation to ensure companies seat as top-level global software provider for the travel and leisure.
• Work with Executive leadership, Finance and Human Resources to develop and align operational and strategic initiatives to leverage best practices across enterprise
• Lead various work streams to evolve and expand current operational practices across all business units and stand up and lead an operational reporting cadence
• Execute rollout and communications plans to perpetuate the operations strategy
• Lead initiatives related to labor capacity supply and demand analysis and reporting
• Partner with cross-functional leadership/teams to drive cohesion in operational functions/reporting with full transparency to help transform organization away from previous siloed format

Western Slope Colorado

• Created from ground up the infrastructure, policy and procedures to ready for expansion
• Developed and maintained marketing strategy, cost models, pricing structure and reporting for all facets of business and implement best practices to ensure success and profitability (achieved >7% growth y-o-y)
• Created annual budget and profit projections for each location and track burn rates/KPI’s monthly to assess progress and identify and mitigate risks
• Led quarterly executive meetings and monthly site manager meetings to train and align staffs with corporate goals and objectives
• Served as “face” of the organization with site visits to assess financial objectives, strategic goals, mentor performance and overall restaurant operations and restaurant presentation

• Build relationships across cross-functional teams to obtain strategic alignment
• Worked with Executive Management, Finance and Human Resources to develop and align strategic initiatives and leverage best practices across Sabre Technology groups
• Prepared departmental budget proposals, business cases, justifications; develop team allocation models for budget disbursement to teams within the department
• Tracked, reported on and control spend to budget for key categories: T&I, Employee Related, Professional Services, Headcount, Non-Cost Transfer, Labor Tracking, Interns, etc.
• Facilitated and analyzed data collection for various departmental transformation exercises

• Oversight of enterprise daily operations and manufacturing production standards
• Established costs of manufactured goods and created tiered pricing for sales staff
• Developed annual budget as well as enterprise short and long term goals
• Profit and Loss review and annual profit/sales projections
• Lead weekly senior management meetings for partnership group
• Developed policy and procedures of all facets of departmental operations

• Performed annual enterprise risk management for investigative/compliance audit categories and assist in development of annual rolling action plan
• Stayed abreast of new regulatory changes in accordance to regulatory agencies (OCC/OTS) for continuous improvement to existing programs
• Continuous review of fraud cases and hotline/helpline matters for trends and patterns. Adjust communications and training program as required and as violations/losses occur.
• Managed department projects and supervise investigations
• Presented monthly reporting of investigative team’s status and accomplishments to Sr. Risk Manager of Woodforest.
• 9 direct reports (3 fraud investigators, 4 ACH/wire transfer/identity theft/forgery investigators, 1 debit card investigator and two debit card support analysts) that exceeded expectations by limiting losses within 5%.

• Possess entrepreneurial mentality
• Hired and developed management team and staffs for multiple branch locations
• Hired approximately 155 direct reports (24 branch managers and branch staffs) and instilled passion for company and exceeded profit projections
• Initiated a monthly communication/training and marketing campaign to surpass goals
• Worked with senior leadership to ensure tone at the top and work from the bottom up to ensure all employees are engaged in company’s strategic objectives
• Hosted regularly scheduled events such as motivational conference calls and meetings to keep strategic objectives and sales goals at forefront of employee’s awareness

Biology/Biological Sciences

Biochemistry