James Steele Email & Phone Number

Simsbury, Ct, Us

Domestic & International Clients

Design, develop, and manage products and innovations for global companies across diverse industries. • Apply extensive business, technology, planning, and execution experience to develop, engineer, manufacture, and bring new innovative products to market.• Work closely with R&D, Product, Marketing, and Manufacturing teams in an Agile process; understanding client/customer needs and expectations; implementing enhancements and innovation from concept through development and deployment.• Design innovative products and solutions by integrating brand, strategy, cost, profit/loss, manufacturing, market, and user experience.• Introduce and utilize new materials, mechanisms, and solutions that enhance the customer experience, provide unique engaging product offerings, and set brands apart from the competition.• Develop product pipeline, strategy, and next-generation product planning.• Design and create functional and virtual prototypes that provide proof-of-concept and facilitate development.• Intellectual Property (IP) drafting, applications, and prior art assessment.• Professional relationship management and issue resolution; fostering strong partnerships with stakeholders. • Deliver impactful product and sales presentations to C-suite executives in large domestic and international companies. • Conduct market research, focus groups, and competitive assessments that enhance strategy and development. • Negotiate licensing contracts and terms, ensuring agreeable outcomes for all parties.

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Leading provider of financial and retirement technology solutions (FinTech). Servicing and partnering with the largest financial companies across the industry. Largest Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and retirement services provider. Manage and lead complex multi-million dollar client facing initiatives that touch all aspects of operations, servicing, development (SDLC), product integration, ideation/assessment/planning, quality, execution, conversion, business readiness, implementation, customer service, ongoing client management, innovation and project pipeline, financial wellness, participant communications, and automated solutions.• Leader of global cross-functional team, +20 strategy and project management employees allocated throughout the organization, managing and delivering the most important strategic initiatives, touching all aspects of service, product, and development lifecycle (SDLC, Agile).• Responsible for a +$100M portfolio of initiatives across +30 of the industry’s largest Fortune 100 & 500 financial services companies. (conversions, record-keeping, data-integration, digital, web, mobile, UX, UI, APIs, customer service).• Implemented 20% efficiency savings through automation, standardization, process optimization, continuous improvement.• Stabilized multiple large National Account client conversions through professional relationship management, re-baselining, business & technology planning and delivery. • Ability to communicate, negotiate, resolve conflicts, gain trust and maintain relationships during constant change and issue management.• Lead organization that interfaces directly with external clients, delivers solutions and provides value-added products and services.- Digital product offerings: UX, integrated solutions, personalized web/mobile - Core platforms: conversions, integrations, UIs, APIs, core recordkeeping, maintenance, build, automation- Fraud & Security- Regulatory Compliance

Hartford, Ct

Led strategic and transformational initiatives (>$50 million annually) spanning across Retirement, Investment, Pension, Stable Value, product, sales, marketing, operations, regulatory, finance, service, business and technology. Managed all aspects of project/program support, resourcing, performance, feedback, demand, capacity, process improvement/standardization, organizational readiness, portfolio management, planning/forecasting, risk, governance and reporting.• Planned, managed, and delivered the largest cross-functional corporate initiatives and strategies (supporting over 65 strategic projects and programs annually).• Drove SAFe Agile adoption across the PMO increasing benefit realization and speed-to-market by 25%.• Transformed PMO stakeholder engagement which enhanced the user experience and produced a 20% gain in resource capacity. • Built 2 Project Management Offices within Retirement; leading design, structure, adoption, change mgmt, resourcing, training, capacity, demand mgmt, communications and organizational readiness. • Led and developed a team of 11 project managers (domestic and offshore) supporting both business and technology. • Received the highest leader Employee Rating and Engagement scores for 5 consecutive years (scores were 25% higher than Prudential’s average).• Centralized Retirement’s Technology and Business Project Management Offices; integrated teams, standardized processes, consolidated operations and gained efficiencies. Increased cross training by 35% and increased PM capacity by 20%.• Designed and managed Executive Governance for strategic initiatives. Reduced organizational and project risk by 30% through facilitated prioritization and coordination across business, technology, operations, finance, legal and compliance.• Led, influenced and communicated across all levels of leadership and cross-division resources.• Managed vendors/consultants, provided flexible staffing models, eliminated weeks of onboarding delays/costs.

Recognized for successfully managing multiple teams and projects spanning diverse product and service responsibilities (Digital Information, Data Management, Risk and Business Continuity, B2B Partner File Transfer Interface, Imaging & Workflow). • Designed, created, marketed and operated ING’s Digital Information Data Quality Program. Collected and analyzed data from across the organization providing trends and conclusions to business units. • Drove all efforts in design, consultation and development related to information data discovery, profiling, certification, monitoring, cleansing and name & address verification.• Improved customer satisfaction, reduced development and operational costs related to incorrect and missing data.• Created vision, strategy and implementation of ING’s Secure Data Exchange, which electronically transfers billions of dollars to critical business partners.• Owner of ING’s central gateway for secure electronic file transfers between internal and external trading partners (B2B). Responsible for processing billions $ and achieving accuracy and partner service levels.• Personally led managers, team leads, employees, consultants, and vendors (15 employees, 20 consultants).• Leader of resources, strategy, roadmap, shared system design, development, operations, maintenance, issue resolution and enhancements across 12 enterprise technologies and 4 distinct teams.• Successfully implemented ING's policy for DR/BCP across Enterprise Shared Services, aligning with all Business Lines and Crisis Management.• Developed and managed remote teams generating application stability in processing, storing, and integrating digital documents into workflow systems.

Recognized for leadership in one of the nation’s leading companies for individual and employee health services. • Directed the Mid-Atlantic Region. Managed underwriting team and all aspects of underwriting process: case reviews, rating accuracy, pricing concessions, policy & procedure adherence, workload balancing, daily sales team interactions, rate negotiations, performance metrics, regional sales goals, book-of-business, and profit/loss• Personally underwrote and managed the region’s largest high-profile cases, including new business and renewals• Managed CIGNA's claim auto-adjudication vendor selection processes. Worked directly with vendors as CIGNA’s point-of-contact. Assessed vendor proposals and presented recommendations to Senior Management.• Graduate of CIGNA's selective multi-year Graduate Degree Level leadership program

Master Of Business Administration - Mba, Finance, Marketing, Operations, International

Selected for "International Study Abroad Program," traveled and studied business in China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong.

Bachelor'S Degree, Engineering

• Leadership scholarship • Honor Society • Student director

Medical: Certified Hospital Phlebotomist, Hospital Administration

• Certified phlebotomist • Intermountain Healthcare Hospital