In this elite group of business professionals, my focus is on management and leadership mentoring, strategy development, and executive communications. Other members of the leadership team have deep experience in business operations optimization, contracts, negotiations, and procurement leadership. For more information on The Simms Group go to https://simmsgroupconsulting.com/

Served in a variety of consulting engagements focused on strategy development, business management, management coaching, and executive communications, supporting leaders in customer support and information security.

Consultant and project manager for Voice-of-the-Customer initiatives in the Microsoft Online Services group, and the Yahoo! Search Alliance Support team. Assisted product groups and support groups in the development of in-service customer feedback solutions, verbatim feedback and analysis solutions, and a variety of voice of customer communications.

Designed, launched and directed customer and partner feedback programs that enabled Microsoft Business Groups to better understand customer experience, top issues and requests, i.e., the “voice of the customer”. Achievements included the internal “Microsoft Listens Feedback Portal”, advanced use of phonetic search technology, sponsored development of an advanced “Microsoft Feedback Explorer” data mining solution for verbose customer feedback, creation of a long-overdue, close-the-loop program called “Microsoft Responds”, an innovative “Speak Your Mind” video feedback program to capture customer/partner feedback at Microsoft events. Prior roles included designing and launching the Response (complaint) Management program, launching the Engineering Excellence Product Feedback Guide, managing the $100M Office & Consumer tech support program, and leading program management support for community and certication programs, e.g., MSDN, TechNet, etc. I was also a member of the leadership team that launched the Customer & Partner Experience (CPE) program at Microsoft. I was also heavily involved in management excellence programs, and received a "Management Excellence Trailblazer" award from the SVP of HR.

Directed North American and European technical support operations for the leading maker of desktop-to-mainframe connectivity products. Total Support budget: $12 million. Total Support headcount: 250+. Completely upgraded the telecom and CRM platforms. Consolidate European support operations from 7 locations to 1. Received consistent high ratings in a respected independent survey.

Provided operations support to the Retail Banking Group, including: help desk, branch automation design/implementation/support; productivity management, business analysis, policy and procedure development; service quality assurance; and training of branch office staff in three states.

Responsible for providing sales and operations support to a network of 170+ branch locations throughout Washington. Included systems analysis and implementation, introduction of new products and programs, development of policies and procedures, methods and operations analysis, and problem-solving in all aspects of customer sales and service.Full project management responsibility for the planning and implementation of Seafirst/Bank of America’s very successful Customer Service Department (“Excel Service”), including all aspects of hardware selection, software design, facilities planning, and installation.