Sparkle of Life is a special brand of custom jewelry whose growing success helps charitable organizations because our mission of love is faith based. The company was essentially reborn in June of 2003 when the founder’s 14 year old niece Rosie lost her battle to cancer, and it was her moving & courageous journey that put the company’s focus, passion & creative talents on GIVING – thus the charitable donation associated with every sale has become the driving force behind all Sparkle of Life events and activities. Supporters of Sparkle of Life donated over $40,000.00 to date, so undoubtedly our little Rosie is quite proud of what she inspired so many years ago! I serve on the Board of Directors and provide business support to the owner.

Provided strategy and structure to the company's new initiatives by establishing a sales charter along with other components that drive sales and make the company more profitable.

APS is a national leader in providing Law Enforcement solutions for E-Citation and other ticketing forms at the highest level of customer designed configuration & security: the industry leader in LE mobile product solutions. Director of Project Management Office:Established process and teams to deliver customized software solutions to new & existing law enforcement customers by integrating sales, account management, product development, compliance & customer care: Instituted ROI analysis & qualification of sales orders to ensure highest profitability project portfolio.  Instituted Quality Assurance to salvage customer relationships where existing product quality had eroded.  Recognized and responded to the need for technical support personnel to service customers in the field. Conducted Lean Six Sigma (LSS) initiatives to revise processes removing non-value added operations to streamline time to market which was pivotal to re-engaging long time customers & restoring market share.

Led product response team verification to ensure quality products were delivered to AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers and 30 other major mobile phone operators. Established key relationships with global counterparts in US, Europe, China and Tokyo to share & exchange mobile technology knowledge across teams and enhance common technical tools. Created the Software Release Management Global Forum, sponsored monthly Global Product Response Team Forums, & hosted Global Test Tools Automation Forums in 2008 to set corporate automation principles & standards for new products: Re-architected Product Response teams charter to retest defects found by AT&T, T-Mobile & Rogers during new feature & functional testing for mobile phone products being launched in North America. Innovated and refined suites of scripted, automated and heuristic testing with focus on new mobile applications such as Google maps, myfavs, NFC, and various widgets which were top priorities per customer requirements and then implemented critical testing focused on return rate risk mitigation. Established and coordinated follow-the-sun product verification project teams in Redwood Shores, California; Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia; and Beijing, China to deliver full Microsoft Logo Test Kit testing (LTK) and internal Software Quality testing throughout lifecycle of Windows Mobile product development project.  Partnered with HTC, Microsoft and Google on project to exchange and synchronize Sony Ericsson’s proprietary Defect Management System updates with 3rd party defect systems. The project shortened bug fix cycles by several weeks & greatly improved ability to meet very aggressive product delivery schedules.

Primary role was to isolate and solve complex technical problems for an Engineering team who delivered mobile handset software for release to factory & customers. Created standard operating procedures, training and KPI’s per project keyed on total quality, cost reduction and product delivery schedule adherence:  Achieved Zero-tolerance for defective software release to factories. These defects had previously cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines each month.  Eliminated very costly factory shipping delays by purchasing and running a replica of the factory phone software flash station in Raleigh, NC to test software packages locally and correct bugs and errors before sending the software to Malaysia and Beijing.

Cultivated business relationships with Corporate IT functions across many sites that allowed me to leverage global resources needed to complete 35 local improvement projects delivered within the ITIL framework we were developing to organize complex IT services and optimize corporate technologies. Our service strategy and service design revolved around desktop/HD support, network services, data storage, production support to mission critical applications, and data center expansion and transitions  Drove the development of IT Applications Service Catalogue that kicked off our transition to ITIL standards Partnered with Business units to document and deliver cost justified projects, many of which improved the speed to market for products, improved testing capabilities or reduced operating expenses Proactively created strategic plans for IT Infrastructure Library direction to optimize the benefits of services delivered to the R&D teams while minimizing the interruption or negative impacts on their product schedules

Achieved consistent delivery of product improvements to meet business objectives: In a constantly changing, competitive environment, managed the delivery of up to 200 Value-link product development projects each year that ranged from multi-million dollar efforts to emergency production fixes: Partnered with Sales & Marketing to deliver excellent services and customer offering by creating new products and new product features such as Gift Card services and specialized financial reporting Put the customer first by delivering client requested customization to existing products and delivered product changes for International initiatives to deliver Gift Card processing world wide  Managed a matrix of developers and quality testers across multiple applications to deliver bug-free software. Average workload was 50 projects. Met regularly with Development and Sales to discuss future demands and ensure that the right plans were being made to put the right platforms and technologies in place to stay ahead of the customer demand.

Utilized understanding of transaction processing, strong financial background, organizational abilities and communication skills to manage both an internal team of developers and a third party to deliver applications, detailed systems requirements and specifications for scheduled and emergency software development work: Established a team to resolve production issues around the clock to meet the challenge of demanding production standards for 100% customer delivery systems uptime. Met frequently with customers to understand the delicate balance between client demand and limited technical resources so that I could properly prioritize product enhancements. Participated in First Data Mentoring Program by serving as a Mentor to two different program participants.

Responded to unexpected Value-link first year product growth in terms of new merchant implementations by developing a scalable software verification and certification model designed to streamline the new merchant interface process while increasing accuracy of the solution delivered: Volunteered to learn SEI CMM methodologies to define and establish standard operating procedures to achieve increased speed to market and reduce defects in the generation and testing of interface software. Served on the task force to do SEI CMM assessments and move the company forward in process maturity. Assumed a leadership position for problem solving by becoming a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. Then fostered an improved work environment where we could succeed together as individuals and professionals, promoting an out-the-box mentality toward solutions which better serve customers and company goals.  Instituted a recruiting and training program for the technical implementation team that utilized new standard operating procedures, yielding contractor productivity in the first two weeks of hire. Built a core Lean Team with maximum expandability and introduced client demand trend analysis, based on sales pipeline that allowed the team to anticipate workload spikes and adjust staffing levels accordingly. Awarded Leader of the Pack recognition & promoted to Director after one year of successful operation.

Negotiated with critical path groups; Network Planning, Application Development, and the Sales/Support Business Unit to provide technical project coordination that expedited Network connectivity for new customers: Focused on root cause of delivery delays to understand and remove process constraints. Scheduled team tasks and resolved technical issues to mitigate product delivery delays and created new processes and standards for project management methods where there were none.

Viacom is an American media conglomerate with various world-wide interests in cable and satellite television networks, as well as movie production and distribution. Operations included Blockbuster and other retailers: Director Viacom Retail Systems Managed the software development, maintenance, technical support, procurement and implementation for the company’s newly formed retail group: Identified new business requirements, evaluated and negotiated vendor packages, and purchased all necessary hardware & software for the new venture. Recruited a new systems development support team of 30 people, who provided detailed design documentation, technical specifications, client training, and operational support across multiple platforms. Led the delivery of a prototype system, while development continued on a full scale integrated solution for 12 Core Merchandising applications, which included Merchandise Planning, POS, Debit and Credit Processing applications, and a Labor Scheduling package.

Managed 24 systems developers well as production support functions for Blockbuster’s Corporate Financial and Payroll Systems by inspiring an IT environment of continuous improvement and growth:  Averaged 75 active projects at any given time, which primarily focused on performance and process improvements to ensure timeliness and accuracy of weekly payroll checks to 50,000 employees at 5,000+ locations, and Accounts Payable distribution to 90,000 vendors.

Initially hired to create the Change Management process by which NaBANCO managed all Visa and MasterCard compliance changes as well as critical corporate processing changes in authorization and settlement required to provide merchant payment services for Fortune 500 businesses; fulfilled several diverse roles that managed technical functions: Restructured the merchant implementation technical teams in Long Island and Florida to improve efficiency and generate $900,000 savings in first year. Prioritized resource allocation of systems analysts and programmers to deliver pre-sales design to the sales team, new product evaluation to the acquisition team, Visa/MasterCard regulation changes to the compliance team, and development of customer enhancement requests based on financial return.  Averaged 250 credit client implementation changes per year, and streamlined the means to deliver these in a high quality, well managed weekly production release process.  In response to the number of customer changes being requested, established a new quarterly profit stream of $300,000 for the systems group by offering client funded software development projects. Matrix managed the team that launched NaBANCO’s first debit transaction-processing project, which required unprecedented customization of purchased software as well as establishing 19 debit network relationships to ensure passing certifications required to launch. Director of Security operations including RACF, Debit encryption solutions & audit compliance.