Peter Nicolas Email & Phone Number

New York, Us

Built L&D Department from start up, establishing consistent training policies and procedures and best practices for Top 50 Accounting firm. As the first Director of L&D for this 100-year old firm I built the L&D Department to contribute to the firm growth into a Top 50 Accounting firm. The firm more than doubled in offices to 24 and staff to 600+ in my 5 years, with revenue rising to $134 million. ➢ Saved firm $203,000 over the next three years by replacing legacy Audit and Tax catalog vendor.➢ Brought in state-of-the-art accounting industry Learning Management System (LMS), allowing easier access to webinars and QAS self-studies, streamlined monitoring, and introduction of Learning Plans, and savings of hundreds of saved hours annually. ➢ Saved $38,800 and 500+ hours annually by switching vendors for mandatory Independence training. ➢ Saved firm $9,200 and 150 hours annually by switching vendors for mandatory sexual harassment awareness training during onboarding. ➢ Introduced firm's first soft skills vendor (SkillSoft) to complement technical training. ➢ Established annual offsite Tax and Audit milestone training for four levels of staff, supplemented with 240 minutes of videos of partners with 240 years of experience on variety of topics. ➢ Directed and coordinated five Partner Conferences (3 on-site and 2 virtual/hybrid during pandemic) and one Staff conference.➢ Initiated firm’s formal Mentoring program – one of only 29% of professional services firms offering a structured mentoring program. ➢ Teamed with CEO to drive firm's Culture initiative in my first year with firm, including designing and co-facilitating the subsequent meetings and writing 22 of the survey 50 questions to establish a baseline from which we could measure improvement. ➢ Improved firm communications and consistency by teaming with CIO to add an Intranet, sharing Compliance CPE reviews, guidelines, best practices and more by all departments.

Gb

-Consulted with Project Managers, leading to NASBA CPE compliance for thousands of Advisory Line of Service courses, conferences, onboarding programs, and activities entered into the firm's LMS - Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD). - Managed key elements of Sarbanes-Oxley rollout across the US for 7,000 Attest employees, including on-site team management and employee knowledge testing.-Trained in India the outsourced LMS function to TCS contracted team. Exceeded objectives by 15%, thereby eliminating potential for 9,700 errors in first four months of contract.- Won ASTD BEST Award in first six months with firm and then co-authored firm’s first Training Top 125 applications, leading to PwC’s #1 rank three years in row and induction into the Training Hall of Fame.-Improved Evaluation scores by 20% of over 1,000 employees in design, development, and implementation of Insurance, Asset Management, and Banking & Capital Markets courses. -Named as L&D Liaison for the five Financial Service Business Advisory Services departments and twice guided the Real Estate Business Advisory Services Conference to firm's highest ratings. -Approved $20+ million in L&E invoices and cut error rate by 40% in first year with firm. -Multiple recipient of Peer Leadership Award, L&E "Great Performance"​ awards and more.- Spearheaded 20,000 hours for PwC NJ Volunteer Financial Literacy Education for Grades K – High School, Adults & Families. (7,200 students taught at 15 schools and after-school programs).

Bethpage, New York, Us

THE WIZ - Retail Training Manager - Sales, Product Knowledge, Technical, and Management DevelopmentBuilt from start-up a dynamic training department for the largest consumer electronics retailer in the New York metropolitan area to create and deliver Product Knowledge, Customer Service, Sales, Operations, Management Development, and systems training programs to increase employee skill levels and meet corporate goal of providing superior customer experience. -Implemented blended learning approach via regional training sites, vendors, and in-store dedicated training PCs. Training included 15 internally developed courses, online lessons, and 46 vendors. -Organized and directed $86 million Sales increase via 10,000+ hours of product-training sessions for 3,300 Sales Consultants by 48% increase in product knowledge assessment scores and 70% employee turnover reduction. -Planned, designed, directed training roll out of Y2K Point-of-Sales system, including T3s (Train-the-Trainers) and creation of five technical training sites to prepare 40 store employees to deliver workshops to 1500 employees.-Led major improvement in turnover via facilitation of management development courses and design / developed of Manager-in-Training program.-Directed Retail Store Grand Opening training, including introduction of online learning.-Increased Ticketmaster sales by 22% via training solution.-Senior Management's acknowledgment of training's direct impact on sales and the reduced field turnover was evidenced in the popular marketing and advertising campaign of "Get It Right at THE WIZ".

Director of Training - Technical, Operations and Human ResourcesDeveloped effective training and communication programs to meet business objectives of the $17 billion Fortune 200 financial services company. Rolled out new computer system across the US and Canada, and managed extensive ongoing operations and human resources (management development, inclusion and diversity) training. Provided coaching and continuous skill development opportunities for geographically dispersed training staff across the US and Canada for 8,000 employees.Designed and developed new financial services programs for: H&R Block Real Estate, Beneficial Mortgage Company, Beneficial National Bank USA Credit Card Management, and Collections and Telemarketing Call Center Pilots.Managed the 24-month curriculum for customer service, sales and product knowledge for 1,000 new field employees each year. Introduced and established online training and assessment testing.Maintained the company-wide multi-million training budget.Organized and implemented the firm's tuition reimbursement program.Directed employee training for the roll-out of customized computer management information system in 1,000 branches throughout the United States and Canada to improve sales and customer service efficiency. Hired, developed and led a team of eight trainers to conduct over 140,000 workshop hours in training 8,000 field employees, on time in a four-year schedule. Directed 40 geographically dispersed trainers.Conceived and produced over 200 interactive self-studies and five multimedia modules to support workshops and provide just-in-time training.Designed, planned and delivered 18 technical and operational training programs for branch personnel, field executives, Management headquarters employees, and State Examiners (42 States).Designed and developed 21 customized training manuals, workbooks and reference materials for all levels of field and headquarters employees.

Master Of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Marketing

Graduated November 2016, Leadership

Ba, Political Science