Ron Matthews Email & Phone Number

Vancouver, Canada Area

Working with senior executives to identify, define, and implement the Focused Operational Excellence initiative to create a culture of continuous improvement. In summary, the program:• Leverages lean and an associated lean management system as the “first tool out of the tool box” to provide practical tools to enhance customer value• Applied these tools to over 20 improvement events to deliver over $2m in savings, improved customer service, and improved employee engagement• Sustained the gains by making continuous improvement a part of every workday through huddles, performance boards, and ongoing identification of non-value added activities. Specific accomplishments include:• Identifying improvement projects within the corporation and creating a coordinated plan that aligns these to the corporate strategy.• Resourcing the plan and providing executive level updates on progress and results.• Coordinating change management and communications within the program to ensure the key messages and desired behaviours are occurring. • Completing improvement events in diverse areas of the organization ranging from customer facing functions in Claims through to supporting areas in Finance, Information Systems, and Corporate Law.

While at Avantage, worked with a variety of clients to assist in achieving a "connected business". The connected organization is one where the processes, the workers, and the underlying technology systems are aligned to the goals of the organization’s strategy. Specific assignments included:• Assisted client management in the alignment of internal processes to the needs of the organization, identifying gaps in that alignment, and outlining initiatives to close the identified gaps.• Lead a new service line in cost management and profitability analysis. This uses business modelling techniques to create new insight and perspective for management on the profitability of customers/products and associated internal service costs.

As the first executive leader of the technology function within the firm, led the development and delivery of the IT strategy. Based on the business priorities, a series of initiatives were completed to improve both the delivery of client service as well as the streamlining of the operational processes. The results the team produced lead to recognition as Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year (2001) by the BC division of the Canadian Information Processing Society.

Provided assistance to organizations in their use and management of information technology. Specific services included application/business process reviews, project management, project assessments, and overall IT effectiveness analysis. Held various positions within the firm before being admitted to the partnership in 1997.