Russell Smith Email & Phone Number

Sheffield, England, United Kingdom

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

· Part of the IT change team, leading the definition of technology platform and process solutions for many of AST’s most important, enterprise-wide projects.· An IT leader helping ensure the delivered solutions meet critical business needs while complying with and advancing the strategic direction of technology at AST.· Maintaining and building platform architecture reference materials which describe both existing AST platform assets as well as their current and future alignment to the overall vision for next generation platforms.- Working with vendors and internal teams on numerous initiatives such as Treasury Management System, Enterprise Resource Planning, Digitalization (Capture, Workflow & Enterprise Content Management, Robotic Process Automation), API Management.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

AST Financial is a provider of leading equity servicing solutions. Russell is on contract with AST supporting the Solution Design team, working on a number of key initiatives.

Toronto, Canada Area

AST Financial is a provider of leading equity servicing solutions. Russell is on contract with AST to support system enhancements required from winning business for a large new client, Manulife. Immersed into a hybrid Waterfall/Agile software development environment on a complex, mature, custom Natural / Adabase application, Russell successfully gained an understanding of both the application, and the stock transfer market, to become productive in the client's tight timeline. Key Achievements:- Gathering high level and detailed requirements from the business- Leading the development team using agile and waterfall methodologies, depending on the size of the workstream, to build functionality enhancements.- Liaising with the QA team and business UAT teams to ensure new software fully tested.- Enabling the IT Team to reach the critical target of onboarding Manulife on schedule- Workstreams: escheatment, sell share system, automated SFTP scripts, IVR enhancements, Citibank bank reconciliation, date of last contact (DLC) updates- Building relationships to become a trusted advisor with the client, becoming the only member of a three person PM/BA contract team still on contract.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Russell moved from Victoria to Toronto, and continued to work for the Provincial Government of British Columbia remotely, at 50%. Additional projects included Oetiker and Sierra business development. The Oetiker Group is a global leader in clamping and connection solutions automotive, industrial and trade markets. Russell provided subject matter expertise during design and development of a new fully responsive corporate website for Oetiker using Sitecore 8 / SQL Server2014, supporting seven languages. Initiated and maintained successful collaboration and cooperation between the design team and the technical team. Project tracking and status reporting to the client and Sierra management.Key Achievements:- Provided website user experience expertise to the client and the external design agency, PLEX.- Managed the project (4 resources) on time and to budget using MS Project, Word and Excel for scheduling, status reports and budget tracking.- Gathered requirements and produced a functional design document with approval from the client and design agency.- Led regular Skype meetings with the client and the technical team- Developed relationships with the Sitecore partner team to further enhance technical and content delivery.Russell worked with the Toronto Business Development Director to identify potential industries and clients where Sierra could gain new business. Russell also worked on becoming a Sitecore partner with the Sitecore team.

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Industries: Provincial Government / Identity Management / Technology / E-Commerce / EducationProjects include Okanagan Correctional Centre Staff Biometrics, BC Services Card on-line authentication operational readiness and Policies & Procedures, and St Michael's University School data management.- Managed and aligned implementation plans to meet client strategic priorities.- Participated in business development activities such as proposals and identifying further opportunities during project work. - Authored business documentation such as option papers, policies & procedures, strategies, business requirements, functional design, decision papers, process maps and privacy impact assessments.- Facilitated stakeholder engagement workshops to gather requirements, communicate processes, and obtain business commitment.- Built business cases that included options & cost analysis.- Managed project schedules, resources and budgets.- Assessed and modeled complex business processes. - Redesigned business processes to increase the organization’s efficiency and address process gaps.- Initiated development of new service request forms using InfoPath, integrated with SharePoint.- Identifyied, documented and managed issues and risks.- Conducted Security, Threats and Risk Assessments as well as Privacy Impact Assessments.

Victoria, Bc, Canada

Victoria Harvest Church is an independent church and registered not-for-profit organization. - Managed organization’s finances to adhere to budgetary obligations. - Prepared and presented financial reports to Board of Directors.- Developed organizational leadership team.- Planned and coordinated Sunday meetings including scheduling, set up, and public information.- Delivered church communications through email, website, social media and personal contact.

Victoria, British Columbia

- Worked with clients from winning business through to ongoing support. - Collaborated with designers and developers located around the world to create over 20 websites that delighted the customer, using Drupal, Wordpress and Get Kirby CMS's.- Created technical user guides to show clients how to maintain their site.- Envisioned and commissioned a self-serve, simple to use, web based email marketing system.- Project managed the design and development of the email marketing system.- Developed system content, alerts, error messages, and help files.- Prioritized system enhancements.- Developed and grew customer base through lead generation, presentations, writing proposals, and contracts.

Toronto, Canada Area

- Built and managed a marketing team, including IT development, responsible for all external communications including website, bi-monthly magazine, brochures, and leaflets. - Generated income by launching and managing on-line internet service streaming live meetings and downloading archived meetings for worldwide audience. - Championed and managed a new website, including writing content, technical alerts, error messages, and help files.- Led web component of new ERP system, advocating customer usability, as well as writing, reviewing and editing technical content.- Produced bi-monthly magazine with global circulation of 120,000 - oversaw production from start to finish working with the editor, designer, printer and mail house.

Career break travelling the world with my wife and child.

Leeds, United Kingdom

- Developed technical content for internet banking including instructions, alerts, error messages and help files.- Led two website content and functionality updates and coordinated with external design agencies for content.- Oversaw content on firstdirect.com including public and internet banking areas. - Collaborated with customer service department on mail and email communications to customers.- Wrote mail shots for internet banking dormancy, and liaised with operational teams for timing and content input.

Bs, Economics

Masters, Agricultural Economics In The Developing World