Ryan Ladd Email & Phone Number

Urbana, IL, US

United States

Responsible for IT Strategic Planning and Portfolio Management for a world-class technology organization serving the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I lead the Project Management Office (PMO), Program Management, and Business Process Improvement and Analysis teams.

Urbana-Champaign Area

Manage overall portfolio of programs and projectsManage skilled team of project managers and business analysis professionals

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area

Manage Infrastructure program and project portfolio for Technology Services campus-wide including communications and networking. Serve as Project Manager on key strategic project efforts. Provide mentorship, training, and oversight to Project Managers and Project Leads. Define and streamline project management processes and templates including creation of.

Bloomington, Indiana Area

• Senior IT Executive, reporting directly to CEO.
• Responsible for overall IT department budget of $8 million including payroll, consulting, L&M, and telecommunications.
• Responsible for planning and implementation of all Application Development, Operations/Infrastructure, and business strategic programs and projects including international markets and domestic partnerships leveraging.
• Staff, manage, and train high performing team of 24 PMO personnel in a distributed global organization including team members in Kochi, India and in BPO operation in Cebu, Philippines.Program Managers, Technical.
• Negotiate contracts with software / hardware vendors, construction companies and consultants for accounts exceeding $3million/year with focus on driving down total cost of ownership (TCO). Responsible for contract term.
• Plan, budget, and manage implementation of large scale $1.8 million construction project (facilities remodel in our Bloomington office) interfacing with construction firm (Keystone Construction), coordinating vendors.

Bloomington, Indiana Area

• Provide solution definitions, budgets, and scheduling recommendations and drive quarterly executive steering committee meetings to define technology roadmap and prioritize portfolio of executing projects for 100+ IT.
• Responsible for the direct management, staffing, and training of the Technical Product Management, Project Management, Business Analyst, and Software Quality Assurance teams in the organization including on the ground.
• Established EPMO to manage and centralize key strategic initiatives for the organization (Customer Satisfaction Initiatives, International Expansion Strategy and Tactics, Business Continuity Planning).
• Established enterprise Quality Assurance team as well as automated regression testing and new defect tracking systems to reduce defects and improve user testing processes.
• Plan, budget, and manage implementation of Penguin Website Project (PWP), a $2 million eCommerce bookstore platform for Penguin leveraging Ektron CMS, NOP Commerce, SOLR search. Development effort included a.
• Plan, budget, and manage implementation of BookCountry (www.bookcountry.com) a Penguin Random House eCommerce DIY publishing platform and community site leveraging Ektron CMS, Salesforce CRM, SOLR search, SQL, and.

Bloomington, Indiana Area

• Staff and train Business Systems Analyst team to align with agile software development techniques that produce more adaptable software enabling higher degrees of reuse, quicker delivery and better returns on investment.
• Provide project oversight and product management to development of industry-leading subscription-based author education platform, the Author Learning Center (www.authorlearningcenter.com), with 3rd party development.
• Define technology projects and process improvements to support new business initiatives and ongoing performance enhancements with the executive and senior leadership teams.
• Create technical requirement documentation, user stories, test cases, and specification by example templates and worked closely with architects and developers in the United States and India to communicate technical.
• Manage creation of all data mapping and migration documentation for strategic business technology re-platform.
• Implement a business case process to facilitate prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and helping the business state the success criteria for their projects.

Bloomington, Indiana Area

• Manage website and software application development teams leveraging an Agile framework using SCRUM to deliver high quality applications for the publishing industry including a full ERP solution for publishing. Areas.
• Manage diverse teams of internal and consultant development resources to implement a new SOA website and business platform ERP for the organization budgeted at $3 million utilizing C# and ASP.NET on the front end and.
• Manage all aspects of a full scale enterprise business system re-platform including data migration for the Trafford corporate acquisition.
• Responsible for coordinating and defining all functional requirements for software projects.
• Coordinate and document all phases of testing including unit, functional, integration, data migration, load, and user acceptance.
• Define and implement lean change control management process for project management team.

Bloomington, Indiana Area

• Staff and manage an Application Development team to build a custom web portal application for creating author websites including social networking and web 2.0 features.
• Responsible for creating business models including all start up costs and revenue targets and managing application launch budget and marketing campaign budget to meet or exceed those targets.
• Implement Agile SDLC process and used a SCRUM methodology to drive to rapid value with initial product launch two months from formation of team.
• Serve as product owner and Scrum Master responsible for creating wireframes, defining and documenting requirements, managing product backlog, defining sprints and negotiating scope and delivery timelines with senior.

Bloomington, Indiana Area

• Implement and manage all aspects of online initiative accounts to drive revenue growth managing vendor relationships and account setup, coordinating order automation, coordinating order fulfillment process with print.
• Drive redesign of AuthorHouse corporate website eCommerce bookstore to increase revenue including writing business requirements, coordinating timelines with IT, and providing quality assurance.
• Create a program to sell online advertising space on AuthorHouse website to drive high-margin revenue (over $250,000 per year at 95% margin).
• Maintain and manage all aspects of corporate website for Rooftop Publishing including implementing an eCommerce solution through PayPal.
• Create and maintain individual marketing websites for high profile titles and authors.
• Serve as SME and created business requirement specifications as needed for AuthorHouse initiatives including online publishing and book sales platform Wordclay (www.wordclay.com).

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area

• Manage top national online bookseller accounts to achieve annual sales and profit goals of $500,000.
• Maintain and manage corporate website, implement techniques to increase website traffic and search engine rankings, and analyze web metrics to track trends in website traffic and sales.
• Develop online advertising budget, implement online ads, and manage campaigns for up to 100 titles per year including New York Times best seller Where Else Would You Rather Be by Marv Levy.
• Implement and manage corporate email marketing strategy and monthly promotions.

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Area

Coordinated and managed project teams. Responsible for developing and maintaining project plans and schedules as well as communicating schedules and project updates to senior management. Coordinated quality assurance for all products. Wrote and maintained documentation (print manuals and electronic help files) for all software (Wincode, 16PF Select.