SUMMARY

Suzette has over 13 years of management expertise of large software development teams (30+ people) across many functional business areas and industries.  Functional areas such as; Operations, Financials, Supply Chain, Compliance Services, Vehicle Management, Learning Management, Intermodal, Brokerage, Payment Services, and Logistics.  She has successfully delivered projects in numerous industries such as; Energy Services, Transportation, and Insurance (i.e., claims, operations, enrollment, subrogation, sales and marketing). Suzette has proven project management success in achieving expected deliverables on time and within budget.  She specializes in large corporate initiatives and innovated product development. 

Suzette possesses a thorough understanding of project methodologies and lifecycles, project documentation, resource modeling, cost benefit analysis, quality assurance, and strategic planning.  Her experience also includes Human Resource Management including; recruitment, employee career development, wage and salary administration, corporation training and communication.  Suzette is a results-orientated individual possessing excellent managerial and organizational skills, combined with empathy for people and a focus on practicality in making decisions.  Her excellent communication and organizational skills have contributed to her success in consistently bringing large projects in on time and within budget with optimum productivity from her project teams.

EXPERIENCE

 SENIOR

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

SCRUM MASTER/COACH

QUALITY ASSURANCE

ADVISOR/LEAD

APPLICATION
DEVELOPMENT
MANAGEMENT

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT WITH OFFSHORE TEAM

INSURANCE

SALES & BUSINESS

MANAGEMENT

HUMAN

RESOURCES

Suzette’s most recent engagement was with a national property and causality insurance carrier.  Initially, she was brought on as a Software Quality Assurance Advisor to complete an assessment of the company’s software quality assurance program in terms of people, process, technology, in identifying improvement opportunities to achieve target quality state. 

During her placement, a large policy administration enhancement project was approved.  She was asked to lead and mentor the project team using Agile/SCRUM software delivery methods acting as the SCRUM Master and Coach.  The first release using this approach was very successful.  She continued working with the team and leaders over the last year in delivering valuable functional software to the user community in 4 week sprints.

Suzette also had the opportunity to work for a large local energy services company.  At the time this company had a large acquisition.  She acted as a Senior IT Project Manager on two large multimillion dollar projects that had to do with merging technologies and processes across the organization building a unified enterprise.  The first project was platform infrastructure consolidation and the second the merging of two ERP systems and business processes. 

While working on the large ERP merger project she was asked to take on a role as a Quality Assurance Lead.   As a QA Lead she developed, trained, implemented, and monitored QA processes and procedures.  She acted as a pure QA lead in test planning, testing coverage, quality validation, and reporting of testing metrics to the project leadership group.  She was accountable for the overall quality of the final product delivered to the business users.

Suzette also served as Information Technology Project Manager responsible for large multi phased third party system implementations and internally developed system solutions for a local Compliance Services/Vehicle Management Company.  She was responsible for all phases of corporate technology initiative and accountable for project budget and project timeline management.  She handled resource planning and staff modeling for the entire technical team.  Suzette deployed the use of advanced project methodologies and management tools. 

As an Application Development Manager, Suzette was responsible for the management of teams and projects from conceptualization thru implementation and system support.  She specialized in large multi-phased multi-million dollar application development projects with offshore development. 

Suzette was responsible for managing performance of team members including: pro-actively working with team members towards achieving their career goals/objectives, conducting timely performance appraisal, midyear reviews and goal setting meetings.  She mentored colleagues in areas of expertise such as: project management methodology, tools, and techniques. 

Suzette participated in compensation management.  She managed outsource projects and the relationships with contracting firms.  Suzette assisted in the recruiting and Interviewing of IT candidates.  She ensured that team members had the necessary tools/resources to achieve assigned tasks in a quality/efficient manner.  Suzette acted as a liaison between various functional areas in IT and the business to provide project updates, coordinate project implementations and system support status.  She also led strategic product direction and evaluated new third-party products. 

She also served as a Senior Project Manager for the same domestic transportation and international logistics provider.  She was responsible for large enterprise wide project execution leading large technical teams (30+ people).  These large teams were often in multiple location physical locations and multiple offshore locations.  She was responsible for all phases of corporate technology initiatives from inception through implementation and postproduction support.  In past positions, Suzette was selected by leadership to manage the on boarding of large high profile customer implementations.

 Suzette served as a Senior Project Manager for a Product Innovation team.  She displayed expertise in project methodologies and lifecycles.  Suzette managed large initiatives and achieved expected project deliverables on time and within budget.  She served as process owner of the Automated Enrollment System, an electronic data enrollment gateway interfacing across corporate platforms, numerous systems, and e-tools. 

Serving as the Manager of Agency Operations, Suzette was responsible for all aspects of start-up and operating an independent insurance agency (part owner) including: managing sales and customer service functions (sales team expectations and projections, conflict management and empowering leadership skills); human resource management (performance reviews, recruiting, benefit administration; employee relations, payroll); marketing of group and individual insurance products; company contracting and licensing; corporate planning and budgeting; trend and profit/loss analysis. 

 Suzette served as a State Licensed Sales Account Manager for sale of health, life, property, and casualty insurance products as a captive agent.  She managed direct sales and service to existing clients or accounts.

Serving as Manager of Human Resources, Suzette’s responsibilities included: employee relations, recruitment, wage and salary administration, annual budget preparation, development and administration of employee benefits.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Arts

Major:  Business Administration

Minor:  Organizational Communications

Emphasis:  Human Resource Management

CONTINUING

EDUCATION

University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

Certified SCRUM Master

Certified SCRUM Practitioner - application submitted and pending

Completing Course work for CQA - Quality Auditor Certification 

Completed PMP Exam Preparation Coursework and Hours

2007-Current – 4H Youth Leader

2009 – Current – Board of Director for Brown County Horse Association

2008 Board of Director (Vice President of Communications) for the PMI – Northeastern Wisconsin Chapter