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RANIA KORT 152 Matthews Farm Rd, Belle Mead, NJ 08502

rania.kort@gmail.com | 609-619-7034 | www.raniakort.com

SUMMARY BIO

Management Consultant and Business Advisor with 20 years of experience helping clients successfully implement business and technology initiatives focused on achieving measurable business results.

A driven leader with both strategic and tactical experience and a track record for successfully driving and leading large scale programs, transformation efforts and process improvement initiatives in complex IT and business environments.

Results-focused senior-level management professional with a unique blend of experience in business, IT management, financial management, relationship management and management consulting experience.

Strong background establishing and running PMOs, operations and delivery while producing high-performance teams Held leadership positions with Big 4 management consulting firm as Managing Director and Associate Partner

KEY PROFICIENCY AREAS

PMO / Program Management Project Management IT / Project Governance

SWOT Analysis/ Business/Project Assessments Strategic Planning

Process Improvement Performance Management

SDLC / PM / PMO / ITIL/ Scrum Methodologies Risk / Quality Management

Change Management/Communication Planning/Training Stakeholder /Vendor Management

Learning Management Web Content Management SUMMARY EXPERIENCE

Leadership - Held leadership positions providing vision and strategic direction to clients, running large scale programs, strategic

projects and establishing the organizational structure that supports the culture for success. Adept at aligning mission, strategy, goals and objectives to business priorities, business processes and bottom line results. Thought-leader with experience driving change, fostering collaboration, and facilitating solutions to complex challenging efforts. Focused on developing simplified frameworks and processes that provide clarity, improve team productivity and create effective engagement with stakeholders.

IT Portfolio PMO /Program Management Established program offices. Conducted analysis of IT portfolios and IT funding allocations to align IT and Business Units with strategic and operational goals focused on revenue-generation, cost reduction and/or improving speed and delivery of IT services. Identified gaps, needed improvements and recommendations to the business and IT planning process, business case development, in-take process, prioritization, project approval and project management processes. Hands-on experience managing PMOs and large-scale programs.

Performance Management - Established best-practice frameworks and developed PMO, project management, SDLC, ITIL BPI

lifecycle processes and structures to support transformation and process improvement efforts. Defined KPIs, project health indicators and metrics that measure success with standardized dashboard reporting and scorecard metrics Developed tools to clearly report on performance goals, progress, accomplishments, risks, actions, issues and decisions.

Resource and Financial Management - Responsible for developing resource plans, IT budgets and timelines for $50+ million programs. Responsible for financial oversight, including tracking capital and operating budget expenditure, compliance and adherence to financial policies and procedures in regulated and non-regulated environments. Negotiated with vendors on contracts and managed third parties on behalf of the client.

Communication /Change Management Built collaborative relationships with client executives, leadership teams and project members from the business and IT. Ensured the governance structure, success measures, processes, timelines and deliverables were clearly defined and aligned to expectations. Developed communication plans and change strategies and drove collaboration with cross-functional teams in matrixed organizations to gain buy-in, ownership and sustainability for adoption.

Application and Infrastructure Management - Solid experience working with enterprise applications and custom developed systems, including financial applications, ERP systems, CRM, LMS and HR systems. Supported and managed infrastructure deployment efforts, IT security initiatives, and AD/Domain migration efforts in global environments.

Facilitation and Training - Facilitated an extensive number of engaging meetings and workshops in strategic planning, project planning, business process mapping, requirements gathering, issue management, status reporting and quality reviews. Highly effective at engaging participants, gaining buy-in, managing conflict, gaining clarity of issues, and reaching decisions.

Team Building - Built high-performance teams through a collaborative approach and led teams of all sizes including executive

stakeholders, steering committee teams, project teams, client staff, my own staff, virtual teams, and offshore teams.

Practice Management - Led a $50 million IT Management consulting practice responsible for P&L and a staff of over 300 consultants with responsibilities including sales, financials, recruiting, skill development, coaching and client delivery.

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WORK HISTORY

Independent Management Consultant (partial list of project work) 2003 - Present

Worked on several projects with the State of New Jersey including setting up and running a multi-year, multi-million dollar federally funded program with the Office of Information Technology. Managed and delivered the program within time budget, scope and quality compliance. Identified and engaged stakeholders across agencies and within the State, Developed and

managed the program plan and worked with the federal program officer to provide the required reporting and to ensure program compliance. Became a trusted advisor to OITs COO and CIO and provided strategic direction, IT support and PM best-practices. Currently serve as program advisor and coach for a mobile agency project with the Motor Vehicle Commission.

Led the global implementation of enterprise- wide performance management and talent management system that required a customized package implementation and complex data migration effort for leading life science and health service organizations

Worked directly with the CIO and the Business Unit VPs and leadership team in the development of a PMO for a New York City based financial services company. Established the framework, mapped ITs current portfolio to corporate goals and investment categories, defined and developed the prioritization and scoping process and developed an implementation plan

Drove the implementation and ERP integration of a Project Portfolio Management Software for a leading NYC hospital to manage their capital programs. Facilitated the process mapping, requirements definition and test planning phase. Managed the budget and resources and was the liaison to the executive team and project sponsors

Responsible for migrating a financial system during a divesture effort under a highly volatile environment. Worked with global stakeholders to ensure all requirements, issues and risks were successfully identified and managed.

Conducted strategic planning sessions with leadership teams in a financial services firm to identify organizational priorities aligned to goals, objectives, performance measures, and a clear structured action plan. Gained buy-in and commitment from all stakeholders. Served as executive coach and advisor to Managing Partner.

Principal - North Highland - Consulting Services 2012 - 2013

Responsible for leading client engagements with responsibilities in managing client relationships, project delivery, account management, and business development

Contributed to the development and execution of strategic priorities, account planning activities and business development efforts focused on achieving growth and deepening expertise for the local consulting office.

Associate Partner - IBM - Business Consulting Services 2002 - 2003

Senior role on IBMs leadership team focused on bringing strategic solutions and integrated services to key clients Responsible for managing client accounts, relationships, vendor relationships and developing staff

Left voluntarily to work on my own after the acquisition of PwC Management Consulting Services

Managing Director - PwC - Management Consulting Services (Coopers & Lybrand prior to merger) 1996 - 2002

Led a successful $50 million IT management consulting practice with 8 direct reports and a staff of over 300 people

Worked with Fortune 100 companies and managed relationships with executives and senior managers at client accounts with responsibilities managing large-scale programs and global IT initiatives in highly complex environments

Established PMOs for clients with supporting organizational structure, governance councils, processes and tools Conducted organizational assessments, identified improvement opportunities and formulated recommendations to clients

Developed business transformation road map and implementation plans and led the role as change agent to clients

Established and implemented program and project management processes, SDLC methodologies and quality standards

Project Management Consultant - Merck 1994-1995

Defined executive needs for a global data warehouse procurement decision support system

Led the implementation efforts from inception through initial roll out

Managed the overall plan to ensure the project was completed on time and within budget

Project Management Consultant - AT&T 1993- 1994

Implemented a financial system for AT&T that processed $2 billion in monthly receivables

Managed the data migration effort, archiving and decommissioning of a legacy general ledger system

Designed and automated a $150 million monthly financial reporting and reconciliation system reducing manual effort by 30%

Managed project plan, project scope, issues, changes, risk and resources

Managed the project team and standardized reporting of cross-functional teams

Ensured performance expectations are agreed to by all internal and external stakeholders SAMPLE LIST OF CLIENTS:

United Parcel Service, AT&T, Lucent, NJ Natural Gas, California State Auto Association, American Eagle Outfitters, Time Warner, Gamestop, Columbia House, MetLife, Prudential, TIAA-CREF Financial Services, New England Financial Services, Waddell & Reed Financial Services, New York Presbyterian, Siemens, University of Pennsylvania Health Systems, ConvaTec, Synthes, Merck, Schering Plough, Bristol Meyers Squibb, State of New Jersey,

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Rania Kort

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EDUCATION

Syracuse University Syracuse, NY

B.S Sociology/Communication M.S Journalism Education

M.A Information Studies

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS

Project Management Certificate - International institute for Learning

Certified Trainer in Project Management - Martin Training

Business Process Improvement Certificate - Total Quality Institute

Scrum Fundamentals

Online Marketing Certified Professional OMCP Trained by Market Motive AWARDS

Outstanding Achievement Award Coopers & Lybrand Solutions through Technology 1997

Outstanding Performance Award PricewaterhouseCoopers Practice Development and Management 1999

SPEAKER/PUBLICATIONS

Selected as the Keynote Speaker for PMI's Annual Symposium. Presented at both international and local management conferences.

Published numerous articles, white papers and ebooks on trending topics related to IT Management, Business Process Improvement, Leadership, Relationship Building strategies, tools and best-practices

For more information, visit www.raniakort.com