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Réza Ganjavi's IT Résumé (Program/Project Manager, Management Consultant, Business Analyst, Solution Architect, Programmer-Analyst, Software Engineer)
Reza (Ray) Ganjavi, MBA, BSCS, BA Phil
Magna cum laude · Dean’s Honors · Phi Kappa Phi · Alpha Gamma Sigma
Career Snapshot
· Professional career began at age 21 as Software Engineer in California, holding double-bachelors with high honors in Computer Science and Philosophy. Obtained an MBA part time while working full time.
· Served world-class companies as Program Manager, Project Manager, Senior Business Analyst, Team Leader, Senior Programmer/Analyst, Systems Consultant, Senior Consultant, Solution Architect, Software Engineer.
Senior Program/Project Manager, Management Consultant
· Delivered very successful high-profile programs and projects, on-time, on-budget, in top quality, and to utmost customer satisfaction. Managed budgets of up to $40 million, and teams of up to 80 persons sometimes located in 10 global locations, in highly complex, multi-disciplinary, transformative, regulatory environments.
· End-to-end program/project experience. Governance, plan, forecast, budget, scope, schedule, track/report, quality control/test/review-boards, support/operating models, steering committees, audit, legal, compliance, regulatory-affairs, change management, communications, training.
· Provided consulting for management of billion-dollar companies.
· Extensive experience in regulatory environments, compliance processes and standards, IT Security (Identity and Access Management(IAM), Data Protection, Application Security…), Digital/Enterprise Content/Document Management, Enterprise Resource Planning.
· Extensive experience in vendor relationship management, RFI/RFP, contract negotiations, outsourcing.
· Solid customer facing experience and global senior stakeholder relationship management (e.g. C-level).
· Well versed in all leading methodologies including Agile/Scrum.
Senior Business Analyst With Solid Analytic And Technical Foundation (Business Analyst, Solution Architect, Software Engineer)
· Insightful business analyst, BA team leader, requirements engineer, systems analyst, with strong analytical, synthesizing, conceptual mindset. Business needs-focused approach to provide successful technological and/or business-process solutions which ensure successful adoption.
· Experienced solution architect: translating requirements into solution vision and system specifications.
· Extensive experience as a software engineer, programmer/analyst. Reputed in early career as a hotshot programmer.
Excellent Soft Skills
· Excellent communication skills, relationship skills. Analytic, insightful, problem dissolver. Highly skilled in negotiation, persuasion/influencing, facilitation, coaching, teaching, conflict resolution.
· Outstanding skills I leadership and building effective, motivated, high-performant teams in a spirit of integrity, trust, cooperation, transparency, open communications, hard work, friendship and fun.
· Strategic, big-picture vision with attention to critical details. Very customer oriented. Flexible & personable. Independent, patient, diplomatic, pragmatic, innovative, persistent, winsome, discreet. Results oriented. Effective in multi-cultural settings; travelled in circa 80 countries. Enthusiastic, "can-do" attitude.
Education
· Master of Business Administration (MBA), GPA: 91%, University of California Irvine (UCI) (consistently ranked among the top business schools in the USA, and top U.S. public universities). Dean’s Honors.
· Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, GPA: 95% · Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, GPA: 99% · Magna Cum Laude (high honors). California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) (ranked among the top U.S. public universities). Dean's Honors.
· Lifetime Honorary Member: Phi Kappa Phi National Collegiate Honor Society (Let the love of learning rule humanity) & Alpha Gamma Sigma California Community College Scholastic Honor Society (Virtuous Character, Knowledge, Good Judgment)
· Studies and practical experience in securities law, cyber law, eDiscovery, intellectual property rights, some areas of corporate law, procedural law, constitutional law, penal law, torts, international / cross-border laws, civil rights.
Professional Experience
· Credit Suisse Group AG
- Credit Suisse – Technical Security Services (Senior Program Manager, Project Manager)
o Program Manager, Data Protection & Compliance. Turned around distressed multimillion-dollar large security program to successful on-time, on-budget delivery including multiple FINMA regulatory audit points. Scope: data leakage control / data loss prevention; restricting cross-border access to CID; PKI automation and strengthening; data classification; infrastructure security compliance and efficiency. Also performed solution architecture, analysis.
o Project Manager, Identity & Access Management (IAM). Managed two external access management projects (legacy/Waterfall and Agile/Scrum). Managed “Improved Database Transferee Controls (SOX / HRIT) project (Sashimi Waterfall). Managed global teams in five time zones.
o Global Cyber Security Taskforce Manager. Managed large regulatory-driven global taskforce to mitigate and reduce attack surface of Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. Streams included remediation of end-user systems, hosting estate, appliances; exception processes; end-of-life (EoL) systems; compensating controls; communications (Regulators, C-level executives, vendors, clients), business continuity / emergency response.
o Successfully managed relationships with cross-functional, senior global stakeholder and vendors.
- Credit Suisse – Corporate Services Technology / Common Platform & Domain Architecture / Risk, Finance, Corporate IT Systems (Program / Project Manager, HR/IT, SOX Compliance)
o Successfully managed a high-profile global HR/IT process transformation / onboarding project consisting over 80 resources in 10 locations, 5 time-zones, to transform the global IT provisioning process, improve controls, streamline and automate access management and HR processes, implement organizational change management. Successfully deployed to around 10,000 internal users.
o Solved a long-term problem by improving performance from 72 hours down to 7 minutes (near-real-time) resulting in major efficiency gain which yielded numerous complements from the Group CIO and other senior executives; the project was featured as a major success in the bank’s internal newsletter.
o Successfully managed implementation of new Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulatory audit requirements.
o Managed a business continuity taskforce which successfully fulfilled urgent contingency planning requests.
- Credit Suisse – Corporate Real Estate Services Technology (Project Manager). Managed an integration/implementation project as a critical deliverable for the new iDesktop, rolled out to tens of thousands of internal users. Utilized Garaio’s Meeting Room Management System integrated with voice and video conferencing. Managed offshore Quality Assurance team. Liaised with Legal & Compliance on multi-national, cross-border compliance laws. Vendor relationship management.
· Credit Suisse – Private Banking (Senior Project Manager, Business Analyst)
o Led effort to evaluate and establish a new Document Management/ECM standard for branch offices.
o Managed ECM/DMS application development by team of local and offshore resources.
o Analyzed Wealth Management and Legal & Compliance requirements. Topics included client reporting, portfolio management, financial crime compliance (transaction monitoring, fraud, client screening), know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), cross-border regulations.
o Vendor relationship management. Negotiated a contract with IBM which saved the bank over $100k.
o Managed schedules and budget; stakeholder relationships, senior-level politics, risk analysis, training, organizational change management (OCM), service level agreements (SLA), operating models; technical and architectural input.
· UBS Group AG – Group IT Security Engineering (Project Manager, Lead Business Analyst)
o Project Manager / Lead BA for a strategic secure external communication solution driven by Security Engineering. Successful senior stakeholder relationship management across all major Divisions, i.e., Wealth Management, Asset Management, Investment Banking, Corporate Centre, Personal & Corporate Banking, WM Americas. Obtained agreement on one set of requirements, despite sometimes clashing demands. Upon joining, transformed distressed relationships with key, demanding stakeholders, and various vendors.
o Engaged in design activities, e.g., authentication and delivery methods, technical risk assessment, key management, integration into existing ecosystem, single sign-on, identity management, authentication, federation, e-banking, output management, cross-border/regulatory/legal/compliance.
o Managed vendor relationships, RFI/RFP due diligence, PoC coordination, on-prem vs. SaaS/Cloud-based research.
o Led team of BAs in gathering and translation of requirements into solution vision and system specs.
· Zurich Insurance Group / Financial Services (Infrastructure Project Manager, DMS/ECM Infrastructure Services). Managed several highly complex, long-term infrastructure & integration projects. Responsible for planning, executing, development, testing, operational readiness (OR), monitoring, data analytics, change control (CRB), management reporting, vendor relationship management, service level agreements (SLA), operating models. Managed a large pool of internal and external resources. Achieved a high-degree of customer satisfaction by delivering projects on time, within budget.
· United Nations / World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (Management Consultant, Project Manager, Lead BA). Managed analysis, design, development, testing, and infrastructure streams of a $40M patent process automation ECM/DMS project.
· Roche (F. Hoffmann-La Roche) / International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (Senior Program Manager). Extreme Project Management (XPM), agile analysis, Learning Management System (LMS) solution for cancer care.
· Xerox Global Services / Xerox Industry Solutions & Services (Project Manager, Senior Advisor). Project management, analysis, ECM/DMS/BPR/BPM, solution architecture, alliance management, pre-sales consulting, feasibility studies, RFI/RFP, market research, competitive analysis.
o ABN AMRO (Senior Consultant, Business Analyst). Consulting in international transfers and trade finance, records information management (RIM), domestic transfers, SWIFT, credit risk, treasury back office, custody, cash management, multi-currency accounting, forex processing. Recommended business and technical solutions to streamline and improve processes. Filenet ECM/DMS.
o Nestlé (Management Consultant, Project Manager) for Nestec’s global ECM initiative (Documentum, Filenet ECM/DMS). Partnered with McKinsey to advise senior management. Oversaw implementation team (PWC). Engaged in analysis, design, architecture, change management, taxonomy, migration, communications, training, user-support.
o Sunrise Communications (Project Manager, Senior Consultant). Pre-sales, vendor management, implementation, rollout of imaging/workflow/COLD system.
o ING Baring (Senior Consultant) – ECM/DMS, SAP ERP integration, Electronic Document & Records Management (EDRM) consulting.
o Nationale Nederlanden (Senior Consultant) – Insurance underwriting imaging, workflow consulting.
· Documentum / OpenText
o Citigroup / Citibank (Project Manager). Managed development of an Equity Research & Trading CRM solution. Also performed business analysis, and senior stakeholder management in both IT and Business. Documentum DMS/ECM.
o Lazard Asset Management (Project Manager, Business Analyst). Managed the development of bank’s first web-based, customer facing, financial content management and information distribution system. Transitioned development from local to off-shore. Transformed the account into a happy customer. Documentum DMS/ECM.
· Filenet / IBM
o Sasol Petrochemicals, South Africa (Project Manager, Business Analyst, Solution Architect). Successfully turned around a distressed Filent DMS project upon taking over as a PM, BA, SA, developer. Overhauled the existing architecture, facilitated communications with customer and management, boosted team morale. Successfully delivered to customer’s full satisfaction.
o Sanlam (South African National Life Assurance) (Senior Consultant). Object Oriented design and development of insurance underwriting digital content management / workflow pilot that led to a 1200 seat sale. Filenet ECM.
o Pictet & Cie. Banquiers (Senior Consultant). Document management DMS consulting at an elite Swiss private bank.
o National Bank of Liechtenstein (LLB) (Senior Consultant). Reengineered client reporting algorithms which improved performance by sixty times (from 30min to 30sec). Facilitated a million dollar sale (Filenet imaging/workflow platform).
o Standard Chartered Bank (Account Manager, Project Manager, Business Analyst). Consulting in client relations, asset management, advisory services, credit risk, lending operations. Engaged in architecture, business process reengineering/management (BPR/BPM) modeling, vendor management, pricing/negotiation. Turned around a distressed client into a successful happy account. Filenet ECM/DMS.
o Los Angeles County Courts (Systems Consultant, Programmer/Analyst). Analysis, workflow programming, imaging, traffic ticket processing application.
o Los Angeles County Department of Water & Power (Systems Consultant, Programmer/Analyst). Accounts Payable document management development.
o US Computer Services / International Billing Services / Cable Data (Systems Consultant, Programmer/Analyst). Analysis, design and development of a telecom billing customer service imaging/workflow/COLD solution for the largest user of the US Postal Service.
o Swiss Federal Office of Information Technology, Systems and Telecommunication (Bundesamt für Informatik und Telekommunikation). (Senior Consultant). ECM/DMS.
o Helvetia Insurance (Senior Consultant) – Provided consulting on storage & retrieval and record management, DDMS/EDMS systems.
o Thurgauer Kantonalbank (TKB) (Senior Consultant) – Consulting on document storage and retrieval solutions.
o Santa Monica Police Department (Systems Consultant, Trainer). Workflow, imaging, records info management (RIM), training of police detectives in using IT systems.
o Novartis / Sandoz – Provided consulting on a Filenet based ECM/DMS solution.
o Italian Ministry of Finance – Document management consulting
o UBS – Pre-sales analysis/consulting which facilitated a large Filenet solution sale.
o Filenet Corporation USA, Filenet UK (Senior MIS Programmer Analyst, Systems Consultant). Consistently exceeded performance objectives and was termed a hotshot programmer/analyst. Analysis of real IT needs (vs. wants), design, programming, support, training, project management, feasibility analysis, RFI/RFP, BPR, DMS, ECM. ERP customizations: Manufacturing, Operations Management, Accounting, Marketing, Sales Admin, Customer Service, HR. Pre-sales consulting, account management.
o Brine SA, Elsag Baily (ABB) Switzerland (Senior Consultant). Analysis, pre-sales, development, feasibility studies, RFI/RFP, DMS, ECM, TDMS, document management, imaging, workflow. Project management, analysis, supplier management.
· Cullinet Software / CA Technologies (Programmer Analyst, VAX Software Specialist). Designed, developed, maintained multi-platform (DEC, IBM, DG) large scale project & portfolio management (PPM) software.
· Silicon Valley Group / Thermco Systems / Allegheny International (Software Engineer). Designed, programmed, tested, integrated, demoed real-time command & control, and process automation / robotic systems software for the R&D department of the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductor fabrication diffusion furnaces.
Other Experience
· Certified investigative journalist: conducted major investigations and wrote substantial investigative reports on a variety of topics with a focus on ethics and law. Led analysis and investigation taskforces.
· Have written and published over 300 essays, short pieces, articles, analysis, critics, investigative report, on a variety of topics including consumer advocacy and civil rights.
· As a prose plaintiff, I won two big cases against Swiss national broadcaster (SRF) which obliged it to respect the media law and report fairly and accurately to the public. The court forced SRF to delete infringing content. Won a case against Apple Computer. Litigated a major case against anonymous gang cyber stalkers to success, identifying each one through intense and very complex e-Discovery. And sought and found justice in other cases where my constitutional rights were violated.
· Produced two best-selling Classical Guitar albums in Switzerland (performer, arranger, recording engineer, editor, graphics, distribution…), together with a team of top Swiss classical musicians which I assembled. Produced a 3rd classical guitar album for Angelo Colone performing music of the celebrated Angelo Gilardino.
· Conception and coordination of a major scientific letter endorsed by over 20 top experts in RF-EMR, addressed to the Swiss Federal Council.
· Produced a major documentary on RF-EMR pollution.
· Spearheaded research & analysis of abusive advanced stock/option strategies (reverse conversions) for FINRA enforcements.
· Investigated several sham businesses and made regulatory reports, e.g., to the USA Federal Trade Commission.
· As a human helper, provided coaching for troubled youngsters in a number of critical cases which helped avert suicides, and helped them beat their addictions (e.g. cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, toxic relationships, gaming addiction, cult-victims) and have a happy life. Also helped a number of adults with psychological problems, relationship problems, and family issues, teenager issues, motivation, addictions.
· Aside from professional engagements listed above, provided consultancy or advice to the following entities in health sciences, technology, and non-profit sectors, e.g., in organizational behavior, information technology, strategy, financial markets, investor relations, corporate communications, social media, data analytics, governance, accountability, customer experience: Dendreon, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, GlycoMimetics, Arena Pharmaceuticals, BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Cognition Therapeutics, Eisai, Foamix / Vyne Therapeutics, Karyopharm Therapeutics, Sangamo Therapeutics, Eargo, Zosano, Avinger, Lucent Technologies, Forgent Networks (Asure Software), EON Communications, Sun Microsystems, JPMorgan Chase, Beacon Power, The Metals Company, Earthing Institute, Friedrich Grohe, Krishnamurti Foundation America / Trust (KFA/KFT), Oak Grove School, Brockwood Park School, An international flooring manufacturer, a software startup, garment retail, culinary business, philanthropy.
· Formed several music groups in a variety of genres.
· Held discussions with several Medical Doctors and PhDs on a variety of topics. Videos available on YouTube.
· Gave speech at the FDA Advisory Committee (quoted by New York Times).
· Served as Board Member: IBM Filenet Reunion Committee, Ojai Retreat / Cultural Center, ASK ERP user group, Orange County Guitar Circle, New York Guitar Circle (founding member).
· Coached PHD students to successful completion.
· Designated acting election attorney. Election precinct manager (coordination, voter outreach, canvasing, phone bank) – won the elections.
· Informal legal consultation for various entities including very successful online retailer; and fraud investigation.
· Owned successful businesses as a teenager. And also held part time jobs, e.g. as a college music laboratory assistant, and supermarket cashier during a holiday.
· Taught guitar, bass, programming, yoga, Feldenkrais Method, Alexander Technique, drums, math, music theory, English, philosophy, stress management.
· Volunteer, World Civil Society Forum (Editor), Cancer & Environment Research Foundation, Films for the Earth, Fantoche, various non-profit entities.
· Professional journalism in biotech investment research.
· As activist investor leader played key role in ousting two non-performing public company CEOs.
· Provided research and consulting in various business deals, e.g. real estate, that saved my friends hundreds of thousands of dollars.
· Managed social media group with tens of thousands of users.
· Ghost-writer for CEOs, attorneys, a Senator, medical doctors.
· Martial Arts Black Belt.
· Support of numerous charities.
· TripAdvisor Expert Reviewer.
Tools, Methodologies, Training
Project Management Institute (PMP); PRINCE2; Six Sigma; Summit-D; Various System Development Lifecycles (SDLC), Agile/Scrum, Waterfall, Sashimi, Iterative, Lean, RUP/UML, RAD, GxP; RAID (risks, assumptions, issues, dependencies); Service Oriented Architecture (SOA); Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products; Apache Subversion (SVN), Git/GitHub, ClearCase software configuration management (SCM); DevOps processes; Atlassia JIRA, Confluence; Google “G” Suite; Microsoft Office 365, Projects, Sharepoint, Azure cloud computing platform, Visual Studio IDE, .NET, SQL, Active Directory (AD), Privileged Access Management (PAM), Exchange, Advanced Threat Analytics (ATA), Forefront Identity Manager (FIM); Oracle Java EE, J2EE, RDBMS, WebLogic, Peoplesoft HRMS/HRIS, Identity and Access Management Suite (OIAM), Rdb, Business Process Management (BPM); IBM Filenet DMS/ECM/DCM, Rational Unified Process (RUP), ClearCase & ClearQuest, (Lotus) Notes, Domino, Websphere, DB2; DELL VMware, EMC/Documentum; CA Project Portfolio Management, Identity Suite, Advanced Authentication, Single Sign-On; HP Autonomy, CDD/TDMS/DBMS32. Languages: Ada, ALGOL, Basic, C, C++, Datatrieve, DCL, Filenet Workflo, Fortran, HTML, XML, Java, Lisp, VAX MACRO-32, Pascal, PL/1, Python, Shell, SNOBOL, SQL, TI Assembly, Visual Basic; OS: Windows, Unix (Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Ultrix), MacOS X, HP OpenVMS, Android, iOS, VMS, OS/2, MS-DOS, GCOS (Honeywell), NOS (CDC), Pick, RSX-11M, RSTS/E, TI/TMS. BYOD. Experience with Infrastructure/Platform/Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). Experience with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, including AI programming. Familiar with Blockchain, Nexus, Artifactory, iManage, Sage 50&300. Mozilla open source contributor.
Personal, References
· Hobbies: Classical guitar playing, singing, writing, sports.
· Biography appears in Who’s Who Worldwide, Who’s Who in California, Community Leaders of America, Men of Achievement, Five Thousand Personalities of the World.
· Credit rating: “Excellent creditworthiness; Ranks higher than 98% of consumers”. Credit Category: “Excellent” and “Exceptional”.
· Stellar professional, academic, and personal references available. See the Testimonials section of www.rezamusic.com (direct link: https://www.rezamusic.com/testimonials).