Debrah Tobin

20+ years of project & program management experience with a consistent track record of successfully leading & delivering projects on time and under budget. 
A pragmatic problem solver skilled in strategic planning, crisis resolution and management of complex projects while maintaining positive stakeholder relations.

Managed the end-to-end RFP response process to ensure all expectations, actions, and timelines are understood and met. 

Managed delivery of, services of strategic enterprise applications and solutions and subsequent releases of client server and e-business solution to replace legacy systems (Group, Individual and Pensions). Implemented a suite of healthcare and insurance administration applicationsdesigned to simplify the administration of complex managed care and long-term insurance products. 

Responsible for the Business transformation processes to accommodate the new technology. Managed the alignment of Business Operations across the enterprise.  Provided strategic advice and supported an inter-territory advisory council made up of senior management and Business executives

Manulife Financial - Business & Technology Transformation - E-Business – Program Diretor April 2000 – August 2001

Recruited to upgrade and replace obsolete technologies with an enterprise applications/solution at this world-class financial organization with more than 4000 users in several locations. Hire, train, develop and lead a 15-person technical team and 20-person business team. Managed a $12 million capital budget and a $3 million operating budget. Development using Agile /waterfall methodology.Scope of position was expansive and included departmental direction and full design, installation, engineering, implementation, support, training, administration and management authority for: Lan/Wan Network Services, Applications Systems, Web/Internet Design & Operations, PC Desktop Systems, Unix Systems Administration and Database Administration.  

Bell Mobility – Program Manager - April 1995 - April 2000

Y2K   – Program Manager, SAP Implementation (FI, CO, HR) – - Program Manager & Billing Systems– Project Manager

Included IFRS reporting.

Program Manager Call Center: Responsible for the creation of a business development plan focused on the call center’s objectives, goals, financial information, milestones, and methods to measure progress. Responsible for the individual agent development plan were included as subsections. Needed to ensure: Engagement and collaboration of all key stakeholders, both internal and external to address the following components: Growth and scaling opportunities, Budgets for hiring, tech, operational costs, and professional development, financial goals, KPIs and milestones, Timelines and marketing objectives.

Professional Designations/Certifications/Training: Agile SCRUM Bootcamp training; Six-Sigma Training

EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS

2021 (SASM) SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master 5.1

2020 (CAL1) Certified Agile Leader 1, Scrum Alliance (Shift 314)

2017 (CSM) Certified Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance

2015  Scrum & Kanban Training - Berteig Consulting

2011  Advanced Project Management – Project Auditing – PMI certified course

2008 ITIL v3 Foundation - Information Technology Infrastructure Library Certification

1978 Bachelor of Administration & Commercial Studies combined with Economics & Computer Science

– York University

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:

• Successfully controlled & managed projects under budget & on time; project budgets up to $40 million
• Successfully planned, coordinated and delivered complex releases of “challenged” regulatory projects s on time and under budget to meet regulatory deadlines.
• Successfully led matrixed teams of one hundred plus cross–functional resources across four lines of business including vendors, subject matter experts, onshore and offshore development, and QA teams
• Delivered critical high-profile projects within expedited time frames while meeting all business deliverables, resulting in millions of dollars of business benefit and no customer downtime during business hours.
• Overhauled agile, project & release management methodology to streamline processes across departments and reduce overall project management lifecycle for all projects.
• Managed vendor relationships including contract management, change control & execution for contracts. 
• Managed contract negotiations with client’s key strategic vendor leading a cross functional team reporting to VPs & senior leadership
• Entrusted with working on classified projects for senior leadership requiring the highest levels of discretion & impartiality. Successfully negotiated to reallocate all project resources back into business.
• Facilitated & improved collaboration between business functional teams, project work streams, IT departments, vendors & leadership through team building, excellent communication & relationship management.
• Led programs through the transformation to adopt agile methodologies including Scrum, SAFE
• Created and maintained JIRA dashboards for release and status reporting. 
• Removed blockers between teams, resourcing limitations and scope/release sequencing.
• Planning, coordination, and execution of tasks and resources to achieve call center objectives within the call center environment. Engagement & collaboration of all internal & external stakeholders. Identification and implementation of call center pillars: Getting Connected, Process Orchestration, Knowledge & Insight, and Resource Management.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Agile, Kanban & Waterfall Software Development 

Vendor Management 

Strategic & Operational Planning 

Budgeting & Financial Reporting

Quality Assurance & Testing

Crisis Management & Conflict Resolution

Stakeholder Influencing & Negotiating

Program & Release Management

Project Management Office 

Resource Management 

Decision Making & Problem Solving

Communications & Consensus Building

Risk Analysis & Management 

Project Methodology

Infrastructure

Data Centre Migration

VP & CIO Level Stakeholder Management

LANGUAGES SPOKEN: English   

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 

Scotiabank – Acquisition/Merger Program Director - December 2017 – Present

Budget: $40M, Team: 250 members - included internal/external stakeholders (vendors), onshore/offshore

Engaged for transformation implementation road map, implementing and modernizing existing back-office business processes in the HR, Finance, Billing, Customer Care and Call Center, Risk, Fraud & Collections, AML, Operations, Product, IT, Marketing and Procurement area on the client’s platform. Accountable to manage Business & Technology transformation and divestiture planning and execution. Directed, managed, and coordinated team members including other Project Managers, Business and Technology resources, user groups, internal and external consultants and contractors, as well as vendors and external regulatory organizations with an ability to facilitate communication between key stakeholders efficiently and effectively. Managed projects using multiple methodologies (waterfall, hybrid, agile). Strategic planning to integrate Peoplesoft HR and Finance solution, including and IFRS reporting, with channels including decommissioning legacy systems/processes for HR and Finance processes. Addressed Big Data challenges to align with specific Business Goals. 

BMO- Program Director - February 2014 – November 2017

Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) & Cyber Security – Budget 25M

• Implemented an Enterprise Outlook Plug-In in partnership with Microsoft and to add Mobile and remote Outlook Web Access functionality. Scope included remediation of data integrity issues in the Enterprise CASL database and delivery of customer consent expiry. Managed projects using multiple methodologies (waterfall, hybrid, agile). Led program through the transformation to adopt agile methodologies including Scrum and Kanban
• Received commendations from senior management for leadership in the successful delivery of critical regulatory project prior to deadlines maintaining excellent client relations and showing exceptional flexibility in leading the end-to-end integration testing of all these components
• Led daily ‘Scrum of Scrums’ cross program meeting (20-30 resources) to help remove blockers across the program
• Worked with program leadership, infrastructure, and product owners for strategic monthly release planning across the program with business critical teams & led all testing teams (Integration, Load, UAT) to help plan/execute sprint and release testing
• Addressed Big Data challenges to align with specific Business Goals. 
• Coordinated AdHoc and Regulation driven Penetration Testing enterprise-wide; liaising with security advisors, development teams and both third party and inhouse testing resources. 
• Develop and/or enhance strategies and processes to manage found vulnerabilities and threats for both transactional and marketing/informational web sites. 
• Develop and/or enhance communication model to manage vulnerability remediation with the development and infrastructure support teams in support of risk management practices on behalf of the business owner. 
• Develop and/or enhance reporting to development teams and all levels of management to provide proper tracking and measurement of remediation relative to established objectives 
• Responsible for developing and/or enhancing the strategies and processes to identify, analyze, and communicate application vulnerabilities as per the CISO Directive and published communication process flows. 
• Responsible for adherence to an established process flow that ensures development support teams, infrastructure support teams, and business risk owners implement control measures that effectively mitigate or eliminate the identified risk. 
• Responsible for timely and accurate reporting of all findings to the development teams, appropriate levels of management and the business risk owner. 
• Responsible for scheduling, oversight of execution, and forwarding deliverables to stakeholders and other security teams
• Managed a cyber security program which strengthened the cyber resilience of clients critical business systems, industrial control networks, other key systems, that support transit operations, and their data against an evolving threat environment.

Nesbit Burns Business and Technology Transformation: Budget - 35M. Managed the alignment of Business Operations across all offices.  Also provided strategic advice and supported an inter-territory advisory council made up of territory Regionals Managers and Senior Nesbitt and BMO Executives. The scope of this initiative included building the foundation for a 4-6 year strategic transformation of the business.  The primary goal was to create the new leadership structure that will execute the longer term transformational change. Managed projects using multiple methodologies (waterfall, hybrid, agile)

TD- Program Director- Budget 35M; Strategic Platform Delivery, North American Credit Cards, TD Bank Group - May 2013 – February 2014

Responsible for leading and supporting the effective and efficient design, planning, control, quality assurance, delivery and support of mission critical, on-line, real-time financial, enterprise applications and solutions  that support Credit Card Line Of Business, with the goal of meeting and exceeding the clients’ needs. Addressed Big Data challenges to align with specific Business Goals. 

45 systems changed or uplifted across multiple technology segments; Delivered to 1,127 BRD Requirements in support of 600 Phone Channel and Credit Centre staff increase;29 and 34 Business technology Workstreams, both onshore and offshore (50 resources), with over 1200 people strong to support this delivery; 39 technology related vendors to ensure readiness for system changes and volume stability;79 systems involved including .Net/SOA ,in getting credit card in a customer’s hands and supporting operations; system testing these systems with key vendors, representing over 15,000 test cases

BMO - Program Director - Budget 35M - November 2011 – April 2013 

1. Took over “challenged project” established plan with milestones and successfully completed project through Agile /waterfall methodology on schedule and budget. Led the introduction of adviceDirect and played a key role in establishing InvestorLine’s position as the most innovative firm in the direct brokerage industry in Canada. adviceDirect is an innovative service that acts as a virtual investment advisor, providing buy and sell recommendations based on an investor's profile that is tailored specifically for his or her goals, time frame and risk tolerance.

Received commendations from senior management for leadership in the successful delivery of critical project prior to deadlines maintaining excellent client relations and showing exceptional flexibility in leading the end-to-end integration testing of all these components. Addressed Big Data challenges to align with specific Business Goals. 

Recruited to manage the implementation of Mortgage Insurance.  Lead 29 technology workstreams through the SDLC using Agile /waterfall methodology. Co-managed 22 Business workstreams. Managed an $18 million capital budget. Scope of position was expansive and included departmental direction and full design, installation, engineering, implementation, support, training, administration and management authority. Vendor Management was extensive, including Symcor for Statement management.  

Rogers Wireless Inc. – Budget – 35M - Program Director Dec. 2008 –October 2011

Liaised with senior leadership on strategic initiatives and managed projects of high business risk, size and complexity for all business functions including global implementations and using diverse technologies to mitigate risk to the firm. 

Participated in the planning and managing of the implementation of Business and Technology Transformation, Amdocs 7.1, across all platforms (back end and front end).  Responsible for all areas of Business Solution. Manage teams of 50 to 250 from Business, IT both onshore and offshore (250 resources),,retail stores,  credit operations, revenue assurance, sales/marketing, customer care, NTSD, originations, servicing, finance, controls and treasury areas, including multiple vendors and multiple technical platforms (Desktop, NT, Unix, AS400, and Mainframe).   Part of new PMO creation and implementation of procedures. Extensive vendor management. Experience managing onshore/offshore vendor development. Supported new infrastructure build through analysis, design, testing and implementation. 

Migrated support activities to offshore to achieve operating targets, reduce staff complement in Canada. 

Worked with multiple vendors (onshore and offshore) throughout program lifecycle.   

SunLife –Toronto, Ontario June 2006-Dec. 2008 - AML/ATF – Program Director

Responsible to deliver a new Global Compliance Surveillance System to 5 Asian countries, Canada and the US. Its product models support trade surveillance, employee monitoring, control room, AML, etc. Includes new data feed development & implementation (approx. 60 interfaces), data transformation to a vendor provided data model. Area of responsibility included IT, vendor and business deliverables as they relate to project scheduling, budgets, resource and stakeholder management. 

Under took Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity exercises and security penetration tests prior to implementation.

Delivered the $22 million dollar program on time and under budget.

CIBC Mortgages/Lending Inc.–Senior Project Manager       Jan. 2005 – June 2006

Managed teams of 10 to 250 from business, IT, marketing, originations, servicing, finance, and treasury areas, including vendors and multiple technical platforms (Desktop, NT, Unix, AS400, and Mainframe).   15 projects implemented on time and on budget ($0.4 to $20 million). Part of new PMO creation, MS Project Enterprise pilot and implementation of procedures. Extensive vendor management.  Experience managing offshore development.

Equitable Life –- Program Director - Business and Technology Transformation -Sept.2001 – Jan. 2005

Managed the end-to-end RFP response process to ensure all expectations, actions, and timelines are understood and met. 

Managed delivery of, services of strategic enterprise applications and solutions and subsequent releases of client server and e-business solution to replace legacy systems (Group, Individual and Pensions). Implemented a suite of healthcare and insurance administration applicationsdesigned to simplify the administration of complex managed care and long-term insurance products. 

Responsible for the Business transformation processes to accommodate the new technology. Managed the alignment of Business Operations across the enterprise.  Provided strategic advice and supported an inter-territory advisory council made up of senior management and Business executives

Manulife Financial - Business & Technology Transformation - E-Business – Program Diretor April 2000 – August 2001

Recruited to upgrade and replace obsolete technologies with an enterprise applications/solution at this world-class financial organization with more than 4000 users in several locations. Hire, train, develop and lead a 15-person technical team and 20-person business team. Managed a $12 million capital budget and a $3 million operating budget. Development using Agile /waterfall methodology.Scope of position was expansive and included departmental direction and full design, installation, engineering, implementation, support, training, administration and management authority for: Lan/Wan Network Services, Applications Systems, Web/Internet Design & Operations, PC Desktop Systems, Unix Systems Administration and Database Administration.  

Bell Mobility – Program Manager - April 1995 - April 2000

Y2K   – Program Manager, SAP Implementation (FI, CO, HR) – - Program Manager & Billing Systems– Project Manager

Included IFRS reporting.

Program Manager Call Center: Responsible for the creation of a business development plan focused on the call center’s objectives, goals, financial information, milestones, and methods to measure progress. Responsible for the individual agent development plan were included as subsections. Needed to ensure: Engagement and collaboration of all key stakeholders, both internal and external to address the following components: Growth and scaling opportunities, Budgets for hiring, tech, operational costs, and professional development, financial goals, KPIs and milestones, Timelines and marketing objectives.

Professional Designations/Certifications/Training: Agile SCRUM Bootcamp training; Six-Sigma Training

EDUCATION/CERTIFICATIONS

2021 (SASM) SAFe® Advanced Scrum Master 5.1

2020 (CAL1) Certified Agile Leader 1, Scrum Alliance (Shift 314)

2017 (CSM) Certified Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance

2015  Scrum & Kanban Training - Berteig Consulting

2011  Advanced Project Management – Project Auditing – PMI certified course

2008 ITIL v3 Foundation - Information Technology Infrastructure Library Certification

1978 Bachelor of Administration & Commercial Studies combined with Economics & Computer Science

– York University

MBA  university of Toronto