Brian P. Carolan
Seaford
Summary
Dynamic, results-driven executive with a proven track record in steering complex financial and IT operations toward exceptional business outcomes. Strong business acumen and entrepreneurial instincts enable effective oversight of diverse initiatives and management of multiple IT and finance projects. Concept-to-execution leader skilled in defining project requirements and crafting strategic plans that ensure timely delivery, budget adherence, and alignment with overarching business goals. Renowned for fostering positive relationships across all organizational levels through effective communication and interpersonal skills.
Overview
18
18
years of professional experience
Work History
IT Director
Leviton
05.2024 - Current
- Responsible for overseeing both Human Resources (HR) and Finance and playing a critical role in shaping and optimizing Leviton’s technology landscape. Responsibilities include strategic planning, system implementation, product management and operational excellence driving innovation, enhancing efficiency, and ensure seamless integration of our financial and HR systems.
- Responsibilities
- System Strategy and Planning:
- Collaborate with senior management to define the IT strategy aligned with business goals.
- Developed roadmaps for HR and Finance systems, considering Oracle EBS, Hyperion, PeopleSoft, and Kronos.
- Identified opportunities for process automation and optimization.
- Lead the implementation, customization, and maintenance of Oracle EBS finance modules, Hyperion, PeopleSoft, and Kronos.
- Oversee data migration, security, and user access controls.
- Collaborate with finance teams to enhance financial processes and reporting capabilities.
- Monitor system performance, resolve issues, and ensure compliance with financial regulations.
- Oversee HRIS (Human Resources Information System) operations.
- Support talent management, payroll, benefits administration, and employee self-service.
- Drive continuous improvement in HR processes through technology solutions.
- Work closely with vendors and external partners to evaluate system enhancements and upgrades.
- Negotiate contracts, manage service-level agreements, and ensure cost-effectiveness.
- Build and lead a high-performing IT team.
- Foster a collaborative environment, mentor team members, and promote professional growth.
Director of Corporate Business IT, Project Management Office (PMO)
AIG
04.2014 - 04.2024
- Serve as the senior director tasked to provide strategic leadership to the Corporate Finance/Business IT Teams, supporting all finance functions, including the monthly/quarterly close processes, reconciliations, budgeting/forecasting, allocations, and reporting. This includes data consistency across the General Ledger, various subsystems such as AP and AR. (These feed the overall reporting tool of Apptio for a comprehensive view of the financials).
- Responsibilities include full support and coordination of systems stability, maintenance, upgrades, troubleshooting, and end user support. I lead the scheduling of monthly releases based on workload in JIRA/RALLY and special projects from Senior Management.
- Coordinate with senior leaders on roadmap planning, implementation, scheduling, and the management of resources (time and cost), to achieve long term success of operations as well as looking to improve the overall user experience.
- Continuous monitoring of systems integration to ensure data consistency and stability across various platforms such as Apptio, Blackline and SAP.
- Managing large initiatives across Finance in all aspects from the requirements, design, testing and implementation. Currently this includes implementing Budgeting and Forecasting into Apptio as well as Total cost of ownership efforts across the Globe into Apptio.
- Lead for integration for onboarding various International regions onto the Apptio platform. This effort is to enable a complete picture of current state financials, including established prorations and allocations.
- Responsible for the application and projects spend management, including development of executive management scorecards and weekly reporting, highlighting the status of the compliance with budgets, burn rates, and forecasts.
- Participate in IT Governance Committee as a senior member.
- Responsible for vendor management and their associated costs and contracts by monitoring and measuring against key metrics.
- Display multitasking skills in fulfilling multiple roles, such as project manager for the deployment of Apptio Financials, Cloud services, information services (IS) total cost of ownership (TCO) and director of finance PMO for TCO and budgeting/forecasting.
Director of Project Management
AT&T Hosting and Application Services
03.2012 - 04.2014
- Facilitated overall strategy and communications between AT&T hosting and application services and large clients with complex hosting solutions for the PeopleSoft Center of Excellence.
- Provided strategic insights and project management for core financial and human resource system implementations and improvements as well as for their respective ancillary systems.
- Drove efforts in the creation and execution of IT governance policies and procedures for AT&T Application teams and external large clients.
- Managed the preparation and distribution of senior-level reports regarding metrics for weekly and month-end presentations.
- Played a vital role as the primary point of contact for compliance and audit requests from internal and external auditors.
- Collaborated closely with key stakeholders comprised of project management teams, senior management, business unit controllers, and IT in overseeing user involvement, documentation, and planning of end-to-end acceptance testing.
- Ensured proper coordination of pre-/post-implementation strategies related to upgrades and enhancements.
- Performed and spearheaded client product road mapping sessions and strategic planning.
Accounting and Application Product Manager
Apollo Management
09.2007 - 01.2012
- Set strategic direction for various areas of finance, accounting, IT, and compliance, including project management and functional roles of data manager, systems architect/administrator, business systems analyst, and IT governance/compliance leader.
- Took charge of handling firm-wide accounting process for the Controllers Group, as well as entire life cycle of application system products.
- Utilized PeopleSoft in maintaining all pertinent financial data, while leading internal and external IT team on system implementation.
- Employed solid industry expertise in conducting various roles and responsibilities such as the following:
- Primary contact person: Ensuring compliance of financial data with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) requirements, as well as for audit inquiries from internal and external auditors.
- Systems and security administrator: Managing all PeopleSoft modules, such as General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Billable/Receivable, Treasury, E-Procurement, Asset Management, Expenses, Benefits and Human Resources.
- Key member of IT Governance Committee: Leading all technology decisions which involved design, budgets, and implementation, as well as managing external vendors and ensuring compliance with set budgets.
- Director for Project Management teams: Spearheading project management efforts for finance and HR applications.
- Cultivated partnership with key stakeholders, which included business unit controllers, HR, IT, and end users in identifying strategic direction and design of applications architecture; creating overarching applications strategy; and aligning with business requirements and enterprise priorities.
- Oversaw the evaluation and conceptualization of business systems by collecting and reviewing data in support of business cases for proposed projects to guarantee compliance of deliverables with system requirements and delivery of maximum benefit for IT investments.
- Held responsibility in monitoring and maintaining senior management reports of projects against cost analysis for internal and external work versus set budgets.
Education
Master of Business Administration - Accounting
St. Joseph’s University
Brooklyn, NYBachelor of Science - Accounting
Molloy University
Rockville Centre, NYBachelor of Arts - Business Management
Molloy University
Rockville Centre, NYSkills
- Strategic IT governance
- PMO Leadership
- Budgeting
- Resource Planning
- Stakeholders Management
- System architecture management
- Process optimization expertise
- Vendor Relations
- Team Building
- Leadership
- Product Management
- Analytical Skills
- Problem-Solving Skills
- Product management
- Strategic planning
- System implementation
- Financial systems management
- Vendor management
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Team leadership
- Project management
- Product roadmaps
- IT strategy development
- HR systems management
- Contract negotiation
Qualifications Summary
Goal-focused, analytical, and accomplished executive with accomplishment-laden experience in providing expert leadership to complex financial and IT operations that drove optimum business outcomes and continuous success., IT Governance and PMO Leadership, Budgeting and Resource Planning, Stakeholders Management, Accounting and System Architecture Oversight, Core Process Design and Improvement, Vendor and Contract Relations, Team Building and Leadership, Product Management, Strong Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills
Timeline
IT Director
Leviton
05.2024 - Current
Director of Corporate Business IT, Project Management Office (PMO)
AIG
04.2014 - 04.2024
Director of Project Management
AT&T Hosting and Application Services
03.2012 - 04.2014
Accounting and Application Product Manager
Apollo Management
09.2007 - 01.2012
Bachelor of Science - Accounting
Molloy University
Bachelor of Arts - Business Management
Molloy University
Master of Business Administration - Accounting
St. Joseph’s University