Chris Koo

Driven change leader with a history built on operationalizing firm strategies, integrating technology, delivering value-add and quality solutions at high velocity; naturally collaborative in forming cross-divisional partnerships to build integrated and firm-wide solutions; accomplished coach/mentor for both spectrums of strategic thinking and program/project execution; builds high performance teams through on-the-job training, and infusing industry best practices that are tailored to firm culture.

Experience / Brand / Marketing (EBM) Operations

• Implemented executive scorecards / measures to cross-pollinate measures across departments, while aligning all associates & leaders to "what does winning look like" across EBM.
• Led annual planning that consolidated objectives across the three "sleeves" of Experience, Brand and Marketing, and produced objective prioritization (using WSJF) to make trade-offs to align with the firm's highest priorities, while utilizing our 345 resources to maximum effectiveness.
• Stood up monthly-business-reviews (MBRs) across all efforts and workstreams in Growth Marketing, with emphasis on how to make cross-sleeve and cross-divisional connections during execution.
• Managed head-count for all of EBM, including the stand-up of a new headcount approval process with EBM's senior leadership team (SLT); automated approval workflows to streamline decision-making. Worked along side Finance, Resource Management, and Operating Committee (OC) to assess trade-offs between associate headcount, contingent workforce, and 3rd party consultation to meet firm priority needs.
• Led Colleague Engagement Survey (CES) action planning to continue to elevate engagement, belonging, growth, and enablement across all EBM sleeves. This has led to 92% engagement, 92% Growth, and 96% Leadership Effectiveness indices for EBM Ops.
• Led Talent Review

Portfolio Management

• Partnered with Branch Development (BD) Business Planning leaders to create a BD prioritization process and tools; guided BD directors / liaisons through adoption of in-take processes and new workflows to rank project alignment by BD objectives / measures.
• Partnered with IS to create Resource Capacity / Demand management processes / tools (e.g., PPM) for Centralized Support (CS), and continuing to role out to BD departments; created best-practices for time-tracking and time allocation for non-IS divisions.
• Created BD Project Portfolio Dashboard that shows project contributions to BD Firm and BD objectives / measures, resource utilization, resource gaps, and key risks.
• Served as co-lead for Firm Project Interdependencies working group to shape Firm PMO Execution Order based on hard / soft deliverable dependencies.

Strategic Operationalization:

• Experienced working across shared-services disciplines (e.g., Design Thinking, Operational Excellence, Portfolio / Project Management, Quality Assurance, Change Management) to leverage strengths in creating holistic solutions for divisional and firm strategies - e.g., BD Centralized Support Roles, Market Tailored Growth approach, Improved Branch Capacity approach.
• One of five leaders who originally founded the Edward Jones IS PMO; grew the department from 5 to 50+ people.
• Conceived and led the PMO Strategic Support department with the focus on serving divisional leaders firm-wide in the alignment of strategic objectives, and delivering results quickly through project execution.
• Conceived the Branch Impact Map, used today by Performance Strategies Group (PSG) to assess timing, sequencing, and priorities of firm-wide deliverables, and their impacts on branch adoption.
• Determined execution approach to operationalize Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Standard retirement solutions; formed Execution Oversight strategic structure that enabled quick decision-making and impact assessments in a dynamically changing and just-in-time environment; 6 client solutions, 32 projects, $15M, 850+ team members, 24,000 requirements, 43,000 test plans; delivered in 8 months - ensures Edward Jones compliance with DOL Fiduciary Standard ruling for retirement accounts, and improved branch experience in serving the clients' best interests. Employed highly iterative and dynamic decision-making methods to multiple branch roll-out scenarios and contingency plans.
• Led multi-year strategic planning sessions with PMO leaders and associates; brainstormed Survey Feedback Action (SFA) brutal facts; SWOT analysis; vision/mission/objectives alignment; prioritization of PMO strategic objectives.
• Produced executive-level dashboards for complex programs (e.g., DOL, Advisory Solutions) to communicate key highlights, issues/risks, and dependencies to Sr. leaders across divisions.

Leadership Development

• Currently, leading Branch Insights & Learning Support (BILS) Development Co-Create to increase the effectiveness of BILS associate and leadership growth.
• Chaired Asian Business Resource Group (BRG) from 2016-2018, resulting in 3 pillar awards, including Finalist for Marketplace Visibility, and Runner-Up for Best Chair.
• Instilled "purpose-driven" development goals and personal branding for every PL in the department; meshed personal passions with work-related objectives and goals to increase engagement.
• Mentored 50+ associates and leaders throughout Jones in leadership competencies and project management.
• Coached edwardjones.com and careers.com team on Agile delivery on website redesign; subsequently, Jones won awards for best careers site design.
• Coached Web Order Entry team on strategic approach and delivery - this was the first web-based Trades system rolled out to branches, developed under the Agile project life cycle methodology; coached the project team on "just-in-time" requirements, and the successful delivery of incremental and value-added deliverables; received very positive feedback from branches on how their workflow improved considerably.
• Developed a PMO "on-the-job" coaching / mentoring model scalable to 50+ PLs across the firm.
• Coached IS Directors, Department Leaders, Team Leaders, and associates on subject matter expert (SME) development best practices; created SME development tools for leaders, which aided in the prioritization of efforts based on SME bottlenecks.

Program/Project Delivery:

• Delivered DOL changes to Home Office and branches - 6 client solutions, 32 projects, $15M, 850+ team members, 24,000 requirements, 43,000 test plans; delivered in 8 months - ensures Edward Jones compliance with DOL Fiduciary Standard ruling for retirement accounts, and improved branch experience in serving the clients' best interests. Employed highly iterative and dynamic decision-making methods to multiple branch roll-out scenarios and contingency plans.
• Delivered Advisory Solutions - most influential fee-based product in the history of Edward Jones; now ranked #2 in advisory fee-based AUC.
• Delivered Global New Account (GNA) - the first web-based account opening / maintenance system that allows branches to treat clients as "people," and not "accounts"; employed the latest technology framework for branch desktop users; this system is used globally in Canada and the US today.
• Delivered New Retirement Products - SEP, SIMPLE, Owner-K.
• Delivered Re-Design of Customer Statements - Edward Jones won multiple awards for the best client statement in the industry.

Professional Certifications:

• Series 7
• Product Management (Stanford Certification)
• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• SAFe (Scaed Agile Framework)
• Change Management (Prosci)
• Design Practitioner (IBM Design Thinking Badge)
• Toastmasters - Competent Communicator; 1st place Motivational Speech district award

Professional Trainer / Instructor:

• Coached 60+ project leaders across divisions at Edward Jones
• Mentored 30+ mentees on leadership, career growth, diversity/equity/inclusion
• Edward Jones Project Management Study Series
• Agile / Iterative Methodologies - Edward Jones, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), American Society for Quality (ASQ), Scott Air Force Base
• Edward Jones Project Management Symposiums
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville - Project Management Symposiums

Organizations

• Asian Business Resource Group (ABRG) - Past Co-Chair
• St. Louis Children's Choirs (SLCC) - Board President
• St. Louis Chinese Gospel Church - Elder
• Mentors 4 College - Mentor / Advisory Committee Member

Hobbies

• "Life Coach" for 4 Daughters
• Triathlons, Marathons, Adventure Races, Obstacle Races
• Mountain / Road Biking
• Snowboarding
• Martial Arts - Kungfu, Tae Kwon Do
• European Strategy Board Games