Gahra Wright
Charlotte,NC
Summary
Innovative thinker with over 25 years of experience in identifying opportunities and implementing process improvements that retain clients, minimize risk, and optimize operations. Skilled in managing culturally diverse global teams that expediently resolve problems and enhance the customer experience. A hands-on leader who applies solid industry knowledge with communication and relationship building skills to deliver multi-level projects and major change initiatives that expand operations and increase revenue.
Overview
28
28
years of professional experience
Work History
Vice President; Process Design Consultant (Merchant Services)
BANK OF AMERICA
Charlotte, NC
08.2021 - Current
- Single point of contact leading Defect and Postproduction Validation for large or small/medium scale projects/programs sponsored by Merchant Services Tech Executives.
- Accountable and participates in UAT & PPV phases of testing deliverables for testing goals, script execution, traceability, defect management, and implementation support.
- Solely managed 127 Defects for Merchant Services Front-office and Back-office Operations from initial reporting’s, to triage calls and root cause analysis determined by development partners during first quarter of 2025.
- Solely managed 293 Postproduction validation tasks from Product owners for Merchant Activations & Training, Merchant Technical Support, Merchant Client Operations along with Merchant Settlement Accounting & Operations and Merchant Disputes Operations during first quarter of 2025.
- Responsible for project’s adherence to all Enterprise Testing Standards.
- Created new status reporting templates for UAT and PPV Execution and Defect/Incident tracking for major integrated releases for Merchant Operations Strategy & Transformation.
- Facilitates communication and collaboration across organizations to support the deliverable completion and timelines.
- Present Testing Status weekly during Merchant Services Operations Execution Call.
- Attend daily meetings with TPM, Developers, and testers to discuss defects being seen within SIT, UAT AND PPV Environments.
- Work closely with onshore U.S. and global partners, with emphasis on building strong relationships, exchanging information, and collecting and reviewing best practices.
- Partner with testing teams in understanding overall impacts to testing for the specific defects and corresponding test scripts.
- Integrates best practices with process design to ensure continuous process improvement.
- Primary point of contact to complete all access request on behalf of Merchant Operations Strategy and Transformation Team via Access Request Management (ARM), AIT Owner and Vendor contacts.
- Recognized with Silver and Gold Awards for work completed for the November 2022, February 2023, and November 2024 Integrated Releases.
- For 2023 and 2024 implemented process improvements during UAT Testing and Post- Production Validation (PPV) by using enterprise standard MatterMost application to assist in coordination of defects and tasks during key cycles of testing.
Vice President Incident Manager Production Support
BANK OF AMERICA
Charlotte, NC
06.2016 - 08.2021
- Subject matter expert, providing support and lead technical triages within Global Technology for problems with applications within the live production environment, contributing to stability and availability, and maintaining a high degree of customer service.
- Delivered consistent and quality mentoring, training, and onboarding for teams of contractors and staff members. Supported IT application development, application support, system integration and system administration projects.
- Managed implementation of application developments by collaborating with overseas technical teams.
- Streamlined decision support reporting process by tailoring methodologies and meeting compliance requirements Leadership experience in the areas of access control, call center operations and/or employee servicing via ARM System.
- Experience supporting physical identity & access management systems.
- Trained new hires on the Incident management process for reporting overall event, impacts, mitigation steps and root cause analysis for incidents impacting all lines of business supported by team.
- Complete Access requests to supported application and systems for new hires and any new systems of record needed for user base.
Vice President, Manger: Control Monitoring & Mitigation
BANK OF AMERICA
Charlotte, NC
08.2007 - 10.2016
- Manage technical and environmental events for 43 onshore and 4 offshore 24/7 Consumer and Small Business Contact Centers
- Responded to critical incidents without delay.
- Prioritized each incident based upon its impact on business and escalated issues considered major threats.
- Delivered consistent and quality mentoring, training, and onboarding for teams of contractors and staff members. Documented information before, during and after incidents to model trends, generate reports and recommend updates.
- Collaborated with involved team members to complete post-incident assessments.
- Developed and managed standardized response processes for maximum efficiency.
- Created plans for remediation ahead of time, altering procedures during actual incidents whenever necessary. Recruited talented employees to be part of incident response taskforce, training each to be prepared for array of possible events.
Officer, Release Manager Consultant Systems Engineer
BANK OF AMERICA
Charlotte, NC
01.2005 - 11.2007
- Lead implementations of Bank of America Direct releases into test, production, and contingency environments. Worked closely with business partners to define strategies for technical solutions, determine requirements, and develop functional designs based on the analysis of line of business needs, objectives, and existing systems infrastructure.
- Monitored timelines and flagged potential issues to be addressed. Recorded defects and coordinated issue resolution with development team and functional leads during each stage of releases from UAT through Production Release.
- Presented clear, organized data in graphs, charts, tables, and written reports. Documented and tracked all development, testing, and infrastructure tasks/issues when coordinating bridge activities.
- Reviewed and assessed defects daily during each stage of releases from UAT through Production Release via Quality Center.
- Monitored installations during implementations and directed resolution activities if problems arose and ensured defects were opened to track these problems and ensure that resolution was thoroughly documented.
- Maintained reporting and communication with leadership and line of business during release.
Senior Change Analyst
BANK OF AMERICA
Charlotte, NC
05.1997 - 01.2005
- Lead project manager for change initiatives in a virtual team environment related to Telecon/VRU/VGS for the Model Bank Northeast Conversion Transition team.
- Ensure proactive, effective change management process across multiple business partners with varied drivers. Responsible for completion deliverables for business case, project plan, risk assessment, business requirements, design specifications, test and development plan.
- Communicate to managers including developing distribution of functional/ training bulletins as necessary during pilot and rollout phases of implementation.
Education
Some College (No Degree) - Merchandising and Buying Operations
Fashion Institute of Technology
New York, NYSkills
- Remedy, Maximo, Microsoft Office XP, Microsoft Office 2000, 2003 & 2007, MS Word, MS Access, MS Excel, MS FrontPage, MS Project, MS Visio, MS Site Server, PowerBuilder, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Outlook Express, PowerPoint, MS Lync- Communicator, IETV Totalview HVD-Hosted Virtual Desktop Telephony: VOIP, IVR, Universal Soft Phone (USP), CTI components: CTI Server (Genesys T-Server/CISCO ICM/Avaya AES), Virtual Hold, as well as screen pops and call-data transfer between agents and IVR integration, OC3, Trunks and VDNs, MyCTO, VROL, EPIC, CCMS, SYNERGY, BOLT, CLMS, VCAS, AND ARM (Access Management Systems) ALM, PRISMePlaybooks,
Timeline
Vice President; Process Design Consultant (Merchant Services)
BANK OF AMERICA
08.2021 - Current
Vice President Incident Manager Production Support
BANK OF AMERICA
06.2016 - 08.2021
Vice President, Manger: Control Monitoring & Mitigation
BANK OF AMERICA
08.2007 - 10.2016
Officer, Release Manager Consultant Systems Engineer
BANK OF AMERICA
01.2005 - 11.2007
Senior Change Analyst
BANK OF AMERICA
05.1997 - 01.2005
Some College (No Degree) - Merchandising and Buying Operations
Fashion Institute of Technology