Laura Schmitt
Jacksonville,FL
Summary
At CITIGROUP, I support strategic initiatives, enhancing North America's rebate operations, leading to significant process efficiencies and global alignment. My expertise in data analysis, project management and business process re-engineering, coupled with a talent for fostering cross-functional collaboration, drove operational excellence while maintaining appropriate risk and control standards.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
Work History
Vice President - North America Head of Rebate Operations
CITIGROUP
Jacksonville, FL
02.2024 - Current
- Develop and maintain overarching strategic business solutions/decisions impacting North America region
- Responsible for oversight and execution of outgoing payments exceeding $500MM annually
- Assess Commercial Card Rebate Operations alignment to policy and regulatory requirements, developing solutions for gaps and driving full resolution
- Identify, manage, and mitigate corrective action activities related to process controls
- Develop and deliver enhanced reporting metrics, helping to ensure positive financial performance for the business, highlighting areas of concern
- Partner with cross functional teams in Product, Sales, Legal/Compliance and in Business risk to support growth of our business to drive profitability, enhance client satisfaction and safeguard necessary controls
- Direct supervision of 9 exempt and nonexempt employees ensuring development and succession
- Identified problems and implemented solutions to better streamline operations.
- Advised senior executives on approaches for resolving complex issues impacting operations.
- Cultivated a culture of collaboration among department heads to facilitate cross-functional project execution.
Vice President - Project Manager
CITIGROUP
Jacksonville, FL
03.2020 - 02.2024
- Led End to End Project for Corporate and Government/DoD rebate automation resulting in the retirement of ~700 High Risk EUC's
- Responsible for de-risking the process while driving efficiencies and ensuring no financial impact to the organization's P&L
- Liaised with 3rd party vendor and Citi Operations and Technology teams for the successful build and launch of Automated web-based tool
- Lead requirement gathering, user story development and full-scale testing plans for multiple concurrent projects
- Analyzed Government contracts and specific tailored task orders to translate contract language into operational calculation logic that would fit into an automated system
- Developed standard for risk and control quality process for the validation of all refund payments
- Developed robust client facing User guides to assist in client training and facilitate validation of quarterly refund payments
- Held trainings with both clients and internal teams to facilitate the adoption of new automated calculations and resulting reporting
- Responsible for all issue management during both Corporate and Government/DoD refund automation projects
- Reported and prioritized all issues while keeping a detailed record of status and projected financial and operational impacts
- Created project plans and held daily/weekly/monthly calls based on need to push key initiatives forward while mitigating any issues that arose during the projects
- Streamlined all previous standard operating procedures within the rebate organization to promote efficiencies while maintaining the integrity of risk-based controls
- Created risk mitigation plans to ensure project deadlines could be maintained despite inevitable roadblocks
- Acted as primary point of contact and led artifact and collateral management during cross functional audits
Assistant Vice President - Business Analyst
CITIGROUP
Jacksonville, FL
09.2016 - 03.2020
- Responsible for development and delivery of Commercial Cards Business Metrics including Fraud, Decline, Collections and Operation losses
- Developed Forecasting reporting for NA Commercial Cards Fraud, Collections, and Operational losses
- Delivered Monthly and Quarterly Business reviews and KPI/KRI for Senior Leadership
- Developed and implemented a streamlined Fraud reporting system which cut processing time by 50% while maintaining data accuracy and reducing manual touch points
- Overhauled decline reporting into self-created a template-based system to reduce processing time by 65%
- Held a leadership role in the corporate rebate re-engineering project by managing the historical modeling for the Proof of concept, consisting of compiling 2 years of historical data on all 300+ clients
- Trained all individuals on the historical modeling process and distributed team assignments, while providing weekly updates to senior leaders on project status leading to a successful completion of the project
- Played a key role in the data transformation from CIDB 1.0 to 2.0 by training team members on the checker role as well as providing guidance to account managers on contract line items correlating to CIDB record entries
Rebate Analyst
CITIGROUP
Jacksonville, FL
06.2014 - 09.2016
- Team Lead - delivered assignments and tracked progress of all rebate touch points across the North American Commercial Card portfolio - improved end to end process time by 13%
- Facilitated Rebate execution of 400+ Fortune 500 clients, through contract execution, payment setup, validation, and payment execution to ensure the bank is in compliance with contractual obligations
- Approximate average Monthly payout of $24.8MM
- Developed Business Requirement Documents to improve Client Delivery Readiness system for enhanced and streamlined reporting
- Project manager for Client Delivery Readiness process
- Prioritizing both internal and external reporting asks while maintaining BAU deliverables
- Developed a process to streamline Rebate exception payouts decreasing process gaps with a TEAM Action Record across Product Sales and Account Management work streams
- Assisted in end-to-end rebate re-engineering effort for the Commercial Card business including recalculating 6 years of data, development of new methodology, Quality Checking accuracy of improved data streams and developed client facing training material
- Led process improvement initiatives to include revamp of training materials, streamlined reporting structure, and comprehensive format for Client communication and training decks to assist with client messaging
- Identified and corrected errors in rebate calculations to protect the bank's financial interest while maintaining contractual requirements for the client
- Developed and maintained SOPs for quality review processes that ensure controls are in place and audit trails are maintained
- Acting Liaison with account management responsible for distributing rebate analysis and program messaging for client delivery
Manager - Client Programs
PGA TOUR EXPERIENCES
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
01.2014 - 06.2014
- Responsible for control and management of all client program initiatives for PGA TOUR Official Marketing Partners
- Delivered metrics and reporting for call volume, service levels and quote reports to assure contractual service level agreements were met
- Developed and implemented program specific Standard Operating Procedures and Training Manuals for internal staff as well as third party vendors
- Assisted in development of the MasterCard Priceless Golf program umbrella including development of specific operational processes and procedures
- Assisted in development of MasterCard Priceless Golf program website with a focus on content management
- Oversaw vendor management for 200+ sites across North America for TOUR Partner programs
- Responsible for training internal staff on all Client program initiatives
- Ensured all reservation center agents were up to date on current programing while safeguarding all service levels were met
- Oversaw day-to-day call center operations
Corporate Marketing Coordinator
PGA TOUR EXPERIENCES
Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
12.2012 - 01.2014
- Developed and maintained relationships between The PGA Tour's Official Marketing Partners
- Maintaining files on usage of negotiated agreements between Official Marketing Partner's and The TOUR
- Reconciled billing accounts used for Official Marketing Partner usage
- Tracked usage of PGA TOUR Player Comp Round usage on all Tournament Players Club Courses
- Assisted in developing Programs for Corporate Marketing Partners including the MasterCard initiative, Charles Schwab Golf Promotion, and the Avis First Golf Promotion
- Managed MasterCard initiative, Charles Schwab Golf Promotion, and the Avis First Golf Promotion training efforts for internal call center agents as well as Tournament Players Club Golf Operations Staff to ensure quality expectations were met
Education
Bachelor of Science - Sport Management
UNIVERSTIY OF NORTH FLORIDA
Jacksonville, FL12.2012
Skills
- Project planning and management
- Data analysis
- Business process re-engineering
- Procedure development
- Process Improvement
Affiliations
Citi Families Matter Network Jacksonville Steering Committee
- Communications Co-Chair 2024
- Membership and Recruitment Co-Chair 2025
Talent Development Program – North America Commercial Cards Product
- Responsible for commercialization of all digital updates.
- Developed communication strategies for enhancements to Digital Tools.
- Partnered with Legal, Compliance, Operations and Technology to support communication of new product offerings.
Timeline
Vice President - North America Head of Rebate Operations
CITIGROUP
02.2024 - Current
Vice President - Project Manager
CITIGROUP
03.2020 - 02.2024
Assistant Vice President - Business Analyst
CITIGROUP
09.2016 - 03.2020
Rebate Analyst
CITIGROUP
06.2014 - 09.2016
Manager - Client Programs
PGA TOUR EXPERIENCES
01.2014 - 06.2014
Corporate Marketing Coordinator
PGA TOUR EXPERIENCES
12.2012 - 01.2014
Bachelor of Science - Sport Management
UNIVERSTIY OF NORTH FLORIDA
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