Michael Burns
South Weymouth,MA
Summary
- Project Manager with special emphasis on projects with highly scrupulous compliance standards or very high legal and performance standards, including calculations or manipulations of data or governmental reporting and auditing. Content areas have included investments and investing portfolios, securities transactions, trust and custodial accounting, tax accounting, tax qualified accounts, and fee and expense reporting and reporting of legally required disclosure language and information. Several years experience in risk analysis, business analysis for software enhancements, and operational workflow analysis for system projects.
- Experienced in tax, ERISA, benefits, insurance and securities industries and familiar with researching and documenting these topics based on regulations and other guidance provided by the related agencies and my own research. Besides currently taking courses for project management certification, I have educational background in these same knowledge domains as well as knowledge and experience in researching them, and can write, train and converse about them. In addition, I have significant experience in designing and leading projects in the financial industry to augment or change a firm's operational and systems capacities.
Overview
17
17
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Field Interviewer
University of Michigan Survey Research Center
08.2024 - 09.2024
- This was a temporary job for which I found I could not perform responsibilities to collect biological specimens or provide medical testing on survey respondents, and resigned during training.
Workflow Analyst
TATA Consulting Group
05.2021 - 08.2024
- Collaborated with cross-functional team to ensure seamless workflow integration and alignment with business objectives.
- Conducted regular audits of workflow systems in order to measure and reduce the incidence of errors.
- Implemented changes in workflows and controls in order to increase throughput and other measures of performance.
Financial Representative/Educator
Self-employed
01.2020 - 04.2021
- The objective was to promote financial security by carefully matching effective financial strategies to the life objectives and dreams of individual, family and business clients.
- This was a self-employed position (associated with World Financial Group) during which much of my time was spent in training and obtaining securities and insurance licenses as well as learning about dozens of different financial products.
- The intent was to qualify for a financial advisory role.
Writer and Editor
Precision Consulting
02.2019 - 04.2019
- Worked as a writer and editor for research publications
- This was mainly project work related to academic research and consulting for graduate students
- Researched and analyzed research themes for literature reviews and guides
- Provided commentary relating research topics to research methods and sources
Compliance Project Manager and Special Consultant
MassMutual Financial Services
01.2013 - 10.2018
- One of the founders of the Governance Committee that oversaw all major compliance projects involving new legislation and regulation
- Managed regulatory-related software and operational compliance projects, including planning and leading them, for a large retirement plan administrative unit involved in portfolio (securities and other investments) accounting, government reporting, client management, compliance and auditing
- Served as a project designer and leader to enhance legal compliance in operations and systems capabilities
- For example, developing the software needed to bring up to standard tax withholding and reporting requirements in accordance with Department of Labor and Treasury guidance, correcting the system to perform loan calculations in conformance to Treasury regulatory standards, and providing financial transaction reporting that is consistent with legal requirements and industry standards
- Wrote dozens of articles for newsletters to clients and financial advisors on investments, tax issues, retirement planning and savings, and best practices in administration
- Designed and documented new workflows and procedures for internal employees and external customers and partners
- Initiated several projects to reduce operational inefficiencies, including, for example, changes in client forms design that made for fewer client mistakes and made them easier to act upon (for example, by designing mail-back instructions that limited replies to doable and consistent transactions)
Project Manager, Compliance Administrator
Hartford Financial Services
01.2008 - 12.2012
- Researched legislative and regulatory changes and lead projects to improve operational performance, enhance system capabilities and conform with legal compliance.
- An example of this was leading the departmental effort to update regulatory reporting systems to meet new IRS and DOL requirements for reporting fee, expense and investment information to plan sponsors and participants. This project necessitated the partnership of Morningstar to create the information downloads used to populate these reports.
- Developed operational procedures for 5500 reporting and annual testing and wrote a handbook containing these procedures which was used by the compliance department.
Education
Master of Science - Computer Information Systems
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts12.2025
Graduate Certificate - Applied Statistics
Pennsylvania State University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania01.2019
Ph.D. - Law & Public Policy
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts08.2014
Master of Science - Personal Financial Planning
Bentley University
Waltham, MassachusettsMaster of Science - Taxation
Northeastern University
Boston, MassachusettsMaster of Business Administration - Finance and Operations
Northeastern University
Boston, MassachusettsB.A. - English magna cum laude
Bridgewater State University
Bridgewater, MassachusettsSkills
- Project Management
- Agile Methods
- Research
- Communications
- Writing
- Editing
- Training Materials
- Data Analysis
- Applied Statistics
- SAS
- MiniTab
- STATA
- Quantitative Analysis
- Multiple Regression
- Diagnostics
- Autocorrelation
- Design of Experiments
- Multifactor Analysis
- Pivot Tables
- Excel Solver
- @Risk
- Optimization
- Simulations
- Market Basket Analysis
- Cluster Analysis
- R Programming
- Data Mining
- Trend Analysis
- Tableau
- Programming
- Python
- Databases
- Data Analytics
- Recordkeeping
- Customer service and assistance
Relevant Skills and Experiences
- Used to taking project initiatives forward without a lot of detailed guidance, performing research where necessary and consulting with diverse management and organizational departments.
- Experienced in keeping projects on track while dealing sensitively with colleagues and associates from a variety of backgrounds.
- Trained in Agile methods and in fostering group ownership.
- There is a concentration of projects centered on regulatory compliance.
- Have performed 100's of writing assignments calling for detailed analysis of legal and financial concepts, the use of quantitative data and presentations, and can write for both general audiences and more specific ones at any level.
- Write and edit (and sometimes deliver) training materials and courses and am used to researching financial and product questions, as well as legal questions relevant to certain areas of the law. These writing assignments often flowed from changes in systems and work processes which I lead or participated in and sometimes involved several internal departments, locations, and suborganizations.
- Familiar with applied statistics programs including SAS and MiniTab (used in regression and ANOVA analysis and STATA for statistical analysis. Recently studied advanced techniques of quantitative analysis including multiple regression, diagnostics, and overcoming autocorrelation and other types of remediation, the design of experiments, and multifactor analysis at Penn State.
- Studied the use of pivot tables, Excel Solver and @Risk for optimization and simulations, and received training in 'market basket' and cluster analysis as well as R programming for data mining and trend analysis by taking some courses at Villanova's graduate program in data analytics. I have also experimented with Tableau and other presentation software.
- Currently studying programming (including Python, R and statistical programming), databases and data analytics at Boston University while satisfying the requirements for a project management certification.
Certification
- Securities Licenses Series 7 and 66
- Massachusetts Life and Health Insurance Licenses
Timeline
Field Interviewer
University of Michigan Survey Research Center
08.2024 - 09.2024
Workflow Analyst
TATA Consulting Group
05.2021 - 08.2024
Financial Representative/Educator
Self-employed
01.2020 - 04.2021
Writer and Editor
Precision Consulting
02.2019 - 04.2019
Compliance Project Manager and Special Consultant
MassMutual Financial Services
01.2013 - 10.2018
Project Manager, Compliance Administrator
Hartford Financial Services
01.2008 - 12.2012
B.A. - English magna cum laude
Bridgewater State University
- Securities Licenses Series 7 and 66
- Massachusetts Life and Health Insurance Licenses
Master of Science - Computer Information Systems
Boston University
Graduate Certificate - Applied Statistics
Pennsylvania State University
Ph.D. - Law & Public Policy
Northeastern University
Master of Science - Personal Financial Planning
Bentley University
Master of Science - Taxation
Northeastern University
Master of Business Administration - Finance and Operations
Northeastern University
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