NILSA WILBUR
Milwaukee
Summary
Accomplished financial services leader with over 25 years of experience, including more than 18 years in strategic business consulting and product management within Enterprise Compliance. Expertise in leveraging technology to drive impactful business and customer outcomes, complemented by a proven ability to build relationships and solve complex problems. Recognized as a self-starter and collaborative leader thriving in ambiguous environments, fostering partnerships across all organizational levels to achieve shared goals. Committed to continuous improvement and innovation in the financial services landscape.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Principal Product Manager – Law & Public Affairs
Northwestern Mutual
06.2021 - Current
- Partner with Law & Public Affairs (LPA) business partners to align strategy, define goals, and collaborate with LPA technology teams to advance solutions delivering defined outcomes.
- Establish enterprise-wide relationships to align on priority work, plan dependencies, and incorporate new work into prioritized backlog.
- Translate complex regulatory and supervision priorities into practical, user-friendly product capabilities to technology teams that develop and deliver prioritized compliance and operational needs.
- Mentor and provide hands-on support to product managers to deliver on prioritized work for the LPA Investable Structure.
- Navigate business-led tech partnerships, resolve conflicts, and foster enterprise-wide connections during critical milestones.
- Spearhead functional technology planning for LPA; coordinate with primary stakeholders and cross functional teams to ensure alignment.
- Direct discussions for Holistic Surveillance and Supervision priority to define and prioritize essential capabilities, coordinating with design and enterprise stakeholders for continued alignment and to support progress.
- Contribute to product management performance and process improvements to enhance team efficiency and delivery strategy.
Lead Product Manager – Law & Public Affairs
Northwestern Mutual
03.2020 - 06.2021
- Accountable for compliance and supervision technology solutions for Northwestern Mutual:
- Managed the product management life cycle from the strategic planning to tactical initiatives to support centralized supervision and marketing materials review processes.
- Developed and maintain product requirements and roadmaps
- Collaborated cross-functionally with enterprise partners including engineering, marketing, and design to coordinate, define, and maintain continued alignment on priorities.
- Collected and analyzed data and feedback from end users, stakeholders to further shape requirements, features and product experiences.
Assistant Director – Digital Product Management- Field Experience
Northwestern Mutual
02.2017 - 03.2020
- Responsible for partnering with career distribution leaders to create & align digital experience visions and roadmaps with business strategy and priorities based on market research, voice-of-customer, voice-of-user input, and technology analysis.
- Led a team of digital product managers to deliver on prioritized technology features to drive efficiency and provide new capabilities to evolve the field experience for recruiting, onboarding and learning & development in partnership with our digital design and engineering teams
- Drove alignment across different business areas to gain support and input for technology feature changes that will evolve the field experience.
Relationship Manager/Lead Business Consultant - Distribution Strategy
Northwestern Mutual
04.2016 - 02.2017
- Cultivated strong trusting relationships across numerous business and technology teams to support the Distribution Strategy corporate priority
- Responsible for enabling business strategy through developing, integrating, and executing on a comprehensive technology strategy to support business outcomes
- Utilized a network of relationships to collect and disseminate information, build support, and secure buy-in for desired objectives.
Business Consultant – Distribution Strategy
Northwestern Mutual
05.2015 - 04.2016
- Developed and led pilot execution for first set of Shared Business Services associated with the Distribution Strategy
- Worked with HO stakeholders and the field to establish pilot offerings, workflow, staffing and technology needed in order to test key service elements
Continuous Learning & Improvement Coach
Northwestern Mutual
04.2014 - 05.2015
- Communicated and influenced at various levels of the organization (from staff to upper management) to increase engagement and understanding of process improvement processes, goals, and benefits
- Led improvement efforts to eliminate non-value-added activities to improve the customer experience, engage employees in improving their work, and achieve improvement goals
Technology Business Consultant / Projects Budget Coordinator
Northwestern Mutual
10.2005 - 05.2015
- Provided business/technology process and project management expertise to compliance business clients to meet business goals and outcomes
- Partnered with cross functional teams which include various business / vendor / IT teams to minimize project delivery risk though continued requirements clarifications and scope refinement.
- Coordinated and managed the Enterprise Compliance department small project technology portfolio
- Acted as a champion for business process changes; act behind the scenes to craft solutions for business problems related or part of the project
Education
BBA - Management Information Systems
UW-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wisconsin05-2000
Skills
- Digital Product Management
- Continuous Process Improvement
- Project Management
- Relationship Building
- Cross functional Collaboration
- Problem Solving
- Strategy Planning
- Technology Planning and Execution
- Team Leadership
Timeline
Principal Product Manager – Law & Public Affairs
Northwestern Mutual
06.2021 - Current
Lead Product Manager – Law & Public Affairs
Northwestern Mutual
03.2020 - 06.2021
Assistant Director – Digital Product Management- Field Experience
Northwestern Mutual
02.2017 - 03.2020
Relationship Manager/Lead Business Consultant - Distribution Strategy
Northwestern Mutual
04.2016 - 02.2017
Business Consultant – Distribution Strategy
Northwestern Mutual
05.2015 - 04.2016
Continuous Learning & Improvement Coach
Northwestern Mutual
04.2014 - 05.2015
Technology Business Consultant / Projects Budget Coordinator
Northwestern Mutual
10.2005 - 05.2015
BBA - Management Information Systems
UW-Milwaukee