Rebekah Vereen
Phoenix,AZ
Summary
Motivated professional with 15+ years of leadership and analytical experience recognized for leading with a customer-focused approach to project management, product development, and process optimization. Demonstrated expertise in translating business objectives, continuous improvements, and data analysis into actionable plans through innovative AI initiatives and database management. Collaborative professional entrusted with leading across departmental lines and regional markets to facilitate corporate achievement and organizational effectiveness while furthering project life cycle milestones. A talented leader with strengths in Agile transformations and Kaizen methodologies yielding improved business strategies and development of top-performing teams. Committed to service delivery and project management excellence.
Overview
20
20
years of professional experience
Work History
Project Management | Product Development
AMERICAN EXPRESS
11.2021 - Current
- Key player providing project management leadership and strategic direction of project planning, mitigating risks, fostering collaboration across departmental lines, and creating project scopes.
- Promote business alignment throughout project life cycles, optimize resource allocation to maximize project outcomes, and partner with cross-functional teams to unify standard operating procedures.
- Provide effective project management of up to 4 projects simultaneously with 5 - 7 stakeholders including directors and VPs, resulting in 100% on-time delivery, and surpassing established goals by initiating project kickoff emails, prioritizing workload, and overseeing high-quality deliverables.
- Created Airtable databases to globally co-manage the Seismic platform, a leading AI-powered enabled platform, for all American Express colleagues, helping extend actionable milestones, tasks, and deliverables of sales and marketing on a global scale.
- Automated engagement intake forms eliminating manual processes saving an average of 10 hours of labor time per week.
- Facilitate weekly project meetings to communicate schedule status and updates using Agile/Waterfall methodology to achieve project goals; define actionable next steps and create roadmaps for well-defined procedures.
- Reduce risks and remove impediments by developing effective communication plans after completing Fraud projects/products.
- Introduced automated reports as Subject Matter Expert to depict trends and add value for marketing.
- Monitor and update stakeholders on workflow progress and change-related activities. Identify and quickly resolve delays or bottlenecks.
- Foster an Agile environment that adapts quickly to change. Implement Agile processes by increasing lean processes, clear communication, measuring velocity, and collaborating with stakeholders to define processes and change management initiatives.
- Lead regional development teams, marketing campaigns, planning initiatives, and business strategies implementing lean methodology for continued improvement.
- Communicate complex methodologies with non-technical stakeholders increasing colleague engagement by 43% year-over-year.
- Complete third-party Technology Lifecycle Management (TLM) process for all contracts optimizing performance and cost control.
- Perform risk analysis and mitigation planning to identify potential scheduling conflicts and develop contingency plans.
- Partner with senior leaders, technology, and business units to transform business areas through tactical application of people, processes, and technology while executing Agile/Waterfall methodologies.
- Improved search efficiency by 32% by managing administrative controls of the Seismic platform, equipping customer-facing teams with intelligent automation, predictive insights, and personalized content.
- Increased navigation by 115% by developing engaging content management with a central hub for content discovery, personalization, and distribution.
- Led weekly working sessions to align business goals across multiple teams reducing 95% of customer complaints, and quality errors at or above 95% within first month, and met 100% of deliverables in scope, on time, and within budget.
- Complete root cause analysis, facilitate defect resolutions, identify and resolve potential gaps in processes, and establish quality best practices.
- Design workflow and cost efficiencies by providing innovative, customizable, and scalable resources reflecting individual departmental needs.
Founding Partner | Director of Community Outreach
AFFIRM HOUSE
11.2018 - 11.2021
- Designed and launched a financial literacy program for high school student populations, focusing on establishing and maintaining good credit.
- Cultivated close-knit parent-teacher engagement resulting in a 50% increase in overall participation.
- Coordinated and executed engagements, outreach communications, and activities with community-based programs and school districts.
- Educational program resulted in 95% of students in business courses opening bank accounts and/or understanding credit bureau operations.
- Engaged in problem-solving strategies using Kaizen and Lean methodologies.
Assistant Vice President, Financial Services
WELLS FARGO
07.2016 - 11.2018
- Provided sales and business strategy leadership while overseeing Financial Services department driving sales growth, identifying and pursuing new business opportunities, building and maintaining strong relationships with key clients, and conducting marketing research. Territory consisted of 200 auto dealers.
- Key contributor in designing and producing high-level presentations, facilitating meetings in-person and via collaborative platforms, and leading monthly meetings attended by stakeholders.
- Expanded client base by 15%, ensuring sustainable long-term growth in full capacity market. Created market strategy and planned visits according to top revenue accounts.
- Increased revenue by 30% through targeted financial solutions and innovative sales strategies involving robust Salesforce report analysis, and holding dealer partners accountable.
- Identified industry trends, managed promotional campaigns, led weekly sales meetings, and built a top-performing workforce.
- Analyzed sales performance and identified key weaknesses in product positioning and customer engagement.
- Implemented transactional underwriting, increased efficiency, reduced processing times by 10%, and improved customer experience.
- Contributed to enhancing existing products by proposing a pricing strategy adjustment that increased average order value by 10% and by underwriting loans with proper built-in risk.
- Enhanced team performance by hosting dealer presentation meetings with all new product launches, resulting in 15% higher productivity and improved engagement scores.
- Improved quality assurance and interdepartmental communications, managed resource allocations and oversaw risk liabilities.
- Rebuilt client relationships through proactive service improvements, leading to a 40% retention increase.
- Championed marketing growth generating a profit of $500,000 in new revenue monthly.
- Managed project lifecycles, identified risks, and tracked issues by leading daily Agile status meetings.
- Improved communication between project teams and senior leadership by creating and implementing trackable project management milestones.
Regional Manager, Financial Services
EXETER FINANCE
06.2013 - 07.2016
- Provided leadership and guidance to a team of 5 staff members by setting clear monthly performance goals and promoting a supportive team culture.
- Leveraged Kaizen methodology to revive a neglected and underperforming territory; increased market penetration and secured 20 new client accounts within 90 days.
- Collaborated with internal stakeholders to align goals, and prepared weekly reports on sales analysis, marketing trends, and customer feedback.
- Maintained a high-producing territory, leading sales team to achieve recognition as # 1 in West Region annually.
- Identified inefficient business processes, practices, and systems through hands-on leadership and business management knowledge.
- Developed and implemented innovative sales strategies, business development initiatives, and regional cost analysis.
- Adhered to federal and underwriting guidelines, reducing risk and enabling marketing expansion.
- Contributed thought leadership and solution-driven expertise to resolve complex operations issues.
- Provided extensive communication to cross-functional teams by outlining action items, clearly defined milestones and deadlines, and business requirements through regular emails and weekly meetings.
- Successfully analyzed critical business needs producing quality outcomes.
- Effectively utilized pivot tables in Microsoft Excel for performing data analysis and identifying market trends.
Area Sales Manager, Financial Services
CAPITAL ONE | SANTANDER
10.2005 - 06.2013
- Managed and executed strategies to achieve sales targets for high-producing territory by identifying key performance indicators to measure sales success and territory performance.
- Developed sales strategies to increase profit.
- Executed sales meetings to help provide feedback and sales insights via email communications, face-to-face meetings, and presentations.
- Utilized business intelligence tools to implement management processes, resulting in recognition as a Top 3 Producer within organization.
Education
Master of Public Administration (MPA) -
California Baptist University
Bachelor of Science - Business Management
University of Phoenix
Discipline Agile Scrum Master (DASM) -
Project Management Institute
Skills
- Project Management
- Strategic Planning & Execution
- Data Analytics & Review
- Relationship Management
- Performance Improvement
- Agile/Waterfall Methodologies
- Product Life Cycle & Development
- Cross-Functional Leadership
- Quality Assurance
- Artificial Intelligence Platforms
- Requirement Gathering & Analysis
- Risk Mitigation & Compliance
- Microsoft Office
- SharePoint
- Teams
- Airtable
- Salesforce
- Seismic
- Confluence
- Visio
- Slack Automation
- FIS
- Google Suite
- Zoom
- WebEx
Professional Affiliation
Project Management Institute
Core Technical Skills
- Microsoft Office
- SharePoint
- Teams
- Airtable
- Salesforce
- Seismic
- Confluence
- Visio
- Slack Automation
- FIS
- Google Suite
- Zoom
- WebEx
Timeline
Project Management | Product Development
AMERICAN EXPRESS
11.2021 - Current
Founding Partner | Director of Community Outreach
AFFIRM HOUSE
11.2018 - 11.2021
Assistant Vice President, Financial Services
WELLS FARGO
07.2016 - 11.2018
Regional Manager, Financial Services
EXETER FINANCE
06.2013 - 07.2016
Area Sales Manager, Financial Services
CAPITAL ONE | SANTANDER
10.2005 - 06.2013
Master of Public Administration (MPA) -
California Baptist University
Bachelor of Science - Business Management
University of Phoenix
Discipline Agile Scrum Master (DASM) -
Project Management Institute