Romesh Akbar
Mooresville,USA
Summary
Experienced leader with a strong background in guiding teams, managing complex projects, and achieving strategic objectives. I excel in developing efficient processes, ensuring high standards, and aligning efforts with organizational goals. I am known for my collaborative approach and commitment to excellence spanning over 24+ years of industry experience. Throughout my career, I have played pivotal roles in Business - IT strategy alignment, IT Portfolio Management, IT Product Management, and IT Project Management, Software Development Management, process Improvement, and IT Business Analysis. My approach to work is characterized by an unwavering commitment to embrace challenges and provide visionary leadership. I am driven by the belief that Information Systems (IS) are a cornerstone of modern businesses, and I am dedicated to position IS strategically to enable organization to excel. As a process enthusiast and lateral thinker, I bring a unique blend of analytical rigor and creative problem solving to every project. Furthermore, I uphold impeccable work ethics and maintain the highest standards of integrity in all my professional engagements.
Overview
29
29
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Lead Enterprise Architect / Director Digital Transformation
BASF
09.2017 - Current
- Led global digital transformation, directly reporting to Digital Officer, ensuring seamless integration across 4 continents
- Awarded the 'Digital Expert' title by BASF in 2019 for leading digital transformation efforts, resulting in a 20% efficiency increase
- Introduced both Azure and AWS cloud solutions within the Organization. This initiative not only modernized the IT infrastructure but also empowered our teams with scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions.
- Drive the global and regional digital strategy for all customer facing touchpoints / CX strategy for Sales, Marketing & Communications functions integrated to system of record systems - Tech Stack – AEM, SalesForce, MuleSoft, Azure, AWS & SAP (30-35M $)
- Setting up the global DevOps strategy and setting up standards and tools to enable CI/CD processes
- Establishing the Enterprise Architecture (EA) and Demand Management framework, which has become a foundational component of how we manage and prioritize Digital initiatives.
- Introduction of Data Science / ML Ops practice to increase sales and built a practice globally (15-18M)
- Rationalizing and consolidating global application portfolio to reduce the application landscape and reduce the technical depth
- Key member of digital transformation, salesforce and marketing automation team (23-25M $)
- Data driven organization strategy - Introduction of global data platforms and data as a service / data products
- Migrating legacy Datawarehouse application into cloud-based solutions
- Introducing digital transformation best practices and creating technical roadmaps
- Establishing mobile playbook as standards to implement mobile applications
- Currently involved in rolling few digital transformation initiatives globally to introduce AI / GenAI practice.
Lead Solutions Architect
Corning Inc.
02.2010 - 09.2017
- Lead Solutions Architect responsible of Commercial, Collaboration and Web Applications globally for Corning Incorporated
- Key member of digital transformation, salesforce and marketing automation team
- Design and implementation of Adobe AEM system globally on AWS (11-12M $)
- Migrating legacy commerce to its newer version (1.5 M $)
- Introducing SAP Hybris / CPQ and replacing existing product configurator (6M $)
- Establishing mobile playbook as standards to implement mobile applications
- Gatekeeper for all solution selection and solution design in a global arena (Commercial, Collaboration and Web applications)
- Involved in rolling out SAP Hybris ecommerce and PIM global platform (11-14M $).
Team Lead / Technical Project Manager
Virtusa Corporation
03.2004 - 02.2010
- Joined the company as a Programmer Analyst to provide technology leadership, and project management services to various retail clients across the globe
- Executed more than 15 medium to large projects for clients like McDonald's Corporation, Thomson Reuters, Oracle Corporation, Courion Corporation, Thomson Center Watch & Financial Profiles incorporated / EISI
- Worked as the main liaison between onsite and offshore teams
- Managed large offshore teams across multiple offshore locations to deliver complex solutions (80-90 team members)
- Worked with the onsite teams PMO organizations to manage roadmaps and budget (6M).
Systems Analyst, Database Management Services
John Keells Computer Services Ltd.
04.2000 - 02.2004
- Joined the company as a Database Administrator to provide logical/physical design, and implementation services to various Aviation and Logistics applications
- Key member of the Emirates air lines DB team
- Played a vital role in implementing accounts reconciliation system
- Standardize key development libraries for reusability across the organization
- Lead application developer for the accounting division.
Programmer Analyst, HRMS Team
Seven Seas Computers Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd.
06.1998 - 03.2000
- Joined the company as a Practice Executive (Systems Analyst) to provide development, and testing services to various HRMS, Financials, and Logistics applications
- Responsible of building and deploying HRMS and Payroll systems
- Designing key components of the HRMS system
- Leading and mentoring junior resources.
Computer Programmer, Customer Billing Systems (part time)
IWS Holdings
04.1996 - 05.1998
- Joined the company as a Computer Programmer to provide development, and testing services in various software development projects for Broadcasting and Engineering divisions of the company
- Developed application as per the business requirements and tested the application in development and QA environments and migrated to the production environment.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Business Information Systems
SL
Certified Scrum Master - undefined
Scrum Alliance
Management Development Programs - Project Management Fast Track - undefined
Boston University
Diploma in Economics, Business Law & Accounting - undefined
Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka
Part Qualified in Business Administration - undefined
Association of Business Executive UK
Diploma in Networking & Communications - undefined
Oracle Application Development Certification - undefined
Skills
- Cloud Architecture
- Leading Digital Transformation Teams
- Strategic Mindset
- Business - IT Strategy Alignment
- IT Portfolio Management
- IT Project Management
- Software Development Management
- Process Improvement
- IT Business Analysis
- Customer Services Management
- Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
- DevOps
- Agile Methodologies
- Enterprise Architecture
- Vendor Management
- Database Design
- Technical leadership
- Requirements Analysis
- Information Security
Certification
- Project Management Certification, Boston University, Boston, MA
- Certified Scrum Master, ScrumAlliance, Indianapolis, IN
- Rational Unified Process, Virtusa Corporation, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Oracle Certified Application Development Training, DMS Sri Lanka
- Oracle Financials - GL, AR, AP, Emirates Airlines, Dubai
Timeline
Lead Enterprise Architect / Director Digital Transformation
BASF
09.2017 - Current
Lead Solutions Architect
Corning Inc.
02.2010 - 09.2017
Team Lead / Technical Project Manager
Virtusa Corporation
03.2004 - 02.2010
Systems Analyst, Database Management Services
John Keells Computer Services Ltd.
04.2000 - 02.2004
Programmer Analyst, HRMS Team
Seven Seas Computers Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd.
06.1998 - 03.2000
Computer Programmer, Customer Billing Systems (part time)
IWS Holdings
04.1996 - 05.1998
Certified Scrum Master - undefined
Scrum Alliance
Management Development Programs - Project Management Fast Track - undefined
Boston University
Diploma in Economics, Business Law & Accounting - undefined
Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka
Part Qualified in Business Administration - undefined
Association of Business Executive UK
Diploma in Networking & Communications - undefined
Oracle Application Development Certification - undefined
Bachelor of Science - Business Information Systems
SL
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