TAHIRAH SMITH
Dallas,TX
Summary
Knowledgeable Risk Manager equipped with strategic planning and program leadership abilities honed in servicing industry environments. Establishes strong and successful policies to mitigate risk at each level and establish clear procedures for assessments, prevention and containment. Familiar with regulatory requirements to maintain strict controls.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
Work History
Operations Risk Manager
Ally Financial
2022.10 - 2024.08
- Built a high-performing Risk Operations team through strategic recruitment, onboarding, and ongoing development efforts.
- Streamlined communication channels, facilitating prompt resolution of identified risks and issues.
- Ensured adherence to regulatory requirements while minimizing financial losses through proactive identification and remediation of control weaknesses.
- Established strong partnerships with external stakeholders, enabling productive exchange of information related to emerging risks and trends.
- Delivered regular updates to Senior Leadership on key performance indicators relating to risk exposure, supporting strategic planning and resource allocation decisions.
- Leveraged advanced analytics tools to develop insightful reports that guided executive-level decision making around enterprise-wide risks.
Sr. Business Risk Analyst
Ally Financial
2020.09 - 2022.10
- Managed issues and served as primary liaison between Operations and multiple internal groups to clarify goals and meet quality standards and deadlines
- Served as a key liaison between the risk management department and external auditors, providing assurance that internal controls were effective in mitigating identified risks.
- Organized with Compliance, Legal and Risk partners to help identify business issues and discuss effective remediation
- Led Audit reviews by effectively communicating Audit request to Operations, building walkthrough decks and presenting those decks
- Worked closely with Internal Audit group to help remediate business issues discovered during Audit review
- Worked closely with Internal Audit, External Examiners and Compliance Testing Groups on processes and areas from Operations being audited/examined/tested
- Developed understanding of business processes to deliver precise recommendations for challenging problems
- Managed risk and control portfolio for Operations to help manage risk and identify emerging risk
- Built Risk Management decks and facilitated discussions to Senior Leadership
- Facilitated bi-weekly roundtable discussions with business leaders to discuss ensure high priority initiatives are worked in a timely manner.
Business Process Risk Analyst
Ally Financial
2019.05 - 2020.09
- Conducted reviews of assigned organizational and functional activities and evaluated adequacy and effectiveness of management controls over each area
- Assessed emerging risks through ongoing research and monitoring of industry trends, proactively addressing potential threats before they materialized into significant issues.
- Established and restructured new and existing policies, processes and procedures
- Reduced operational risks by developing and enforcing stringent compliance policies across departments.
- Assisted with driving strategy through development and implementation of new processes by working closely with upper management
- Assisted with implementation of new products by working with system and IT teams
- Worked closely with legal to understand any and all risk associated with the implementation of new strategies
- Worked closely with the business to become a SME for the for their policies and processes
- Prepared documentation and lead business line Risk and Issue meetings
- Improved decision-making processes by providing insightful recommendations based on thorough risk analysis.
- Streamlined business processes by analyzing and identifying areas for improvement, reducing inefficiencies and boosting productivity.
Business Process Analyst
Ally Financial
2016.09 - 2019.05
- Analyze and report out data captured from Desktop and Process Analytics to show the system productivity of a business
- Analyze and correlate the data captured with our customers month end business results
- Create and lead presentations with Team Leads, Operation Managers, Directors, Site Leads and Executive Directors on the correlated data
- Proactively identify and drive process improvement opportunities within the business and across the team
- Identify actions and steps needed to accomplish team objectives and complete initiatives calling out any risk to the same
- Worked closely with Workforce Management to implement Desktop and Process Analytics across all of Ally
- Act as the business SME on the Workforce Management team and support the team in maintaining system processes
- Learn, test and implement new functionality in Impact 360 across Ally
- Traveled as needed.
Education
BACHELOR OF ARTS - MASS COMMUNICATIONS
Benedict College
Columbia, SCSkills
- Managing
- Auditing
- Policy Development
- Leadership
- Risk Analysis
- Project Management
- Risk Management
- Strong Verbal and Written Communication Skills
- Governance
- Effective Problem Solver
- Self-Starter
- Process Improvement
- Process Development
Activities
- Member of Pre-Law Association
- Employee of the Month - Jeff Bush (Ally Financial 2013)
- VIP Inductee - Joe Glick (Ally Financial 2015)
- Voice Committee - Trisha Campbell (Ally Financial 2014-2015)
- Spot Award Recipient - Michelle Akindunni (Ally Financial 2015)
- Development Pillar Lead of Black/African American Ally - LEW site (Ally Financial 2018-2020)
References
References available upon request
Timeline
Operations Risk Manager
Ally Financial
2022.10 - 2024.08
Sr. Business Risk Analyst
Ally Financial
2020.09 - 2022.10
Business Process Risk Analyst
Ally Financial
2019.05 - 2020.09
Business Process Analyst
Ally Financial
2016.09 - 2019.05
BACHELOR OF ARTS - MASS COMMUNICATIONS
Benedict College
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