• - Worked at the Cybersource Card Present unit?s PMO organization to support the resolution of post-acquisition integration related issues following Visa?s acquisition of Payworks GmbH (a Munich based start-up on payment gateway technology):
  • Aligning Payworks? software assets with Visa?s technology portfolio and standards.
  • Establishing knowledge-management on existing hardware/software/process issues and following up the resolution actions with Visa Corporate IT organization.
  • Coordinating the closure and reporting of IT security findings coming from 8 source systems.
• Acted as PMO Program Lead for the Future of the Platform program with 9 sub-projects, organized using Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).

• Worked as a Vendor Manager as part of the Transition and Transformation Program, following the acquisition of Postbank Systems AG (PBS) by Tata Consultancy Services in December 2020.
• Main responsibility was to launch and structure the program workstream to review and optimize the third-party (vendor) pass-through contracts of PBS, which had a total annual volume of ~90 million Euro.

- Supported the set-up of new workplace infrastructure for the schoolteachers and the principal office.
- Supported the setup of a new network interface to Hessische Zentrale für Datenverarbeitung regarding a teacher/student database.
- Sparring partner for the school management for various IT demands.

• As part of a major global transformation program to address regulatory compliance issues, prepared and managed the lifecycle of 11 complex Change Requests (CRs) from requirements gathering till go-live, for a private-cloud Anti-Financial Crime (AFC) application. The application was serving 50+ countries, used by 2nd and 3rd Line of Defense to review/decide/report on about 1 million transactions/year, which were marked as a ?hit? against the current sanctions or anti-money laundering lists.
• The CRs have been on a wide range of topics including enabling the global consistency of decision-making process (despite deviating local regulations), major improvements to the management information reporting including improved field level mappings of SWIFT and SEPA transactions, user rights enhancements and other functional and non-functional improvements on usability and system performance.
• Aligned and worked with the global AFC and Global Messaging Operations business units, their IT organization and the software vendor for the lengthy preparation and bank-internal testing phases of the CRs.
• Formed a governance structure and processed the backlog of several hundred active/inactive CRs in JIRA.
• Supported the transition of the AFC IT organization from traditional project management to agile, utilizing Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe); in this context acted as Epic Owner for numerous topics.

Significant achievements:

• Generated a 7-digit Euro cost saving for the bank due to the consolidation, refinement and elimination of numerous active CRs to the software vendor.
• Successfully addressed the relevant US regulatory audit findings.

• Coordinated the contract changes of 1000 global high-risk vendor services, to ensure their compliance to bank?s newest IT security control framework based on ISO 27001, other MaRisk-Outsourcing and GDPR related regulations, due to a European Central Bank audit finding.
• Aligned the relevant business and procurement contacts for each contract, single-handedly drafted the contract changes and got the appropriate legal approvals, initiated the change on the vendor side and coordinated the rest negotiations till the contract changes were executed and the remaining gaps were risk-accepted.
• Supported the resolution of gaps between the IT security control frameworks of the vendors? and the bank.
• The contract and vendor risk management tool landscape were based on SAP Ariba.
• Established a feedback-channel to correct wrong/missing data at the golden sources of the bank.

Significant achievements

• On time, according to planned scope and under-budget (mainly due to the reduced cost for external law firms and translation agencies, as most of their planned work could be insourced) completion of the project, despite the complexity of geographical spread and significant number of stakeholders with different interests.

• Reporting to the CEO, managed the IT department with 5 direct reports and 25 IT vendors (of which 10 critical).
• Acted as a single point of contact for German and Turkish banking regulatory bodies, Akbank T.A.?. and Akbank AG internal audit departments and directed the follow-up activities.
• As Outsourcing Officer, supervised the selection, control and relationship management for all (IT and non-IT) vendors of the bank.
• Responsibilities included maintenance of a small onsite data center and local end-user infrastructure, Identity and Access Management as well as Service Management for all applications, executing IT Security controls, operative and strategic IT Procurement with relevant contract management activities, Business Continuity Management including the management of distant emergency workspaces and execution of continuity tests, acting as a sparring partner to the board other departments in all operational IT matters and side business projects (e.g. EMIR, FATCA).
• Conducted a new Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) system selection.
• Selected a new vendor for the Network Vulnerability Management and coordinated the implementation.
• Directed a lengthy vendor selection process for the new online/mobile banking platform.
• Enhanced the existing Anti-Money Laundering systems (NICE Actimize) (expanding the suspicious activity monitoring coverage, introducing a new name list vendor, implementation of a new roles/rights concept).
• Directed the make-or-buy analysis for the digitalization of the credit department's complete workflow; created the customized JIRA based solution architecture and initiated the in-house implementation project.
• Initiated and directed the SEPA Implementation project till successful completion. Major tasks were software/vendor selection and the testing of the customized solution at bank?s premises.
• Coordinated the Windows XP to 7/8 upgrade.

Significant achievements

• Stabilized the IT Organization regarding the team, major systems and the main vendors as a continuation of the post-merger activities of the bank (Akbank Netherlands had merged into Akbank AG in mid-2012).
• Did major improvements to the operational processes and relevant documentation for business continuity, data center, desktop infrastructure, core banking platform and related management information systems

• Coordinated two Sybase subcontractor firms in Germany and India for design, development and testing of the quite complicated software requirements including PCI compliance based on Sybase Mobiliser Platform.
• Managed all aspects of the Sybase involvement in the complex System Integration, Security and Performance Tests that were executed by the partner system integrator firm in Russia, spread over multiple environments.
• Coordinated the support effort for the VimpelCom?s own User Acceptance Tests that were run in their premises.
• Successfully assisted the productive launch of the system Russia wide.

• Led project till successful launch in Poland and acceptance of the pilot mobile payment product by Citibank on a global scale, as well as giving service management oversight to the productive system post launch.
• Supported the set-up and coordinated the execution of System Integration and User Acceptance Tests at two different client locations.
• Coordinated release management and packaging activities with the client.
• Managed the Citi Data Center - Sybase Hub setup for the SMS messaging subcomponent.
• Coordinated the Sybase activities associated with the bank?s handover of the Sybase Mobiliser Platform to their global production support team

• Internet Bank Implementation for Germany (Bank?s initiative to open first an internet bank and then to migrate their existing bank to Oracle FLEXCUBE Core Banking and Direct Banking platform)
• Coordinated the startup and scoping related activities and designed the future solution architecture for the project to implement an internet bank for Germany.
• Initiated the project via coordinating the client, the system integrator and Oracle project teams.
• Coordinated the activities for the project scoping and business requirements capturing at both project locations via interviewing all relevant client members and conducting product walk-through sessions.
• Did project planning for the implementation project together with the system integrator managers.
• Directed the solution architecture design activities and prepared the final official deliverable package addressed to client?s executive team.

• Term Deposits Introduction (Introducing Fixed Term Deposits functionality into the bank?s German banking platform)
• Led the project from the initiation phase till successful go-live.
  
• Agreed the contractual changes and the project plan with the client.
• Coordinated the requirements gathering and documentation phase which involved the client, the data center (Finanz Informatik Technologie Service), onsite and offshore Oracle resources.
• Monitored offshore development and coordinated onsite preparation activities for User Acceptance Tests.
• Managed User and Operational Acceptance Tests as well as the successful release to production

• Bank of Scotland - Netherlands (Bank?s initiative to enter the Netherlands market via opening an internet bank based on Oracle FLEXCUBE Core Banking and Direct Banking applications)
• Led the project from initiation till successful go-live (as bankofscotland.nl) on a tight total timeline of 8 months.
  
• Took part in the contract negotiations and initiated the project, set up the onsite Oracle project team.
• Did estimations and project planning involving both traditional (for the core banking) and agile (for the internet banking) delivery methods; the project involved the onsite implementation team, 2 offshore (India) development groups, onsite client team and the data center/hosting provider (Finanz Informatik Technologie Service).
• Coordinated a time-critical requirements gathering phase.
• Planned and agreed on the overall solution architecture including all external interfaces.
• Finalized the overall test strategy along with client and data center test managers and actively supported the execution of Integration, Security, Performance and User Acceptance Testing.
• Interacted daily with the client and the data center company project managers throughout the project.
• Monitored and reported the progress to stakeholders till project closure.

• Established working rules and deescalated the relationship between Oracle, the bank and the German data center (Finanz Informatik Technologie Service) firms, which have not worked together before.
• Coordinated the planning and proper execution of the complex test phases (Integration, Security, Performance, Breakpoint and User Acceptance Testing) in 3 project locations, together with several test managers from the bank and the data center, till successful launch as bankofscotland.de.
• Supported the execution of external IT Security Certification/Test of the whole system.
• Supported the setting up of Business Continuity Management processes.
• Interacted with the offshore technical experts to resolve several issues encountered in the testing phases.
• In the later stages of the project and at the post-launch period took the coordination of the Service Management as part of the transition to the support phase.
• Worked on the implementation of the productive Incident, Change and Release Management procedures together with the counterpart service managers

•  Led the technical testing team where several locations-based and telematics services were being introduced.
  
• Coordinated the technical (Performance and Operation Readiness) test teams for the whole Release 2.
• Coordination effort included the following tasks: Test planning, selection of the test management software, setting up the test environments (established in NAVTEQ?s Chicago office), test conditions and scripts preparation, test execution and reporting.
• Acted as the counterpart to the client?s Test Coordinator

• Directed the Acceptance (Test) Project for the CCP 3.2 Release where processing of Eurex deliveries resulting from UK products are integrated into the existing CCP platform.
• Coordinated the creation of the acceptance test approach in coordination with various business departments.
• Planned 3 complicated test phases spread over 6 months which are having different test content and to be executed on different technical environments consecutively.
• Coordinated the end-to-end test execution, covering 12 systems connected to the CCP core platform, involving Germany and England as main locations.
• Represented the project status in weekly Issue, SIR and Status meetings.

• Coordinated the development activities for the subproject "Frontend? where a new J2EE based front-office-tool for the bank?s sales force was introduced. The tool was developed by a subcontractor, which had onsite and offshore resources.
• Did estimations and detailed project plan for the development activities.
• Acted as an interface between the related functional and technical teams of the client and the subcontractor.
• Coordinated and monitored the technical design and the implementation.

• Worked on process improvements for the Requirements Gathering & Analysis Team and initiated the implementation of an IT Governance model.
• Analyzed the existing process flow of the Requirements Gathering Team and produced optimization and improvement strategies.
• Created ?As-Is? and ?To-Be? checklists, process descriptions and flows.
• Coordinated the IT Governance software selection effort by defining selection matrixes and organizing briefing sessions with the possible vendors and the bank?s senior management

• Interviewed the key client personnel from various departments.
• Did analysis on the current situation, considering the AS400 based host system, the handheld devices that are used for scanning and data transfer, the communication servers and the WLAN/ GPRS/internet network infrastructure.
• Did benchmarking for other possible handheld devices of different vendors.
• Wrote the review document and presented the results to the CIO of the client.