Dwayne Williams - AVP of Tech Business Management & Strategy, Manulife

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Work Background

ManulifeAVP, Technology Business Management & Strategy, Group Functions Technology

Mar. 2022 - Oct. 2023As the head of the Group Functions Technology Project Management Office at Manulife Financial, led a team of over 80 full-time and contingent staff, maintaining discipline in delivery execution while focused on agility and continuously improving cost effectiveness for 7 business functions within Manulife, which include: Corporate Finance & Treasury, Actuarial & Reinsurance, HR, Global Risk, Legal, Marketing and Global Operations. Maintaining a structured and optimized portfolio, including clear ownership of services between IT and the Business, with responsible for the successful implementation of over 100 projects with an annual total one-time budget of over $100M. Continuously maximized an efficient capacity and utilization model for all of technology, with the goal of ensuring technology spend is focused on strategic build that drives business value baselines against our cost targets. As part of strategy, functioned as the chief of staff on behalf of our technology CIO, ensuring alignment and digital strategic direction amongst the reporting Vice Presidents. Driving the agenda according to the head of technology’s vision to enable and accelerate commercial growth and transformation at Manulife with advanced engineering and domain expertise, built upon an empowered and results-driven culture. Collaborating with Business stakeholders through strategic partnering and joint accountability, reducing silos and solving complex problems. Led monthly technology operating reviews with the head of technology and functional key business stakeholders, reporting the value enablement, our financial health, and operational metrics against the organizations KPIs. Lastly, accountable for procurement and vendor management on behalf of technology. Managed the contingent headcount to ensure our staff augmentation model remains efficient and overseeing all SOWs.

ManulifeDirector, Systems & Platform Governance, GWAM Technology

Mar. 2016 - Mar. 2022Toronto, Canada AreaAs the Director of System & Platform Services Governance at Manulife Financial, I managed a team of Transition Managers, Operations Analysts, and Co-op students, including offshore resources in the Philippines. My team was responsible for Integration Consultation, Transition/Decommission Management, and Process Governance related to application support for the Investment Division. I led the transition Services team, overseeing all the transition activities being onboarded within the IT support organization. governing transition methodologies and tools to ensure a smooth hand-over of innovative solutions to support. I reported weekly status on overall progress of major milestones, successes, and areas requiring attention. My focus was on governing and maintaining a solid set of processes to efficiently manage the on-boarding and retiring of technology solutions. Highlights include: • Successfully introduced an INV Service Management team to oversee Incident, Problem, Change and Release Management processes, defining the proposal, resource, and budget requirements, outlining the roles & responsibilities of the processes, governance models, and continuous process improvement efforts. • Responsible for driving operation cost saves within the application support organization, collaborating with finance and procurement teams to identify target areas for cost reductions (vendor renewals, maintenance costs, and licensing fees), driving application decommissioning and archiving initiatives with application support teams to meet financial targets, saving the technology organization over $1M per year

ManulifeManager, Process Design

Mar. 2014 - Jan. 2016Toronto, Ontario, CanadaAs the Manager of Process Design at Manulife Financial, I defined new service offerings for the Global Solutions Delivery group within the Investments organization that focused on continuous service improvement surrounding ITIL core processes. Process Design Lead, within the Service Innovation and Governance team, for the Change Management and Service Portfolio Management processes within the Group Function Systems organization. I maintained a consistent platform of communication directly with the Vice President of the organization for the ongoing development of the strategic platform for investment management of services. Additionally, I managed junior to intermediate business and process analysts to document business requirements, draft design documents, and implement solutions. I was the forerunner, along with senior management, in driving process adoption and acceptance within the organization and educated internal resources on key process concepts within the technology organization.

RBCSenior Business Analyst

Oct. 2012 - Feb. 2014Toronto, Canada Area• Senior Business Analyst and Process Lead for RBC’s Enterprise IT Service Management Program • Responsible for defining and documenting the Incident, Problem and Knowledge Management processes • Required to define project tasks (project line items) within the project schedule in relation to the processes in focus • Led 4 other intermediate BAs; managing workload and acted as their point of contact for any issues, escalations, and SME questions/advice • In charge of gathering the HLRs (High Level Requirements) and documenting Process Model Designs as part of the enterprise development and implementation of the processes and tool • Worked closely with HP SMEs to define the future state requirements, process, and tool solutions • Lead for 10+ critical Integration applications that required for the future state design of the tool, gathering requirements, documenting processes, and aligning these to any potential impacts to the solution • SME for enterprise solutions such as, the design of the Business and Infrastructure Service Models and Assignment Groups • Designed the enterprise IT Business Service model as the foundation of categorization of records at the Service Desk and within Change Management • Responsible for the overall documentation and presentation of RBC’s E2E (End to End) Documents specific to the processes assigned • Business stakeholder representative for the daily QA defect meeting; providing input for criticality of defects, and approval for any fixes and workarounds • Responsible with working with management and HP to ensure proper awareness is present for any significant issues • Participated and provided ongoing key input into the communications strategy for deployment and go-live • Spoke at training and communications events and functions for process roll-out to the enterprise

TELUSSenior Business Analyst

May. 2012 - Oct. 2012• Senior Business Analyst for the Risk Management and Awareness projects within the Customer Service Manager Evolution Program • Performed elicitation activities with the identified Subject Matter Experts assigned to the respective projects • Documented and validated the gaps and challenges expressed during the analysis phase of the current mode of operations, and presented these to management • Prepared a comprehensive requirements package, extracted from the stakeholders as key conditions to achieve the desired solutions • Modeled the current and future mode of operations processes using Visio • Designed and presented communication presentations to the various key stakeholders within the organization • Co-designed and constructed a SharePoint site for the CSMs nationally to utilize as a centralized hub for all required information that will assist in their day-to-day activities • Developed key Risk Management tools, such as a knowledge base of common risks and a Risk Register to capture the respective risks of the CSM’s supported client • Conducted remote training and communication sessions nationally to CSMs across Canada to provide them with the fundamentals of the future state mode of operations

Aon Risk ServicesSenior Business Analyst

Jan. 2012 - Mar. 2012Senior Business Analyst Lead within the Aon Risk Services Project Management Office, responsible for a variety of analyst roles and tasks for multiple projects which focused on Business Relationship Management

TD Bank GroupSenior Business Analyst

Jul. 2011 - Jan. 2012Business / Process Analyst for TDs Service Desk Incident Management and Service Request Management Processes project within the IT Workspace Program; with the objective to streamline four service desks processes (Enterprise Service Desk, TD Insurance, Wholesale and US) into one standardized umbrella