Rick Lundgren
Sr Strategy & Project Leader
Solutions Oriented. Results Driven.
About Me
With a love for all things IT, project leadership, strategy design and execution - I consider myself a “solutions oriented and results driven” technologist. My aim is to work with organizations to help them connect the dots and increase the value of their business/brand through value added services.
Dynamic IT leader andChief of Staff with nearly two decades of experience in software development and project management roles focusing on strategic planning, project delivery,
customer service, and innovative solutions that increase business value. Skilled in articulating complex challenges into tangible and measurable actions to deliver business value. Highly effective C-Suite strategic though partner and trusted advisor.The Tangibles and Intangibles
The unique blend of skills that make Rick, well Rick!
Core Competencies
- Strategic Oversight, Agility, and Execution
- Project and Program Management
- Mentorship / Coaching
- Global People Management
- Stakeholder Influence
- IT Application Delivery
- Testing Strategy
- HR & Finance Back-Office Application Development
- Conflict Resolution / Risk Management
- Demand Planning
- Agile and Waterfall Methodology
- Budgeting and P&L Management
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Environmental Health and Safety Applicaction (EHS)
- Warehouse Management and Labor Management Systems (WMS & LMS)
- Change Management
- Customer Retention
- Vendor Management / Contract Negotiation
Professional Associations
- Harvest Church Capital Improvements Committee - 2023 to Present
- Jacob's Well Mission (Memphis) Technology Lead - 2023 to Present
- Elder, Harvest Church Memphis - 2019 to Present
- MSRCT Financial Board of Directors (FedEx) - 2016 to 2018
- MTSU Technology Advisory Board - 2004 to 2006
Education and Training
- Leadership Accelerator Program (Leading Leaders) - 2023
- FedEx Emerging Leaders Program - 2022
- Certified Scrum Master, Scrum Alliance - 2014
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification - 2011
- MBA, Finance, Middle TN State University - 2006
- BBA, Computer Information Systems, Middle TN State University - 2005
Experience
Manager, Engineering and IT and Chief of Staff (to SVP)
FedEx Logistics | Memphis, TN | 2021 – Present
Managed a globally diverse team of IT professionals for software development projects, customer service & retention initiatives, SOC Compliance, and Annual Operating Plan development.
IT Leadership:
- Successfully managed multiple SaaS implementations around warehouse management systems (WMS) - Manhattan and JDA based - with budgets upwards of $10M each.
- Facilitated development of go-to-market strategy enabling 30% faster customer implementation and penetration into Asia and Latin American Markets.
- Tech lead for ERP implementation ow Workday into Canada.
- Created and chaired IT Sterring Committee and Change Advisory Board to regulate production release processess and risks, resulting in better end-user adoption.
- Accountable for Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) application build using Intelex platform.
- Developed a user acceptance testing (UAT) strategy promoting consistency and reducing risks, ensuring the usability of the software exceeds customer expectations, resulting in 18% less defects found in L5 (production ready environment).
- Developed a follow-the-sun software model to allow for daily development on projects.
- Selected to write business case for core WMS application to gain corporate funding through annual budget process, resulting in $20M approved for development.
- Strategic leader in vendor transformation efforts resulting in $4M annualized cost savings while enabling the retainment of critical business knowledge to drive business efficiencies and meet financial targets.
- Rescued the Systems and Organizational Controls (SOC) Audit program with a 75% reduction in qualified reports and 50% reduction in IT exceptions saving the company $3M+ in customer and regulatory penalties.
- Developed SVP Communication Strategy to appropriately disseminate information to Sr Executives, Engineering & IT Teams, and Customers.
- Managed financial aspects of IT contracts (fee payments, MHE, P&L, etc) to protect company's interests and simultaneously maintain strong customer relationships.
- Established controls to measure defects created and developed training procedures to educate team ultimately resulting in 23% less defects created per release.
PMO Leadership:
- Created and led PMO supporting 37+ customers across 5 business verticals in a matrixed environment with budgets from $800k to $50M.
- Facilitated the development of multi-year roadmap to cast overall trajectory of corporate projects through evaluation, prioritization, and resource allocation phases.
- Developed reporting process with PowerBI to communicate project health, status, and key deliverables to executive leadership.
- Implemented a culture of continuous improvement by challenging team to identify patterns of risk and roadblocks, which resulted in proactively identifying trouble areas for high-profile customer and saving 2 multi-million dollar accounts.
- Established timekeeping and project budget controls to eliminate project overspend and improve financial forecasts.
- Launched a training program for staff, resulting in 10% increase in successful project delivery.
- Executive project oversight for delivery on FedEx's Drive initiatives, resulting in $2M in savings for operational and process efficiencies.
- Process champion for PMO deliverables establishing a Center of Excellence (CoE) for project and governance controls to manage scope, eliminate overspend, and improve financial forecasts while documenting/managing project insights, customer needs (voice of the customer), data analytics, business analysis, and gap analysis documentation.
Chief of Staff:
- Worked intimately with C-level executives to define and execute the strategic direction of the FXL Engineering and IT, Global Clearance, and Supply Chain Engineering and IT teams (600+ headcount).
- Successfully supported IT Human Resource activities for 3 VPs and 12 Directors, including H1B and Business VISAs.
- Created a holistic onboarding program to ensure team member involvement and adoption to corporate culture.
- Creation of annual metrics measurement process using MBOs and KPIs to track progress towards achieving compliance, sourcing, staffing, and overall operational goals.
- Responsible for executive communication from SVP level downstream via townhalls and staff meetings. Responsible for preparation and talking points from SVP level upstream to EVP, CTO, CIO, and CEO levels.
AWARDS:
Bravo Zulu Award, 2023 - Awarded for the execution and delivery on the Global Workforce Optimization Initiative, which was global business transformation
FedEx Five Star Award, 2022 – Honored with FedEx’s highest award for outstanding efforts to enhance service profitability
Bravo Zulu Award, 2021 – Awarded for creating a ‘SWAT’ team to triage issues for a customer. Bringing the right players to the table, ultimately saving a multi-million-dollar account.Program Director (Contract)
Benefit Recovery Group | Memphis, TN | 2020 – 2021
Managed the compensation and financial recovery systems with a team of 5 specialists.
- Transformed compensation recovery program from struggling entity with revenue of $1M to revenue of $1.9M within 6 months.
- Re-engineering payment processing applications and claims identification systems resulting in a 10% annual cost savings.
- Created a project / portfolio tracker to monitor project intake, approvals, risks and issues, milestone deliverables, resource and budget allocations.
- Designed and implemented a performance management system to drive excellence through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Manager, Technology and Planning
Hilton Worldwide | McLean, VA and Memphis, TN | 2018-2020
Managed portfolio of projects around products and services both in cloud and on-premise.
- Developed cost center budgets for project forecasts and roadmap planning across 4 business verticals each with annual budgets over $25M.
- Management and Consulting oversight for complex system solutions in the back-office space for customer supporting their financial, audit, and time & expense management systems.
- Managed vendor support processes around invoicing/billing, AR, and AP for tech vendors.
- Implemented new organizational processes to drive standardization and consistency, resulting in better project documentation and the ability to leverage findings across project teams.
- Managed relationships between HR, Finance, Legal, and Tech Teams for international projects.
- Selected by leadership to paerticipate in development of enterprise testing strategy and UAT related to Connected Room technology.
Program Manager (IT APPLICATIONS & FINANCIAL OPERATIONS)
FedEx Services | Colorado Springs, CO and Collierville, TN | 2011- 2018
Program Manager responsible for leading PMO efforts on global clearance and shipping applications.
- Redesigned the overall resource allocation process strengthening project delivery and increasing quality and speed.
- Primary resource for business case development, cost-benefit analysis, market sensitivity research, and overall ROI for technology related projects.
- IT representative on the Enterprise Change Management Committee responsible for Clearance and Tech inititiatives.
- Program lead for the CASCADE Clearance Program, a $76M initiative with revenue and cost saving benefits of $147M.
- Program liaison to enterprise-wide demand management summits, responsible for representing the Clearance program to identify target budgets, resource allocations and timelines, for project teams based on customer needs and data trends.
AWARDS:
Bravo Zulu Award, 2018 – Awarded for outstanding work building out business case and financial plan for the CASCADE program, a $76M initiative.
Bravo Zulu Award, 2013 – Awarded for setting up an on-call sharing service between offshore and domestic teams for the Global TradeTools team resulting in 47.5% reduction issue escalating to a critical state, which produced significant cost savings.
IT Program Manager (On-Line Fundraising Programs)
ALSAC/ St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital | Memphis, TN | 2009– 2011
Program Manager for digital fundraising campaigns on sports and holiday platforms.
- Influencer and program leader on implementation of digital technology solutions responsible for the transformation of 2 key fundraising programs resulting in an additional $80M from all fundraising channels.
- Lead manager for infrastructure (VoIP) upgrade for the ALSAC Call Center.
AWARDS:
One Goal Award, 2010 – Awarded for outstanding leadership and execution on Thanks and Giving Fundraising Campaign
Sr Business Systems Analyst
AIM Healthcare | Nashville, TN | 2006– 2009
Subject-Matter Expert (SME) for 800+ concurrent users of the Claims Discovery Applications.
- Created a project dashboard system for tracking status, budget, milestones, risks, and issues.
- Responsible for mentoring junior analysts, assigning work, and participating in annual reviews.
Business Process Analyst
Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire | Nashville, TN | 2005– 2006
Analyst responsible for project activities around customer trends and data storage.
- Assisted in the creation of the Global Data Warehouse by defining the data dictionary, conversion of data parameters, and handling of project documentation.
- Used SQL queries to analyze trends within customer records to identify cost-saving and revenue generating opportunities.
Services
Let me help you level up!
PM Consulting
Need help planning/executing for various projects: infrastructure, fundraising, digital, application and delivery. Need intervention on struggling projects. I can help!
Interview Coaching
As Chief of Staff for a Fortune 100 company among other roles, I have been on both sides f the interview desk. Let my experience help you land your next opportunity.
Notary Services
Need a notary for any reason financial, wills, real-estate, etc. I can help!
Feedback and Reviews
What do other say about their interactions with Rick?
1Don Murphy (Program Advisor) - 2023
Labeling Rick as proactive is an understatement, he works like a chess master, seeing the whole board and is prepared for several moves beyond the next decision...through preparation for what's next and by keeping one or more steps ahead on delivering of strategic IT projects, Rick gave the senior leadership team the time and space to think.
Rick excels in both delivering IT programs and enhancing process through continuous improvement enabling his leadership to better support the overall business strategy.
2Chacko Verghese (SVP) - 2023
Rick has taken the office of Chief of Staff to the next level through his program management skills, thinking beyond the ask, and his financial acumen. He consistently looks at his team and the overall organization for opportunities to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
3Kristina Villines (Director) - 2023
Rick is a man of character, consistency, and competency. He was a priceless resource on my journey to a Director role. He provided vision, leadership, support by leveraging his entire skill set to aid me in resume design, interview coaching, and compensation negotiation. I felt both competent and confident throughout the process because Rick was in my corner. I am grateful for his character, his expertise and his work ethic on my behalf.
4LeAnne Scallions (Director) - 2021
Rick is a great addition to any project. With excellent communication skills, strong leadership, and solid decision making acumen it is easy to understand why he can make significant impacts on projects and team deliverables. He is cool under pressure, emphatic but firm when needed. He states the truth at the same time looking for creative ways to mitigate risks and solve problems.
5Lisa Schooling (Sr Director) - 2020
Rick was a critical resource providing valuable insight into my budget and ensured project accounting was accurate. He always does what he says he'll do and was extremely proactive. Rick alway made me feel my requests were important despite him supporting multiple Directors and VPs.
6David Ramsbottom (Technical Principal) - 2018
Rick provided invaluable leadership within the very complex and dynamic FedEx regulatory area of TradeTools. His Organizational skills, problem solving, and ability to simultaneously support many functional areas contributed to the overall success achieved.
7Donna McDermott (Demand Management) - 2017
Rick has a maturity about him that gives him quick credibility in business situations. He is the type of team member you wish for: dependable, smart, and a 'team player' with a point of view.
8Brett Buckhold (Marketing Principal) - 2016
Rick has been a dependable ally in helplng our Digital Access Marketing team achieve their goals. He consistenly challenges the project teams to think strategically and further than the issue(s) at hand.
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