RAMESH RAO

3819 Gladstone Drive, Naperville, IL 60565

Home: 630-983-1859 Cell: 630-363-0886 E-mail:

PROFILE
I am a successful IT professional who is a good business person. By that I mean
I have strong IT leadership skills that have been applied to achieve business re
sults. In my career, I have understood the underlying business objectives and ma
de sure that IT solutions impacted the business positively. I have introduced in
novation and change in all my assignments and have successfully collaborated and
partnered with other groups in IT and in the business. I have strong oral / wri
tten communication skills that have enabled me to successfully and routinely int
eract with C level players and also be a speaker at professional forums..
* IT Leadership
* Outsourcing - IT & BPO
* Cost Reduction
* Retail Business
* Vendor Management
* C Level Interaction
* End User Computing
* IT Application Development
* Innovation and Change
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
U.S. CELLULAR, Bensenville, IL Nov 2008 - Dec 2009
A $4.2B super-regional cellular phone company
Director, Strategic Sourcing & Vendor Management
Recruited to fill a newly created position to establish and drive strategic sour
cing and disciplined vendor management. Senior leadership role focused on the st
rategic transformation of IS initiatives enterprise wide, through the effective
leveraging of strategic partners.
* Developed sourcing strategy and defined approach to implement it.
* Enhanced vendor management practices that increased vendor accountability
* Key participant in sourcing arrangements on company's $300M major program, in
cluding RFP process, vendor sessions, site visits and partner selection
* Led team of 5 in contract negotiations on deals ranging from $1M to $15M for
software and services
* Selected vendor through RFP process, completed contracts & established outsou
rcing relationship for legacy application QA & T
* Promoted more disciplined vendor management practices and updated preferred v
endor program
CNA INSURANCE, Chicago, IL Feb 2002 - April 2008
A $12B Insurance company primarily focused on Property & Casualty insurance
Director, Outsourcing
Recruited to define strategy and establish outsourcing for both IT and Business
Processing. Obtained senior executive support for a successful launch of offshor
e outsourcing in June 2003. Highlights include
* Evaluated country options and selected the best vendor partner for BPO and IT
O using RFI/RFPs
* Formalized an outsourcing methodology and established disciplined program man
agement
* Established and matured IT and BPO outsourcing relationships delivering savin
gs of $20M over 3.5 years
* Developed and implemented effective communication strategies that highlighted
sensitivity to HR issues
* Established an IT strategic sourcing framework for 4 key partnerships and PMO
function
* Completed a $10M/year, ten year domestic outsourcing contract for Group Long
Term Care business
* Spearheaded multiple BPO efforts in policy administration, claims processing,
Institutional Markets and legal that delivered $5.5M in annual savings.
* Established and maintained relationships with a wide range of vendors and tho
ught leaders
* Re-negotiated win-win contracts that locked-in very favorable rate increases
of 5% /year for three years
RAMESH RAO {} 2
SEARS ROEBUCK AND CO, Hoffman Estates, IL 1975 - 2002
$40 billion retail company with more than 2500 retail stores in the U.S. and Can
ada.
Director, B2B Initiatives 2000 - 2002
Directed and managed the development and installation of Global NetXchange (GNX)
services, to meet objectives of both organizations. Focused on electronic aucti
ons and inventory services
* CPFR Program for tires with Michelin improved sales by 3-4% and reduced inven
tory cost by 5%
* Assigned to GNX: Sears was a founding equity partner of the first retail B2B
exchange in the world
* Took leadership role in senior management forums in US / Europe with member c
ompanies
Director, Retail Inventory Systems 1999 - 2000
Promoted to be responsible for the development of ALL inventory projects
* Pioneered introduction of Distribution Requirements Planning (DRP) into the r
etail industry. 85 of the top vendors were added to the program, resulting in hu
ndreds of million dollars reductions in inventory
* Used neural network technology to create complex self-learning models that fo
recast promotional quantity, resulting in improved sales and reduced out-of-stoc
ks for the tire business
Out-Sourcing Strategy 1997 - 2000
* Took the initiative as an "extra-curricular" activity to put in place an off-
shore program
* Developed at CIO's request, an outsourcing strategy
* Successfully obtained support and implemented program. Annual savings: $10M
Director, Integrated Inventory Management Project 1995 - 2000
* Spearheaded the effort to re-architect aging inventory systems and led the de
velopment of next generation systems. Researched inventory best practices. Adopt
ed a combination buy-and-build strategy
* Implemented innovative solutions to deliver business value. Example $49M less
inventory at one DC.
Director, Homelife Systems 1994 - 1995
Established a separate IT organization in support of a stand-alone specialty fur
niture business
* CIO role for a $1 billion furniture business. Demonstrated keen cost and ROI
awareness
Director, Technical Architecture and Strategic Planning 1992 - 1994
Provided technology leadership in newly re-centralized IT organization
* Directed technology decisions, product selection, vendor negotiations and sup
port
* Partnered with big five consulting firm and directed the development of the f
irst IT Strategic Plan
* Established "rules of the road" to provide flexibility for decentralized orga
nization, including BCP
Director, End User Computing 1985 - 1992
In addition to responsibility for Sears Canada systems convergence, led the effo
rts to enable end users to become more computer literate, improve productivity a
nd substantially reduce costs
* Rolled out 4000 PCs. Completed $20M project for a smooth transition of the en
tire organization to new office environment resulting in reduction of 600+ admin
istrative head count
* Established E-Mail as the backbone for internal communications among 45,000 a
ssociates
Director, Systems Planning 1984 - 1985
First person transferred from Sears Canada to spear head systems convergence bet
ween the two companies. Successful partnership resulted in significant reduction
in time / cost for Canada and improved US system development capabilities
RAMESH RAO {} 3
SEARS CANADA, Toronto, Canada 1975 - 1984
National Manager, Finance, HR and In-Store Systems
Promoted to executive position in 1980. Appointed Task Force Chairperson to inve
stigate applicability of US systems for Canada. Recommendations to CEOs resulted
in decision to implement systems convergence
RECOGNITION
Invited to be speaker at IBM conference in Bangalore, India 2006
Invited to be speaker / attendee at Gartner and IAOP 2005 - 2008
Invited to be guest lecturer at DePaul University graduate classes 2009
EDUCATION
MBA, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
MS in EE, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
BS in EE, Bangalore University, India
RECENT CONTINUING EDUCATION
Strategic Sourcing
Change Management
Servant Leader