Themba J. Vundla

1. Led and managed the delivery of several cross-functional, multi-disciplinary programs including:
• Athena Medical Coding Service - Led the development and launch of the Medical Coding Service. Constituded a cross-functional Program team composed of Sales, Compliance, R&D, Finance, Marketing, etc. and defined workstreams to lead different aspects of the program; from Product development to pricing, billing and operations. Led each defined tasks/outcomes and milestones for each workstream and managed risks and dependencies in order to drive the program from concept to market launch and operations. Generated just under $500K in additional revenue in the first few months.
• Dentrix Ascend/Athenahealth solution - Constituted cross-organizational program team to drive product development, customer migration and Product launch at HIMSS. Developed joint Henry Schein/Athenahealth marketing, sales and client onboarding plans to support the launch of the solution for FQHC clients.
• Open Network Scheduling - Developed the Product Roadmap with the Product Manager; coordinated the development of the application across the Product Scrum teams as well as the Platform as a Service (PaaS) teams - managing dependencies and conflicting priorities. Worked with Product Marketing to launch an AWS hosted, FHIR-compliant, SaaS Scheduling solution that offers clients Referral Scheduling and Patient self-scheduling. Over 8000 appointments booked across 20 alpha clients.
2. Spearheaded the development and definition of Program Management best practices, phases, artifacts and templates, establishing a standard knowledge-base for Program Managers and the organization.
• Coached/mentored Program Managers and teams on program management practices, including Charter development, Dependency and Risk management, RCAs, etc.
3. Agile transformation advocate:
• Provided coaching and support for R&D Scrum teams as they transitioned to Agile development.
• Setup Agile ceremonies and cadences - driving transparency, continuous review/feedback and incremental delivery of value.

1. Led programs focused localization of MATLAB and on extending MATLAB & Simulink capabilities beyond the desktop, i.e. to  the web, the cloud. Key programs led and delivered include:
• MATLAB Drive Program - Developed cloud-based file storage and management; leveraging AWS to enable access and integration across the MATLAB desktop, MATLAB Mobile and MATLAB Online (Cloud) applications.
• Documentation Center & Example Program - Componentization and re-architecture of MATLAB in-Product Documentation, enabling it to be publishing on the Web as the MATLAB Documentation Center with interactive MATLAB Examples.
• Online Learning Program - expansion of the Product to enable integration into online learning and eBook publishing. Led a cross-functional program team (Training, Engineering, etc.) to deliver:
1. MATLAB Academy - interactive online training delivered by Mathworks Training.
2. MATLAB Online for MOOCs - cloud-based version of MATLAB which enables MOOCs and/or Publishers to embed an interactive MATLAB environment in their online content.
3. MATLAB Grader - automated grading tool for MATLAB problems that instructors/author embed in online courses or books as exercises.
2. Drove focus on product quality and continuous improvement:
• Led RCAs to analyze recurring/significant Market bugs and implement countermeasures to prevent them from reoccurring. Instituted regular reviews to constantly track and categorize market bugs, to keep them below a specified threshold.
• Rolled out Hansei and RCA practices - helping teams reflect on performance and opportunities for continuous improvement.
3. Led the adoption of Agile development practices for a number of Engineering teams enabling them to move from 6 month releases to monthly releases and then to daily builds and deployments (i.e. CICD).

Product Consultant:Led Client training, onboarding and provided support for go-live. Project Manager for client implementations.

1. Implemented workflow customization and solution configuration (in support of the client’s Compensation and/or Performance plan).
2. Provided support for clients during their Performance/Compensation review cycle and addressed major bugs.

Product Development and QA:

1. Contributed to Product backlog based upon experiences during onboarding and review cycle support. Provided input on client challenges and priorities, to help define the Product development Roadmap.
2. Defined performance and compensation management workflows and best practices for the new 10.x platform.
3. Wrote and ran test scripts to help test the new 10.x platform.

Project Scope: Design and implement a web-based, self-service interface to the in-house Retiree Benefits Payment and reconciliation/reporting system. The new web interface would enable clients directly access; reconcile and report on pension payments administered by State Street.

Highlights:

1. Defined and documented the Business Requirements; developed Use Cases, proposed changes to internal business processes to optimize business operations and align them to the solution being developed.
2. Delivered a working proof of concept prototype – enabling us to illustrate the solution and obtain funding and approval to implement the final solution.

Project Scope: Inventory the refinery-based mission/business critical systems | Defined the requirements for a centralized data-center to host these applications | Manage the migration of the refinery-based applications to the new GOPENT infrastructure | Document support requirement & work with vendors to consolidate support contracts.

Highlights:

1. Led a team of 18 people - responsible for managing the migration of key Shell Oil Products United States (SOPUS) applications from their disparate Refinery-based servers to 2 newly created, centralized data centers (in Houston and in Kuala Lumpur).
2. Inventoried business critical applications that were dispersed at various refineries and worked with the owners to determine and implement the changes that would be required to migrate them. Worked with Engineers and/or Vendors to implement the changes.
3. Managed the migration of the business critical applications from the Refineries onto the new Global Infrastructure platform, without minimal interruption to business operations.
4. Consolidated multiple 3rd party support agreements into  agreement for supporting the application on the centralized GOPENT infrastructure.
5. Developed Documentation that could be used to transfer knowledge to new support staff.

Director of Branch Network Information Technology: (Feb 2000 – Jan 2004)

Managed the Branch Technology (I.T. applications and infrastructure) division | Led a team of just over 50 people who were responsible for Branch Network infrastructure (LAN, servers, PCs, Teller Cash Dispensers, etc.) and Branch Automate software.

1. Defined and implemented a strategy to transform the Branch Teller Terminal into a Branch Web Portal capable of delivering a variety of financial products improving the vertical sales index (VSI).
2. Introducing Teller Cash Dispenser (TCD) technological resulting in improve security, customer service and cash management.
3. Reduced the cost of managing the Bank's distributed PC infrastructure and software by 50%, through centralized, remote deployment and terminal management.
4. Spearheaded the development of the business model and business plan for the expansion of our electronic banking solutions into neighboring countries.

Director of Branch Premises: (Nov 2000 – Aug 2003)

Managed the Branch Premises division, responsible for identifying and setting up Branch premises. This included a Planning department (including Planners, Architects and Security specialists) and a Shop-fitting department who were responsible for setting up the Branch premises.

1. Implemented CAD and GIS technologies to speed Branch design and optimize location planning.
2. Standardized and streamlined Branch design, review and shopfitting processes enabling us to setup and deliver a Bank Branch within 4-6 month, as opposed to the 8 -12 months it took previously.
3. Introduced Teller Cash Dispenser (TCD) technology, to enable improved security and customer interaction, without the need for bullet-proof partitions between the Customer and the Service Consultant.

Led and implemented multiple projects that improved Investec Asset Management business workflows and Information Technology systems. These projects reduced pricing and switching costs, improved accuracy and sped up processing time.

1. Built and established senior management and Executive level relationships with local Water and Electrical utilities.
2. Met annual sales target for the Utility and Energy services sector.
3. Implemented Geographic Information System (GIS) solution at Eskom and the Works and Asset Management solution (WAMS) at British Gas (UK).

Masters of Business Administration

BSc (Town & Regional Planning)