Howard Cohen’s Resume

Here is my updated resume and some things I have been up to in the last year.

Howard C. Cohen

4573 Via Grande Newbury Park, California 91302 Home Telephone: (805) 499-7625 Cell: (805) 732-9137

Summary: Information Systems Executive with extensive and diverse experience in the development, testing, implementation and management of enterprise business systems.  Experience in program management of large IT mergers and acquisitions projects followed by integration of systems to achieve organizational synergy targets.  Proven ability in building strong teams and maintaining positive client relationships.  Enable companies to establish a cost effective and disciplined approach to managing mission critical projects by leveraging internal and external resources to implement systems and processes to meet the organizations financial and competitive goals.

Professional Experience

Health Net Program Manager -Information Technology Group

March 2010 to current

• Lead the most complex Information Technology projects in the division that have broad impact across the company.  Project in excess of $15 Million.  Currently leading HIPAA 5010 conversion of 3 core systems and many downstream systems to ensure regulatory compliance.  Scope includes business and IT related activities with budget and staff responsibility
• Drive Project Management Office efficiencies across the division to improve processes through automation and creation of new manual work flow processes.

Major projects and accomplishments:

• Established a new organizational structure for the IT PMO resulting in a reduction in force over two years within the department to enhance effectiveness of the organization, reduce admin expense and address performance issues
• Achieved all administrative cost targets and finished each year at budget or below target budget
• Established company wide Project Management Methodology and Systems Development Methodology with associated online tools spanning the entire development cycle and training of IT and business associates

WellPoint Vice President IT Project Management Office, Quality Office and IT Compliance

May 2005 – April 2008

• Lead WellPoint’s IT Program Management Office (PMO) and Quality Office (QMO).  Responsible for establishing and maintaining enterprise wide processes for Project Management, IT Training and Systems Development methodologies.
• Managed IT internal and external regulatory compliance reporting, monitoring and testing of certain IT controls. Served as interim Chief Security Officer for 6 months.
• Lead all IT related mergers and acquisitions, due diligence and integration activities.
• Span of control included up to 55 associates and $12 Million annual budget.

Major projects and accomplishments:

• Established a new organizational structure for the IT PMO resulting in a reduction in force over two years within the department to enhance effectiveness of the organization, reduce admin expense and address performance issues
• Achieved all administrative cost targets and finished each year at budget or below target budget
• Established company wide Project Management Methodology and Systems Development Methodology with associated online tools spanning the entire development cycle and training of IT and business associates

Vice President Mergers and Acquisitions – Information Technology

May 2002 – May 2005

• Lead IT Merger and Acquisitions activities across applications and infrastructure disciplines.  Created the Integration Program Office and managed all project teams to complete Day 1 implementation and long term integration of merged companies.
• Lead IT assessment of potential mergers and acquisitions documenting integration strategy recommendations and assessments of synergy saving opportunities.

Major projects and accomplishments:

• Met all synergy target established and approved by executive management
• Achieved a flawless Day 1 integration for a variety of acquisitions that included system integration of email, data networks, voice networks and Human Resources systems
• Created a repeatable template driven integration process to speed due diligence and integration activities

Vice President Architecture Projects, Information Technology

January 2002 – May 2002

• Managed and controlled complex corporate level information technology projects that had wide reaching impact to the company.
• Created and managed various Program Management Offices to support key technology initiatives.

Major projects and accomplishments:

• Managed the HIPAA implementation program across nine legacy systems to ensure quality and regulatory compliance of EDI systems used to capture claims from health care providers
• Managed system convergence initiatives to reduce the number of core application systems platforms

Vice President, e-Business and Corporate Applications

April 1999 – January 2002

• Developed strategy for product and vendor selection to achieve WellPoint’s e-commerce objectives.
• Lead technical infrastructure, applications development, testing and maintenance of the web sites.
• Managed development, installation and maintenance of key mainframe and multi-tiered financial, data warehousing enterprise imaging and EDI applications.
• Span of control included a team of 40+ project managers, business analysts and developers along with managing an outsourced developer responsible for design, coding, and system testing of web assets. Budget responsibility of $15 million.

Major projects and accomplishments:

• Completed upgrades to Peoplesoft Financial, Payroll and HR systems
• Established WellPoint’s first Corporate Intranet and first instance of Microsoft Outlook
• Flawless implementation of all Year 2000 enhancements to Corporate Systems applications

Blue Cross of California Director Large Group Systems - Membership, Billing, Financial and CallCare Systems

October 1994 – April 1999

• Managed multiple mainframe online and batch processing systems and multi-tiered call center applications.  Managed three distinct applications development teams containing a staff of 49 IT professionals with budget responsibility of $7 million.

Major projects and accomplishments:

• Increased reliability and functionality of the multi-tiered Call Center application
• Managed the development of the first E-commerce Self-Service Internet web site for members and providers
• Managed the installation the Managed Care Services product at Third Party Administrators allowing remote batch and online real-time pricing of Blue Cross network providers claims

Manager – Reporting Systems / Adjudication Systems Manager – PC Support and Adhoc ReportingProvider Services Data Acquisition Analyst Corporate Management Systems Senior Business Systems Analyst Business Systems Analyst Technical Support Analyst

June 1989 – January 1995 May 1987 – June 1989 March 1986 – May 1987 April 1985 – March 1986 August 1984 – April 1985 December 1982 – August 1984

Technical and Work Related Skills

• Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite of products. Working knowledge of SAS, HTML and mainframe utilities.
• Excellent oral communication and written communication skills.  Refined interpersonal skills.  Detail oriented while maintaining a “big picture” perspective.  Extensive experience with Vendor Management and Service Level Agreements.

Education

California State University – Northridge

Bachelor of Science – Business Administration / Marketing – 1982

Continuing Education, Conferences and Affiliations

University of California – Los Angeles

• Anderson School of Business – “Managing the Information Resource”

Assorted courses offered by Blue Cross/WellPoint Human Resources

Mergers and Acquisition Conferences

Speaker at Blue Cross Association on e-Business implementations

Other Interests

UltraRunning, Mountain / Road Biking, Fastpacking, Mountaineering

RECENT CHALLENGES

Solo ascent Mt. Shasta, April ’08;
Bishop 50 mile ultra Marathon, May ’08;
Multiple 30+ mile training runs and fast packing in the Sespe Wilderness, June ’08
Hardrock 100 endurance running race and climbed Mt Humphreys (tallest peak in AZ), July ’08;
Polemonium Peak via V notch ice climb and Mt. Tyndall  (both 14,000 footers) and Mt. Gayley (13,000+); August ’08
Double metric century “Cool Breeze”, Aug ’08
2 day 200 mile stage road bike race Everest Challenge (29,000 feet of elevation gain), Sep ’08.
Ran the Rim to Rim to Rim crossing of the Grand Canyon in 14 hours, Sep ’08
Crewed Furnace Creek 508 Bike Race
Ran the entire Backbone Trail (68 miles) across the Santa Monica Mountains in 18 hours
Libyan Challenge 125 mile race 52 hours
Coyote 2 Moon 100 mile race 29 hours 23 minutes
Double Century Road Bike Ride Tour of 2 Forests 13+ hours
Hardrock 100 Endurance Run 36 hours 33 min.
Two Self supported 200 mile road bike rides training for the Furnace Creek 508
Evolution Valley 100K – High Sierra 60 mile fun-run from North Lake to South Lake via the John Muir Trail and 3 12,000 foot passes