Manuel Schreurs
Verified Expert in Finance
Finance Expert
Manuel is a seasoned professional who has led the delivery organization at Backbase, a fintech company, for the last five years. He has helped banks worldwide with their digital transformation and became a managing member of the Backbase SVP Academy. Before his managerial engagements in China, Manuel had his own eCommerce company and worked as a program manager at the technology consultancy company Capgemini.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Case Studies
Expertise
Work Experience
OKR Strategy Execution Business Coach
Fjällräven
- Rolled out the objectives and key results strategy (OKR) across Fjällräven, a part of the Fenix Outdoor Group, as the customer struggled with strategy execution.
- Worked with the management team to set the yearly company objectives and with individual departments to formulate their goals.
- Set up a data-driven approach to strategy execution, better alignment between departments, and increased employee engagement.
- Created yearly and quarterly strategy all-hands where the strategy gets explained, clearly focusing on the why. Organized brainstorming sessions with departments to focus on the how.
- Catalyzed a shift in mindset at Fjällräven, fostering a transition from an output-focused approach to an outcome-driven mindset through effective change management initiatives.
Change Manager
Real Estate Technology Company (via Toptal)
- Designed a target operating model project for a global commercial real estate technology company.
- Evaluated the current way of working and bottlenecks by interviewing people from across the organization.
- Analyzed the root causes and rewrote the problem statement from a business point of view based on the discovered symptoms.
- Created the organization and team model based on underlying design principles of customer-centricity, value streams, and lean and continuous improvement.
Crypto Wallet Manager
Cryptocurrency Company (via Toptal)
- Led the project from discovery to go-live, creating the product and helping develop the company. At the time of the discovery, the company didn't exist yet.
- Established an agile approach, collaborating with investors to reprioritize the monthly product backlog based on the latest crypto trends and legislative developments, achieving a proper balance of flexibility and control.
- Acted as project and product manager, constantly advising on return on investment (ROI) business value versus implementation time. Recommended to the investor to reduce the scope on some parts and increase it on others, keeping it budget-neutral.
Leadership Trainer
Ahold Delhaize
- Set up a tech leadership training program for the tech division.
- Managed various training aspects, such as situational leadership, management theories, politics, feedback, and finances, making it efficient with many breakouts and exercises.
- Led individual coaching after the training as one of the coaches.
Global Delivery Director | SVP Academy Director
Backbase
- Governed all project implementations globally, including 250 full-time equivalents (FTE) and centers in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Bogota, and London. Coached teams, project managers, and scrum masters.
- Defined the Agile project delivery methodology to roll out globally.
- Set up a bid team to create over 300 project proposals and pitches. Pitched over 100 projects worldwide to boards and teams.
- Prepared and organized discovery or inception workshops and project intakes.
- Trained and certified 2,000 employees, customers, and system integrators. Served as a member of the board of directors at SVP Academy.
- Launched an onboarding and refresher program and onboarded 20 groups.
- Built the internal communications team, held 12 town halls, and delivered global leadership days.
- Developed training curriculum and global certification program for system integrators (IBM, Capgemini, Accenture, etc.). Developed a multi-tier partner program.
- Defined the company strategy, cross-continent organization model, growth strategy, and control as a board member.
- Led change at Backbase, driving the shift from ad hoc management to globally standardized delivery practices, a pivotal transformation necessary for global scalability.
Interim Manager
Citiwish
- Implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) for an online fashion company and acted as an interim chief financial officer (CFO).
- Created the digital strategy and implemented a mobile app for an online bakery, acting as the interim chief technology officer (CTO).
- Coached team members and C-level management on presentation skills.
- Led project management courses in PRINCE2 and PMP.
Owner
Citiwish
- Set up an eCommerce company in Beijing with a business model similar to Groupon that grew to 70 full-time equivalents, reaching over a million visitors per month.
- Developed and operated an eCommerce platform. Its strength was the openness and extendibility, integration with over 100 inventory control and booking APIs, and other resellers, such as sales, single sign-on (SSO), and taxonomy.
- Created a marketing activation strategy and an activation engine for cross-channel behavioral retargeting as the marketing department lead.
Project Manager
Capgemini
- Delivered over 15 digital projects, nationally and internationally, including fixing prices and time and materials (T&M).
- Served as a project manager for the first Dutch digital project to use offshoring in India.
- Managed the international rollouts in big companies across all continents, including Canon, Miele, Danone, BDO, Fortis Bank (now BNP Paribas Fortis), ABN AMRO Bank, and Ricoh.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
EDHEC Business School - Nice, France
Master's Degree in Computer Science
University of Amsterdam - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Certifications
Prosci Certified Change Practitioner (Prosci ADKAR)
Prosci
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification
Council for Six Sigma Certification
Professional Scrum Master II (PSM II)
Scrum.org
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification
APM Group
Skills
Finance
Forecasting, Financial Modeling, Budgeting, Startup Funding, Operational Finance
Output Software
Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Sheets
Other
Organizational Design, Leadership, IT Management, Expansion Strategy, Interim Management, Startups, Startup Growth Strategy Development, System Implementation, Digital Transformation, Delivery Management, Team Management, Change Management, Growth Strategy, Business Operations, Operations, Management, Business Planning, Business Processes, Software Development Management, People Management, Agile Project Management, eCommerce, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Benchmarking, Operational Excellence, Information Design, Target Operating Models, IT Strategy, Go-to-market Strategy, COO, Operating Models, Business Transformation, TOM, Business Models, Business Strategy, Chief Operations Officer (COO), Marketplaces, Platforms, Reporting, B2B, Engineering, SaaS, Sales Growth, CEO, Performance Improvement, Product Benchmarking, Business Process Management (BPM), Organizational Strategy & Design, Finance, Human Resources (HR), Legal, Business, Information Systems, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Strategy, Cryptocurrency, Leadership Training, RFP Management, Board of Directors, International Expansion, Marketing, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, IASSC Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (ICBB), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Scrum, Scrum Master, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), PRINCE2, Digital Transformation Program Management, Project Delivery, Project Management, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Excel 365, Process Improvement, Communication, Prosci ADKAR, Apps, Mobile Apps, Marketing Strategy, CTO, Engineering Management, Cloud Architecture, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), ERP Implementation, Training & Training Content Development, Partner Management, Business Process Flow (BPF)
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