Pamela Schaefer, PMP, CSM
Verified Expert in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Expert
Greenwich, CT, United States
Toptal member since July 23, 2024
As a change management expert, Pam has 25+ years of project and program management experience in financial software implementations. She has successfully planned and led strategic transformations at top-tier firms, including BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase. With a proactive style and contagious energy, Pam excels at communication, stakeholder engagement, and project delivery.
Career Highlights
Case Studies
Complex Integration of BlackRock's Aladdin Data Cloud
Hedge Fund RFP and OMS, Compliance, and Private Equity Solutions
Industry Expertise
- Management Consulting
- Finance
- Banking
- Investment Banking
- Venture Capital & Private Equity
- Insurance
- Software
- Financial Software
Other Expertise
- Communication
- Fintech
- Investment Management
- Program Management
- Project Management
- Project Management Office (PMO)
- Vendor Management
Work Experience
Senior Program Manager – Consultant
Continua Consulting LLC
- Led a complex integration of BlackRock's Aladdin Data Cloud for a $365 billion life and annuity client. The scope included integrating 30+ downstream systems, leading a team of 25 data engineers and developers, and overseeing a budget of $12 million.
- Program-managed a strategic initiative to implement OMS, compliance, and private equity solutions for a $16 billion hedge fund. I led RFPs, vendor engagement, executive presentations, and implementation planning, coordinating 40+ participants.
- Acted as a fixed-income program manager, leading projects for a $65 billion investment manager. The scope included index, pricing, analytics, attribution data conversions, multi-year implementations, vendor risks, and dependencies management.
- Turned around a delayed project, leading a $20 million initiative to convert a $170 billion equity and fixed-income investment manager to Eagle's STAR/PACE platforms.
- Managed a global OTC derivatives testing program, overseeing rigorous system integration, user acceptance, performance, and industry testing to ensure the client's compliance with derivatives regulations.
Head of Client Implementations
Beacon Platform
- Built and led a team of client-facing project managers and business analysts for a cloud-based series B fintech specializing in trading, pricing, risk, and quantitative development solutions.
- Established project management office (PMO) best practices and disciplines.
- Managed implementations for investment management and capital markets clients, representing SOWs and ARR of $30+ million. I delivered trading solutions for derivative, rate, credit, foreign exchange, and equity products.
- Partnered closely with sales and modeling teams, preparing SOWs and implementation roadmaps.
- Supervised development and quant teams when custom solutions were being designed and built for clients.
Director – BlackRock Solutions Aladdin
BlackRock
- Acted as director in the Aladdin Insurance team and managed multiple client relationships, representing $12 million in annual revenue and AUM of $100+ billion. Clients' product lines spanned life and annuity, property and casualty, and reinsurance.
- Built and managed C-level relationships, presenting to clients' COO, CIO, CRO, and CTO. I established deep relationships by delivering custom solutions, industry expertise, and exceptional service.
- Spearheaded initiatives to re-engage strategic accounts through onsite workshops, training, and feedback mechanisms. I achieved contract renewals, $18 million in revenue retention, and valuable client references.
- Program-managed Aladdin implementations for global insurance clients, managing portfolios of $100+ billion. I transformed clients from legacy disparate systems to a highly automated single enterprise-wide investment platform.
- Led analysis, configuration, development, UAT, conversion, training, and migration to production, actively engaging with portfolio and risk managers and compliance, operations, client reporting, and investment accounting teams.
Director – Fixed-income Special Projects
JPMorgan Chase
- Program-managed strategic initiatives for fixed-income trading, middle office, and operations. Projects required deep product and process knowledge, as well as the ability to coordinate development and user testing across business and IT teams.
- Managed a fixed-income prime brokerage $8 million program to replace a technology platform, introduce new business offerings, and optimize settlement and cash management processing. I led a project team of 30+ members.
- Led the successful implementation of ION's repo trading system. The new vendor platform delivered a state-of-the-art collateral management functionality to the trading and middle office teams.
Vice President – Strategic Change Management Office
Credit Suisse
- Managed a team of business analysts and project managers in designing and delivering strategic initiatives for the fixed-income, MBS, derivatives trading, middle office, and operations teams.
- Spearheaded the creation and launch of the derivatives middle office to address the segregation of duties from the front office. The initiative's scope included training, defining roles and responsibilities, and specifying processes and controls.
- Project-managed the MBS inventory management initiative to deliver an automated and robust tool to manage a specified pool inventory intraday. Internal clients were the trading and allocation teams.
- Led a regulatory project to automate the processing of TBA fails on stock records, the general ledger, and regulatory reports. The team was comprised of 40+ users and developers.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance
Gabelli School of Business, Fordham University - New York, NY, USA
Bachelor's Degree in History and International Relations
Lafayette College - Easton, PA, USA
Certifications
Removing Barriers to Change
Wharton Online | University of Pennsylvania
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Scrum Alliance
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Skills
Finance
Pricing, Budgeting, Forecasting, Profit & Loss (P&L), Cash Management, Private Equity
Output Software
Jira, SharePoint
Data & Analysis Software
BlackRock Aladdin, Aladdin Data Cloud (ADC)
Industry Expertise
Capital Markets, Financial Services, Insurance
Other
Teamwork, Project Management, Change Management, Program Management, Fintech, Project Management Office (PMO), Equity, Fixed Income, Software Integration, Vendor Management, Testing, Zephyr, Conversion, System Integration, Resource Planning and Analysis, Middle Office, Operations, Compliance, IT Program Management, Client Relations, Investment Management, Communication, Microsoft 365, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Project Planning, Executive Presentations, Stakeholder Management, Implementation Roadmaps, Data Conversion, Derivatives, Matrix Management, IT Governance, Team Building, Business Analysis, Future State Design, Workshops, Crisis Management, Software Development Management, Waterfall Methodology, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Transformational Leadership, Business & Digital Transformation, Digital Transformation Program Management, Communication Strategy, Digital Project Management, Business Transformation, Performance Attribution, Risk Management, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Request for Proposal (RFP), Target Operating Models, Investment Accounting, Trading, Repo Trading, Portfolio Management, Client Reporting, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Structured Products, Order Management System (OMS), Resistance Management, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Hedge Funds, Confluence, Regulatory Reporting, Agile Workflow
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