Charles Walter, Project Manager in Ramsey, NJ, United States
Charles is available for hire
Hire Charles

Charles Walter

Verified Expert  in Project Management

Project Manager

Location
Ramsey, NJ, United States
Toptal Member Since
December 7, 2018

In his 20+ years as a senior IT professional, Charlie has always had a passion for project management. He has managed IT and Operational projects ranging from multi-year system rewrites to large-scale facility build-outs. He is proficient in both Agile and Waterfall methodologies. Charlie believes his job is to make the team better—through clear leadership and accountability, professional project management, and strong communication.

Project Highlights

Warehouse Management System (WMS) Implementation - Phase I
Took over a long-delayed conversion from a homegrown system to a 3rd party WMS system. The agile team delivered in 6 months.
Digital Data Management Platform
Implemented a digital data management platform to centralize the acquisition, aggregation, and analysis of agency data.
Direct Response SaaS System - Phase I
Complete Agile rewrite of client software suite including technical architecture, UX design, build, QA, and user testing.

Expertise

Work Experience

COO

2013 - 2106
CoreMedia Systems
  • Transformed company to Agile.
  • Developed the design, technical architecture, and directed the implementation of a complete rewrite of the company's software suite.
  • Launched three new strategic business partnerships.
  • Managed daily bugs and enhancements using agile processes.
  • Facilitated strategic planning sessions to drive innovation.

COO

2016 - 2018
CCG Marketing Solutions
  • Transformed organization to Agile.
  • Implemented enterprise warehouse management system (WMS).
  • Restructured IT organization and trained new leaders.
  • Delivered organizational accountability training and KPIs.
  • Tore down internal silos and created a cohesive senior management team.
  • Project managed the relocation of a 120,000 square foot high-security warehouse.

CIO North America

2007 - 2013
WPP GroupM
  • Led the applications development team including business intelligence, business process management, customer relationship management, and project management.
  • Led the operations team including procurement, help desk, regional infrastructure and ops, and product support with an operating budget of $42 million and capital budget of $3 million.
  • Directed the development of a 3-tiered digital data management platform.
  • Headed Microsoft Dynamics AX general ledger implementation.
  • Managed the rollout of 3rd party enterprise software to 150+ buyers.
  • Delivered 10% operational savings through a program of process improvement, systems enhancements, workflow implementation, and user training.

Product Director

2002 - 2006
MediaOcean/DDS
  • Directed and project managed the design and build of a first-to-market commercial talent administration system.
  • Facilitated business strategy meetings to determine product direction.

CIO

1994 - 2002
Starcom MediaVest Group
  • Led the facilities build out for a new office for GM Planworks.
  • Directed and project managed the implementation of a client data hub coordinating across several software companies and twenty creative, media, traffic, and bill/pay agencies.
  • Managed the migration of Chicago-based bill pay operations to New York shared services group.
  • Managed 30 man-year Y2K remediation project delivered on time and under budget.
  • Developed client-funded, multi-dimensional business intelligence tool to consolidate cross-media plan and actual data.

Senior Programmer

1991 - 1993
Sara Lee Corporation
  • Completed the corporate conversion to client server GUI environment from VAX/Oracle.

Programmer Analyst

1990 - 1991
Chicago Title and Trust
  • Created a DEC System to capture, store and retrieve document images using Sony Optical Jukeboxes.

Senior Consultant

1987 - 1990
Accenture (Andersen Consulting)
  • Consulted on projects in healthcare, airline transportation, and logistics modeling.

Warehouse Management System (WMS) Implementation - Phase I

Took over a long-delayed conversion from a homegrown system to a 3rd party WMS system. The agile team delivered in 6 months.

Created and trained an Agile team -- built project charter, created backlog, defined estimating procedures, established QA objectives, documented business processes. Implementation included developing the training plan and preparing users, and significant cleansing and conversion of historical data.

Digital Data Management Platform

Implemented a digital data management platform to centralize the acquisition, aggregation, and analysis of agency data.

Agency digital buyers were creating their own inconsistent, undocumented data management procedures. The project implemented a three-tiered digital data management strategy to centralize the acquisition, aggregation, and analysis of digital data across 150 digital buyers and analysts. Full lifecycle project included initiation, planning, execution, controlling, and closing. Project scope included building reusable connectors to 3rd party digital data sources, automating the data acquisition, and building a business rules engine to manage the cleaning and consolidation of the data.

Microsoft Dynamics AX General Ledger Integration

Created a new G/L, T&E, and purchasing system, and integrated with 3rd party transactional buying system.

Managed project to replace an aging G/L and manual processes with a new Microsoft Dynamics G/L. Integrated transactional data from 3rd party buying system. Also integrated travel and expense data from Concur, and created controls around the purchase order process. Full project lifecycle including initiation, planning, execution, controlling, and closing.

Direct Response SaaS System - Phase I

Complete Agile rewrite of client software suite including technical architecture, UX design, build, QA, and user testing.

Transformed organization to Agile. Project to build a completely new SaaS-based platform to replace an aging client-server suite of client software. Including all phases of project development: project initiation, planning, execution, controlling, and closing. Designed technical architecture and UX, created new data model, and established cross-functional Agile teams including BA, DBA, dev, and QA.
1983 - 1986

Bachelor's Degree in Civil Engineering

Case Western Reserve University - Cleveland, OH

AUGUST 2020 - PRESENT

PMI-ACP

Project Management Institute (PMI)

JULY 2019 - PRESENT

PMI PMP Project Management Professional

Project Management Institute (PMI)

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring