Frank Wander
Details
Biology
Stony Brook University
Horace Greeley High School
Here is a little bit about the journey that led me here.
Growing up I had a passionate interest in living things, especially social organisms like ants and bees that live in complex colonies where they dedicate themselves to cooperative interaction. Their societies rely on prosocial behaviors, which support group outcomes, and collective success. This led me to get a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology where my interest and fascination with living things advanced further.
Despite the biology degree, my first job out of college was an entry level programmer trainee. I grew to love the IT industry because I had an aptitude for it, and early on I was asked to fix broken/underperforming organizations. From there, I matured into a turnaround transformation specialist, and spent over 20 years doing turnarounds, mostly as a CIO.
Because I had a keen interest in social organisms, I quickly realized that the root cause of organizational failure had nothing to do with technology, and everything to do with people and culture. Specifically, the spirits of the people were broken because the emotional experience was toxic. This then gave rise to unproductive behaviors and weak collaboration. My innate curiosity in cooperative behavior led me to intensely research the human factors that unlock the full talent potential of any organization. I applied what I learned on the job to create high performing IT divisions.
This experience led me to found PeopleProductive and bring the first talent operating system to market. Eventually, every company will need Talent-OS to manage, monitor, and improve the performance of their “human infrastructure”.
2014 : Present
PeopleProductive
CEO and Founder
Joined ShelterPoint Life's Board of Directors in March 2017 as the Cybersecurity representative. Responsibilities include oversight of the firm's security program designed to comply with all aspects of New York State Cybersecurity Regulation 500, and ongoing oversight of the firm's cybersecurity risk management practices to ensure that the confidentiality, availability and integrity of the firms information resources and infrastructure are protected.
2017 :
ShelterPoint Life
Member Board Of Directors - Cybersecurity Governance
The IT Excellence Institute was a research and consulting firm dedicated to understanding the human factors that power high performing cultures. The founder of the Institute released a book with Wiley Publishing, Transforming IT Culture, in 2013, published many articles, and spent time on the speaking circuit to raise awareness of the power and importance of culture to organizational success. The company also provided traditional IT consulting services including organizational design, cultural transformation, IT security assessment, IT governance design, as well as seminars and training for clients. The foundational research and experience gained at the IT Excellence Institute lead to the founding of PeopleProductive.
2012 : 2014
IT Excellence Institute
CEO and Founder
Promoted to Enterprise CIO to drive an IT turnaround transformation across five business lines. Reorganized decentralized technology organizations into a Federated IT division supported by shared services. Accomplished the following :
• Drove a multi-year transformation using a Stabilize, Optimize, Transform, strategy, such that IT became a trusted partner with consistent delivery and execution, business aligned planning and strong governance.
• Oversaw a multi-year security initiative to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the firm’s applications and infrastructure. Workstreams included maintaining tight controls over identity and access management; managing patching, vulnerabilities, and configuration management; implementing logging, alerting, and monitoring; managing 3rd party security; and building a risk aware culture to address the largest risk – the people.
• Built IT into a high performing culture with 99.99% reliability across operations and systems and 94% of business projects on-time and on-budget for the last three years.
• Built an IT Governance model using committees and boards that defined charters, chairs, and membership, covering Information Security, Expense Governance, Operational Risk Management, Technology Acquisition, Portfolio Planning and Demand Management, IT Strategy, Project Governance, Vendor and Contract Management, Asset Management, Capacity Management, Service Management and Operational Performance. Each committee was cross-functional and collaborative.
• Decreased turnover from 13.5% in 2006, to 4% in 2007, and voluntary turnover remained at less than 2% thereafter.
2006 : 2012
Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
Enterprise CIO
Hired as the CIO of Guardian's Group Insurance division. This was a $3.5 billion dollar line of business that provided benefits to over 10,000 companies. Built a deeply collaborative organization that delivered on its commitments, operating as a partner instead of an arms length service provider.
2006 : 2006
Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
CIO Group Insurance Division
Skills
account management, acquisition integration, agile methodologies, agile project management, business architecture, business process, business relationship management, contract negotiation, Cybersecurity, data architecture, databases, data modeling, emerging technologies, enterprise architecture, enterprise software, enterprise transformation, erp, finance, high performing culture, human factors, information security, insurance, it management, it service management, it strategy, Leadership, Management, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), metrics, organizational effectiveness, product management, professional services, program management, project management office (pmo), quality assurance, re-engineering, Relationship Management, resource management, saas, sdlc, soa, software as a service (saas), software development, start-ups, Strategy, talent acquisition, Talent Management, technology management, turnaround transformation, vendor management, Business Relationship, systems analysis, sharepoint, Oracle, Master Data Management, Cognos, Data Analysis, Salesforce.com, Organizational, pmo
About
The Digital Era has made people the most important tool in every company. They are the source of innovation and customer success. Unfortunately, companies have tools to improve the performance of their processes and technology, but nothing to continuously boost the performance of their leaders and people - Until Now!
PeopleProductive created a workforce productivity solution so you can unlock the full potential of your workforce. It is a complete solution - tools, agile methodology and even the first Talent Operators Manual. Now you have the power to move faster, innovate more, and use culture as a source of competitive advantage.
Using our solution, you will successfully execute your strategic programs, develop your next generation of leaders and tap the full potential of your workforce.
You will succeed because you will be able to do three things differently:
1. Gain deep insights
See your human performance blind spots.
2. Isolate root-causes
So you don't waste time working on the wrong things.
3. Improve Performance
Remove the barriers that hold your people and organization back.
The time is now because today's top performing companies leverage the power of people, not technology. They drive the innovation that we love. Deliver new products to market faster. And are magnets for the best talent.
PeopleProductive. Helping build a world where every organization outperforms because of its people.
Please feel free to reach out and find out how your organization can outperform without burning your folks out.
fwander@peopleproductive.com