Accomplished design leader with 15+ years of experience directing high-scale digital transformations within global financial services.
Expert in bridging the gap between human-centered design (HCD) and technical delivery to drive multi-million-dollar business outcomes.
Proven architect of product operating models, having transitioned legacy organizations into high-velocity agile frameworks.
Specialized in AI product strategy, behavioral design, and cross-functional leadership of 1,200+ person ecosystems.

Curriculum Vitae

WORK EXPERIENCE

Principal Product Strategy & Operations Design Strategist → Innovision EQ, New York, New York, 2023-Present

Product Enablement: Partner with IBM SkillsBuild SMBs to deploy agile transformations and data-driven product strategies, focusing on AI/ML integration and agentic AI product redesign.
Design Thinking Architecture: Provide end-to-end service design and content strategy to streamline product-to-market pipelines across diverse industries.

VP, Digital Strategy & Product Operations Lead → Citibank, New York, New York, 2018-2024

Strategic Roadmap & Budget: Directed the strategic planning and CX development for high-growth domains (Acquisitions, Payments, Generative AI), managing annual strategic budget to align product delivery with enterprise OKRs.
Operating Model Transformation: Architected and executed a new organizational model, merging Journey Owner and PMT roles into a unified Digital Product Manager framework; standardized agile best practices to increase delivery velocity across the consumer bank.
Product Strategy CoE: Established an internal product strategy "Center of Excellence" that eliminated $8M in annual external consultancy spend while standardizing discovery, ideation, and prototyping phases for 100+ projects.
Business Impact & CX Optimization: Redesigned Servicing CX through data-driven behavioral design, resulting in a 300K decrease in monthly agent calls and $1.8M in monthly operating cost savings.
Data-Driven Product Culture: Accelerated evidence-based decision-making by implementing a multivariate testing campaign that increased A/B testing frequency by 50% across core product teams.
AI & Emerging Tech Strategy: Led cross-domain exploration of LLMs and Generative AI applications to personalize the customer journey and automate conversational design workflows.

Communications Consultant → Dale Carnegie Trainings, New York, New York, 2017–2018

Facilitated high-impact workshops on emotional intelligence and leadership for cross-functional stakeholders, driving the "soft skills" necessary for successful change management and organizational alignment.
Conducted needs assessments to identify performance gaps within diverse client teams, designing tailored coaching interventions to improve communication velocity and team collaboration.
Awarded the Dale Carnegie Highest Award for Achievement for excellence in instructional delivery and the ability to influence behavioral change across various professional seniority levels.

Founder, Lead Content Design → Western Vision Consulting, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 2013–2017

Founded and scaled a design-led training consultancy, identifying market gaps to provide customized "Western-style" operational and leadership frameworks for international firms (e.g., IKEA).
Architected and delivered bespoke curriculum on emotional intelligence and leadership, translating complex psychological principles into actionable operational playbooks for executive management.
Optimized organizational performance for client partners, including a 26% increase in attendance for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum through the implementation of standardized communication workflows.

SMO Specialist → Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum, Saint-Petersburg, Russia 2010-2014

Increased SMO presence from 0 to hundreds of thousands of followers across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other channels.
Designated Training Specialist responsible for the onboarding and skill development of large-scale event staff, ensuring consistent service delivery and adherence to organizational standards.
Coached senior executives on communication and feedback loops, fostering a culture of transparent leadership and cross-functional synergy.
Designed and deployed internal training modules to streamline staff workflows, directly supporting the operational success of a high-visibility global economic summit.

Education

Master of Arts, Russian Literature, Ohio State University – 2010

Master of Arts in Teaching, Secondary Education, Wayne State University – 2005 (half completed)

Bachelor of Arts, English Literature & Creative Writing, University of Illinois at Chicago – 2003

Certificates

Figma Master Course, SaaS Design, Fairbanks, Alaska

Business Consulting, Association for Talent Development, Alexandria, Virginia

Digital Media Arts, Specs Howard School of Media Arts, Southfield, Michigan

Skills

Recreational Pursuits

Regularly performing, recording and composing rock guitarist and bandleader

Published children’s book author

Documentary Filmmaker

Languages

Fluent in English, Russian and Serbo-Croatian