Accomplished 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 SMBs to deploy agile transformations and data-driven product strategies, focusing on AI/ML integration and process 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 annual 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

Evaluated and identified social gaps and client needs based on Dale Carnegie Methodology.
Facilitated large group workshops on communications, leadership, and emotional intelligence.
Led interactive coaching sessions, enhancing participant performance.
Educated professionals across industries, leveraging exceptional communication skills.
Awarded the Dale Carnegie Highest Award for Achievement by peers.

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

Developed foundational expertise in stakeholder management, executive-level facilitation, and organizational psychology, providing the strategic framework for later large-scale digital transformations.
Trained IKEA Russia’s top management, addressing leadership and cultural challenges.
Increased St. Petersburg International Economic Forum attendance by 26% through sales training.

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.

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