Ms. Ward leads Operation HOPE a global non-profit dedicated to financial inclusion for everyone. Operation HOPE is a for-purpose organization working to disrupt poverty and empower inclusion for low and moderate-income youth and adults. The focus is financial dignity and inclusion by equipping young people and adults with financial tools and education to secure a better future—coaching them through their personal aspirations and life’s challenges, and facilitating their journey to financial independence. Since 1992, HOPE has been moving America from civil rights to “silver rights” with the mission of making free enterprise and capitalism work for the underserved.
Ms. Ward began as a technology strategist for Occidental Petroleum. In that capacity she was responsible for developing the global MIS Strategic Plan. Collaborating with the Director and each of the technology leaders for the many lines of business, she wrote, managed, and led the planning efforts. Her perspective on people and organizations often challenged the traditional technology approach to planning and execution. Through the planning process, she recognized the need for governance models in technology, and developed an inclusive approach toward the management of standards, priorities, resource allocations, and changes. Her approach shifted the power structure from IT as leader to Business as leader. This seemingly slight change in ownership of technology projects yielded improved communication, greater satisfaction levels with IT as a servicer, and improved allocation of resources toward projects. Governance depends on the organization, industry, regulatory environment, and individual context. When governance is viewed through the behavioral science lens, a picture emerges of diverse enterprise stakeholders with an organized voice in establishing direction, setting priorities, evaluating risk, assigning resources, making decisions, and monitoring performance.
Her technology and strategy experience at Occidental landed her a VP strategic technology partner role at American General. In addition to her responsibilities for national IT strategy, she also led the development of corporate standards and the management of shared services for applications, telecommunications, and organization consulting. In this capacity she led the consolidation of 5 Life Insurance companies, including the integration of the organizations and technologies. People and process were centric to these initiatives, and the results were significant improvements to revenue and dramatic reductions in expenses. The Life Insurance consolidations led to projects in other lines of business: P&C, CreditThrift, Annuities, and Investment Products. One academically interesting project was the establishment of an internal Academy designed to implement a standard management process, Modelnetics, across the enterprise. Developed by the American General chairman, Harold Hook, the program served to provide common language and trained approaches to problem-solving, management and change.
Wanting to further develop her anthropological approach to corporate change, Ms. Ward established her first Strategic Consulting firm. Her approach included social capital, informal organizations, human networks, aligned with technology changes. One of the largest direct marketers in the country, Colonial Penn Insurance, engaged her to implement new marketing technologies and processes. After a successful implementation, the consulting was expanded to include a re-engineering of all lines of business and the supporting operations. During this time, Ms. Ward returned to Las Vegas to provide consulting to The Dunes in the area of branding, customer acquisition and retention, loyalty programs, change management, and technology.
Through her consulting, Ms. Ward was brought to the attention of Texas Commerce Bank. The challenges facing the organization centered on the alliance and integration of technology and the lines of business. Using anthropology tools, she mapped the operations, people, and networks. For the first time, the enterprise had a measure of its human capital and a map for implementing technology and change. The relationship between IT and anthropology continued to grow. After completing her consulting projects, the Texas Commerce Bank Chairman, Marc Shapiro, offered Ms. Ward a position as Senior Vice President responsible for enterprise re-engineering and technology change. The results of her efforts have been documented by Jon Katzenbach in his book, Real Change Leaders. During her tenure at the bank, Ms. Ward was involved as a leader in the mergers of Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover, as well as the Chase Manhattan Bank and Chemical Bank "Merger of Equals", which led to the rebranding of Texas Commerce Bank as Chase Bank of Texas. She led Centers of Excellence for IT, and served on technology committees in Texas and New York. Her role at the bank expanded to include: application development, emergent technologies, internet development, collaboration tools, image processing, technology training, employee self-service (HR), call centers, Help Desk, Diversity, and IT governance.
Recruited by Cambridge Technology Partners Thought Leadership division, Ms. Ward joined the consulting ranks. Combining her thought leadership skills with her management expertise, she built a national practice area for internet professional services and large scale integration projects. Her notable clients included: Nationwide Insurance, Chase Mortgage Company, PNC Bank, Trans General Insurance, Hewlett-Packard, Wal-Mart, and Disney. While there, she worked with Thornton May on the development and delivery of Thought Leadership programs in support of existing clients and marketing initiatives. Several CTP executives joined ranks and raised $100M to launch a new venture, ZEFER, which targeted the emerging field of internet e-commerce development. The company grew quickly from 11 to 400+ consultants and more than $350M in revenue. The exit strategy was a planned IPO, but the timing was ill-fated, and the company assets were eventually sold.
Ms. Ward joined Safelite Autoglass as an executive in Human Resources and Technology. The company was struggling with an enterprise $350M technology initiative that integrated "best of breed technology" including Oracle, Seibel, middleware, PeopleSoft, and mobile applications. She led an enterprise planning initiative using an OGSM methodology combined with Six Sigma practices.
A personal tragedy returned Ms. Ward to Las Vegas, where she established a consulting practice focused on technology, sales, and marketing. She shifted toward the small and medium business enterprises and designed programs to take them to the next level. With these clients she has acquired and merged 2 companies, developed more than 200 marketing and advertising campaigns, established a foundation, incubated products, and established relationships. During this period she completed an engagement with the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health that included the development of the Healthy Brains app designed to provide interventions for brain health and to increase participation in clinical trials for brain health and dementias.
Ms. Ward began as a technology strategist for Occidental Petroleum. In that capacity she was responsible for developing the global MIS Strategic Plan. Collaborating with the Director and each of the technology leaders for the many lines of business, she wrote, managed, and led the planning efforts. Her perspective on people and organizations often challenged the traditional technology approach to planning and execution. Through the planning process, she recognized the need for governance models in technology, and developed an inclusive approach toward the management of standards, priorities, resource allocations, and changes. Her approach shifted the power structure from IT as leader to Business as leader. This seemingly slight change in ownership of technology projects yielded improved communication, greater satisfaction levels with IT as a servicer, and improved allocation of resources toward projects. Governance depends on the organization, industry, regulatory environment, and individual context. When governance is viewed through the behavioral science lens, a picture emerges of diverse enterprise stakeholders with an organized voice in establishing direction, setting priorities, evaluating risk, assigning resources, making decisions, and monitoring performance.
Her technology and strategy experience at Occidental landed her a VP strategic technology partner role at American General. In addition to her responsibilities for national IT strategy, she also led the development of corporate standards and the management of shared services for applications, telecommunications, and organization consulting. In this capacity she led the consolidation of 5 Life Insurance companies, including the integration of the organizations and technologies. People and process were centric to these initiatives, and the results were significant improvements to revenue and dramatic reductions in expenses. The Life Insurance consolidations led to projects in other lines of business: P&C, CreditThrift, Annuities, and Investment Products. One academically interesting project was the establishment of an internal Academy designed to implement a standard management process, Modelnetics, across the enterprise. Developed by the American General chairman, Harold Hook, the program served to provide common language and trained approaches to problem-solving, management and change.
Wanting to further develop her anthropological approach to corporate change, Ms. Ward established her first Strategic Consulting firm. Her approach included social capital, informal organizations, human networks, aligned with technology changes. One of the largest direct marketers in the country, Colonial Penn Insurance, engaged her to implement new marketing technologies and processes. After a successful implementation, the consulting was expanded to include a re-engineering of all lines of business and the supporting operations. During this time, Ms. Ward returned to Las Vegas to provide consulting to The Dunes in the area of branding, customer acquisition and retention, loyalty programs, change management, and technology.
Through her consulting, Ms. Ward was brought to the attention of Texas Commerce Bank. The challenges facing the organization centered on the alliance and integration of technology and the lines of business. Using anthropology tools, she mapped the operations, people, and networks. For the first time, the enterprise had a measure of its human capital and a map for implementing technology and change. The relationship between IT and anthropology continued to grow. After completing her consulting projects, the Texas Commerce Bank Chairman, Marc Shapiro, offered Ms. Ward a position as Senior Vice President responsible for enterprise re-engineering and technology change. The results of her efforts have been documented by Jon Katzenbach in his book, Real Change Leaders. During her tenure at the bank, Ms. Ward was involved as a leader in the mergers of Chemical Bank and Manufacturers Hanover, as well as the Chase Manhattan Bank and Chemical Bank "Merger of Equals", which led to the rebranding of Texas Commerce Bank as Chase Bank of Texas. She led Centers of Excellence for IT, and served on technology committees in Texas and New York. Her role at the bank expanded to include: application development, emergent technologies, internet development, collaboration tools, image processing, technology training, employee self-service (HR), call centers, Help Desk, Diversity, and IT governance.
Recruited by Cambridge Technology Partners Thought Leadership division, Ms. Ward joined the consulting ranks. Combining her thought leadership skills with her management expertise, she built a national practice area for internet professional services and large scale integration projects. Her notable clients included: Nationwide Insurance, Chase Mortgage Company, PNC Bank, Trans General Insurance, Hewlett-Packard, Wal-Mart, and Disney. While there, she worked with Thornton May on the development and delivery of Thought Leadership programs in support of existing clients and marketing initiatives. Several CTP executives joined ranks and raised $100M to launch a new venture, ZEFER, which targeted the emerging field of internet e-commerce development. The company grew quickly from 11 to 400+ consultants and more than $350M in revenue. The exit strategy was a planned IPO, but the timing was ill-fated, and the company assets were eventually sold.
Ms. Ward joined Safelite Autoglass as an executive in Human Resources and Technology. The company was struggling with an enterprise $350M technology initiative that integrated "best of breed technology" including Oracle, Seibel, middleware, PeopleSoft, and mobile applications. She led an enterprise planning initiative using an OGSM methodology combined with Six Sigma practices.
A personal tragedy returned Ms. Ward to Las Vegas, where she established a consulting practice focused on technology, sales, and marketing. She shifted toward the small and medium business enterprises and designed programs to take them to the next level. With these clients she has acquired and merged 2 companies, developed more than 200 marketing and advertising campaigns, established a foundation, incubated products, and established relationships. During this period she completed an engagement with the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health that included the development of the Healthy Brains app designed to provide interventions for brain health and to increase participation in clinical trials for brain health and dementias.