Ivanka Antonova
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Summary
Senior Project and Program management practitioner with more than 7 years cross-industry international experience with both Waterfall and Agile methodologies. Experienced and fully trained Scrum Master and Product Owner, highly technically minded, participated in several digital innovation initiatives and track record of successful delivery of numerous challenging projects. Strengths include managing challenging stakeholder relationships and strong people management skills with ability to develop talent and support individuals to perform at their best.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Project Manager and Scrum Master
Secret Source Technology Ltd
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
08.2021 - Current
- Identified plans and resources required to meet project goals and objectives.
- Managed projects from procurement to commission.
- Developed and initiated projects, managed costs, and monitored performance.
- Achieved project deadlines by coordinating with contractors to manage performance.
PROJECT MANAGER
National Lottery Heritage Fund
05.2021 - 08.2021
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom
- Managing the Digital Skills for Heritage Programme, an innovative programme designed to support wider adoption of digital across the sector
- Brought in to provide much needed project management expertise and align work to recognised standards
- The work involves project planning and initiation, developing processes and procedures, setting milestones, budget management and progress tracking, stakeholder engagement internally as well as with digital SMEs, managing risks and issues, acting as escalation point and being main point of contact for any technical queries
- Currently overseeing 8 work programmes, each at different stage and with various allocation of staff working across UK offices
- As a result, since in post, new work programme is being launched within a month and project management templates and process have been updated to align better with PRINCE 2 Framework and a proposal for software is being reviewed by the Business Delivery Directors.
SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
ECORYS UK
05.2020 - 05.2021
- Ecorys is leading international research and consultancy company addressing society’s key challenges
- Working as part of the Programme Management Unit, manage the delivery of Erasmus + Programme in the field of Youth, Volunteering & Solidarity, Vocational Education and Adult Education for UK, with yearly budget of over € 8 million aimed to fund international education projects
- My responsibilities involve efficiently managing a Work Programme; engaging with senior stakeholders at the European Commission, DfE/DCMS, the British Council, consultative groups of SMEs ; leading teams to deliver on time and to high standard; overseeing activities throughout the project lifecycle and provide support on tasks such as analysing programme level data and writing reports (such as Work Programmes and Annual Reports), working with EC specific project management software tools; develop and coach staff by improving internal procedures, implementing new technologies, and finding ways of optimisation of processes and resources
- Since commencing my role at Ecorys, I have been leading several programme lifecycle projects, the biggest one being the Contracting one
- I had to develop a project plan, defining the scope, setting up the processes and tools as well as create and update templates & project documentation; conduct staff training and regular follow-up meetings to track the progress; mentor, motivate and supervise 17 team members involved in the process from various departments; prioritise tasks according to deadlines; oversee quality and performance and escalate to team managers where necessary; continuously follow up on the progress and monitor risks and issues; manage budget and billing; set and manage expectations of internal and external stakeholders; act as main customer contact and focus on customer and board satisfaction; draw regular stats and reports; forecast spending and resource requirements
- To be successful, I had to quickly learn all EC requirements, understand and optimise the existing procedure, incorporating necessary changes to fit, like introducing and implementing new software tool for digital signature
- Adapting quickly to the needs of the environment and implementing lessons learnt between the phases of the project, led to my recommendation to use widely Share Point as a collaboration tool and Trello as progress tracking tool
- As a result, we have managed to complete per target two rounds of Contracting and issued 360+ Grant Agreements ensuring optimised spending on budget before deadline 31st December 2020
- Since in post, other accomplishments include:
- Working with the team to improve performance and moral, which led to better productivity
- Organise and attend virtual events, where I was able to meet and collaborate with external stakeholders in the field of education, such as British Council, European Commission, UK based Consultative groups
- Involved in Change management process - devised proposal for data management optimisation and introduction of new CRM, as well as from the position of a Project lead involved with dealing with cross-team resources across the business unit- advised on team restructuring to enable work in agile way.
PROGRAMME MANAGER
INTERNATIONAL COMPLIANCE ASSOCIATION
06.2016 - 05.2020
- ICA is a not-for-profit, professional membership and awarding body - the leading global provider of professional, certificated qualifications in anti-money laundering; governance, risk and compliance; and financial crime prevention
- These qualifications are awarded in association with Alliance Manchester Business School, part of the University of Manchester and are studied globally
- Promoted to this role in June 2017, accruing additional duties such as line management for a newly appointed Programme Co-ordinators
- Remit is to project manage and take complete responsibility, driving the excellence for a collection of ICA Programmes (Business Compliance, Legal Compliance, Spanish Language Programmes and the Postgraduate Diploma in GRC), ensuring consistency in programme quality, delivery and application from enrolment to assessment on a global basis
- As the main point of contact and owner of the programme lifecycle, I was responsible for project managing yearly updates of the programmes content, liaising with SMEs and technical suppliers
- This also includes programme scheduling for all delivery channels; engagement of external tutors and their ongoing contact, UK and internationally, Course creation and Learning Platform management utilising Moodle and Totara
- Using platform’s inbuild capabilities and Salesforce CRM responsible for the generation of reports, feedback and analytical information required by the clients and awarding and accreditation bodies
- Manage the financial side ensuring programmes are viable in terms of ROI, striving to increase revenue and meet set KPIs
- Collaborate closely with Marketing and Design teams to ensure visibility of the course and consistent branding
- On the other side dealing with all matters concerning invoices, expenses and payments
- Examples of innovative projects I have been involved in:
- Managed a complex update of the Post-graduate Diploma (Master level) materials, which involved update of 8 modules by 7 different tutors and writing a new module by a newly onboarded external expert
- The project took 3 months including proof-reading, design work, LMS work and promotion launch
- The end product attracted nearly 50% more revenue than original target
- Involved in the Customer Excellence (CX) project, devised with external expert, aimed to develop a better customer experience
- As a result, occurred a transition and optimisation of digital resources from two external websites to one and with this I have been involved in planning and developing better customer package for improved user experience
- As a member of the ‘One Brand’ working group, participated in the re-branding on behalf of marketing and operations for manuals, systems and general collateral as well as implementing the newly build website, working closely with Web Developers
- Participated along with the Product Manager in working groups for developing a new Digital hub
- This includes creating user experience roadmaps, aimed to optimise customer’s journey and e-learning experience
- In addition, project manage international trading agreements with six International partners globally, set to develop the ICA programmes for the respective local markets and increase revenue
- This includes on-boarding and all subsequent activities aimed to uniquely tailor the programmes for local audience, such as targeted content development, translations where needed, engaging local stakeholders and participate in product positioning and promotion, including creating landing pages, marketing collateral and updating the e-commerce with relevant prices and discount codes
- This also involved mapping the qualification levels to local standards to suit and support the partner to acquire needed accreditation
- As illustration of my effective management of International partners:
- I was assigned the management of the Spanish Partner, inheriting years of underlying issues and difficult communication
- I managed to build a strong working relationship, improved processes, and was involved by the partner to work directly with local stakeholders and customers supporting the partner in increasing the revenue from the region by 30% and delivering special projects such as post-graduate offering to local alumni of Universidad San Pablo CEU of ICA qualification in Business Compliance
- With Sri Lanka, agreed to work with revised conditions, arranging for the Partner to print materials locally, reducing costs, resulting in making the profit share more viable, while agreeing with them to deliver face-to-face training as a preferred local format
- With the Bahamas Partner, I spotted and addressed number of issues in terms of teaching quality, administration errors, payment issues, and escalated to management devising a plan for solution
- As a result, ICA Academic Lead was sent to conduct face-to-face audit and training sessions for the partner’s team and support fixing the issues identified
- Also worked with Assessment department to introduce better student tracking mechanisms and ensure pass rate is improving
- Onboarded the partners from Slovenia, Bermuda and South Africa supporting them in both operational and marketing aspects, including creation of agreed marketing materials, customised learning platforms and learning materials
- In July 2019, my remit expanded even further and I became officially part of the Marketing team on a part-time basis, providing product knowledge to help improve the marketing targeting and offering
- This support was delivered in conjunction with my ongoing Programme Manager duties
- These now to include: develop marketing plans, write copy for email and social media campaigns, work with Web development and Design teams on improving digital functionality, content and branding, conduct Competitor analysis, check and analyse monthly digital marketing KPIs
- Success stories include:
- Devised targeted marketing plans and developed marketing activities for 2 Post-Graduate Diplomas
- The first Diploma attracted an additional 18 Students within a 2-month period (from 4 Students attracted over a 6 month period); and the second Diploma attracted 43 Students, well exceeding a target of 25
- This was achieved by re-positioning the product to the right target market and working closely with the Digital Marketing Manager
- Publicised 2 Spanish courses on the ICA website and as a result, secured ICA’s first direct bookings from Latin American countries.
PROGRAM CO-ORDINATOR
BLU GLOBAL
08.2015 - 06.2016
- Reporting to the Head of Operations in ICA
- Delivered in this role for 11 months before receiving an internal promotion to Programme Manager and participated in restructuring of the team acquiring line management responsibilities
- A highly customer focussed role, the main remit was to support all aspects of the Programme and delivery channels, (face-to-face tuition, virtual e-learning and corporate in-house training)
- This involved student management and co-ordination, Learning management support via LMS and all event management (e.g
- Enrolments, workshops, examinations and conferences)
- Actively supported the work with external partners with a focus on the foreign language programmes in Spanish and Russian
- A British owned, international network of small recruitment offices based in Cannock
- Temporary and Permanent industrial recruitment.
RECRUITMENT CONSULTANT
RAMADA HOTELS
04.2015 - 07.2015
- Proactively sourced candidates for UK based permanent and temporary jobs from across the EU, for ‘difficult to fill’ positions, due to language and skills requirements
- Managed the front end of the recruitment process, interfacing with Candidates, with key responsibility for the translation and advertising of job descriptions, screening of CVs and conducting phone interviews (mainly in Bulgarian and Spanish) with shortlisted candidates
- Created Job Adverts on Job Boards and Social Media platforms, advertising career opportunities in Bulgaria, Spain and Italy, working towards meeting set KPIs
- Supported recruitment colleagues from Romania and Poland, when struggling with capacity
- Set up the social media policy and processes and assisted colleagues in creating pages and adverts for their respective territories
- Ramada Hotels is part of the Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Group; the largest hotel franchisor worldwide.
WEB RESERVATIONS AGENT
RAINBOW HOLIDAY COMPLEXES
11.2012 - 04.2015
- Responsible for handling web-based reservations, dealing with internal and external e-commers websites; managing online booking systems, collaborating with external partners, such as Booking.com, Expedia, etc
- Negotiating deals, prices and capacity, adhering to company policies on rates, occupancy and customer service
- Prepared forecasts, reports and financial control for all sales conducted via online platforms
- Secured a career move to the UK, which prompted an early departure from this role
- A privately-owned chain of 4-star apart-hotels, located in Sunny Beach resort, Bulgaria
- Combined capacity c200 rooms
- Part of Rentals Group, which includes a small Travel and Tourism business, Rainbow Travel.
MARKETING & SALES MANAGER
EVENT DESIGN LTD
02.2012 - 10.2012
- Reporting to the Owner, promoted 4 hotels at the Sunny Beach resort, Bulgaria
- Responsible for maximising room bookings; all digital promotional and marketing activities, including developing and launching new websites and actively winning new business and generating sales; negotiating with travel agents, corporate clients and online platforms like Booking.com, Expedia, etc
- Achieved full occupancy during Summer Seasons 2013 and 2014
- Successfully sourced and implemented new hotel booking software
- Involved in recruitment and training of the administration employees for all 4 hotels
- In addition, created the justification to recruit and conducted the selection of a Reservations Agent, initially on a temporary basis; later was offered a permanent contract
- Represented the company at the Tourism Exhibition ‘Holiday & Spa Expo’ and received the award on behalf of Rainbow for “Best 4-star Beach Hotel”
- Negotiated with TUI directly and secured listings of all 4 hotels for summer 2014
- Sourced a specialist travel and tourism website designer; negotiated the spec and design and in partnership, developed 3 new websites for Rentals Group
- Negotiated with large tour operators to include their offers on our websites to secure viability of the tourism product
- Created social media profiles and developed media strategies to drive marketing.
EVENT ORGANISATION MANAGER
01.2012
- Main responsibility was the end-to-end planning, preparation and delivery of events, such as Award Ceremonies, Conferences, Festivals, Roundtables and Seminars
- This included project work with corporate and new clients
- Main engagement was the preparation of tender documentation for the company's participation in public procurement tenders and competitions; the communication with direct clients for understanding the objectives which each event sets to achieve and the specific requirements to its organization
- Some of my most important projects were:, National Theatre Awards
- 2012 (first ever) Balkans International Wine Competition and Festival
- Several events (conferences and seminars) for Transparency International, which were my corporate account
- Second meeting of the thematic working group for Regional development for the 2014 -2020 EU programme period
- Organization of events within the project "I can be helpful - a model for social involvement of young people with intellectual disabilities", funded by the "Human Resources Development" EU Operational Programme and the European Social Fund
- Seminars of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
TEAM ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT
THE WORLD BANK GROUP
07.2008 - 02.2012
- Duties included; general administration, database management; corporate event planning; and social media PR and marketing campaigns
- Won a Spot Award for significant contribution and excellent team support.
Education
MBA - Business Administration & Strategic Management
Sofia University
Sofia, Bulgaria2015
Master of Arts - Tourism
Sofia University
2011
Bachelor of Arts - Archaeology
Sofia University
2008
Skills
- Project Management (PRINCE2 Practitioner) – 7 years Scrum Master (PSM 1) – 3 years
- People Management – 7 years Product Owner(CSPO) – 2 years
- Stakeholder Management – 10 years
Soft Skills:
- Problem solving, Adaptability Servant leadership
- Process Improvement & Development International Relations &Cultural Nuances
- Strong Business Acumen & Customer Service Efficient Resource management
- Strong Organisational and Communication skills Conflict resolution
Technical skills:
- SDLC (Software development lifecycle) Jira, Confluence, Trello, Basics of HTML, CSS, Python
- QA basics
- Data Analysis & Reporting (Power BI)
- CRM(Salesforce, Hubspot)
- MS Office 365 Suite/ SharePoint
- ELearning LMS (Moodle, Totara, 360 Articulate)
- Digital Marketing, Social media, Website editing (Umbraco, Wordpress)
- International Standards covered: ISO 9001, ISO 27001, GDPR
Affiliations
Member of Axelos – My PRINCE 2
Member of Scrum Alliance
Certification
- Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) by Scrum.org - issued July 2021
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) by Scrum Alliance - issued October 2022
- Prince2 Practitioner by Axelos Global Best Practise - issued November 2019
- Data Academy (Python, Power BI, Big data & SQL) by Tech Talent Academy – issued March 2021
- Certificate in Compliance by International Compliance Association – issued June 2018
- 5 Day Coding Challenge by Code Institute - issued January 2021
Languages
English
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Bulgarian
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Spanish
Upper intermediate (B2)
Russian
Intermediate (B1)
French
Elementary (A2)
Italian
Elementary (A2)
Timeline
Project Manager and Scrum Master
Secret Source Technology Ltd
08.2021 - Current
PROJECT MANAGER
National Lottery Heritage Fund
05.2021 - 08.2021
SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER
ECORYS UK
05.2020 - 05.2021
PROGRAMME MANAGER
INTERNATIONAL COMPLIANCE ASSOCIATION
06.2016 - 05.2020
PROGRAM CO-ORDINATOR
BLU GLOBAL
08.2015 - 06.2016
RECRUITMENT CONSULTANT
RAMADA HOTELS
04.2015 - 07.2015
WEB RESERVATIONS AGENT
RAINBOW HOLIDAY COMPLEXES
11.2012 - 04.2015
MARKETING & SALES MANAGER
EVENT DESIGN LTD
02.2012 - 10.2012
EVENT ORGANISATION MANAGER
01.2012
TEAM ADMINISTRATION ASSISTANT
THE WORLD BANK GROUP
07.2008 - 02.2012
MBA - Business Administration & Strategic Management
Sofia University
Master of Arts - Tourism
Sofia University
Bachelor of Arts - Archaeology
Sofia University