Ahmad Kakar

About

I'm an accomplished IT executive with over 15 years of experience empowering organizations to leverage technology, deliver measurable business outcomes, and drive growth. I'm passionate about bridging the gap between business goals and innovative technologies, I thrive at the intersection of strategic planning, technology optimization, and executive partnership. Throughout my career, I've proudly: - Defined and executed IT strategies that have generated annual savings of up to $2.4 million and significantly improved ROI on technology investments. - Led diverse and dynamic teams of up to 25 professionals while managing technology budgets of up to $15 million. - Rapidly deployed Telehealth services in response to COVID-19, improving healthcare accessibility and transforming patient-provider interactions. - Implemented innovative IT solutions focusing on operational readiness for organizations generating up to $1.5 billion in annual revenue. - Modernized technology infrastructure and applications, achieving cost savings of up to $2 million annually and improving scalability, and productivity. My leadership philosophy emphasizes thoughtful innovation, collaborative decision-making, and continuous improvement. I'm passionate about mentoring high-performing teams, aligning technical capabilities with strategic vision, and positioning IT as a core driver of organizational success and competitive advantage. Specialties: Strategic IT Leadership | Business Transformation | Program & Project Management | IT Infrastructure Modernization | Vendor & Partner Management | Innovation & Technology Optimization | Leadership Development | Customer-Centric IT Service Delivery I am excited to connect with industry leaders, visionaries, and professionals committed to leveraging technology for impactful organizational change.

Experience

• Director of Information Technology · Adventist Health2020-01-01 –

  I direct operational and strategic delivery of IT services to multiple business units by identifying customer and operational needs for an enterprise health care system spanning three states and 42K employees. ● I improved innovation by adopting digital transformation efforts, emerging technologies, and new models for resource allocation, resulting in reducing monthly expenditures by $45K. ● I improved customer service by 15% through developing budgets, leading IT professionals, developing contingency plans, ensuring deployments meet customer expectations, and communicating lessons learned to senior leadership. ● I led strategic efforts to save the organization $600K annually by translating business strategy into actionable business requirements on core IT systems and developing a cost-effective technology roadmap. ● I managed several digital transformation processes to save $50K annually by consulting with stakeholders and directing IT teams to overhaul legacy applications.

• Senior Manager IT Business Operations · Kaiser Permanente2016-11-01 – 2019-12-01

  I partnered with executives on IT service delivery to address business needs and capability requirements, arranged and influenced continuous mentorship and development engagement programs through technical training, development of talent. I managed a team of 7 and a budget of up to $4 million. ● I introduced innovative solutions to business needs to ensure operational readiness for a $1.5B annual revenue hospital by designing training and knowledge sharing of consultants to help meet ongoing business demands across business domains. ● Together with my team, I managed highly complex plans and projects and achieved a 100% successful delivery rate of proposed solutions to help align strategic and tactical goals of cross-functional business units of IT portfolio, including spend, workplace planning, and resource allocation. ● I directed implementation of 10+ large-scale deployments valued at $4 million annually. ● I projected business needs for 10 cross-functional business units, reducing costs by $250K annually. ● I developed a functional model for managing capacity for IT consultants across 14 Northern California hospitals, leading to a shared model of utilization across the region. ● I provided 50+ reporting insights with actionable business requirements to 10+ executive leaders on regional/national initiatives and capital budget approval decisions, effectively preparing for organizational change.

• IT Business Manager · Stanford University2015-08-01 – 2016-10-01

  I oversaw and influenced strategic IT planning and direction including budget and capital planning across two departments and revised technology plans impacting IT service delivery at three distinct institutions: Stanford University, Stanford Hospital, and Stanford Children’s Hospital. I worked with a team of over 200 IT staff and a budget of up to $4 Million. ● I drove a 98% uptime reliability of service offerings by developing financial models, partnerships, IT resource planning models, piloting resourcing plans, recruitment, and staff training, while setting performance management guidelines. ● I aligned organization strategies on large-scale deployments, including creating requirements, validating services to meet customer requirements, and developing continuous learning models on $4M annual investments.

• Business Analyst - MBA Intern · Cisco2015-06-01 – 2015-08-01

  I worked with IT and Business Executives at Cisco to deploy an internal cloud offering. ● I revised business performance metrics in collaboration with IT, which increased transparency on sales key factors. ● I translated business user concepts and ideas into comprehensive business requirements and design documents.

• Information Technology Business Analyst · BlackPine Holdings2013-04-01 – 2015-05-01

  I supervised delivery of IT functions to address business needs, while aligning resources plans with emerging technologies to deliver solutions for 800 employees spanning nine different states. I worked with a team of 7 and a budget of up to $6 Million. ● I developed IT strategic plans including: analyzing $5 million annual budget, overseeing implementation of cross initiative technology integration plans, advising on new business operating models, delivering innovative approaches to IT solutions to align with organizational strategic direction. ● I created an operational readiness assessment and training program for new application integration, resulting in net savings of $15K. ● I led deployments in nine different offices by developing a strategic IT roadmap and IT Infrastructure Services to align with business objectives while facilitating change management for the CIO organization and business units. ● I secured a 99% successful deployment rate by managing IT proposals and aligning performance management with employee skill sets. ● I spearheaded design and delivery of technical services and system solutions, based on analysis of budgets, processes and vendor relationships, resulting in an increase of 25% in workplace efficiency.

• IT Manager · Holland Market2006-05-01 – 2013-04-01

  I was responsible for leading the IT strategy & development for 2 small grocery stores within the Sacramento region by delivering reputable and reliable IT services. I coordinated and managed vendor relationships, finances, operational maintenance, and deployment of solutions. ● I managed all IT services delivered to the organization and assessed business objectives by continuously monitoring budgets, processes, and implementing projects which lead to 25% increase in workplace efficiency. ● I established annual KPIs on delivery of technology solutions and managed SaaS products. ● I guided implementation of cost effective IT infrastructure, disaster-recovery procedures, and systems operations utilizing collaborative methods of employees and managed service agreements, while meeting KPI metrics.

• IT Solutions Manager · UC Davis Health System2011-03-01 – 2012-09-01

  I led project oversight for both educational and hospital facilities at one of the nation's top 20 public schools. ● I focused heavily on execution, delivery, scope management, best practice procedures for IT, identifying requirements and team building. ● I managed implementation of technology stack, service desk optimization and resourcing, creating 3–5-year IT roadmaps and vendor relationships.

Education

• Drexel UniversityMaster of Business Administration (MBA), Business Administration and Management, General
• University of California, DavisBS, Psychology

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