Irvine, CA 12/03/05
Some of our clients will remember our excitement when Ms. Mimi Thai-Chen joined our firm in 2002. We are very excited to welcome Mimi back after several successful engagements which required her full-time attention.
“I’m excited to be back with dbkAssociates,” said Ms. Thai-Chen, “I’m looking forward to working with the team and our clients. The relentless pressure to improve productivity means that many of our clients will be working on ‘Shaping the Corporate Culture’ through applied IT, change management projects, and business process reengineering. We are uniquely situated to help in that regard.”
Ms. Thai-Chen is an Executive specializing in Management Consulting. She has extensive Program Management Office and Technology Project Implementation experience complemented with an MBA degree. Her most recent engagements include companies in Mortgages & Financial Services, Manufacturing, Hi-Tech, Education and State & Local Government. Mimi’s proven project leadership and people management experience had brought many successful projects.
“I can’t think of a better way to begin 2005 than by welcoming Mimi back to our team,” said Dave Kinnear, CEO of dbkAssociates. “She will undoubtedly add a great deal of value to our clients and our firm.”
———————————————————————————
Ms. Thai-Chen is an Executive Consultant specializing in Management and Information Technology. Her diverse experience extends to Strategic Planning, Operations Change Management, Program Management Office, Execution of Large Scale Programs and Initiatives. Mimi’s proven program leadership and people management experience resulted in ROI improvement for many clients. She is also a lecturer and member of the Advisory Board at Cal-State Polytechnic, Pomona, College of Business, Computer Information System department.
As the Medicare Director for Kaiser Permanente (2005-2010), Mimi successfully managed Medicare Program Delivery group with a total budget of $250M+ over five years ($40M to $70M/year) with 200+ team members, and achieved strategic initiatives to meet CMS (Center of Medicare Services) compliance and operational improvements which increased membership, operational efficiency, member services, and launch of Medicare Sr. Advantage products. Achievements include:
- Managed and delivered a portfolio of 35-40 key projects annually. The projects consisted of Medicare regulatory compliance requirements, sales lead tracking, benefits and contacts, membership enrollment, CMS correspondence automation, ICD-10 and 5010, Outpatient Pharmacy and PBM systems (HealthTran, MedImpacts, Innovient), ambulatory, inpatient & outpatient Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system (Health Connect/Epic), Prescription Drug Events (PDE) transactions, and Patients refund, billing and collection.
- Successfully built an in-house core team (40+) with strong Medicare business knowledge, project management, testing and delivery expertise which enabled Kaiser to quickly response to CMS call letter requirements, and resulted in the successful delivery of 23+ system releases. This also enabled Kaiser to consistently increase membership growth, and improved Medicare business operations efficiency.
- Continuous process improvements and building of in-house Medicare Program Management Office, and Implementation Support team expertise resulted in a cost reduction from $10M-$15M(the first two years) to approx. $2M in the subsequent years.
- Successfully built Implementation Support processes, deliverables, and templates, intellectual capital, and repository, including release planning, Cutover preparation, Go Live support, Command Center, and Post Deployment stabilization.
- Successfully implemented PMO function including change management processes, financials, metrics, and executive reporting, annual strategic planning and multi-year planning.
With her expertise in Program Management Office, Mimi consulted Beckman Coulter, Option One Mortgage Corporation, Wholesale Division of Countrywide Funding, and Amcor Sunclipse (2002 – 2005) in the following effort:
- Enterprise Prioritization: Model (metrics), Processes and Governance
- Portfolio Management, Analysis, and Recommendation
- Project measurement and processes for post-implementation assessment
- Project Management Methodology, Standards & Processes (based on PMI)
- Organization structure through the design of Roles & Responsibilities
- Communication and coordination among business units and across projects
- Resource Management, In-house project management skill development and training
- Portfolio & project management tools such as Planview and Microsoft Project Server. Promotion of internal “knowledge management, sharing & reused” by building & maintaining of reusable project artifacts, deliverables, and templates.
Mimi also managed and successfully implemented large scale technology projects with a team of 125+ staff. Projects included Loan Pipeline tracking, management & reporting system, Launch of B2B website (loan origination system) for SubPrime loan brokers, Launch of B2B website (online storefront) for packaging goods, Launch of Intranet Website, Deployment of enterprise RightFax system, and deployment of wireless technology to the sales force.
As a lecturer at Cal Poly Pomona, College of Business. (2000 – Present).
- Courses lectured include: Principles of Management, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Systems Development & Implementation, e-Business Technology, e-Business Startup and Development, e-Business Practicum.
In her role as Practice Lead for IBM Global Services and IMRI, Inc., Mimi achieved P&L targets, built and managed a practice of 50+ consultants, specifically focused on eBusiness (B2C) and eCommerce (B2B) solutions, Y2K remediation, ERP package selection, and Web Application Development. Clients served included:
- A major School District (LAUSD), a major entertainment company (Time-Warner), a sportswear designer retail/distribution company (Patagonia), a major consumer products/distribution company (Nestle) and a major financial services institution (Citicorp).
- Project Director assisting clients in the creation of their business & IT strategies, budget, resource and staff management. (1999 – 2002)
- As a Senior Manager in the Management Consulting practice for Ernst and Young, LLP, Mimi successfully managed large scale engagements with teams of 150+ members. She assisted client executives in strategic business planning, IT strategy, project budget and resource management. Client serviced included:
- A major financial services institutions (AVCO Financials) and
- construction (FLUOR) companies.
- Engagements included:
- Business Process Transformation, Development & Deployment of Loan Origination systems, and
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Packaged implementation. (1994-1998)
Education
Master of Business Administration, Business Management, Pepperdine University, Culver City, CA
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Affiliations
- Advisory Board member at Cal Poly Pomona, College of Business, Computer Information System Department
- Women in Technology
- Women in the Boardroom
- Project Management Institute (PMI)
- Ernst & Young Alumni Association
Mimi Thai-Chen: 909-964-9838 (m); mimi@dbkassociates.com