Cheri Simonne Rubens

CHERI RUBENS PROFILE Highly versatile, resourceful and industrious project coordinator (PRINCE2 Project Management Practitioner), with experience in developing and implementing process improvements utilising Lean Six Sigma methodologies (Green Belt Certification). Strong understanding of marketing and PR principals with extensive experience in content creation for marketing communications, supported by a Digital Marketing Diploma. Exceptional interpersonal skills, with a track record of establishing and managing positive relationships with clients, vendors and peers; leading, coaching and motivating others; and working collaboratively as a team member with a range of stakeholders in idea generation, problem solving and implementation of projects. Natural organiser with previous experience in administration and executive support. I am willing to work virtually or in an office or travel as required. CAREER SUMMARY CONTACT Voluntary Coordinator International Professors Project; Liberty Fighters Network; South African Jural Assembly 2020 – 2022 Freelance Content Manager / Creative Writer Nuro Creative Digital Solutions; Raven Writing -; 2020 – 2021 Studying / Travel (New Zealand) 2017 - 2019 Life Coach and English Tutor iTutor Group; Unique Coaching Horizons 2015 – 2016 IT Project Coordinator, Release & Deployment Manager Sanlam; Nedbank; Old Mutual 2006 – 2015 Details of previous experience available upon request FREELANCE EXPERIENCE Nuro Creative Digital Solutions Nov 2020 – Feb 2021 Content Manager (full-time) — — — Researching, collating, writing and optimising website and ecommerce content for Nuro’s clients within a variety of industry sectors Liaising closely with the client throughout the process, from brief to sign-off, ensuring deadlines are met Reporting directly to the owner - - COMPETENCIES — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Strategic project planning and coordination Process improvement Marketing and PR Content creation / copywriting, maintenance and editing Digital marketing Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Leadership, training, coaching and mentoring Stakeholder collaboration Vendor management Client relationship management Business development and networking Information management Research Monitoring and evaluation Data analysis Quality assurance and compliance Sustainability Administration and executive support Solutions centric, innovative problem solver Detail orientation Page 2 of 4 Raven Writing (own business) Feb 2014 – Dec 2016 Creative Writer — — — Digital Marketing Diploma Writing, proofreading and editing marketing content for digital and printed media e.g. websites, social media pages / profiles, blogs, articles, brochures, flyers, slogans, training manuals etc. Providing a ghost-writing service to PR / creative agencies Developing new business opportunities for Raven Writing focusing on small to medium-sized services businesses from a wide range of industry sectors including health and wellness, insurance, IT, travel, hospitality and landscaping Sep 2016 – Dec 2016 iTutor Group ESL English Tutor — Delivered basic, intermediate and advanced level English lessons online, tutoring Chinese students between the ages of 13 and 50 Unique Coaching Horizons (own business) Dec 2015 – Aug 2016 Consciousness Coach — — Providing holistic coaching and mentorship to clients using Consciousness Coaching methodology Advertising my business and networking through social media and the development of a website Sanlam IT Infrastructure & Shared Service Support (6 month contract) CCA Professional: ICF Accredited Coaching Diploma International Consciousness Coaching Academy 2014 Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification JDC Campus London, UK 2016 PRINCE2® Project Management Candidate: Foundation and Practitioner APMG International 2013 ITIL V3 Change, Release and Configuration Candidate: Foundation and Practitioner 2008 Business Law Certification South African School of Paralegal Studies Birnam Business College May – Nov 2015 Technical Configuration & Release Manager — 2016 2005 Travel and Tourism Diploma Sanlam IT Infrastructure Shared Service Support is an in-house IT Infrastructure division within Sanlam. I was headhunted to support a major application software development project for a client. — — Shaw Academy , UK APMG International EMPLOYMENT — QUALIFICATIONS & CERTIFICATIONS Developing an application software release management process for project delivery using Agile methodologies Assisting with project implementation Establishing a configuration management database (CMDB) and process to guide developers and assist the Project Manager in keeping track of configuration versions Collaborating with stakeholders including the Project Manager, Developers, Architects, Scrum Master and Change and Release Management teams 1995 SHORT COURSES Policy Making British Council 2020 Location Analytics ESRI MOOC 2020 One Planet, One Ocean SDG Academy / edX 2020 Climate Action: Solutions for a Changing Planet SDG Academy / edX 2019 Achievements: Climate Science & Negotiations — Initiated and created a manual configuration management tracking & monitoring tool from scratch for the project, which assisted project stakeholders and developers in keeping track of hardware and SDG Academy / edX 2019 Page 3 of 4 — — software assets Developed IT application, release and deployment processes in alignment with ITIL best practices for a team that had no experience in migrating software application across the Software Development Lifecycle Recommended and facilitated implementation of Atlassian Bamboo, an automated Release & Deployment tool, following a comparison analysis with Jenkins, which prevented the project from delivering into Production with code errors Nedbank Group Technology Mar 2009 – Sep 2013 Senior IT Project QA Release Manager: Testing Governance & Compliance (Jul 2012 – Sep 2013) — — — — — Overseeing end-to-end quality assurance and compliance for a release portfolio of over 50 innovation application projects, with involvement from project concept stage, through development and testing stages to production Presenting standards, testing requirements and other technical criteria to project teams (Project Manager, Architect, Business Analyst and Lead Developer) prior to development Monitoring and reviewing project compliance, reporting findings and risk Authorising project progression at each testing stage upon criteria being met Leading small project teams and driving collaboration between all operational and technical management stakeholders and third-party vendors 2019 Introduction to Data Science Microsoft 2019 Introduction to Teaching English as a Second Language Alison Advanced learning Interactive 2016 SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) Method IBM 2011 Business Presentations The Learning Revolution 2010 Performance Coaching Management Development Program Training Maurice Lancaster & Associates 2010 Emotional Intelligence in Performance, Advanced Management Development Program Training Marthie Hattingh Business Consultants Winning Tenders Initiated and designed a secondary web-based back-end data page add-on for the Testing Governance Team to manage and track project deployment meetings, project scores and commentary for reporting purposes, replacing the existing manual system, saving time and improving efficiency Senior Release and Deployment Manager: Applications IsrealX / edX 2010 Achievements: — Environmental Protection & Sustainability (Mar 2009 – Jun 2012) eDegree 2004 Project Management Theory Huthwaite Africa 2001 Persuasive Writing Huthwaite African 2001 Achievements: — — — — — Supported a Project Manager with a 10-month R12 million project, in defining requirements, processes and testing of a major system integration between a new Version Management tool and existing Service Manager tool, through to successful implementation Designed and enabled the development of a web-based Project Deployment Calendar, which was adopted by the Testing Governance and System Development Lifecycle Operations Team as a central and effective project tracking tool utilised to report on and monitor estimated and planned integrations, User Acceptance Testing and Production deployment Defined the process and design requirements for an internally automated Forward Schedule of Change (FSC) Calendar that improved the management of daily operational tasks Received an Exceptional Service Award for initiating and supervising the implementation of the FSC tool Optimised and published the Group Technology Release Management Processes and Organisational IT Calendar, making it more user friendly for relevant stakeholders IT LITERACY — MS Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint — MS SharePoint (collaboration platform) — Google Docs — Salesforce Slack (instant messaging program) — Trello (web-based project and task management) — Knowledge of Atlassian stock tools including Jiras, Confluence and Bamboo Page 4 of 4 Oct 2006 – Feb 2009 Old Mutual Limited Change and Release Management Coordinator: Global Edge Technologies (previously owned by Old Mutual Wealth) (Jan 2008 – Feb 2009) Senior IT Project Coordinator (Oct 2006 – Dec 2007) VOLUNTARY EXPERIENCE Southern Africa Jural Assembly Volunteer Provincial Council Coordinator: Western Cape Sep 2020 – Dec 2020 LFN is a fundamentalist voluntary association group which works towards the elimination of oppression and the liberation and empowerment of the peoples of South Africa and Africa. International Professors Project Chief Operations Officer “…believe it or not, in just a very brief time, [Cheri] was made our allvolunteer-driven global group’s COO. Her excellent work habits, skillfulness, resourcefulness and problem-solving skills quickly came into view. Her manner and treatment of others are impeccable. She is ebullient to boot. You would have to be crazy not to snap her up.” Ron Krate, Founder, International Professors Project Sep 2020 – Feb 2022 South Africa's authoritative Common Law Assembly and Committee representing The Common Law principles and rights of all people in South Africa, through active education. Liberty Fighters Network TESTIMONIALS Jan 2020 – Feb 2020 IPP is a worldwide organisation focused on the long-term development of higher education in emerging and developing countries, providing consulting, promotion and recruitment services to Professors, expatriate Professors and Universities. “Cheri is highly approachable and cooperative, which makes one feel that you can discuss issues with her. Where problems arise, she is always willing to take the time to understand what the issue is and look at resolving it in the bigger scheme of things.” Lindy Meyer, Project Manager, Nedbank “She is analytical, contributes well and delivers exceptional quality. I enjoy working with Cheri – she is a great team player.” Lucian De Sousa, Senior Process Developer, Nedbank “Cheri worked with the team to define processes and assist in QA Testing and often went the extra step to ensure all requirements and learning…” Edward Pelser, Project Manager, Nedbank