Karen Foster

Current

• Senior Consultant at Stratix Consulting

Past

• Contract Business Analyst at Bank of Montreal
• Senior Business Analyst at GHR Systems Inc.
• Consultant at Burntsand Inc.

• Internship at ELSA Finance (Paris)
• Engineer at Nortel Networks

see less...

2 more...

Education

• York University - Schulich School of Business
• University of Waterloo
• Leaside High School

see less...

Recommended

1 person has recommended Karen

Connections

107 connections

Industry

Management Consulting

Karen Foster’s Summary

Karen is an IT consultant with 9 years of hands-on experience in financial software implementations, workflow/document management projects, and strategic planning engagements, working with all levels of management. Karen’s proactive team approach compliments her exceptional analytical abilities, and strong interpersonal and facilitation skills. Areas of expertise include:

Karen Foster’s Specialties:

- Business requirements (methodologies include RUP, UML, use case analysis) and Project Management support
- Business process modelling (BPM) and optimization, data modelling techniques, data conversions
- IT enterprise architecture assessment, design, and transition planning
- Financial, workflow and document management, BI, and CRM systems
- Team building, verbal/written communications, leading client workshops, creative problem solving

Karen Foster’s Experience

• Senior Consultant

  Stratix Consulting

  (Privately Held; Management Consulting industry)

  March 2007 — Present (2 years 5 months)

  Consultant on various business-driven IT strategy and planning projects within financial services
  – Enterprise architecture assessment & transition planning
  – IT investment portfolio analysis
  – Business process / data modelling
  – Focus on capital markets, wealth management, retail and commercial banking sectors (front office, back office and corporate services)

• Contract Business Analyst

  Bank of Montreal

  (Public Company; BMO; Banking industry)

  October 2004 — December 2005 (1 year 3 months)

  Upgraded Financial Book of Record System (approved credits) - This project upgraded the Investement Banking Group's Book of Record system (500 existing users) in order to support US regulations and the Basel II Accord regulatory requirements, and migrated over 150 new users and their data.

• Senior Business Analyst

  GHR Systems Inc.

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

  July 2003 — July 2004 (1 year 1 month)

  Implemented and enhanced hosted Loan Origination and Adjudication Systems

• Consultant

  Burntsand Inc.

  (Public Company; 201-500 employees; BRT; Information Technology and Services industry)

  December 2000 — June 2003 (2 years 7 months)

  Consultant and business analyst on various projects for Burntsand, a systems integrator for enterprise document management, content management, portal, and service management solutions.
  
  Sample projects:
  - Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (Ottawa) – Document Management System, 4 months
  - CIBC World Markets – Change Management for Intranet Portal to CRM and KM System, 10 months
  - Cott (Tampa) – Cross-Border Document and Case Management System, 3 months
  - American Dental Association (Chicago) – Document Management System, 3 months
  - Transcontinental (Toronto & Montreal) – Customer Relationship Management System, 9 months
  - Corporate Express – Informational Website, 2 months

• Internship

  ELSA Finance (Paris)

  (Mining & Metals industry)

  January 2000 — April 2000 (4 months)

  Prepared business plan for a patented process that reduces the cost of copper refining.

• Engineer

  Nortel Networks

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; NT; Telecommunications industry)

  May 1997 — October 1998 (1 year 6 months)

  Implemented and enhanced Nortel DMS 500 Networks

Karen Foster’s Education

• York University - Schulich School of Business

  MBA , Major in Finance and Marketing , 1998 — 2000

  Activities and Societies:

  Semester abroad at ESSEC in Paris, France and a 4 month internship.
  GMAT 96th Percentile

• University of Waterloo

  B.A.Sc. , Systems Design Engineering , 1992 — 1997

• Leaside High School

Additional Information

Karen Foster’s Interests:

- Travel Year (2006) – Hong Kong,Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, China, Nepal, India - Visited 6 of the 7 new wonders of the world - Manchu Picchu is next. - Dance - Yoga

Karen Foster’s Groups:

Member of the Women's Executive Network (WXN)

•    University of Waterloo MATH &/or ENGINEERING Alumni
•    Securities Industry Forum

Karen Foster’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch