Liju Jacob

Programme Manager at First National Bank

• South Africa
• June 2019 to September 2019

Project Manager at First National Bank

• South Africa
• July 2018 to May 2019

Facilitate daily stand-ups with the team to evaluate the progress made on the previous day and chart
out plans for the day.
 Responsible for categorising the application defects logged by business as per the severity and resolving
them on a timely manner.
 Management of assigned projects/programmes and maintaining awareness of other relevant Business
Technology Functional Area (BT FA) initiatives.
 Tracking and reporting of projects/programmes, including project financials, weekly/monthly and
quarterly status reporting, key stakeholder communication and management support.
 Working closely with the business (Finance Solutions Team) to ensure that the projects in progress and
in pipeline are prioritised and aligned with the BT FA delivery.
 Responsible for taking the lead in other projects, guiding and working with other project managers.
 Responsible for updating the status, task priority, critical path and key dates of the projects within the
program and acting as the first point of contact for senior business and BT management.
 Responsible for regular and accurate reporting which contains progress, risks and issues that affect the
projects and releases.
 Responsible for the IT release management within the Business Technology Functional Area i.e. for
Finance & Shared Services.
 Management of the IT release process
 Representation of release process at the bank-wide weekly prioritization sessions
 Post release reporting to the business.
 Responsible for Audit and Risk reporting on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis to the Group Audit.
 Coordinate and provide response to all audit queries to the external auditors.
 Responsible for all Business Continuity Plan (BCP/DR) activities for all finance application. Ensures that
all finance applications and its version are up to date and in sync with production environment.
 Coordinates the DR activities for all finance applications.
 Responsible for the Financial Year-End activities during the Financial Year-End period. Runs these
activities as a project to ensure optimum results.
 Responsible for identifying and coordinating new BT system developments and enhancements in
conjunction with business (Demand Division).
 Responsible for developing project scope of work documents and project plans and business cases that
include an analysis of benefit, cost, work schedule and any related risks.
 Responsible for prioritising the project with the Project Scheduling Forum (PSF) and obtain the project
ranking within the bank.
 Responsible for obtaining resources from BT and business area for the project.
 Review and monitors project work to ensure that progress is within RMB PMO expected guidelines and
is completed on time and within budget.
 Maintains effective communication and working relationships with GM business unit and project team
members.
 Developed risk management plan, setup of communication and change control procedures.
 Responsible for tracking, monitoring and communicating project-related issues, scope changes,
variances and contingencies that have arisen during the implementation of projects.

Project Manager at Rand Merchant Bank

• South Africa
• November 2013 to June 2018

Project Manager at Rand Merchant Bank

• South Africa
• May 2013 to October 2013

Provided update to RMB PMO and the management team on EPM on a monthly basis.
 Mentors and provides expertise to other project team members.
Project Experience:
 Yearly Swift Standard Release 2013 - The objective of the project is to ensure that RMB adheres to the
new standards set by SWIFT every year. In the year 2013 there were changes to the various SWIFT
message series i.e. MT1xx, MT3xx, MT5xx and MT6xx. The project scope includes the impact analysis,
system developments/enhancements, regression testing, Integration testing and go live as per the
deadline set by SWIFT.
 Rand Merchant Bank Swift Services (RSS) Decommissioning Project - Replacing legacy RSS technology
with TIBCO Swift technology within RMB for SWIFT format validation, duplicate checking, routing,
mapping of message fields from XML and generation of SWIFT format messages from source systems.
 Swift Message Types implementation with business - Implementation of various SWIFT message types
with the clients via RMB systems i.e. MT940, MT320 messages with clients from Chameleon (Trading
System).
 Responsible for the vendor selection process for the analysis phase of the project.
 Involved in the interview process for selecting BA’s from the vendor for the analysis phase of the project.
 Responsible for managing vendor relationship with Oracle Financial Service (OFS)/I Flex, South Africa
and India.
 Prepared the business case for the analysis phase of the project.
 Prepared the project plan for the analysis phase for both BRD, FSD and product prototype phases.
 Prepared the template for business requirement document and functional specification document.
 Responsible for Identifying Key Result Areas (KRA) of the proposed Loan Management Platform in
conjunction with Oracle Financial Service (OFS)/ I Flex, RMB stakeholders and project team.
 Responsible for conducting the requirements gathering exercise for the identified KRA’s in conjunction
with Oracle Financial Service/I Flex team, interacting with business users and client focus groups.
 Developed resources allocation and stakeholders map for the project.
 Developed risk management plan, setup of communication and change control procedures.
 Responsible for managing the project budget.
 Responsible for sending RFI to the vendors and shortlisting the vendors.
 Compiled a comprehensive Evaluation Matrix from the Functional Specification which consist of
approximately 550 functional requirements which includes non-functional requirements, informational
requirements, technical architecture and general company items.
 Responsible for coordination with between business users and vendor teams (onsite and offshore).
 Responsible for POC with the selected vendor.
 Provided monthly update to RMB PMO on EPM.
 Involved in bottom line responsibility for the project i.e. billing, managing invoices, handling
issues/escalations etc.
Project Experience:
 Quantum - Loan Platform - Quantum - Loan Platform project is initiated to introduce an automated
system to reduce the dependency on spread sheets and various disconnected minor systems to manage
the loan book within the Investment Banking Division of RMB thereby reduces the risk associated with
the manual processes of loan management and administration.

Project Manager at Rand Merchant Bank

• South Africa
• November 2010 to April 2013

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 Business Continuity Plan for IBD.
o I represented IBD in the BCP forum of the bank.
o Responsible for updating all recovery documentation of IBD systems and ensuring that these
documents are available on intranet.
o Ensuring all DR machines are updated with the latest version of all production applications.
o Responsible for scheduling the remote testing.
o Responsible for age analysis of the hardware at the DR site.
 IT support for IBD users.
o Responsible for IT hardware and software application support to the IBD back office.
o Liaising with central BT to provide BT support to the IBD back office staff.
 Responsible for Global and Investment Products and Channels (GIPC) strategy definition, monitoring
and delivery.
 Responsible for driving GIPC strategy and delivery via the Global Steering Committee.
 Responsible for the delivery of OPCOM, Global Pack, GIPC Resources Capacity Plan process and
reporting.
 Responsible for delivery GIPC MIS to the division and to other clusters within the bank.
 Ensure that agreed product management measures are in place i.e. product dashboards, matching both
product systems and general ledger figures etc.
 Ensure that service profitability is in place across all global products within GIPC.
 Management of testing team resources, planning and delivery across all initiatives within the GIPC
division.
 Responsible for leading the MIS and testing team.
 Responsible for the business requirements specification processes:
o Elicit and analyse requirements.
o Facilitation of a JAD workshops and meetings.
o Contribute to development of high level requirements.
o Evaluation of user requirements in terms of scope and complexity.
o Attention to detail and contribute to documenting and/or modelling of functional, non-functional
and interface requirements, including alternative solutions.
o Ensure that business rules are clearly documented.
o Make useful contributions to the documenting of needs in terms of resources, people, marketing,
change management, etc.
 Present, communicate, verify, and gain approval of the requirements from the stakeholders and
implementers of the project.
 Develop and maintain the traceability matrix.
 Provide input and/or output for Change Management Request activities/deliverables.
 Ensuring that all documentation produced is stored and maintained in a central repository for
knowledge sharing.

Shared Services Manager at Global

• Bahrain
• June 2009 to April 2010

Investment Product and Channel (

Senior Business Analyst at NEDBANK Ltd

• South Africa
• June 2007 to May 2009

Global Investment
Product and Channel (

Product Development Manager at ABSA

• South Africa
• April 2006 to May 2007

CIB at Standard Bank of South Africa Ltd

• South Africa
• November 2004 to March 2006

Page 8 of 10
 Compiling of operational documentation and service level agreements for new and existing products
(take-on, operational and legal).
 Providing marketing and sales support for new product developments and enhancements.
 Compile repository of information /stats on trend analysis, training issues, stakeholder feedback and
lessons learnt from previous implementations.
 Own the project landing phase and manage stakeholder communication, address issues from sales,
client services etc.
 Management of inquires raised by the areas supported ensuring adherence to the Service Level
Agreements (SLA) in place as well as continuous proactive feedback.
 Analysis of inquiries.
 Management of work requests/incidents raised to Information Technology (IT) with focus being placed
on the quality of information, end to end testing and feedback.
Project Experience:
 Africa Payment Gateway (APG) - The APG system has been developed for multinational banks to
facilitate their third-party payment of funds from anywhere in the world to beneficiaries in Africa.
 International Banking: Offshore - International Banking (Offshore) has been developed to cater the
local and international clients to make payment and statement request to other offshore banks via
Standard Bank Business Online system.
 International Banking: Offshore (24/7) - International Banking (Offshore 24/7) is an enhancement to
the international banking offshore which will enable the clients to transact on non-SA business days and
public holidays.
 Corporate Swift Services - Provide single, bulk payments and statements in local and foreign currencies.

Business Development Manager

• March 2003 to September 2004

Marketing Manager at Wall Street Exchange Centre LLC

• United Arab Emirates
• September 2000 to February 2003

Developed Middle East market for Instant Cash Global Money Transfer Service that was untapped
earlier as well as simultaneously tapped agents/banks in Asia, Far East, USA and UK.
 In charge of operations and customer service team of Instant Cash Global Money Transfer.
 Imparted training to the appointed agents.
 Responsible for global business development, advertisement and brand management of the product.
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 Launched Instant Cash Global Money Transfer Service in the year 2000 that has eventually reaped to be
a very lucrative product for the group.
 Liaison with attorneys in making the agent agreements/contracts.
 Responsible for staff training and performance appraisal.
 Managed the front-end development of the product (www.instantcashworldwide.com). In charge of
updating the website.
 Interacted closely with the in-house IT team in the backend development phase of the product (Instant
Cash Global Money Transfer Service).
 Responsible for all the ATL & BTL advertisements of Wall Street Exchange Centre LLC in close
coordination with the advertising agency.
 Responsible for conceptualization, implementation of advertisement, media and budget planning.
 Preparation of the support budget and closely monitoring the marketing spend.
 Coordination with advertisement, media and market research agencies.
 Responsible for event management, road shows and PR activities.
 Responsible for conceptualization and implementation of different promotional programs.
 Instrumental in developing and launching of customer loyalty program for Wall Street Exchange Centre
patrons in close coordination with the IT team.
 Responsible for marketing and advertisement of the customer loyalty program in UAE market.
 Responsible for introducing value-added service such as discount outlets in UAE and other in-house
discount benefits for Wall Street Exchange patrons.
 As an agent partner for Western Union, I was responsible for marketing and advertising of Western
Union Money Transfer service in the UAE market.
 Responsible for the joint promotional programs with Western Union in UAE market.
 Responsible for conducting joint road shows and event management with Western Union.
Instant Cash FZ LLC (A Money Transfer Service Company) and Wall Street Exchange Centre LLC (A Foreign
Exchange and Remittance Service Company) belongs to Emirates Post Group, UAE.

Sales Manager at Best Computers & Office Products

• United Arab Emirates
• December 1999 to August 2000

Responsible for the setup of a new branch in Abu Dhabi, UAE
 Responsible for sales to corporate clients in Abu Dhabi and Northern Emirates of UAE
 Responsible for dealer sale management
 Preparation of consolidated sales reports of previous months and chart out new strategies for
forthcoming months
 Responsible for registration with corporate clients, submitting tenders and follow-ups
 Responsible for Inventory Management of the branch
 Participated in Dubai GTEX 2000

Senior Marketing Officer at Baron Electronic Pvt. Ltd

• India
• September 1998 to October 1999

Marketing Officer at Carrier Air Conditions Pvt. Ltd

• India
• August 1997 to September 1998