ITG Brands, LLC
Greensboro, NC
March 2014 – Present
Director – IT Governance and Compliance


ITG Brands, LLC is the third-largest tobacco company in the U.S., and offers a broad portfolio of some of the most well-known cigarette, cigar and electronic cigarette brands. This iconic portfolio of brands includes: Winston, Kool, Salem, Maverick and USA Gold cigarettes; Dutch Masters, Backwoods and Phillies cigars; and blu eCigs electronic cigarettes.

Responsibilities:

  • Primary responsibility for developing the governance framework for IT activities and ensuring compliance with internal and external policies, standards and regulations.
  • Directs the activities of the Project Management Office, Quality Assurance, IT Security, Standards & Policies, IT Audit, and Service Management functions within the IT organization.
  • Directs the activities of the company’s Records Management Program.
  • Provides central oversight of all IT projects and is responsible for on-time, on-budget and quality delivery of all IT projects.
  • Establishes company’s project management methodology and ensures project managers and project leaders are appropriately trained. Maintains and manages company’s IT project governance and project portfolio processes.
  • Establishes and ensures compliance with the IT change management methodology and processes.
  • Maintains and manages company’s IT Disaster Recovery plan, tests, and strategy.
  • Establishes and reports metrics to measure performance and value of the IT organization.
  • Determines risks associated with security, business continuity, and regulatory requirements and creates strategies to mitigate these risks.
  • Manages $5.9 million operating budgets for the IT Governance and Compliance, and the IT Disaster Recovery functions.

Major Accomplishments:

  • Directed and managed the successful IT integration and transformation for ITG Brands, a new company, formed from the existing U.S. business of Imperial Tobacco Group and the acquisition of brands and assets resulting from the transaction between Lorillard Tobacco Company and Reynolds American.
  • Successfully managed the overall project portfolio and PMO processes to ensure the large scale integration of systems, data, and processes for the newly formed ITG Brands to meet all timelines and quality metrics defined in strategic business plans.
  • Consolidated service desks and service delivery functions for ITG Brands remote business units across the United States and Latin America saving over $465,000 annually while providing high quality services.
  • Implemented the IT Quality Management System and supporting validation master plan to ensure that ITG Brands systems and processes are able to meet FDA and SOX compliance requirements.
  • Implemented records management and compliance processes for ITG Brands remote business units across the United States and Latin America to ensure compliance with legal and audit requirements.