About Bilal
Bilal is a seasoned transformation executive with 15+ years of global experience leading sustainable business change through disciplined delivery, lean process engineering, and people transformation across multiple industries. He is passionate about helping organizations address complex delivery and operational challenges through visionary leadership, well-articulated strategy, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Bilal brings a unique mix of consulting, coaching, and leadership experience to organizations, with exposure to both public and private sectors. As a transformation expert and coach, he has successfully led major change initiatives in the telecommunication, financial services, and transportation industries. Bilal is often called upon to remediate complex and strategic organizational problems, requiring buy-in and support from a diverse group of senior stakeholders.
Bilal has experience implementing a broad array of management methodologies including Lean Six Sigma, Prosci Change Management (ADKAR), PMBOK, Lean Kanban, Agile, and SAFe among others. However, he takes pride in delivering results regardless of tools, methodologies, and organizational constraints due to his people-centric and outcome-oriented approach.
Bilal graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Schulich School of Business, York University, and a Bachelor of Engineering and Management (BEng. & Mgt.) from McMaster University. He also holds several professional certifications.
Career Highlights
Led various business transformations aimed at modernizing technology, scaling & optimizing operations, and implementing product-based teams (using SAFe, Scrum, and other Lean-Agile methods).
Implemented technology portfolios of up to $150M, covering application development, technology modernization, cloud migration & analytics, and ERP & CRM deployments.
Optimized call center operations, quote to cash processes, and new service deployments, yielding $20M+ in cost savings.
Established and led multiple software engineering and enablement practices (PMO, process & analytics) of 85+ team members.
Defined strategic roadmap to deliver a unified customer experience based on customer journeys, insights, and data analytics.
Spearheaded multiple People & Culture initiatives (under CxO sponsorship), leading to improved organization design, refined job families, and empowered workforce.
Supported evolution of Lean & Agile community through articles, speaking engagements and formal lectureships.
Involvement in IT as an entrepreneur, system and network admin, and technical trainer since 1998.
Work Experience
Responsible for building (and executing against) the technology strategy to deliver a unified customer experience across the railroad. Key priorities include; platform stabilization, risk reduction, and optimization across 100+ custom apps & various technology platforms (e.g., Salesforce, Vendavo, Lotus Notes, and WebSphere), and accelerated delivery of advanced customer capabilities without compromising quality.
Responsible for establishing and staffing a program delivery & change enablement practice to deliver the entire technology-enablement portfolio (worth approx. $150M annually) for BNSF Railway.
Responsible for developing and executing the Agile product delivery strategy for the technology risk management organization
Responsible for leading process improvement strategy across TELUS Business ($4B+ annual revenue) to deliver tangible cost savings, enhance customer experience and elevate team engagement
Responsible for building out and deploying a tailored Lean and Agile framework to improve product quality and time to market, and increase delivery predictability
Responsible for execution of the Lean & Agile transformation roadmap, including framework development, deployment and adoption across 250 IT employees
Responsible for conducting a 360 assessment of SAP Canada and making strategic growth recommendations, in collaboration with seven MBA students
Process Improvement Manager: Responsible for leading process improvements across the global supply chain using Lean and Lean Six Sigma.
Project Manager: Responsible for managing large enterprise beta programs to obtain and address customer feedback on pre-release software packages
Education
Dean’s Honor List
Schulich School of Business, York University (Canada)
Dean’s Honor List, Year 3 and 5
McMaster University (Canada)
Acuity Institute
Project Management Institute
Scaled Agile
Project Management Institute
Project Management Institute
Scrum Alliance
1998 to 2003
- System Administration
- Security
- Web Design
- Networking
Professional Skills
Interests
Application of Lean and Agile methodologies in different organizations and industries, with a keen interest in non-IT applications
Product innovation through the use of Lean Startup, Agile Product Development and other creative methods
Training and coaching opportunities to network and give back to the professional community
Healthy lifestyle through strength training, kickboxing and calisthenics
Traveling across the globe
Contributing to (or participating in) worthy charitable causes such as Heart & Stroke Foundation and United Way
Investing in the stock market (and learning more about it!)