Vardan Sharma

I’m a Strategy and Process Optimization Consultant with more than 7 years of experience across the government, manufacturing, hospitality, and non-profit sector. I’m an MBA graduate (specialization in Strategy, Product Management, and Pricing) who transformed complex business processes within a $500M+ public sector program in the USA as the de facto Product Manager. I relocated to India in June 2026 and I’m actively exploring senior consulting roles in the public sector or technology domain.

Core Competencies: Business Process Re-engineering, Change Management, As-Is / To-Be Process Design, Lean Management, Stakeholder Management, SAFe / Agile / Scrum, Product Ownership, Backlog Management, Digital Transformation, Supplier Management, Quality Assurance, Project / Program Management

Illuminative Strategies Inc. (ISI)

Consultant II

• Built two product backlogs targeting the Core/Foundational Components of the information system for a US State Government Agency; delivered ~94% of the committed objectives in two Program Increments of the software modernization program while coordinating across 13 product teams (~195 members) to define shared foundational capabilities to be enabled in Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform
• Presented strategic recommendations to 16+ state government’s executives and directors, securing approval for transformational proposals impacting the data, case/record management, people/employee management, and the platform’s security & access controls. Projected improvement in the information system’s efficiency by ~40%
• Co-developed ISI’s proprietary AI tool as an SME and Product Owner that can ingest business process maps in Visio/PDF format, and enabled AI-assisted current state analysis & future state recommendations. Reduced the process map readiness review time by an estimated 98.5% (from 2+ hours to <2 minutes)

Consultant I

• Led the proposal for revision of the State’s Statute/Law to align with the Interstate compact’s federal regulations, navigating a multi-stakeholder legislative process across the agency’s Policy and Legal division and the State’s General Assembly. With the estimated approval in May 2027, the review process for children’s placement in another state will be eliminated, ensuring the children receive the medical help in time
• Identified a constraint in Adobe Government Cloud blocking e-signature rollout across the software modernization program; escalated proactively to client leadership, and worked with the product team to provide a workaround till Adobe’s enhancements are released, thus avoiding a ~12+ month program delay
• Mentored 2 new hires at ISI by orienting them to the role of the consultant at the firm, the program objective and expectations, and helped them to successfully transition into their client-facing role in 2-3 weeks

Associate Consultant

• Served as sole Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) Lead across two divisions of the state government agency; designed future-state business process maps projected to resolve 72% of the client’s operational challenges. The maps are serving as the blueprint for the new information system by the development team
• Diagnosed coordinators’ workload imbalance in the agency’s division through quantitative cycle time analysis; designed a workload redistribution proposal and successfully secured approval with the state’s Labor Union, resolving a 5-year impediment. Projected case processing time reduction from >60 days to <5 days
• Initiated standardization of internal review processes at ISI related to work deliverables, and created 2 Standard Operating Procedures for use by current and new employees, and received recognition from the ISI leadership

Techne Infiniti Ventures

Research Consultant

• Redesigned and authored ‘Techne Times’, a structured weekly market intelligence report covering startup activities, recent mergers & acquisitions, Venture Capital investment trends, and emerging technologies. The report is still published by the firm to date for employees and stakeholders
• Conducted in-depth market research on 114 hospitality tech startups and 45 potential Limited Partners by analyzing potential investments, co-investment strategies, and latest product/service offerings in the market, aiding the company’s strategic decision-making processes

Simon Vision Consulting (Pro Bono Consulting)

President

• Led a 184-member consulting organization, and managed 31 client engagements across technology, healthcare, and professional services; achieved 24% YoY growth in client engagements through partnerships with accelerators, startup incubators, and consultant network
• Introduced formal certification program adopted organization-wide for all students who participate in the consulting project, benefitting 150+ student consultants annually since implementation
• Initiated the analysis on self sustaining financial model for the pro bono organization, and conducted survey with clients to determine the feasibility of the proposal, and received 87% positive response from the existing clients

Ericsson

Consultant Intern

• Redesigned performance tracking of the sales team by revising key metrics tracked; improved team’s performance by 5% in the first two months
• Shortened the Purchase Order booking time by ~33% through automation integration into the CRM to streamline the sales approval process
• Developed a pricing strategy for enterprise customer segment using Economic Value Analysis considering the primary competitor; projected lift in sales by 24% within one year of implementation

New Sharma Dhaba – Family Business

Manager – Operations & Strategy

• Piloted a turnaround strategy during the pandemic by pivoting to the cloud kitchen model and mitigated total operational losses by 27%
• Reconfigured the entire supply chain by workforce redistribution and leveraging vendor partnerships with online food delivery platforms, trimming total fixed costs by 36%
• Achieved 62% of pre-pandemic monthly sales by reorienting the product line-up, and promotions via digital marketing tools during the pandemic

Hamari Kaksha – Non Profit Organization

Project Manager

• Directed the “e-module creation” project for children aspiring to acquire elementary education; released a foundation-building course of three subjects for beginners that benefitted 200+ children amid the pandemic
• Proposed the reconstruction plan of a primary school in Chandigarh with the government’s support to modernize the school, and to allow the non profit organization to operate the school afterhours in order to create a win-win situation for the students at the school and at the NGO

Mahle Anand Filter Systems Private Ltd.

Project Management – Operations & Supply Chain, Sr. Engineer

• Saved INR 39 Lakhs annually by doing Gemba walks, analyzing the material flow and value stream maps to assess gaps; merged two adjacent factories thereby eliminating excess material movement and ensuring that process capabilities of the assembly lines meet the plant target
• Streamlined operations by implementing a volume-based production program across three assembly lines; generated INR 28.4 Lakhs in annual savings
• Pioneered a zero-defect production model for a high-speed manufacturing line by achieving highest level of quality design for a product segment
• Curtailed customer complaints by 60% and exceeded expectations of plant management by launching a quality and productivity improvement program at a manufacturing plant in 2016 focusing on Lean tools, Kaizen, 5S, Kanban, SMED, TQM, Safety, and TPM techniques

Supplier Management & Quality Assurance, Sr. Engineer

• Managed 84 business partners, conducted zero-based budgeting for suppliers’ BOM parts, and led negotiations to optimize prices and lead times
• Revamped the raw material needed for a high volume part to improve the final product’s quality, and successfully implemented the changes without any new tooling investments, thus increasing daily supply quantity by 112%
• Led a product quality control team of five. Trained and developed the skills of the team members to improve their part inspection efficiency from 83% to 99.3%
• Finished top five at National Competition for Young Managers (NCYM), India in 2017 by presenting the organization’s new business model

University of Rochester, Simon Business School

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

• GPA: 3.88 / 4
• Specialization: Strategy, Product Management, Pricing | Minor: Operations & Technology
• Dean’s List – FY’21-23 | Beta Gamma Sigma Honors Recipient | Winner of PriceFx Pricing Case Competition

SRM University

Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering

• GPA: 9.298 / 10
• Received a INR 7 Lakhs scholarship to study at MIT, USA as a part of the Semester Abroad Program
• Secured a performance-based scholarship award for academic year 2013 - 2014