Michael Haanen, MBA

“I had the pleasure of working with Michael for 3 years. Michael became my go to person for managing large and complex projects that had a large number of constituents across the both the business, technology and project management office. Many of the projects were ones that had either stagnated or were contentious in that the business and technical priorities differed. I knew that Michael’s leadership and approach would add value and get the projects back on track and ultimately completed in a timely and quality manner. He put the right structure in place, had frank conversations with the teams involved, set priorities and gained consensus to drive forward. Michael always took on the challenge, regardless of how difficult it would be, and had a tremendous positive impact.”

“Michael and I co-led a high-risk, highly visible project at Wells Fargo for document management. The project was already running for 7 months at the time we both were assigned to assist, as it had not gotten a lot of momentum or visibility due to stakeholder/prioritization shifts. When Michael joined the team, he instantly dove into the problem space, helped put out the fires, and hit the ground running. When Michael and I started co-leading this initiative, we were told there wasn't a way we could bring this project back from red status to even yellow for the target date 8 months from then. There were blockers in priorities, budget, and already committed resources. By Michael working with his leadership and other key stakeholders, he helped create awareness and bring life back to a dead project. His organization and attention to detail in planning were key. We were able to not only turn the project around, but reduced the completion time by what was supposed to be 8+ months (April-December 2021) to only 3 months. By the first full month of scrum work in June 2021, we had turned the project to green. Michael is an invaluable team member and I throughly enjoyed working with him on the project. This cross-functional project touched many domains and stakeholders (which added to the difficulty because they all had different priorities). His straightforward and "get it done" attitude was refreshing and incredibly effective. He was able to talk to a variety of key stakeholders in a calm and easy demeanor that was both relatable and respected. Michael is not only an effective leader, but innovative. He constantly thought outside the box; which came incredibly handy and helped significantly when we had blockers. I have appreciated his partnership and look forward to watching his successful career continue.”