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Chuck Tobia, MBA

Mr. Tobia has fifteen years of consulting experience in change management, business process reengineering, software development, and strategic planning. He has managed successful change management efforts for CalSTRS, CalPERS, the State Compensation Insurance Fund, and other public sector agencies. His software development experience includes all aspects of the development lifecycle. He works effectively with all organizational levels to deliver the benefits organizational, process, and software improvement. He manages consulting engagements with large, diverse project teams. Mr. Tobia is skilled at conducting management focus groups in a wide variety of subject areas and provides expert analysis as well as meaningful recommendations.

Relevant Experience:

  • Independent Consultant - San Francisco and Sacramento
  • Product Manager - Vivant, Oakland
  • Management Consultant - Price Waterhouse LLP

Experience Highlights:

  • State of California, State Teachers - Retirement System (CalSTRS)

    Mr. Tobia currently manages an effort to assess the Disability/Death Benefit Division. The two primary goals of the assessment are to improve processing efficiency and achieve optimum balance of staffing and workload. The project requires documenting current processes and tools, as well as the number of staff and their classifications. Complicating factors include the recent union of the Disability and Survivor benefits divisions and the expected reduction in staffing of approximately ten percent. Mr. Tobia is facilitating a large group of staff through the process of developing a transition plan for the newly united Division that includes redefining the organization chart and defining career mobility opportunities for staff.
  • State of California, State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS)

    Mr. Tobia assessed the Service Retirement Division and conducted a follow-on project to implement organizational, training, and process improvements. The Service Retirement Division determines and pays retirement benefits to CalSTRS members upon retirement. As part of the assessment, Mr. Tobia identified specific issues negatively impacting customer service delivery and quality. Recommendations he helped implement included process changes to enhance financial controls and reduce errors, development of a robust staff training program, and mechanisms to capture and interpret data for management planning. Mr. Tobia facilitated development of an organizational vision statement and core values, which was part of a larger effort to shift organizational culture. As part of the project, several Division staff were included on the implementation team and gained valuable experience in change management.
  • State of California, Public Employees - Retirement System (CalPERS)

    Mr. Tobia served as the manager of the Health Better Tech project. He provided transition support for the Health benefits Services Division as it completed the phased implementation of a new computer system. Responsibilities included providing assistance in planning and conducting transition activities, facilitating management decisions on processing and organizational structure, and developing resources for CalPERS and its customers. Prior to implementation, Mr. Tobia developed documentation of planned system functionality in terms for end-users, prepared training strategies, facilitated interdepartmental communication, developed improved processing, developed a human resources target environment, and implemented organizational improvements.
  • State of California, Public Employees - Retirement System (CalPERS)

    Mr. Tobia served as manager for the Corporate Registration Better Tech project. The project provided transition support to the Member Services Division after their recent implementation of a new computer system. Mr. Tobia developed project plans and directed client and consultant staff in completing the project. The major outputs addressed the current organizational environment, current business processes, target organizational environment, improved business processes, staff development plans, and customer satisfaction. The team developed mechanisms to facilitate communication within CalPERS and provided support to unit management.
  • State of California, Public Employees - Retirement System (CalPERS)

    Mr. Tobia assisted the Customer Service/Business Process Reengineering team in preparing strategic and implementation plans for its customer service vision. The plans coordinated implementation of new services in conjunction with other strategic initiatives. As part of customer service improvement efforts, Mr. Tobia conducted focus groups of CalPERS customers (Health Benefits Officers) to identify new system requirements, customer priorities, and user interface options. Another product of the focus groups was a statement of customer satisfaction.
  • State Compensation Insurance Fund (California)

    Mr. Tobia developed a long-term Change Management Plan for the Claims Reengineering Project. The Claims Reengineering Project resulted in the implementation of new computer applications for creating and processing insurance claims. The plan included detailed steps for change management, communications, performance measurement, procedure development, job redesign, user documentation, development and delivery of training, conducting prototype reviews, conducting user acceptance tests, and facilitating system rollout for pilot and final versions of the new software.
  • City of Richmond (California)

    Mr. Tobia assisted in the phased implementation of streamlined procurement processes and policies for the city. The focus of the project was to decentralize purchasing authority from the Finance Department to individual city departments (e.g., Police, Fire). Specific project tasks included providing "best practice" research, benchmarking similar municipalities, designing processes, and designing policies.

Systems Analysis, Design, and Implementation:

  • Tulare County (California)

    Mr. Tobia conducted a project to evaluate the County's request for additional staff related to the implementation of a major new software system. The software is being developed by a consortium of counties and involves the central functions of the Health and Human Services Department. All aspects of development and all of the internal division responsibilities were considered in determining whether requested the staff increases were warranted.
  • State of South Carolina, Department of Transportation

    Mr. Tobia served as an analyst in defining the requirements, preparing a conceptual design, developing a conceptual data model, and developing a practical implementation approach for a Materials Data Management System for the South˜Carolina Department of Transportation. His efforts also involved development and design of required system processing. Mr. Tobia produced and distributed a technology survey to other state laboratories nationwide that delivered a 98% response rate. He tabulated the responses and analyzed the results to select potential existing system alternatives. He conducted site visits, evaluated the existing systems, and made appropriate recommendations.

Client Training:

  • State of California, Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS)

    Mr. Tobia managed the identification of training needs, coordinated development of training materials and plans, and oversaw delivery of business process and customer service training for CalPERS membership and health benefits line staff.
  • State Compensation Insurance Fund (California)

    Mr. Tobia developed and delivered training sessions for agency staff related to leadership, process reengineering, and customer service. The training included future trainers, managers, and line staff.
  • Association for Information and Image Management

    Mr. Tobia trained over 40 client staff in analysis, reengineering, and change implementation techniques to support the continuous improvement practices.

Certifications:

''Top Secret'' security clearance - U.S. Department of State, June 2002

Education:

  • MBA, University of California at Berkeley, Walter Haas School of Business
  • BS in Business Administration with a Concentration in Management Information Science, California State University at Sacramento

  

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