About
Erika Thomas
Senior Leader · Certified Coach · Product Pro
I'm a strategic product and transformation leader with more than 20 years guiding enterprises and companies of all sizes through modernization, AI-enabled product innovation, and organizational capability uplift. My career spans financial services, SaaS, retail, payments, hospitality, and consulting — giving me a cross-industry lens few leaders can match.
I'm known for elevating product maturity, coaching product leaders, and delivering measurable business outcomes. My superpower: I figure things out and move us forward.
I'm currently targeting Senior Management and Director roles where I can apply deep delivery expertise and a coaching mindset to build high-performing teams and lasting organizational capability.
Career
Experience
Northern Trust
VP, Senior Manager — Product Management Capability Lead
Led the Client360 AI initiative from discovery to delivery. Built and directed the PM Center of Excellence, establishing coaching frameworks and capability uplift programs enterprise-wide. Directed the Burst Team to accelerate delivery across multiple portfolios.
VMware / Broadcom
Delivery Lead
Served as strategic advisor from pre-sales through delivery for Fortune 500 modernization engagements. Led cross-functional consulting teams, improved client satisfaction, and partnered with Sales to expand accounts.
Pivotal / VMware
Staff Product Manager
Coached client PMs in Lean/XP practices. Embedded with enterprise teams to drive transformation, uplift product maturity, and strengthen stakeholder alignment.
Toyota Connected
Technical Product Owner
Founded the Product Guild to strengthen product capability and mentorship across the organization.
Ziosk
Product Management
Led full organizational transformation from waterfall to agile. Launched 8 new Scrum teams and established release management, improving throughput and delivery predictability.
MCX (Merchant Customer Exchange)
Senior Product Manager
Owned mobile wallet strategy, driving cloud migration and POS integration for a national retail payments platform.
GameStop
Business Architect — Strategy Management Office
Provided governance and coordinated business and enterprise architecture direction as GameStop expanded its technology portfolio.
NCR Corporation
Product Management Director
Scaled a SaaS security product from concept to 50,000+ sites over 5 years. Grew team from 3 to 35. Drove triple-digit YoY revenue growth and 90% channel partner adoption. Chaired Patent Review Board.
Credentials
Education & Certifications
M.S., Industrial & Organizational Psychology (In Progress)
Walden University
M.S., Management & Leadership
Western Governors University
B.S., Business Management
Western Governors University
Strategy Execution Certificate
Harvard Business School Online
Executive Women in Leadership Certificate
Cornell University
Certified Professional Coach (44 hrs)
College of Executive Coaching
ITIL Foundation Certificate
IT Service Management
Pragmatic Management Certified (PMC-I)
Pragmatic Institute