Jessica Rueda

Experience

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  Hotel Explora Salto Chico (Patagonia)

  Mar 2004 - Jun 2007

  Front Desk Associate and Restaurant Associate

  During my 8 months working in the Restaurant Department, loved the opportunity to learn the explora® way, ensuring the service delivered will always surprise and delight our guests at the property, always exceeding their expectations.During my time working at the Front Desk, handled room assignments and special requests, ensuring that guest needs and wishes for their stay at their home away from home were met in a consistent and unique way.

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  Princess Cruises

  Feb 2008 - Dec 2022

  Reporting directly to our SVP, working collaboratively with the Port Operations and Shore Excursions team to set strategic planning and develop strategies to drive operational efficiencies across brands for the Holland America Group (Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, and P&O Australia).Efforts and priorities are set with Executive Leadership, ensuring our goals are aligned with the Company's top priorities. Key responsibilities: Engage and drive projects across remote teams, ensuring targets and timelines are met; seek optimization of current practices and tools; propose enhancements to our strategy and operational approach.Key results: Collaborated and co-lead integral projects and initiatives during our cruise pause in operations due to COVID-19; Created modeling and reporting to keep up to date information for shipboard and shoreside teams; Engage with deployment teams to analyze and create up-to-date reporting for emissions; created port prioritization model showcasing volume and engagement required to succeed in strategic regions/locations in the world. Show less 4+ years as part of an in-house consultant team, working in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities, assessing and driving critical and complex projects across various teams and presenting findings to our stakeholders, as we identify risks and opportunities. Our team was known to challenge the status quo, creating innovative projects and product offerings based on executive requests. Covered the role of Scrum master for our cross-functional team, and brought operational experience and business acumen, which was deemed key for our efforts and the proven results granted me two promotions in this high performing team: Sr Strategy Specialist (Nov 2017-Feb 2019), Specialist Hotel Personnel and Project (Dec 2015- Oct 2017).Key methodologies applied: Agile and lean practices; MVP approach; broad-based ideation; apply validated learnings into the development of new products/concepts; consumer research; A/B testing.Accomplishments: • Co-lead project with outbound sales team. Enhanced recruiting practices for our in-house team that yielded to successful results and high caliber incoming candidates• Co-created financial model to understand staffing costs per year, per ship. Model used for bench-marking purposes to pursue efficiencies across various other brands within the corporation• Project lead - Modeled projected staffing needs for new platform of ships. Used projections and collaborated with operational teams across the organization. Recommendations presented to, and approved by C-suite Executives• Implemented enhanced online tool to process guest satisfaction scores, while creating practical guides and resources for onboard teams • Through partnerships with a variety of operational teams, identified over $40M/year in ship operating efficiencies–with changes that were neutral to, or even enhanced, the guest experience Show less Selected by the Vice President Hotel Operations to represent the department as the liaison between the Strategy & Special Projects team and Hotel Operations, bringing operational knowledge and business acumen as we focused on high priority initiatives for our CompanyAccomplishments:Project Lead - Onboard crew accommodation inventory project. Conducted an in-depth review of crew onboard accommodation and utilization; created berthing consistency across the fleet; optimized reporting tools; achieved a dynamic visibility to the overall berth status/availability, while reducing labor intensive tasks. Project estimated cost savings of $3M/year Show less Covered exciting roles as a Manager, acting as Crew Manager and Customer Relations Manager; and inspiring roles as an Assistant Manager, covering the unique onboard roles of Assistant Crew Manager; Front Desk Supervisor; Customs and Immigration Officer; Night Manager; Front Desk and Shore Excursions Junior Associate.Accomplishments: • Selected Employee of the Month by my colleagues, in recognition of my efforts and support to the team and guests onboard during a challenging South America Season• Managed teams of 7+ members, from different backgrounds and different levels of knowledge; motivated and coached the team in an ongoing basis, while identifying opportunities for career progression• Oversaw crew and guest related tasks, such as personnel matters; compliance; learning and development; coaching; travel arrangements; payroll matters (bonuses, gratuities, account settlements)• Liaised with Port Officials in a wide selection of countries across nearly all continents, with successful results and performance • Monitored Net Promoter Scores related to guest satisfaction and service ratings, finding opportunities for improvements and achieved continuous high performing scores • Managed and oversaw select onboard events, such as group meetings from 10-150+ attendees (weddings, renewal of vows, others) with utmost results Show less

  • Strategy and Business Development Manager, Port Operations and Shore Excursions

    Mar 2020 - Dec 2022

  • Business Strategy Manager

    Dec 2015 - Mar 2020

  • Specialist, Shipboard Hotel Personnel & Projects

    Jun 2015 - Nov 2015

  • Hotel Operations Manager

    Feb 2008 - May 2015
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  Holland America/Princess Alaska-Yukon Land Operations

  Jan 2023 - now

  Business Strategy Manager

  Integral part of our PMO team, working collaboratively with the Holland America-Princess Leadership Team in Alaska to set our strategy for the short and long term, ensuring our goals are aligned with Carnival Corporation's top priorities. Key responsibilities: Engage and drive projects across remote teams, ensuring targets and timelines are met; seek optimization of current practices and tools; propose enhancements to our strategy and operational approach.