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Montserrat Rueda - General Manager, Deck Operations

Location: Mexico City, Mexico

Compensation range discussed (USD): $2,000 - $2,800 (The candidate is seeking compensation between $3,500 and $4,000/month to consider an offer.)

LinkedIn Profile | Email: monrueda88@gmail.com | Phone: +52 55 1853 7388

Summary

Project Manager and Architect with 12+ years of experience leading complex capital projects in Banking, Corporate Real Estate, and Data Centers. She has managed operations for major US-based companies and global clients, including HSBC, JLL, Newmark, Colliers International, and Capital One, facilitating alignment between US teams and LATAM execution. Demonstrating strong "zero-to-one" capabilities, she built an engineering team from scratch to over 20 professionals, overseeing strategy through construction for 40-80 projects annually. Her operational expertise includes implementing PMO dashboards and KPIs that reduced reporting time by 40% and cut branch delivery timelines by 25% across 100+ projects. Proficient in MS Project, Smartsheet, and Planview, she combines technical financial oversight (CapEx/OpEx) with rigorous team leadership to drive efficiency.

Meet Montserrat

This video from our screening interview provides a look into Montserrat's background and experience:

Candidate Snapshot

US-Based Real Estate Experience

• 12+ years of project management experience coordinating with US-based companies across Banking, Corporate Real Estate, and Data Center sectors.

• Managed projects and teams serving major US-based corporate clients, including HSBC, JLL, Newmark, and Capital One, ensuring alignment between US-based teams and LATAM execution.

• At JLL, led the HSBC corporate services account, managing a $40M annual capital program and directing project delivery for offices, branches, and data centers, facilitating alignment between US-based teams and LATAM execution.

• Led the account for MetLife, adapting US design and quality standards to the Mexican market for the delivery of their service centers.

Operations & Team Leadership Experience

• Team Leadership: Built a project delivery team from scratch to 20 professionals at HSBC, overseeing the complete project lifecycle from strategy and design to procurement and construction for 40–80 projects annually.

• Performance Management & Training: Personally responsible for hiring, training, and developing her teams. She delivered training on PMO assets and risk analysis to teams in both LATAM and the EU. Key performance indicators focused on reporting accuracy, client communication, and project follow-up.

• Operational Execution: Implemented and monitored operational controls, including PMO dashboards and KPIs that reduced reporting time by 40% and improved process adoption.Drove operational efficiency by cutting branch delivery timelines by 25% across 100+ projects and achieving 30-40% savings through value engineering and optimized procurement.

• Process & Workflow Development: When faced with a disorganized engineering function at HSBC, she established a new operational framework from scratch. This included creating standardized workflows, implementing change-control procedures, formalizing design reviews, and introducing issue-tracking systems.

Education

• Bachelor of Architecture | Universidad Iberoamericana (2012)

Tools & Technologies

• Project Management: MS Project (Expert), Smartsheet, Planview, Jira, Oracle

• Productivity & Design: Google Workspace, Microsoft Office Suite, AutoCAD, Autodesk

• Business Intelligence: Power BI, Tableau

Key Qualifications & Highlights

• Zero-to-One Operational Turnaround: Took charge of a failing data center project that was described as "a mess in finance, calendars, and stakeholders." Despite having no prior engineering background, she immersed herself in the technical details, restructured the project from the ground up, and established a new governance model. She transformed the team from a reactive state to a controlled, process-driven operation, restoring stakeholder confidence.

• Building & Scaling High-Performance Teams: Demonstrates a proven ability to build and scale teams from scratch. At HSBC, she grew a team from just herself to over 20 professionals. She was later hired by Newmark to build their first multi-project account team, where she was responsible for the entire process, from defining roles and hiring staff to training them on client standards and project protocols.

• Cross-Functional Expertise: Combines her architectural background with deep experience in project management, team leadership, and technical operations. She effectively managed complex engineering projects, negotiated with legal teams to redefine vendor contracts, and aligned financial controls, proving her ability to lead initiatives beyond her core area of expertise.

Screening Interview - Key Observations

• Hands-On ‘Zero-to-One’ Operator: When asked about a "messy" project, she detailed taking over a failing data center initiative she knew nothing about. She described immersing herself in the technicals by studying on her own time. Humble enough to admit what she didn’t know, she restructured the project by rewriting vendor contracts with the legal team, realigning financial controls, and restoring stakeholder confidence in a project that was a “mess in finance, calendars, and stakeholders.”

• People-First Performance Management: Her approach to managing underperformance is methodical and empathetic. She starts by speaking with the individual to understand personal struggles, then moves to direct training. If that fails, she escalates to formal courses. Termination is a final resort handled by senior leadership. This is balanced with a clear standard of accountability, emphasizing a philosophy of “congratulate in public, punish in private.”

• KPI-Driven Leadership: When asked to define her management KPIs for her teams, she immediately identified three core metrics: 1) Reporting accuracy (insisting on total transparency, even with bad news), 2) Communication clarity (both internally and with clients), and 3) Rigorous project follow-up.

• Motivation & Startup Context: She is approaching this opportunity with genuine curiosity. Her primary motivation seems to be the challenge and the opportunity to build. She is actively trying to understand the differences between a corporate environment and an early-stage company.

• Adaptability & Proactive Learning: She demonstrated her ability to adapt to new systems when HSBC rolled out Planview, Tableau, and Power BI. She volunteered for the intensive training, spending hours of her own time to master the tools, and then took the initiative to create training materials in Spanish to ensure her team in Mexico could adopt the new platform efficiently.

• Salary & Compensation: Mentioned a higher salary expectation between $3,500 and $4,000 per month. She justifies this based on her experience and understanding that, as an independent contractor, she will be responsible for her own equipment, taxes, and benefits, such as private health insurance.