Sarah Halwani

About Sarah Halwani

I build operational infrastructure that didn’t exist before I got there. My career has been spent inside complex, technical organizations; learning the domain, earning their trust, and creating the systems that let great teams do their best work. Background spans across financial services regulations, strategy and operations, and cross-functional program leadership. Passionate about financial and wellness access as equity issues.

Experience

1. Associate Director, Operations, Regulatory Economics & Market Analysis

   FINRA

   Nov 2023 — Present · Los Angeles, CA, US

   Built the department\'s first performance measurement ecosystem from zero: led end-to-end OKR strategy, quarterly learning reviews, strategic narrative shaping and a real-time goals tracker that improved reporting accuracy by 25%- Serve as strategic operations partner to SVP and EVP, owning operating cadences, quarterly planning cycles, and executive decision prep for a 30-person economics research team- Led the operational merger of two business units, redesigning governance structures and workflows to increase cross-functional efficiency by 25%- First line of defense to manage budget in partnership with Finance (FP & A), identified cost-saving opportunities and operational efficiencies- Led FINRA\'s 2026 department goal-setting framework with Enterprise Strategy, establishing the team\'s first repeatable annual prioritization process- Scaled JIRA to 100% adoption with analytics dashboards increasing project visibility by 25%; led full-lifecycle SharePoint migration reducing document retrieval time by 50%- Recognized for operational innovation with executive commendation and Top 3 placement in firmwide innovation challenge

Education

• University of South Florida

  Master of Science (MS), Management

  2016

• International School of Choueifat- Doha, Qatar

  High School Diploma

  2004 — 2011

• University of South Florida

  Bachelor of Science (BS), Finance

  2011 — 2014

Skills

• Highly Ambitious
• Pulling & Organizing Time Sensitive Information
• Recruiting
• Public Speaking
• Marketing
• Powerpoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Analysis of Patterns and Trends
• Event Planning
• Leases
• Advertising
• Finance
• Series 24
• Positive Personality
• Series 7
• Leasing
• Customer Service
• Event Management
• Online Data Entry
• Teamwork
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Office
• Sales
• Time Management
• Social Media
• Business Economics
• Contract Negotiation
• Rjnet in-House Programs, Databases