Blake DiMarco Herrera

Bezos Academy is building a network of tuition-free, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities. To learn more:

Founding member of Green Dot Public Schools Washington State, a non-profit education management organization, serving as the finance and operations lead for the Washington State region.

Hired in a short-term capacity to provide strategic guidance on critical operations projects. • Developed and implemented a transition plan for assuming management of an underperforming school. • Led a team of six Education Pioneers Fellows to successfully complete updated policy and procedure documents that standardized protocols and reflected improvements across the network.

Managed non-instructional operations, finance, and administration functions for a high-performing public elementary charter school. • Established relationships with key vendors including maintenance, custodial, food service, technology and transportation and negotiated contract terms for superior service. • Managed $4.2 million school budget and produced monthly financial reports for COO, Principal, Board members, and the State of Louisiana. • Oversaw successful student enrollment process resulting in year-over-year growth of 75 new scholars per year. • Developed financial controls and policies and ensured regulatory compliance for $500,000 in federal grants. • Worked closely with the school principal to develop operational procedures to support student enrollment increase from 220 to 380 students.

Managed client relationships and provided operational oversight for high-volume Credit Derivatives trading business, focusing on sensitive hedge-fund clients. • Oversaw client portfolios to ensure trades settled in a timely manner; mitigated credit exposure by resolving all trade breaks, misallocations, and confirmation errors. •Led Client Relationship Management (CRM) initiative to strengthen business partnerships by organizing weekly client meetings that facilitated new business. • Developed metrics to measure team’s performance and communicate results to senior management.

Recognized as a subject matter expert in derivatives operations supporting cross-asset trading businesses with daily margin communication and risk management. •Managed relationships with 100+ hedge fund clients with over $3.5B in portfolio value. • Promoted to Team Leader with financial approval responsibility and management of six team members. • Collaborated with cross-functional departments to develop systems that reduce risk, improve efficiency, and achieve compliance with regulatory requirements. • Supported firm-wide recruiting efforts by developing, coaching, and mentoring new hires. • Selected as Regional Coordinator for Business Continuity Planning; responsible for documenting and maintaining operational procedures and conducting quarterly drills.

Selected as member of the 2004 full time analyst class in Global Operations. • Created procedures to manage and reduce operational exceptions and developed a database to produce and analyze monthly metrics. • Assisted senior management with analysis to forecast operational budgets, including headcount allocation and vendor expenses.