Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗢𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗦𝗔𝗬.. 🗣 "A great thinker and innovator, leveraging cloud, AI, and analytics to unlock business value. He formulates brilliant strategies and leads teams to success." 🗣 "A strategic and visionary leader, mobilising complex teams and vendors across global initiatives." 🗣 "John shapes complex issues into a strategic direction and tactically engages people to drive real outcomes." 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜 𝗗𝗢 I help boards and executive teams make high‑consequence decisions about AI, data and digital transformation, with clear views of risk, value and feasibility. I have 30+ years of experience, gained working for BP, Amazon, Teradata and EPAM. I have led large‑scale data, cloud and AI programmes and have deep energy, travel, and financial services exposure. I now use my experience to challenge assumptions, cut through hype and ensure AI investments are aligned with strategy, capital discipline and organisational capacity I bridge strategy and execution. I don't just produce decks — I build, create and embed real solutions that work. Whether that's an intelligence platform, a call-centre GenAI engine, or an EnergyAI digital twin, I lead and direct teams to design solutions that grow revenue, reduce friction, and deliver tangible outcomes. Buzzwords fade — but profit still boils down to a simple logic: ▶ Increase revenue ▶ Reduce opex ▶ Avoid wasted capex 𝗠𝗬 𝗦𝗧𝗬𝗟𝗘 Direct, curious, and relentlessly practical. I favour clarity over ambiguity, evidence over fashion, and outcome over activity. Chairs and CEOs tend to use me to unstick stalled initiatives, provide independent challenge, and translate complex technology into straightforward decisions the board can own 𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗦 ▶ CIO, practice leader, and managing director roles across BP, Amazon, Teradata and EPAM — spanning capital programmes exceeding £500M, a $70M global practice built from zero, and AI and data engagements across energy, travel, financial services and others ▶ Certifications in solutions architecture, machine learning, big data and development. ▶ BEng · PhD · MBA · FIET · CEng · PMP · PMI‑ACP.
𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲'𝐬 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞 Organisations face unprecedented pressure to transform. Cloud, data analytics and AI offer tremendous potential, yet many struggle to identify which technologies will truly deliver business value versus passing trends. Leadership teams need trusted, vendor-neutral guidance to navigate complex decisions, avoid costly missteps, and deliver tangible results. 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐈 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩 I specialise in focused, high-impact advisory engagements that deliver immediate value while setting foundations for long-term success. My approach is vendor-independent — genuinely cloud-agnostic, leveraging hyper-scalers OR open source technology as the situation demands. With hands-on experience in production-grade generative AI and multi-agent systems, I help organisations cut through the hype and get to practical solutions. The journey: cloud migration → cloud native → traditional ML → GenAI → agentic AI. 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 Alongside advisory work I am actively building production-quality AI/ML systems: computer vision (YOLOv8, Meta SAM, facial recognition); GenAI and agentic AI (RAG pipelines, LangChain, local LLMs, AWS Bedrock AgentCore with MCP); recommendation systems (collaborative filtering, SVD, hybrid approaches); multimodal AI (OCR, Stable Diffusion, pose estimation); IoT/edge (Raspberry Pi, sensor integration, energy monitoring). 𝐌𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 Over three decades in business and technology, with senior positions at bp, AWS, EPAM and Teradata. Certifications include Solutions Architecture, Machine Learning, Data Analytics, Development, and PMI Project Delivery (Waterfall and Agile). Experienced as both buyer and seller — advising hundreds of organisations globally on digital transformation. Advice is agnostic, independent, and globally applicable. I now focus purely on short-term, independent, impartial guidance to just a select few clients.
As Director of Data and Analytics, I worked across many sectors. I supported clients throughout their digital development lifecycles with cloud-agnostic perspectives, leveraging Azure, AWS, and GCP to deliver bespoke solutions that prioritised growth, agility, and competitive advantage. Rather than force-fitting solutions into rigid frameworks, I focused on delivering outcomes that achieved lasting impact. This tailored approach helped clients consistently outperform competitors in their industries. My focus and skills included: • Cloud-native development and modernisation • Advanced data and analytics platforms • Generative AI, AI Agents, and Agentic AI implementations using industry-leading frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen) • Production-grade AI solutions on enterprise platforms such as Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and Azure AI Agent Service • Implementation of integration standards, including Model Context Protocol and Function Calling • Comprehensive cloud strategy development and execution What I brought to the table: • Successful delivery for over 100 Fortune 500 organisations • A portfolio of more than 100 proprietary blueprints and frameworks to accelerate delivery • Deep expertise in multi-agent AI systems designed to solve complex business problems • Strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Databricks, Snowflake, and others • Engineering excellence (FIET) and a commercial, entrepreneurial mindset The cloud and AI landscape evolved rapidly — and I met that challenge by remaining independent of any single provider. I consistently embraced emerging technologies such as multi-agent systems to craft innovative, business-focused solutions. With deep sector knowledge — particularly in Energy and Manufacturing — I combined technical depth with business insight to help clients achieve their transformation goals and unlock new levels of performance through advanced AI.
In my role, I helped businesses increase their profitability through the adoption of cloud services - enabling them to move into the cloud and then operate in the cloud. I excel at articulating digital strategies and building high-performing teams. Ultimately my focus is on the outcome and delivering digital transformation, so I focus on the full digital journey - I start with the customer and then dive into data collection, storage, data engineering, feature selection, model building, evaluation, deployment and so much more. Eating my own dog food is important... I am a certified Solutions Architect and Developer and also have a Machine Learning specialisation... Why is this important? Talking to customers at all levels and leading and working as a team is easier when you speak the same language. Outcomes I worked with FTSE and NASDAQ companies and ► Moved them into the cloud and delivered double-digit benefits as follows. ▷ Increased revenue ~30% ▷ Reduced IT spending ~40% ▷ Reduced time to solve security incidents ~10% ▷ Delivered faster time to insights ~30% ► Modernised Operations in the cloud and delivered benefits as follows. ▷ Adopting containers ▷ Reduced IT spend through serverless and cloud-native solutions ▷ Faster time to insights through cloud-based analytics I delivered the following solutions MLOps, DataMesh, XaaS Solutions, CI/CD solutions, DataHubs, Traditional Machine Learning and Gen AI and LLMs solutions
Data & Analytics are transforming organisations, labour markets and the global economy. Businesses are not just using digital technologies they are becoming inherently digital. _______________________________________________________________ In my role, I worked at the forefront of digitisation & analytics to help clients understand the shifting digital landscape and put in place end-to-end solutions to leverage data and deliver best in class business outcomes. My clients have included - Apple, Walmart, eBay, Unilever, Boeing, HSBC, BMW, Siemens, Coca Cola and other FTSE/NASDAQ organisations. My work spanned many different sectors… ► Oil & Gas ► Energy | Manufacturing ► Logistics | Automotive ► Retail | Finance ► Banking | Retail ► Insurance | Banking .. and covered solutions, such as... ▷ Reduced capital costs via Augmented Intelligence and Automation ▷ Increased efficiency & optimisation via IoT and predictive maintenance ▷ Enhanced supply chains via data integration, decision support and visualisation ▷ Enhanced customer experience via new business models and focused offerings ▷ Prevented fraud and corporate loss via data mining and machine learning ▷ Reduced churn & enhanced experiences via data-mining and improved offerings
BP is an energy company. But it also develops and deploys distinctive and proprietary technologies to ensure they maintain a competitive advantage. These technologies touch all aspects of their business. Upstream it spans from the reservoirs and wells to the facility and export. It includes physical technology as well as analytical tools to support descriptive, predictive and prescriptive insights. ► Seismic Imaging: Helps provide a view beneath the earth to find hydrocarbons. It also allows characterisation of reservoirs and details of changes in these reservoirs over time as oil & gas are produced. ► Enhanced oil recovery (EOR): The average recovery factor of an oilfield is just one third – that leaves more oil in the ground than we remove. EOR technologies helps increase the recovery factor by improving reservoir sweep and displacing more oil from rock. ► Digitisation: A journey/vision to become a fully connected upstream - a globally connected network of technology, people and digital processes. In my role, I led digital transformation programmes, directing teams to develop digital technology solutions. https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/what-we-do/technology.html https://www.designworks.studio/bp-field-of-the-future-ar
BP's Major Project portfolio is $10s billions and the technology component $100s of millions. In 2010, an Upstream Global Project Organisation was formed. From inception, I was responsible for forming a global team, leading technology delivery and defining new operating practices. $500m technology budget, supporting 2,500 people delivering $90bn of capital projects My global team was responsible for delivering solutions across the entire life-cycle: from greenfield developments, setting up operations in new countries; through expanding brownfield locations; to exiting from regions either through decommissioning or divestment. From North Sea projects such as Clair Ridge and Quad204 (see videos), to Egyptian onshore/offshore gas development, to Omani 'tight' gas to Indonesian LNG expansion. https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/investors/upstream-major-projects.html BUSINESS OUTCOMES Established the Global Projects Organisation's Technology strategy, wrote the Technology Operating Model and defined processes from the inception of the functional organisation. Built and led diverse teams (internal/external; staff/contract) to deliver solutions to Oman, Egypt, UK, AsPac and others. Managed all aspect of technology delivery to BP and 3rd parties. This included hardware and software projects for temporary endeavours (e.g. flotels, drill-rigs and 3rd party offices) as well as final operational assets.
In my role, I was responsible for technology delivery to operations and support functions - finance, HR, tax, communications, external affairs, supply Chain, procurement etc ... https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/what-we-do/upstream.html Two noteworthy BUSINESS OUTCOMES include. PRODUCTION REPORTING In the UK BP allocates and reports 350mboed from 15 offshore/onshore production facilities. This represents $8bn/yr. and BP’s share was $3bn. This project involved defining scope, tendering and delivery replacement systems for all these assets. PIPELINE ACCOUNTING: BP’s forties pipeline allocates crude throughput of ca. $14bn p.a. This represents 40% of all UK crude from 60+ offshore platforms. This project replaced a critical financial accounting system and involved defining scope, tendering and delivery a replacement.