Tonbridge, England, United Kingdom
My background is predominantly in Technology, Business Strategy and Project and Programme management for over 20 years. This has included senior positions at a number of blue chip companies such as Virgin Atlantic, FM Conway, as well as over 7 years in consulting. Following a successful period working for Trail Group Ltd as a member of the Board, I am now a Business Change consultant to help companies deliver strategic change through better processes, empowering their workforce, and delivering for the customer. I am passionate about making companies work better through the use of better, simpler processes, using the right technology where appropriate, and most importantly delivering a great customer experience. I joined Trail Group in 2022 as Business Change Manager. I was promoted to the Board, and was responsible for the strategic integration of all Trail Group’s companies and subsidiaries and following a number of acquisitions. This included facilitating collaboration and aligning systems, processes and performance measures with the wider business goals to provide a solid foundation for organic growth. Alongside this role, I deputised for the Managing Director in the daily running of the Trail Group business, including reviewing sales opportunities, managing and monitoring turnover and cashflow, ensuring delivery to our clients per the contracts, liaising with clients as required, handling of HR matters, staffing and recruitment and board level decision making to drive business growth. During my tenure in this role, working with the MD we more than doubled the size of Trail Group, both in terms of staff numbers and turnover. I was also accountable for the internal functions of the Group including technology, fleet management, quality, warehousing and facilities management.
A privilege to be working alongside a great team at Ream Interiors to support the new owners bring an amazing company back to life following a close closure of the business. Working daily with the MD and the wider management team to ensure that the processes, people and technology are all working together effectively and efficiently, and that the customer experience is at the heart of everything the company and the team do. Additionally developing a longer term roadmap to support the growth and continued success of an established name and a great company.
A short assignment with a solid and highly professional cyber security consultancy to help get a major programme of work across the finish line for one of their major defence clients, and then working with the Directors to improve various financial and cost control mechanisms to support future growth.
I was primarily responsible for the strategic integration and alignment of all Trail Group’s companies and subsidiaries, in particular following a number of company acquisitions to further the Trail Group offering to their clients. This role included facilitating collaboration and aligning technology, processes and performance measures with the wider business goals, to provide a solid foundation for organic growth for Trail’s services in the built environment. As part of this role, I was also accountable for a range of internal functions including technology, fleet management, warehousing, quality and facilities management. Alongside this role, I deputised for our Managing Director in the daily running of the Trail Group business, including reviewing sales opportunities, managing and monitoring turnover and cashflow, ensuring delivery to their clients per the contracts, liaising with clients as required, handling of HR matters, staffing and recruitment and board level decision making to drive business growth. During my tenure in this role, working with the MD we more than doubled the size of Trail Group, both in terms of staff numbers and turnover.
As an interim measure alongside my primary role of Group Strategy Director, I stepped into the operational side of the business and acted as Operations Director for the Passive Fire division, and more generally deputising for the Managing Director in the day to day running of the Trail Group business. This involved managing and mentoring the Fire Protection team in their day to day work, ensuring we delivered for our clients and providing direction and leadership as required.
Project and Business Change Manager running numerous pieces of work to implement and improve the technology and processes at Trail Group, including Field Service Management software, HR software, Organisational setup and change best practice, process definition and implementation, along with a few new Product launches!
Responsible for leading the delivery of a number of significant transformation projects across the business, which support the FM Conway business strategy.
Following on from the successful cutover of PSS to AIR4 (Delta's platform), I moved from Technology to Commercial as a Senior Manager to lead the commercial development of AIR4 for VAA. This involved maximising the value Virgin Atlantic gained from Air4 in partnership with Delta, and ensuring that Virgin Atlantic had a clear plan for future investments, including prioritising, approving and overseeing potential projects and proactively ensuring the capacity and capability to manage the delivery of future projects. This continued to work alongside all areas of the Virgin Atlantic business alongside the Delta Joint Venture.
Virgin Atlantic recently embarked on the largest transformation programme in it's history - migrating PSS (Passenger Service System) from HP Shares onto Delta's PSS technology platform, AIR4. As part of the AIR4 Programme Leadership Team, I held the responsibility of AIR4 Cutover Lead, responsible for the cutover team and the overall planning and orchestration of the cutover activity from SHARES to AIR4, including the setup and operation of our 'Command Centre' where the cutover, and a number of Dress Rehearsals were run from. I managed a team to bring together all areas of our business and develop our Cutover plan and approach, working closely with every business area of VAA and Delta, to ensure we were both ready for cutover, and all areas understood the process, activities and responsibilities for cutting over including shutting down a large number of our existing systems in the process.
My responsibilities were as follows: 1. Technology Workstream lead in our Joint Venture with Delta Airlines, managing all aspects of technology changes or requirements across the organisation which are attributable to, or as a result of the JV. 2. Senior Project Manager for Loyalty - I was responsible for delivering one of the largest technology programmes in the portfolio to migrate our existing Loyalty platform and associated applications to a new Siebel platform involving new infrastructure, a number of different software applications and web service integration. I was the Technology Lead for Loyalty as part of the wider programme of moving to our new PSS system, AIR4. 3. PSS/AIR4 Cutover Lead - Please see description above.