Colin Webber

An experienced Project Manager with expertise in delivering Infrastructure, Networks and Security projects, within the Financial Technology sector, on time and to budget. Well versed in Agile and Waterfall methodologies including various hybrids of both. Proven track record of delivering multiple large and complex projects as part of a portfolio of projects, both internal and customer facing.

Infrastructure | Networks | Cyber Remediation | Applications Development | Waterfall | Agile | Risk Management | Financial Control | Governance | Stakeholder Engagement | Reporting | Procurement

Vocalink, a Mastercard company

7yrs 4 months

Lead Project Manager

May 2024 - Feb 2025 - 10 months

Vocalink maintains the Critical National Infrastructure behind many of the UK’s most prevalent payment systems such as BACS, Faster Payments and LINK Cash Machines. This engagement involved Infrastructure upgrades for the Department of Work and Pensions (STPC and DEPS). Accountable for the overall delivery to pre-agreed timescale set out in the commercial agreement for the work with DWP. This involved stakeholder management across multiple internal commercial entities, Risk and Issue Management, Cost / status tracking and reporting, and Project Planning.

• Re-Initiatialising the Project after a period of hiatus due to illness of the previous Project Manager resulting in a renewed focus on the projects objectives and timeline.
• Resolving Multiple Cross Platform unexpected technical issues preventing progress allowing both this and other time critical projects to proceed.
• Facilitating agreement of inter-business unit cost and revenue preventing the premature closure of the project
• Leveraging internal relationships to secure internal multi-disciplinary resource allocation and prioritisation to produce and implement the design and delivery
• Creating realistic project plans in both Microsoft Project and Planview to meet End of support dates resulting in renewed focus on the timeline of activities and increasing stakeholder confidence in project deliverability.
• Waterfall and Agile Methodologies were used for various elements of the project which enabled the most efficient use of resources and enabled greater flexibility whilst maintaining the project timeline and budget.

Lead Project Manager

Jan 2023 - May 2024 - 1 yr 5 months

As part of a significant Cyber Remediation Programme looking to resolve Technical debt in Vocalink's Internal Security posture, running 2 significant projects, an Insecure Protocol Remediation project and a DLP (Data Loss Prevention) Upgrade.

• Creating and agreeing, with the support of SME colleagues and senior stakeholders a requirements catalogue for the first phase implementation of a new Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tool ensuring the resulting tool fully met the needs of the business.
• Co-ordinating the procurement of DLP expertise to both create the design for the tooling and assist with its implementation alongside in house SMEs thus enabling design and implementation to take place.
• Successful handover of the project to another Project Manager enabling a smooth transition and eventual completion of the project within its pre-agreed challenging timeframe
• Utilising reports from existing tooling (QUALYS) and advice from SME Colleagues, creating a list of Networking protocols considered insecure and agreeing remediations plans for a sub-set of these with the business as well as a long term tracking capability to monitor remediation efforts in the medium to long term resulting in a significant reduction in key Security vulnerabilities across the business.
• Identifying flaws in the existing toolset for identification of vulnerabilities resulting in a business wide review.

Lead Project Manager

Jan 2022 - Jan 2023 - 1yr 1 month

Managing a variety of Network related infrastructure refresh projects in the Critical National Infrastructure space.

• Procurement of new Network Switches and firewalls to replace End of Support models.
• Co-ordination of installs including design work to remediate legacy issues and ensuring no service impact to the Critical National Infrastructure systems these firewalls and switches were embedded within.

Lead Project Manager

Jun 2021 - Jan 2022 - 8 Months

A selection of Cyber Remediation Projects aimed at strengthening Vocalink's Security Operations Centre (SOC) and Developing a long term strategy for Cyber remediation. Highlights included arranging and managing the outsourcing contracts to several third parties providing expertise to Vocalink to strengthen existing procedures and processes as well as provide documentation for long term improvements.

• Arranging and managing the outsourcing contracts for consultancy in the SOC space resulting in new capabilities within the SOC and a hardened Security Monitoring and response stance.
• Co-ordinating access to senior stakeholders for external SME’s engaged under outsourcing contracts to develop new tooling and strategy resulting in efficient use of Senior stakeholder time.
• Producing evidence of new tooling and Strategy for the regulator (Bank of England) resulting in the completion of all stated objectives being presentable to the regulator upon request.

Lead Project Manager

Nov 2017 - Jun 2021 - 3yrs 8 Months

Managing all Project Management elements (risk and issue management, planning, financial reporting, formal project governance, etc) for various infrastructure “Keep the show on the road” projects and upgrades including:

• Installation of New Firewalls from a new vendor including the migration of Firewall rules whilst ensuring no affect to the existing service which supports critical national infrastructure.
• Working across time-zones and working cultures to integrate service desks with parent company (Mastercard) to create significant cost savings whilst ensuring data sovereignty issues were addressed.

Fujitsu Global

11yrs 6 Months

Project Manager - Fujitsu Rail Account

Jun 2017 - Nov 2017 - 6 months

• Managing the Tech Refresh of the STAR Mobile Ticketing solution to remedy a number of operational issues and restore profitability to the Rail Portfolio. This involves talking to a range of suppliers who offer ruggedised point of sale mobile solutions with ITSO capability in order to build a business case for considerations by the internal investment committee. In addition a supplier has been down selected to run a proof of concept project to further assess the suitability of this solution for integration with the existing STAR Mobile application and to what extent it resolves the current operational issues the incumbent solution is currently facing. Successful resolution of these issues is worth circa £4m per year over the life of the various contracts (the longest of which is currently 5years) as well as restoring reputation and relationships within the UK rail market that have been damaged due to the current operational issues.
• Management of new software development to support back office Account Based Ticketing systems. This involves working with a subsidiary company utilising Agile software development methodology (Specifically SCRUM) to create new software for an account based ticketing solution that could be utilised across a number of national transport franchises (Including Train and Bus). This also involves creation of new Sales collateral such as new Playbooks and Winners Cards in order to create interest and new pipeline for this product, not only across the UK transport market but also across EMEIA.•

Project Manager - Fujitsu Post Office Account

Jul2013 - Jun 2017 - 4yrs

• Managing small to medium sized projects in the core contract, involving producing the commercial terms in the presales space through to delivery and closure of the resulting project (including service introduction tasks and invoicing). Each of these projects were delivered within budget and within the mutually agreed timescale. 
• Managed alterations to the existing network connections between Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd in conjunction with other suppliers of the back end infrastructure. This was a major undertaking as this involved ensuring business continuity whilst altering live network connections in constant use for key business systems such as HR and Payroll.
• Other Projects have included new large scale wide area network connection installs with associated local level network changes (Routing and Firewalls) and Development, integration, testing and release management of significant code changes to existing software platforms. This has allowed Post Office to both grow its business by taking on new Business to Business clients and offer new products and services.

Project Leader - Fujitsu

Jun 2006 - Jul 2013 7yrs 2 Months

Worked across many Varied Customer specific contracts. Customer included Financial Conduct Authority, Cabinet Office, Home Office, Transport for London, Department of Business innovation and Skills and NHS. Projects worked on were largely Infrastructure / Application Development Projects in Secure IT Environments to deliver customers significant cost savings / bringing on new business opportunities to increase revenue through the use of new technology.

The Open University

Masters degree, Development Management 2009 - 2018

University of the West of England

BA (Hons), Business Administration 2002 - 2005