Gordon Bell

I am a high performing, highly organised and articulate individual with a proven ability to lead and motivate.  I am a reflective and analytical thinker who understands the importance of considered, data driven decision making in forward thinking organisations.

Self-motivated, I thrive under pressure and am happy to work with ambiguity. I have a passion for learning and continuous self-improvement, which I reflect in my professional behaviour.  Throughout my career I have demonstrated a flexible approach to working, often holding multiple concurrent roles to meet business needs.

I specialise in building teams and developing capabilities, from starting-up and transforming underperforming PMO and Project Services organisations to building mature consultancy Delivery and Operations teams.

Consultancy+ (Reed Group): January 2022 - Date

Head of Delivery and Operations (Remote)

Member of Consultancy+ Senior Management Team with accountability for all aspects of Delivery Management, Business and Procurement operations across all Consultancy+ Practices, clients and locations (Technology & Change, Health & Care, Talent Advisory and Services Procurement)

• Accountable for Project delivery, PMO and Delivery Operations teams
• Point of escalation and accountable for all client Delivery related risks issues
• Define and implement Delivery management and pricing methodologies to meet client needs
• Contractual Compliance, Delivery Change and Risk Management
• Define and implement Delivery Governance and PMO processes based in industry best practice, enabling both 'out of the box' and bespoke approaches
• Define and continually evolve internal tools and processes to meet business requirements and enable efficient and effective execution of stakeholder administration tasks
• Delivery performance and client escalations
  • c500 consultant suppliers
  • c100 in-flight projects
  • c£5-10m TCV
• Procurement Services
  • c300 consultant suppliers
  • c200 in-flight projects
  • c£50m TCV
• - Responsible for day-to-day management of Consultancy+ Operations Governance
  • Operational Risk
  • Operation Change
  • Contract Risk and Change
• Accountable and Responsible for the definition and implementation of Delivery Capability strategy and objectives
• Accountable for defining Delivery Capability succession planning
• Trusted advisor to peers, clients and our consultant suppliers

Capita Employee Solutions: (various roles) February 2016 – December 2021

January 2018 – Date: Head of PMO – Pensions Solutions Division

Building a remote PMO capability for the Capita Pensions Solutions Division, incorporating Software Solutions, Product and Proposition, Client Implementation, Finance & Treasury and Business (internal) Change Business Units

• C150-200+ projects and change initiatives in scope at any given point in time covering both client and internal Business customers
• Leveraging Capita tools and PRINCE2/PMP methodology to establish data driven governance and assurance processes, project prioritisation and reporting
• Undertook a strategic review of PMO team capability, articulating strategic issues and assessing strategic options 
• Benchmarked PMO capability against Capita peer groups and industry maturity scale
• Defined and implemented plan of action required to mitigate the issues identified

Concurrent Role: March 2017 January 2018 GDPR Project manager 

Responsible for the end to end implementation of EU GDPR process and technology changes for the Capita Pension Solutions Division

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services: (various roles) December 2011 – January 2016

April 2015 – January 2016: Programme Manager (Ministry of Justice – Probation Services)

Leading a high-profile Business Process Services programme establishing a new Operations and Document Processing Centre for the Ministry of Justice.  The programme (TCV c$8m) was part of a larger cross-Tower Strategic portfolio of deliverables.  Networks, applications and telephony were supplied by other Towers within HP and by 3rd party suppliers across 3 continents, therefore stakeholder and dependency management were key skills developed during this period.

Concurrent Role: Erskine Regional Delivery Centre Management team

From mid-2015 I was a member of the Erskine Regional Delivery Centre (RDC) Management team alongside local and Regional Business Unit leaders.  The RDC had c750 staff across a variety of Business Functions and the Management team was established to provide consolidated Business Operations governance and support to the site.

November 2014 – April 2015: Business Improvement Programme Manager (Secondment)

Leading a 6-month programme of service and business improvement initiatives across all site operational and delivery activities:

• Established consistent staff onboarding processes across all site Capabilities
• Implemented PMI project scheduling standards across all delivery teams
• Implemented resource management tools and reporting templates
• Introduced quality and delivery metrics (cost of quality) and reporting

The programme completed ahead of schedule delivering business benefits and cost savings in excess of expectations.

August 2012 – October 2014: Service Line PMO Manager (Ministry of Defence - Deployed)

Managing a remote team providing a full range of PMO services to a delivery organization of c170 staff split across multiple UK sites. TCV £100m+.  This included driving changes to existing governance processes in order to align with the client (Ministry of Defence) Project and Programme Management Framework.  For a variety of reasons, this role required a significant amount of internal stakeholder management, issue escalation and upwards management of Senior Management/Directors. 

Concurrent Role: June 2013 – January 2014: Key Account Programme Set Up

Providing PMO consultancy to the Global Transformation Services team, establishing a PMO capability in support of a key Account contract extension.

December 2011 to July 2012: PMO Manager (Ministry of Defence - SPVA) 

Managing a remote team, providing Transformation Programme Management Office expertise in support of a key client Contract ($100m+ value).  Established and managed a team of PMO Analysts in prioritising scoping and delivering a wide variety of both standard and bespoke tools, processes and artefacts.

The team was recognised for its achievements and subsequently took on additional responsibility for managing the collation and reporting of management information for the entire Business Sub-Sector. I sat on the internal and externally facing Programme Governance forums as well as the Account Risk Management Forum and Account Finance Review forum.       

Other Responsibilities at Hewlett Packard

• Business Continuity

Business Continuity site lead for the P3M Capability, responsible for the creation and maintenance of business readiness requirements.

• Graduate Programme Mentoring

Assessor in the graduate selection process and mentor to graduates once hired.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS): November 2010 – December 2011

Head of PMO

RBS embarked upon the largest ever (at date of initiation) Finance Transformation Programme in the Banking Sector (£700m+ budget) delivering fundamental changes to the systems/Operating Model.

Recruited on a fixed, 12-month contract to build a Programme Management Office and Operational Support capability within the Change function supporting Business Services Finance (BSF), I established project and programme governance forums in addition to reporting templates and operational risk management processes.  Stakeholder management played a significant part in this role through managing the interfaces between the programme, BSF Executives and the impacted staff.

The Change team was a temporary entity therefore, a key objective was to ensure staff were equipped to manage ongoing change.  In conjunction with the Programme Manager, I designed and delivered a variety of facilitated change management workshops with supporting collateral to embed Project and Change Management disciplines.

Capita Hartshead: September 2003 (TUPE) – November 2010

April 2008 to November 2010: PMO Manager (Private Sector) 

Established project support function for a key client ($50m TCV) transformation programme; implementing project reporting, risk management and financial management processes.

January 2008 to March 2008: Transition Implementation Team Leader

Owned the ongoing IT relationship with both the client and Pensions Operations organisation following the completion of the client transformation programme.

Alba Life Ltd: July 1997 – December 2007: Life and Pensions Administration 

Held a variety of administrative and team leader roles within Corporate and Individual pensions businesses 

Education

• Open University (2016-2019) / MBA (Merit)

Professional qualifications (to date)

• Project Management
  • PMI Project Management Professional
  • PRINCE2 Practitioner (Lapsed)
• Quality Management
  • Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt
• IT
  • ITILv3 Foundation
• Financial Services
  • Financial Planning Certificate (FP1-FP3)
  • Financial Administration Foundation Certificate
  • Pensions Simplification CF9