John Smith

A proven Project Manager with a demonstrable history in delivering change in multi-faceted environments across various industries encompassing Pensions, Finance, I.T, Regulatory, New Business, Engineering and Mechanical. 
Results driven, organized and self-motivated with a developed technical understanding from multi discipline background, employing a logical approach to solving complex problems and understanding issues quickly to formulating effective means for resolution with value adding, business focus.

• Prince 2 Practitioner qualified 
• Managed multiple large & complex deliveries simultaneously. 
• Accomplished Financial/budgetary controls 
• Third party client/supplier management 
• Managing regulatory, technical, software, infrastructure, engineered, industrial and organizational project implementations
• Engaging and managing expectations of the sponsors & stakeholders 
• Multi skilled experience background 

Oct 2020 – Present

Program/ Portfolio Lead (Contract) / Chep/Brambles Limited

Managed the delivery of initiatives across multiple business units and vendors, in support of strategic and tactical changes with RFP, POC & POV’s. These roles in Brambles requires a strong understand of principle of change management and capability to understand the business purpose and wider goals for the delivery and excellent interpersonal communication skills. My Program responsibilities were for large & complex IT change relating to Finance, Networks and Cyber Security delivered in support of key business strategies or in response to regular audits conducted by PWC and EY to identify recommendations in IT, Systems and processes. 

SAP Redesign Program – This implementation provided the business with a global standard for their SAP architecture, processes, roles and naming convention, in line with regional configurations and assignments. Enabling an easier to manage system, role assignments and privileges across the SAP estate, reducing the segregation of duty’s risk and administrative burden, while mitigating security risk exposed in the past. The programs required a series of controls to be created, with a full design, build, test, deploy and support suite as part of 50+ deliveries, aligned to the over 7500 SAP users, without impacting BAU throughout. As part of the delivery:

• New Standard Operation Procedures (SOP’s) for design, development, control and management were created to support the BAU team, role management and responsibilities. 
• Jira test systems were implemented and trained out. 
• A unique test automation application in the form of Orchestra which was trial with this delivery for introduction into the business. 
• Existing teams engaged for hands on management and retraining to deliver in line with the new, higher standards. 

IT Cyber Security and Network Initiatives delivered:

All these initiatives required business wide communications, operational training and global co-ordination, along with the expected project controls and governance. BAU was not impacted by any of these deployments, with system downtimes planned in to manage and mitigate business impacts:

• Network Segmentation– Organisations similar Chep had become increasingly the target of the cyber-attack, particularly in the form Malware and Ransomware. The Network Segmentation implement measures to de-risk the business through limiting the attack surface vectors. This delivery mitigated the potential ‘blast wave’ of an attack from proliferating through the network, reducing the impact from global, down the site/ users and introduced controls to manage the risk identified. This initiative, along with the other below, all required business wide communications, operation training and global co-ordination. The BAU side of the business was not impacted by the deployments or system downtimes for implementations.
• Taegis – The migration to a new Counter Threat Platform (CTP), with the implementation of SecureWorks – Taegis. Introducing a more efficient and effective solution for risk identification and management, while providing a better commercial package.
• SDWAN EPOC’s – Led the Enhanced Proof of Concept deliveries on validation the business case for new technologies and the ‘Live’ deployment into the business, in advance and support a Network Transformation Programme. Technologies documentation restricted here due to corporate commercial requirements.
• SASE POC – Delivered a POC for Prisma Access with Global Connect VPN and validated the technologies capabilities, target use with the business and operation with existing platforms and processes. Provided support through legal and commercials, ahead of the taking over the formal delivery of SASE.
• Mobiles Security – Implemented the first of a series of Mobile Security initiative, with upgrading the Mobile Application Management (MAM) policy and globally deploying the changes ensuring all Works Council, legal, commercial and compliance concerns are addressed, and corporate policy documentation is created/ amended, reflecting the change.

As the Security Services Delivery Lead, the key responsibilities were to establish, lead, and deliver the overall Security program portfolio for the company, including program updates, metrics management, PMO oversight, Training and Awareness, Data Protection, GRC, and general security evangelism across the enterprise.

Major/ Key accountabilities were:

• Develop and manage the 3-year Cyber Strategy, co-ordination with the CISO, Security leadership and direct heads.
• Deliver excellence in Security program delivery, data protection, and training & awareness across the Brambles enterprise.
• Maintain strong partner relationships, evangelize information security, advise senior leadership and key partners on cyber risks.
• Operationalise and improve security governance structure and reporting, both operational and for security committees and management teams, partnering across functions, regions, and various external teams. 
• Coordinate project assurance of key initiatives, and perform risk management, in strict alignment and collaboration with other teams in TS and beyond (Risk & Assurance, Supplier and Customer security audits, Cybersecurity assessments, etc), with the biggest purpose to enable the Business via cyber strategy deployment.
• Support the design and the implementation of a Cyber Risk Program, with technology, process, and organizational components, considering insights from project assurance (e.g. in terms of recurrent security gaps and deficiencies), key business strategy elements, Cyber Threat Intelligence insights, etc., in order to increase cybersecurity maturity and business resilience; correlate CRP implementation progress to Cyber Maturity Index increase (NIST, etc).
• Work with global teams to ensure policies, standards, and control frameworks consider regional/market nuances responding to local laws, regulations, and other local requirements.

Oct 2022 – Dec 2023

Project/ Program Management (Consultancy) / Core Highways (H2)

H2 are an M&A business who acquired 5 similar business units for consolidation into 1 business. Audits and peer reviews were carried out on previous failures (before my arrival) under the direction of the board and provided to the programme with mandate and support to delivery this under direct engagement with the board and CEO acting as the sponsor. H2 purchased 5 businesses, and the Program delivered complete restructure and integration of these businesses into 1 entity with the development and implementation of a Target Operating Model. Key deliverables for this program were:

• Developed a program structure to manage all deliverables and provide complete governance, with intermittent review from external auditors.
• RFI through the RFQ for a new ERP – NetSuite, and Operations Field Management – Reflow.
• Deliver NetSuite and Reflow into the business, through externally sourced program team while maintaining the existing business operations and not impacting the BAU. 
• Complete analysis of the business, processes, people and system for delivery structure aligning to the TOM and business objectives.
• Streamline the business processes through simplification, driving efficiencies and synergies between the businesses to operate as one entity.
• Analysis, review, cleanse and migrate all data into and single manageable date store with back up and maintenance mechanisms.
• Communication strategy for the business users & existing customers to align with the new business structure and its processes, as well as the wider public image.
• Facilitate the Company’s’ legal entity changes to align with the business restructuring & integration - 5 businesses into 1.

Feb 2020 – Oct 2020

Program Manager (Contract) / Nortek (Melrose) – U.S/ Canada

Led the successful business/Manufacture (Operations) transformation, involving the relocation of two Coil Manufacturing facilities in Tualatin (USA) and Montreal (Canada) to Oklahoma as part of the ongoing restructure for Melrose, the Equity Management Partner. As part of this transformation:

• Business Process created and amended to support the new operational requirements with SOP, training materials and product management.
• Supply Chain management – BOM’s transfer, product materials rationalization. 
• Manufacture automation improvements in line with the business change incentive and roadmap involving business sustainability.

Feb 2018 – Feb 2020

Program/ Project Manager (Contract) / Nortek (Melrose) – Europe/ Mexico

Responsible for managing multiple work streams across a £17M programme, to exit dilutive product lines, reduce SG&A, move production from Belgium to Mexico & the UK, close the plants in Belgium and build a new European distribution facility with SAP connectivity. This M&A hybrid programme had strict guideline for budget allocation and time constraints so as not to impact the wider organisation or customer base. The key workstream deliveries to manage were:

• Announcement and industrial relations – Engagement with legal consultants and unions for the formal announcements, employee negotiations and social planning.
• Production rationalization – Analysis on the products profitability, material utilisation costs, sustainability, projected growth pattern and customer loyalty/ demand.
• Bill of Material’s transfer – Co-ordination of the products BoM’s transfer from different systems through a project guided process in alignment with the product movement to be ready for production.
• Production moves – Plan and drive the movement of six product lines from Belgium into Mexico and the UK while ensuring no customer impact. Contract suppliers in Italy to build and supply one of the exited product lines. Align procurement, Sales, Operations and Engineering to the Products transitions, with system readiness’s, process & procedure updates, Standards Operating Procedure (SOP’s), training and design artefacts.
• European Distribution Centre – locate and build a new 20,000ft Brownfield Distribution Centre for continued European presence and continuity for the existing customer base. 
• Digital Transformation – Replace legacy systems through the development and implementation of a new SAP for European operations using the Global Nortek third party vendors, based in the U.S.
• Additional responsibilities were requested and required during this delivery were:
  • Interim Engineering Lead - Co-ordinate all Engineering activities for the business and the programme, linking in with the global group, to mitigate impacts and ensure adherence to the strict time constraints.
  • Interim Operation Director – Oversight of Manufacturing/ Procurement and Transport with 4 direct heads reportable, managing 200+ people across the departments. 
  • New Product Delivery – Deliver regulatory change requirements from R&D into production. Introduce new product variants or engineered change into the business.

Dec 2014 – FEB 2018

Project Manager / ReAssure (Swiss Re UK)

Deliveries here were multi-disciplined complex projects from end to end, across a variety of lifecycles, platforms and formats with exposure to programme management and budgetary controls £2 million+. Evidenced high standards for governance, control and reporting, ensuring escalations, issues and risk management is effective and efficient at all times. This challenging environment required strong people management skills in pressured situations. Key responsibilities within ReAssure:

• Initiate and shaping of project work requirements, including the successful management and delivery of IT & business change projects.
• Management and ownership of the change quality through quality gates and delivery lifecycles.
• Build and manage relationships with stakeholders, ensuring regular communications, escalation controls, setting of expectations and while ensuring confidence in the delivery.
• Keep good governance standards in line with the Change Management policy and project health checks.
• Define and document the successful delivery of change services, ensuring realistic delivery, quality and risk plans are prepared and maintained.
• Maintain a high degree of control of project budget levels, delivery plans and work management of resources.
• Work with business functions to understand and ensure operations or ‘Business as usual’ is not affected and business continuity is managed for Go Live.
• Ensure all projects have an agreed sign off, of acceptance from business readiness into BAU.
• Ensure business change delivers in line with original expectations and aligns with the corporate/ business strategy.
• Maintain strict budgetary controls over project finance, timeline demands and forecast - hitting hard targets.
• Experienced in the Integration of systems through business acquisition, upgrades, migration and new developments.
• Drive and own project deliverables, ensuring project teams closely manage to produce results.

     Some Key projects have included:

• CRS - The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an information standard for the automatic exchange of tax and financial information on a global level, which the OECD developed. Its purpose is to combat tax evasion. This regulatory programme of work was delivered over 2 years and continues to receive regulatory guidance. The primary business objective here was to have a fully automated solution for annual reporting to the HMRC, which required the integration and delivery of several complex IT systems and processes capable of managing this continued guidance quickly, simply and within cost.
• FCA Legacy Reviews - The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a report setting out its findings from its thematic review of the fair treatment of long-standing customers in life insurance. This project delivers into a larger programme of work, for a large third-party company’s business, which ReAssure manages. This resulted in the identification, trace, direct contact and management of a 300K+ client base, which the business was previously unable to reach. The programme also implemented a new low-cost ongoing management system and had £2million in budgetary controls.
• MPS - Managed Print Services implemented a new user tag linked printing solution through 130+ printers across four sites. This project was delivered against aggressive timelines and strict controls to manage user impact, site access and resource availability. The associated servers, software, switch blades, edge devices and supporting infrastructure also required significant uplift to implement this delivery. 
• Letter management, mailing house transitions, data migrations and systems upgrades are also among key projects successfully delivered.

June 2011 – Dec 2014

Applications Programmer / Trinity Expert Systems

Approached to this role with naturally good analytical, technical and interpersonal skills. Supporting with resource coordination, work management and aligning the development department to the IT Change Delivery Lifecycle through business process management. Utilizing previous experience in network infrastructure and change delivery, to work with other IT functions to help build a more succinct ITCDL. Primary a developer in languages such as PL/SQL (Oracle Mainframe), Micro Focus COBOL, VB5, C# and .NET framework, transitioning into Technical Architecture. The main purpose of Trinity here was to build and deliver project change within ReAssure. Key examples projects work on include:

• Migrations programmes – ReAssure specialised in buying large books of business through billion-pound deals and bringing their client data into the estate for management. All data would then be analysed and brought on to the main ERP and its subsidiaries systems with none of the previous legacy systems being carried over. 
• New Web Portal service – The business was among one of the first in its industry to provide an online portal where customers could access their life and pensions information, apply changes and make requests. The service obtained national notification and continues to be stable platform with a high customer satisfaction rating.
• HMRC RTI – HMRC Real Time Information was a regulatory project for ReAssure to supply regular ‘real time’ feeds of information to the regulator. John designed an automated solution to process feeds into HMRC.

January 2007 – june 2011

IT Systems Administrator/IT PM / Grange Fencing LTD

Managed the company’s servers, backups, network and 75+ users across multiple sites. Uplifting a several of the company’s’ core IT systems, which was delivered along with other programme work streams as part of business acquisitions. Key projects included:

• Migrate acquired business systems and data. 
• Implement and upgrade all office suite to MS Office 2010
• Decommission and Replace legacy Lotus suite database and migrate the data.
• Deliver a disaster recovery system and supporting processes.

August 2000 – June 2006

Soldier / British Army

The primary role here was Reconnaissance/ Sniper, with deployments into multiple Operations theatres – working with and coordinating teams in challenging environments. Communication, organization and leadership skills were continuously tested while working under pressure to perform tasks effectively and efficiently is expected. 

May 2009

Information Technology Degree / Wolverhampton University

This course refined previously covering studies and with additional elements such as Programme Management, Business Process Management and further dissertations.

May 2008

Computer Science & Mathematics Degree / Wolverhampton University

This HND course covered a wide range of I.T from programming in C #, .NET, HTML, PHP to building and managing servers, networks and users. The course also focused on the project management and strategic analysis of IT deliveries.