If you are interested in this candidate, please contact Charlie Watson via email cwatson@cerfinancial.co.uk or call on 0207 626 6065.

00343033

PROFILE:

A senior business change professional with over 30 years’ experience in the Financial Services sector. He is both a Prince2 and MSP Practitioner. He offers SME consultancy and/or transformational project and programme management expertise. Particular sector experience includes Investment Banking & Markets, Wealth, Private, Retail & Corporate Banking, Investment Management, Life Assurance and General Insurance. He has led and delivered many business-critical projects and programmes (all stages from concept to benefit realisation) to successful outcomes. Regularly briefs and communicates to C-Suite and senior stakeholders for some of the largest UK financial institutions. He is particularly experienced in matrix managing teams of permanent employees and contractors. Originally trained in Corporate Law and subsequently practised as a commercial, regulatory and funds lawyer. He has combined this experience with his business and programme management skills on a broad range of change implementations, including the following:

SKILLS:

IT SaaS and Software Implementation

• End-to-end selection, contracting, design, build, test and implementation of SaaS and workflow tools.
• 3rd party software implementation to host architecture including bridges/APIs and all related phases in SaaS above.

Target Operating Model (TOM), Outsourcings and Material Commercial Contracts

• Outsourcings (first and second generation) including pensions administration, fund accounting, investment operations, custody and transfer agency (to FUM value of £200bn).
• Managing professional service tenders from requirements gathering, shortlisting, RFP design, due diligence first round scoring, price and contract negotiation, final selection and implementation.
• Strategic and operational TOM design and execution including vision, requirements gathering, design, build, business readiness and transition.
• Data and business migrations including dry run, dress rehearsal, proving, testing, Command and Control and Schedule of Events.
• Post-signing transition and transformation planning and execution.

Governance, Regulatory Change and Resilience

• Major related regulatory implementation initiatives including RDR, ICB, AML, AIFM, MIFID II, Solvency II, UCITs, GDPR and SMR and all related system and reporting developments.
• Reg Horizon systems and TOM design and implementation.
• Crisis and incident management protocol implementation.

Pension (Part VIIs), Investment Funds and Corporate Activity

• Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) transfers, transfer agency and fund restructuring.
• On-shore authorised mutual and life & pension funds including design, documentation, launches and rationalisations of UCIT and Non-UCIT funds, OEICs, NURS, Sicavs and Sicars.
• Off-shore funds hedge and mutual.
• Part VII transfers.
• Managing negotiations and contracts in M&A, divestments, joint ventures and finance raising in the Financial Services sector (including Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) sale to Aberdeen 2014).
• Post M&A integration.

CAREER HISTORY:

April 2021 – July 2023

Investment Bank

Senior Change Manager

A contractor, inside IR35, managing and supporting delivery of two discrete global change initiatives relating to the implementation of Cloud Based Work Flow and Horizon Scanning SaaS tools in the Legal, Risk and Regulatory areas.

Both initiatives required global stakeholder management of C-Suite senior executives and SMEs (EMEA, Americas, Asia ex-Japan and Japan).

Each initiative involved leading or supporting:

• The RFP processes.
• Contract negotiation and legal re-papering.
• Target Operating Model creation.
• Management of planning, RAIDs and reporting.
• Requirements gathering and design.
• System build and integration to architecture.
• System Integration Testing, Functional Integration Testing and User Acceptance Testing.
• Training.
• Warranty.

January 2020 – March 2021: Career Break

February – December 2019

Wealth Management

Head of ACD Delivery / Transfer Agency (Contract)

Leading a team of 10 change managers and SMEs, with a seven-figure budget, responsible for the selection, negotiation and stand up of the Transfer Agent and other aspects of the launching of a new Authorised Corporate Director (ACD) Limited as the manufacturing arm of a new wealth business joint venture.

This was an end-to-end programme that included delivery of:

• Supplier selection.
• Contract and legal negotiation.
• TUPE.
• Data migration.
• TOM design and implementation including Business Readiness and First Occurrence Validation.

The selection of supplier and contract negotiation started in June (following a change of the original provider strategy) and was successfully completed, contrary to perceived wisdom, in five months.

The data migration to the Transfer Agent and stand up of ACD went live in early December 2019 against a drop-dead deadline of end December 2019.

February – December 2018

Banking

Controls Governance Programme Manager (Contract)

• Managing a complex project to roll out a series of resilience controls across four different businesses covering Investment Banking, Corporate Banking, Private Banking & Overseas and International Consumer Banking.
• The role involved designing the TOM and rolling it out (including testing) in line with an automated solution.
• Solution went live in October with closure packs completed in December.
• The role involved multiple stakeholder management (20+) at Managing Director and COO level across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, as well as similar levels at working group Director representation.
• The team had three direct resources and support of a further two PMO resources with a seven-figure budget.

November 2017 – January 2018: Personal Projects

December 2016 – November 2017

Banking & Insurance

Role Outsource Programme Manager – Life and Mutual Funds

A UK banking and insurance group outsourced 1,000 pensions administration and transfer agency roles to a UK regulated outsourcing provider.

This was one of the largest deals of this type in the UK.

Programme Lead for the Deal workstream and was also part of the main negotiating team.

Leading a team of up to 20 BAs, consultants and project managers, with a substantial seven-figure budget.

• Leading and managing the negotiations and delivery of the ultimate contract and 25 supporting schedules to plan and budget.
• Drafting stakeholder communications and training packs.
• Managing business architects to ensure the TOM was correctly negotiated and incorporated.
• Working closely with the Transition and Transformation Teams to ensure their plan requirements were negotiated and incorporated.
• Liaising with Risk to ensure GDPR compliance.
• Engaging closely with IT to ensure an effective IT risk transfer took place.

PREVIOUS CAREER SUMMARY:

2016

Financial Services & Insurance : Part VII Transfer Lead (Contract)

2015–2016

Insurance Services Company: P&I Club Merger Programme Lead (Contract)

2012–2015

Banking : Project and Programme Manager – Various Programmes

2011–2015

Banking : RDR Workstream Lead (Contract)

2009–2011

Insurance & Wealth Provider: Programme Lead – Outsourcing Programme (Contract)

2008–2009

International Law Firm: Consultancy for Business Development (Contract)

2006–2007

Insurance Provider: Deal Lead – Sale of Life Assurance Business (Contract)

2005–2006

Global Asset Management Company: Change Manager (Contract)

2004–2005

Consulting Firm: Change Consultant (Contract)

2000–2004

Investment Management Company: Head of Funds Business and Corporate Development Director

1998–2000

Insurance Provider: Lawyer and Project Manager – Demutualisation

1997–1998

Accountancy Firm: Consultant

1996–1997

University: MBA in Finance & Strategy

1994–1996

International Law Firm: Corporate Associate – Major City Law Firm

1992–1994

International Law Firm: Traineeship with Major City Law Firm

QUALIFICATIONS / COURSES:

2014 - Professional Development – Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Practitioner Level

2013 - Professional Development – PRINCE2 Practitioner Level

2001 - Professional Development – Investment Management Certificate (First time pass all heads)

1996–1997: University Management School - MBA Strategy and Finance

1991–1992: College of Law - Solicitors Final Exams (First time pass all heads)

1988–1991: School of Economics – LLB Honours 2:1

References Available Upon Request

If you are interested in this candidate, please contact Charlie Watson via email cwatson@cerfinancial.co.uk or call on 0207 626 6065.
To view other CV's please click here.