Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic

St Edward's College, RC Grammar

IT Operations at The Growth Company

The Growth Company drives forward economic, personal and professional development within communities by boosting employment, skills, investment and enterprise for the benefit of all.

As a not-for-profit, we’re driven by success - not shareholders - which means we reinvest any money we make and are dedicated to making a positive difference and leaving a legacy of growth.

We’re at the heart of placemaking in the UK and seek to drive inward investment and encourage international companies to set up shop on our shores.

The Growth Company also plays a key role in developing fruitful business relationships between British cities and both developing and mature economies in the likes of China, India and the United States.

I lead the Infrastructure and Software Development Teams and manage the Operational running of the IT Department, supporting an internal client base of circa 1200 across a number of UK locations alongside the delivery of a growing public facing digital offering to support the business.

The Growth Company

IT Operations Manager

Stagecoach Bus is the largest commercial Bus Operating Company in the UK employing 27,000 people across 18 different operating companies. I headed the internal IT Operations function (30 FTE) running on-premise, co-located and cloud infrastructure from its base in Stockport. I reported to the Technology Services Director. 

Key achievements while I was in role were completing the migration of services from previous location to new Stockport Exchange building, including the migration of network services, telephony, enterprise operational and support systems and the over 200 users over a number of phases. Whilst there I also re-negotiated a key supply agreement reducing costs by 20%.  I also oversaw the planning and rollout of McAfee Endpoint Protection to over 2000 machines across the business increasing the infosec defences in the business.

Stagecoach Bus

Head of IT - UK Bus

Wall Family Europe Ltd is the holding company for a group of SME businesses offering products and services to the local authority education and library services and private sector equivalents in the UK and Europe.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, my role was to support the Global Information Officer in delivering a number of time sensitive and business critical projects, as well as forge new relationships with a number of 3rd party support partners. Key achievements while I was in role were the roll out of office 365, onboarding a 3rd party support company, placing governance around key business projects, implementing a UK wide MPLS and helping to define the UK ICT Strategy

Wall Family Enterprise, Inc.

ICT Director (Interim), Wall Family Europe Ltd

National Nuclear Laboratory is a key strategic asset in the UK Government civil nuclear sector. Reporting to the CFO, I was responsible for the full delivery of all IT across the Lab via an outsourced multi-million pound ITIL service and through a small internal team delivering application support and bespoke infrastructure solutions. Also responsible for ensuring that key cyber security considerations were met and that all aspects of IT delivery in a complex regulated environment remained fully compliant. 

•	Development of full strategy to enable Lab to transition from outsource to smartsource      delivery by Oct 2017.
•	Development of Cyber Security solution for NNL – transitioning legacy file based solution into a context-rich information management solution for the business.
•	Led major transformation programme to migrate away from legacy networks to full MPLS solution.

National Nuclear Laboratory

Head of IT

Optimal Solutions Limited

Consultant

Responsible for all aspects of IT delivery provided via ITIL managed service covering a user base of 750. Membership of the Management Board for the JV reporting to the MD.

* Implementation of a bespoke ERP application solution across the business.
* Introduction of IT Services Levels and Reporting and negotiation of commercial tariff.
* IT Mobilisation of new contracts - set up and control of networks, applications, infrastructure etc.
* Management of a £2.5M IT P&amp;L Budget.
* Creation of Governance Framework for project implementation based on industry best practice. 
* Introduction of IT Security Policy and IT Usage Policy.

Enterprisemouchel

Alfred McAlpine Infrastructure Services
Responsible for all aspects of IT service and provision to the division of around 1000 users. Reporting to the divisional Finance Director. 

* Creation and implementation of IT Strategy for the business.
* Manage and define delivery of managed ITIL Services with an annual budget of around £4M.
* Divisional IT representative on project boards for plc IT projects.
* Manage and develop capabilities of a small team of IT and Business Analyst Specialists.
* Prepare business case and secure Plc approval for £7.5M Work Management System. 
* Standardise business process and workflows across diverse business units.
* Negotiate with supplier to agree Commercial Terms and secured contract sign-off.
* Build and manage team of 10 direct reports plus 15 implementation partner resources.
* Project delivered on-time and within budget (£2M to pilot completion).; Servisair

Alfred McAlpine Infrastructure Services

* Formulate and implement Finance Systems Strategy for newly merged business
* Plan and Migrate ledgers from Oracle financial application (GL/AP/AR/FA) to AS400 platform.
* Design and implement new asset register and Cash Management System on the IBM platform
* Introduce web-base AP invoice approval system to eradicate major accounting audit issue. 
* Formulate MIS development enabling full P&L disclosure down to level of invoice image.

Early Career Summary

Servisair

Manager Global Financial Systems

Manager Financial and Cargo Systems

Manager Oracle Financial systems

Responsible for the day to day management of an IT Department of 30 located in UK and US providing services to the aviation industry and air passengers. Reporting to the Commercial Director/CIO. 

* Develop the Group IT strategy and secure approval from Executive Board.
* Construct and manage Group IT budget of £5m
* Consolidate Systems across the group generating 10% annual savings across the department. 
* Manage and develop of internal teams and managing outputs of outsourced resources. 
* Procure Global Managed WAN Network reducing year on year network running costs by 10%.

David Flanagan