Andy Layton Email & Phone Number

Plymouth, England, Gb

Plymouth, United Kingdom

Womble Bond Dickinson is a dynamic transatlantic law firm providing a comprehensive legal service to our clients across a wide range of legal expertise and sectors, from locations in the US and eight cities across the UK including London.I lead the firm's Legal Solutions Centre, and delivery of our WBD Advance service through which we are applying technology, legal project management and efficient process design to provide valuable solutions to our clients' issues.

London And Swindon

UK SBS Ltd is a publicly owned shared services company providing services for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Research Councils and some other BIS partner organisations. I was a member of the senior executive team leading the core operations of the company – the teams providing IT, HR, payroll, finance transactions for customers; the teams administering research grants awarded by the Councils; and the teams running the underpinning IT infrastructure, and software application support teams.The key IT challenge was to devise and implement a technical strategy and project roadmap that stabilized and modernized our IT infrastructure, and ensured the continued effectiveness of our two Oracle e-business applications. This meant addressing a backlog of overdue work, ensuring better prioritisation and grip of our portfolio of projects, strengthening IT security, and importantly working closely with internal and external customers to understand the digital service they want to receive. The other key challenge was in transactional service delivery, where improvements to forecasting, MI, end-to-end process review, and team targeting were needed to bring operational performance up to scratch.

In addition to my job with UK SBS I also took part in peer review and assessment of high risk government projects and programmes for the Government Major Projects Authority. I have taken part in reviews of the UK Borders Agency preparation for the Olympics; the UK programme for adapting to climate change; the civil service reform programme; the next generation visa outsourcing programme; and the Met Office's High Performance Computing replacement programme..

Worked with brand owning companies and lawyers to ensure that IP could be easily and affordably protected in UK and the EU.I reshaped trade mark and design services to beneft customers and increase net revenues. The key accomplishment was replacing obsolete Trade Marks IT and moderinising the digital service to customers. The TM10 project that I launched and completed to do this has been celebrated as one of the most successful transformations in government (see http://www.successfulprojectsingovernment.co.uk/publication). In my tenure the IT was totally replaced; productivity and quality of service went up, while costs went down. I was also Director for the IPO-wide 'Improve' transformation programme which raised efficiency; increased capability; and modernized parts of the IPO infrastructure. Key projects included: development of an MI and work forecasting system; introduction of LEAN; overhaul of CRM; lifting finance capability; estates strategy.

London

Was responsible for oversight of British Nuclear Fuels charged with working with the BNFL Board to ensure that this publicly owned company grew in value and that the risks it posed to the government did not materialize. I then worked on the programme to set up the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and transfer BNFL assets and liabilities to it.To effect this national transformation of the UK civil nuclear energy industry I was responsible for a mixed team of industry secondees, civil servants and city consultants.

Led teams assessing applications for licenses to export arms or dual use goods. Worked closely with other government departments and the defence and manufacturing industries. I restructured the DTI process for dealing with applications for strategic export licences, and this led to the department achieving annual casework targets for the first time ever; eradication of backlog of hundreds of long outstanding cases (many of significant value to the UK economy); and an improvement in relations with defence exporters as a result. .

A mix of operational leadership and policy roles in demanding environments.

Ba Hons, Modern History

A Levels (History, English Literature, Theatre Studies)