Enjoying a sabbatical after nearly 15 years at BDO and more than 20 overall in professional services leading financial services, accounting, payroll and IT business units

As one of the Partners/Principals leading BDO Global Outsourcing, my primary role was ensuring my payroll, accounting and compliance clients receive a consistently exceptional service no matter where they choose to tap into BDO’s expertise.I was appointed to Head of BDO Global Payroll Services in October 2018 taking strategic leadership for the people, platforms and process that have enabled global payroll to grow into a $50m+ revenue business delivering consistently exceptional… Show more As one of the Partners/Principals leading BDO Global Outsourcing, my primary role was ensuring my payroll, accounting and compliance clients receive a consistently exceptional service no matter where they choose to tap into BDO’s expertise.I was appointed to Head of BDO Global Payroll Services in October 2018 taking strategic leadership for the people, platforms and process that have enabled global payroll to grow into a $50m+ revenue business delivering consistently exceptional services in 160+ countries. Our clients benefit from a single UK contract, single coordination team and a single, highly sophisticated and secure, platform. Outsourcing revenues across all 160+ BDO counties have grown strongly in the last 5 years to exceed $750m which has helped drive to total global revenue to more than $10bn. BDO has the scale, geographical coverage, expertise and focus on outsourcing services to deliver a consistently exceptional service where other accountants, payroll bureaus and business process outsourcing companies inevitably struggle. Show less

Working in partnership with technology, financial services and support services companies to develop and implement innovative business and marketing strategies.

I took the challenge of being CEO of Moffat Communications when it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Grant Thornton as part of a merger. Moffat was a boutique operator in the London and other global investment management markets. We designed and delivered IT infrastructure projects (datacentres, trading floors, offices) for global corporates and supported mid-sized businesses. Support included IT strategy consulting to totally outsourced IT departments serving clients based in London, New… Show more I took the challenge of being CEO of Moffat Communications when it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Grant Thornton as part of a merger. Moffat was a boutique operator in the London and other global investment management markets. We designed and delivered IT infrastructure projects (datacentres, trading floors, offices) for global corporates and supported mid-sized businesses. Support included IT strategy consulting to totally outsourced IT departments serving clients based in London, New York, Tokyo and beyond. Moffat achieved significant growth in sales and profitability in my two years of leadership, despite the recession. This was made possible by investment in innovative services based on a highly resilient cloud computing serving multiple clients from a single environment.This made it an attractive business which was sold to Onyx in August 2009 Show less

I created the proposition and led the sales and operational growth of this stand-alone business within the larger Grant Thornton accounting firm. We focused exclusively on providing affordable and large scale outsourced operations for highly regulated processes such as complaint handling, sales monitoring and financial promotion approvals for banks, building societies, life and insurance companies. Within two years it was a self sustaining business with a significant proportion of the top 10… Show more I created the proposition and led the sales and operational growth of this stand-alone business within the larger Grant Thornton accounting firm. We focused exclusively on providing affordable and large scale outsourced operations for highly regulated processes such as complaint handling, sales monitoring and financial promotion approvals for banks, building societies, life and insurance companies. Within two years it was a self sustaining business with a significant proportion of the top 10 UK retail financial services firms. Show less

Having rationalised the global systems I took on the even larger and more complex role leading the 650 staff responsible for mainframe, midrange and distributed IT systems serving the 35,000 employees of the UK's largest life/general insurer.

Responsible for the rationalisation of IT infrastructure and application development for global legal, risk and finance systems following the merger of Norwich Union with Commercial Union and General Accident. Having rationalised these systems we introduced, what was in its time a highly innovative, web enabled set of services giving executives a leading edge level of global mobility.

An exciting mixture of roles in one of the most professional and technically advanced navies in the world. My naval career culminated as the most senior weapon engineer at sea responsible for information systems, weapons and ‘managing’ the media in the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and the other naval forces deployed on operations off Iraq and Kosovo.