Ben Wagenaar

Ben Wagenaar Email and Phone Number

Senior Innovation Manager at HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd @ HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd
Ben Wagenaar's Location
Welwyn Garden City, England, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
Ben Wagenaar's Contact Details
About Ben Wagenaar

I've worked in a number of digital and IT positions for more than 25 years across five different industries, building a huge wealth of both technical and business experience in various disciplines.Common to all my roles has been the need to work closely with customers or end-users; building prototypes, proof-of-concepts, and testing new ideas, which is the mainstay of any modern innovation strategy.The trial is the engine of innovation: it demonstrates benefit, delivers insight, evidences risk, and tells the story. My expertise has enabled trials from small, point solutions I've coded myself to large, cross-site pilots across different organisations.I believe strongly that information technology is all about people, not the computer system or application behind it. Removing technical barriers and early user engagement is paramount to success.I also run a blog, Digital is not Rocket Science, which aims to educate and share my experiences about the unique challenges of successful delivery in this space.Specialties: Technical understanding and know-how, coding/software development, emerging technology, innovating within large organisations, delivery of digital/IT projects, and client relationship management

Ben Wagenaar's Current Company Details
HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd

Hs2 (High Speed Two) Ltd

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Senior Innovation Manager at HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd
Ben Wagenaar Work Experience Details
  • Hs2 (High Speed Two) Ltd
    Senior Innovation Manager
    Hs2 (High Speed Two) Ltd May 2023 - Present
    Birmingham, West Midlands, Gb
    Part of HS2's Innovation team, leading a number of high-value innovation projects with the aim of reducing cost and carbon from the construction phase, improving workforce safety and creating significant value to the HS2 programme for a lasting legacy in the UK. Since its inception, the HS2 Innovation team have made savings of over £600m and 1.5m CO2e from the programme.I look after the Stations portfolio, managing ideas and opportunities from our supply chain, funding trials to HS2 station sites and scaling successful solutions around the programme. The innovations are a mix of physical solutions, such as low-carbon power, and digital, including AI-driven project, logistics and material optimisation tools.
  • Solicitors Regulation Authority
    Head Of Innovation And Technology
    Solicitors Regulation Authority Jun 2021 - May 2023
    Birmingham, Gb
    SRA Innovate is the first port of call for law firms and innovators requiring support in lawtech, and deliver a core SRA objective of increasing the adoption of new and emerging technology. My team helped design, develop and deliver trials and pilots to measure the benefit, impact and risks of technology in legal services.I developed a new innovation strategy for the SRA focused on evidence-based regulation and support, where we would work closely with legaltech and lawtech vendors to ensure their solutions were compliant. This included a new innovation methodology for delivering trials as a regulator while remaining impartial and able to publicise our findings.The role entailed working with government departments, other regulators, charities, law organisations, startups and innovators to help evidence the benefit that new technology can bring to the legal services sector.
  • Heathrow
    Innovation Technologist
    Heathrow Jul 2013 - May 2021
    Hounslow, England, Gb
    Part of the Innovation and Automation team at Heathrow Airport, researching new and emerging technology to help solve business challenges around the airport. This involved the facilitation of ideas capture, stimulation of innovation and delivering evidence-based trials to prove the benefits of change for products, processes or services.Most of the team's trials operate in cutting-edge areas such as mixed realities, sustainability, enterprise mobility and the Internet Of Things, with a focus on automation.I also worked as a Virtual Product Owner for a number of employee apps as part of the Enterprise Mobility offering, using my technical experience to work with business owners.My broader role was about demonstrating the art of the possible, partnering support from our largest suppliers to new startups, devising and developing prototype solutions for our challenges. I also talked and evangelised about innovation and technology at various events, and co-founded the Airport Innovation Network to connect like-minded teams across the world.
  • Open Health
    Digital Partner
    Open Health Jul 2011 - Jun 2013
    London, Gb
    OPEN Health was the first channel and discipline neutral agency in the health communications sector. My role at OPEN was split into two; as a digital evangelist, briefing our clients and internal teams on how digital media can support their business and marketing activities, including the opportunities they have access to. I also ran training and briefing sessions to raise awareness of digital media. I also operated as the lead technical liaison between our production team, third party digital partners, OPEN account teams and our clients' IT departments. This involved working together to solve production challenges and ensuring that we deliver what's best for the end-user, the audience, while considering client infrastructure or requirements.
  • Huntsworth Health
    Technical Director
    Huntsworth Health Sep 2009 - Jul 2011
    Yardley, Pa, Us
    My role changed to formally recognise my support for account teams and clients in understanding, shaping and delivering digital media within the pharmaceutical industry. I also helped develop our clients' digital portfolio and forged some very rewarding relationships with them.This included promoting awareness within our group and beyond of the digital team's capabilities, while continuing to take responsibility for the delivery of our solutions to clients. I also managed third party partners, support of our own web farm, intranet-based documentation and the integrated development environment for our technical team.I always remained actively involved in software development as a developer, and in 2010 brought our development team up to the latest Microsoft .NET and SQL Server platforms.
  • Huntsworth Health
    Head Website Developer
    Huntsworth Health Feb 2008 - Sep 2009
    Yardley, Pa, Us
    I joined Huntsworth Health at an exciting time as their digital presence was emerging quickly. Taking responsibility for delivery of all our digital media, I worked with our growing team to lower the overhead of some of our legacy projects while supporting them in the development of our new website platform. This has greatly helped the integrity and reliability of our digital products.As well as managing our web hosting centre and development infrastructure, I also looked after relationships with our external partners.A major part of my role was client-facing, bridging the gap between what our clients are aiming to achieve against what is technically possible. I also handled liaison between our clients’ IT teams, our own technical team and account handlers.
  • Paypoint Plc
    Developer
    Paypoint Plc Jun 2004 - Feb 2008
    Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, Gb
    Software developer for PayPoint, who process cash payments from the UK public to more than 400 utility, transport and mobile phone companies via local convenience stores. I worked on the high volume, high integrity transaction processing systems which collect in excess of £7 billion each year. We also produced many intranet applications to run the business, which is where I first started using the Microsoft .NET Framework.In my last year, I was also involved in the development of a new international platform to allow the company to expand into Romania. The software I provided for this platform involved the Romanian mobile telecoms providers and was the first PayPoint service to be successfully launched there.
  • Q.Bit Systems Ltd
    Application Services Manager
    Q.Bit Systems Ltd Oct 2003 - Jun 2004
    In 2003 I was promoted to Application Services Manager, overseeing all software support within the business. I also used my established good working relationships with our clients to upsell more of our products.Key to this was resolving repeating issues to benefit both the client and our company, which is where my technical skills were particularly valuable.A major part of this role was client-facing at senior levels, reporting back on larger issues directly and working with the client to resolve them.
  • Q.Bit Systems Ltd
    Technical Consultant
    Q.Bit Systems Ltd Nov 1998 - Oct 2003
    Q.Bit Systems was a new business start-up of which I was the first employee, delivering business, communication and integration solutions to the motor trade. We grew quickly in five-and-a-half years I worked there, during which I was involved with everything from design and production of our software to pitching for business, training and other aspects of client management.My primary role was software developer. I helped design and produce the company's first intranet-based call centre system which is still in use today. I also developed a multi-interfacing application which submitted over £100m-worth of vehicle finance to different brokers.I also used to work on-site directly with our clients developing and fixing software. The largest of these included Mercedes-Benz Direct (plus their Retail division), Camden Motors and Carland (now CarCraft), where we produced a company-wide CRM system called Drive that managed all their customers and automated invoicing via Sage.

Ben Wagenaar Skills

Software Development Digital Strategy Social Media Digital Media Integrated Marketing Customer Relations Digital Marketing Microsoft Sql Server Mobile Applications .net Client Development Business Development Strategic Planning E Commerce Web Design Management Start Ups Customer Service Online Advertising Email Marketing Seo Online Marketing Marketing Communications Web Analytics Website Development Advertising User Experience Marketing Strategy Sem Customer Relationship Management

Ben Wagenaar Education Details

  • University Of Hertfordshire
    University Of Hertfordshire
    Computing With Business
  • Colbayns High School
    Colbayns High School

Frequently Asked Questions about Ben Wagenaar

What company does Ben Wagenaar work for?

Ben Wagenaar works for Hs2 (High Speed Two) Ltd

What is Ben Wagenaar's role at the current company?

Ben Wagenaar's current role is Senior Innovation Manager at HS2 (High Speed Two) Ltd.

What is Ben Wagenaar's email address?

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What is Ben Wagenaar's direct phone number?

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What schools did Ben Wagenaar attend?

Ben Wagenaar attended University Of Hertfordshire, Colbayns High School.

What skills is Ben Wagenaar known for?

Ben Wagenaar has skills like Software Development, Digital Strategy, Social Media, Digital Media, Integrated Marketing, Customer Relations, Digital Marketing, Microsoft Sql Server, Mobile Applications, .net, Client Development, Business Development.

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