Cathy Blaney (Black) Email & Phone Number

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

At BMC, I managed a number of overlapping projects. These varied from 2 months to over a year in length, and from simple to extremely complex. This combination allowed me to develop a consistent approach to project management, while managing the nuances of each customer, environment and project team. The majority of the projects were competitive software replacement projects for mainframe customers, which were the longest and most complex projects. I also managed several mainframe security projects, one mainframe expert service contract and two non-mainframe Helix projects.

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Contract Project Manager on behalf of BMC Mainframe Services by RSM Partners for Mainframe Security Project within Lloyds Banking Group.

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Contract Project Manager on behalf of BMC Mainframe Services by RSM Partners for Mainframe Security Project within Lloyds Banking Group.

Contract Project Manager on behalf of RSM Partners for further Mainframe Security Project within LBG.

Contract Project Manager on behalf of RSM Partners for Mainframe Security Project within LBG.

Barclays, Cheshire

Contract Project Manager on behalf of RSM Partners for Mainframe Security Project within Barclays.

Cork, Ireland

Following on from the previous entry, the IT outsourcing arm of Xerox was sold to Atos in 2015.I continued in my role as project and team manager through this difficult period of change.Key skills: Personal • Self-motivated; determined to achieve high standards at all times • Very good relationships; reliable, approachable and helpful• Excellent verbal and written communication at all levels• Customer focused, dedicated to the job with flexibility to get results• Extremely good organisational skills• Great tenacity and attention to detail Project Management• PRINCE2 Practitioner (certified)• Knowledge of PMBoK• 8 years’ experience of Infrastructure Project Management • Large Project management across multiple clients and teams, small projects for single client within one team• Highly organized project management, clear and concise meetings and reports. Management • Multi-Client Management• Client and Stakeholder Relationship• Global Team Management with different timezones, cultures and outlooks, including leading, motivating, mentoring, coaching, appraising, hiring & handling redundancies• 3rd party supplier liaison • Service Quality and Customer Care• Transition and Integration • Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Technical • Highly experienced with Microsoft tools including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Project • ISO 20000 standards for Service Delivery used on a daily basis • IBM Mainframe Implementation and Support• 20 years’ experience of z/OS Systems Programming at a senior level• z/OS operating systems and a large variety of third party products

Cork, Ireland

Following on from the previous entry, ACS was bought by Xerox in 2009. I continued to work through this period of change as a project and team manager.I successfully took on the management of the Technical Support team – an internal team of 15 Subject Matter Experts, mostly based in the US. It was an exciting challenge to manage such a senior group of experts providing services to the other client teams, rather than directly to clients.I returned to team/project management, and effectively merged two teams, while continuing to provide top-class support for all clients.I Project Managed a two year transition from one software vendor to Computer Associates (CA). This involved around 30 clients, migrating 5-10 products each.I worked with CA and my own senior management, as well as the client team technicians. I liaised with the clients themselves, most of whom were naturally resistant to change. The project was delivered beyond expectations, and greatly reduced Xerox’s software licence cost. CA invited me on the VIP panel for their Mainframe Software Rationalisation Project at CA World 2013 in Las Vegas.

Cork, Ireland

Following on from the previous entry, I moved up from consultant systems programmer to management, and quickly developed into an effective project and client team manager. This was a leadership position supporting mission critical systems on mainframes for several large systems clients in the US.It was a considerable learning curve which tested my adaptability and resilience to the full, as I established myself in the management role.

Cork, Ireland

ACS was a US based outsourcing company who opened an office in Cork, Ireland in 2002. I joined a small number of people in Cork in 2003 as a z/OS Systems Programming Consultant. I reported to a team manager in the US, supporting clients in the US.I spent six months in ACS’s India office between October 2004 and April 2005. My role there was to assist in building up the India office and help to bridge the gaps between the US and India. This was an extremely valuable opportunity for me, both for the work and personal experience.

Edinburgh, Scotland

As a Systems Programmer, my first contract with the Royal Bank was to investigate and amend Network Utilities for Year 2000 compliance. I then moved on to maintaining and compliance testing the Y2K test systems.Most of my RBS experience was working on the Integration program (for Royal Bank/Nat West Integration). I was very much involved in the design, planning, building and maintenance of a new software infrastructure to run the enlarged Royal Bank workload. We built and maintained multiple sysplexes across 2 sites, ranging from the 4-system test plex through to the 13-system production plex, with full disaster recovery capability.

Edinburgh, Scotland

At Lloyds Bowmaker, I progressed from Junior through to Lead Systems Programmer within three years. I was part of a small team of MVS Systems Programmers, tackling large projects as a team and smaller ones on my own. We installed and maintained the Operating system and all subsystems and products, and worked on Disaster Recovery.

The Angel, Islington, London, United Kingdom

At the Royal Bank, I received my initial Systems Programming training and experience.

Leeds, United Kingdom

After graduating from York University with a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics, I joined Leeds Permanent as an Assembler Applications Programmer.

Bsc (Hons), Mathematics

Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Computer Studies, General Studies

Education record

Prince2 Project Management

PRINCE2 Foundation PRINCE2 Practitioner