Programme Director for the ETSM Application Architecture Programme, implementing a common application landscape and process set across the various Service Hubs based on SAP FI/CO/BW, Coupa and Clarity PPM. Modular design allowing for a common, simplified way of working in the existing Hubs in Germany, Poland and India, as well as expanding to cover the 6 existing MunichRe SSOs.allowing additional Hubs to be added in the future. Programme covers the End to End Process Design, Technical Implementation, Operating Instructions, Testing and associated Change Management. This required working with Local Project Managers in each Hub as well as the project Managers for the central verticals, as well as negotiating with and managing External Providers. Key Applications in Scope are SAP Finance (FI, CO, MM, AP, GL, BW etc), Clarity PPM, Coupa Spend Management plus several internally developed bespoke tools and DataMarts for Financial Control and Reporting. Key process coverage is Portfolio Management, Charging Models, Engagement Financial Control Models, HR, Finance General Ledger and Chart of Accounts, Inventory Management, Procurement, Time Recording, Resource Planning and Reporting. In addition I was the lead author in producing the VAIT Compliant Managed Programme Process now used throughout the ERGO Group.

Along with my American wife, we run a Company focused on American Expats in Europe, called American Groceries Europe. We import and sell famous brands and products, the kind of thing you miss when you are based abroad; as we are both Expats, we know the feeling of loving your new country but still missing certain things. Selling to 18 countries, with a physical retail store that is open on a Saturday. Gives real world experience of sales, logistics and frankly a lot of social interaction! Happy to be providing a service to our American friends here in Europe.

ERGO Group Programme Manager for the Group Enterprise Procurement Platform based on Coupa and SAP FI. Scope covered Source to Contract, Procure to Pay and Strategic Information Management; initially focussed on ERGO, ITERGO and ERGODirekt in Germany (covering €850m a year spend), then moved into the wider international roll-out into the ERGO Group companies. The selected Platform is the COUPA Suite, which include Contract Lifecycle Management and Analytics, as well as significant integration into the SAP FI Platform. Scope covers 70 Procurement professionals and around 8,000 Users in the initial phases. Programme was executed in conjunction with MunichRe Group Procurement, with separate Platforms but common alignment on Approval Chains, Commodity Group Hierarchies etc and required significant integration with the SAP FI team for bookings, financials and invoice processing (Accounts Payable).

Based in London, Chicago and Hong Kong, LGIM manages over $1tn of assets. The ETC Programme has been set up to implement a single Pre- In- and Post-Trade Compliance Global Compliance Service, based on Charles River. The Programme includes analytics, data sourcing and management, vendor selection and management, definition and implementation of new global business processes operating in ‘follow the sun’ mode, designing and implementing a new global Target Operating Model, as well as the running of the full programme to build and deliver this new global service. External partners being worked with include Charles River, UBS Delta, Factset, Bloomberg, TCS, Rackspace, Ernst & Young and various analytics providers (RFP ongoing). Chris is responsible for the full life-cycle management, from Initiation through Business Case, to delivery.

• Core Programme Manager covering Brussels, Paris & Luxembourg• Implementation of Asset Management Business Processes from Input Data (Analytics, Market Data) to End Reports (Client, Regulatory, Internal)• Full Programme Management Scope; Scoping, Requirements, Business Process Modelling, Tool Selection, Vendor and Contract Management (RFP), Test Management, Governance, Budgeting, Delivery, Project Portfolio Management• Refresh or replacement of Systems covering the End to End Business Process (Data Capture, Asset Management, Settlement & Confirmation, Performance, Risk Management, Reporting)• Technologies covered include Sophis Value, Misys FusionInvest, Charles River, BISAM, AAA, CloudMargin

• Oversaw and ran the Vittoria Programme across Europe, focussing on setting up a client centric, multi-channel approach for client facing channels including online banking, branches, call centre, ATM, agents and public website.• Responsible for all aspects of the programme from initial set-up through the implementation of team and governance structures, to requirements capture and RFP to select the products and integrator.• Designed and implemented phases, including the support organisation set-up. • Delivered project aims, from the use of internal resources, externals both as independents and engaged contractors, outsourced legacy vendors and a main integration partner. • Built relationships with key stakeholders including marketing agencies, lawyers and translation agencies.

• Ran all of the units in the international investment division including back office, project management, application management, strategy and client and group relationship management. • Successfully managed the intake and launch of eight new countries to work via the international hub, including the insourcing into ABE investment division of collateral and cash management.• Managed a 20 person back office team and a 25 person project and application management team. • Oversaw the set-up of full service level agreements with all key suppliers, including internal suppliers, the launch of a centralised VOSTRO and liquidity management process for the international branches to support multi-currencies for daily liquidity management. • Managed the launch of a centralised ALM team and service for both the bank’s branches and for future Group use including ABE joining LCH Clearnet as a repo clearing house, AXA Bank Europe joining as a member of Euroclear and the move of the investment division data centre from Belgium to Germany. • Built relationships with the major suppliers, including undertaking negotiations and vendor relationship management activities with the key suppliers including SOPHIS, QRM, Smartstream and SWIFT.• Responsible for the investment division’s 2010 budgeting and project prioritisation process.

• Successfully implemented a front-to-back SOPHIS Risque solution linked to SWIFT Accounting and Bloomberg.• Designed business processes for an international trading and treasury hub, marketing this to the insurance companies and overseeing sales and contract negotiation, the build and launch of an international order management solution, a reporting project using a TeraData data warehouse and full organisational change management and reorganisation.• Accountable for test management, programme governance and international board level stakeholder management. • Oversaw the design and build of the post-programme treasury competence centre.• Covered 66 instrument types, including the migration from the old OPICS solution of AXA Bank Belgium to the new solution for AXA Bank Europe, all within a twelve month period from start to launch. • Worked closely with external partners under contract with teams in Brussels, Paris, Singapore, India and Dublin and working on ten different projects simultaneously.• Acted as the outsourcing PMO for two programmes in AXA.• Oversaw the merger of the AXA and Winterthur companies in Belgium. • Reopened the bidding processes based on end results, pricing and dates, rather than on process, which became an evaluation criteria, selecting an alternative approach, which was less than half the original cost and which subsequently delivered every project in the merger programme on time and in full. • Successfully set-up the first new branch of AXA Bank Europe in Switzerland as a greenfield build.

• Successfully implemented a front-to-back SOPHIS Risque solution linked to SWIFT Accounting and Bloomberg.• Designed business processes for an international trading and treasury hub, marketing this to the insurance companies and overseeing sales and contract negotiation, the build and launch of an international order management solution, a reporting project using a TeraData data warehouse and full organisational change management and reorganisation.• Accountable for test management, programme governance and international board level stakeholder management. • Oversaw the design and build of the post-programme treasury competence centre.• Covered 66 instrument types, including the migration from the old OPICS solution of AXA Bank Belgium to the new solution for AXA Bank Europe, all within a twelve month period from start to launch. • Worked closely with external partners under contract with teams in Brussels, Paris, Singapore, India and Dublin and working on ten different projects simultaneously.• Acted as the outsourcing PMO for two programmes in AXA.• Oversaw the merger of the AXA and Winterthur companies in Belgium. • Reopened the bidding processes based on end results, pricing and dates, rather than on process, which became an evaluation criteria, selecting an alternative approach, which was less than half the original cost and which subsequently delivered every project in the merger programme on time and in full. • Successfully set-up the first new branch of AXA Bank Europe in Switzerland as a greenfield build.

• Worked extensively with internal and external project and programme managers throughout the entire life-cycle of projects and programmes, assisting in the process of requirements discovery, the identification of possible solutions, market scanning, partner selection and negotiation and then in steering project and programme delivery. • Responsible for writing a full new frame agreement covering projects and support activities, inclusive of a full service level agreement to meet the specific client needs and implemented this throughout the partner community. • Played an integral part in major internal projects including setting up a second data centre; implementing a new corporate data warehouse, major server and storage capacity expansions; fully replacing the customer relationship management (CRM) and order management (OM) solutions; developing applications and managing outsourcing. • Negotiated joint ventures with external third parties including content providers, outsourcing, ASPs, alliance partners, and telecommunications industry bodies, using vehicles from partnership agreements and SLAs for joint venture companies.• Simplified the internal project and programme management process, through to the implementation of a proper cross-departmental TCO (total cost of ownership) approach, including taking proper account of payment timings using net present value (NPV), rather than having decisions made based on available short-term project budgets. • Was instrumental in the introduction of offshore service providers and outsourced ASP providers, including the management and resolution of perceived associated quality and procedural problems.

• Acted as the association’s formal legal representative of the association in updating national number portability procedures and the SLA for the potential third party providers, obtaining the agreement of all 30-plus telecommunications operators in Belgium, ensuring alignment and compliance with the requirements of the Belgium regulator and conducting a formal price competition in line with EC procurement practices. • Negotiated the contract and commercial terms including the operational SLA for the running of the national number portability solution for the period Sep 2005 to 2010, and set up of the programme for delivery, then handed over to a full-time project manager for the actual delivery stage. • Remained impartial to balance the conflicting requirements of the individual operators and to come up with a jointly agreed set of requirements.

• Led a cross-European team, consisting of both Eurocontrol staff and representatives from the member states, in defining various communication and content management protocols including defining and agreeing the various information access rights, publication approval rights and procedures. • Achieved full programme goals to budget, including the implementation of several innovative tools and revolutionised the way in which the individual member states and units within Eurocontrol collaborated and accessed information. • Operating from the concept of the ‘single source of content’, the programme delivered web enabled collaborative working environments, allowing cross-industry, geographically dispersed teams to work together. • Responsible for the design and implementation of a content management and web publication system, based on Hummingbird and Interwoven. • Accountable for tooling and partner selection to make the programme a reality, including the legal and commercial contract negotiation in conjunction with the internal authorities and units. • Oversaw a technically complex programme, which dealt with a large amount of change management in an internationally dispersed and regulated environment.

• Worked with all 30-plus telecommunication providers in Belgium, as well as with external legal advisors, to agree the corporate governance rules and legal structures for the joint venture organisation. • Oversaw business processes and technical standards for a common number portability system, with variances allowed for specific fixed and mobile processes, agreed with Belgium Telecommunications and Postal Agency. • Managed the procurement process to select the supplier to build and operate the national number portability solution, in compliance with EC procurement practice.• Drafted and negotiated the appropriate project and operations contract and SLAs, including the commercial negotiations and the set-up of the delivery programme, before handing over to a full-time project manager for the actual delivery phase.

• Oversaw full life-cycle programme management, from requirements through to implementation and hand-over to support. • Managed several major programmes delivering services to clients, including Philips and Proctor & Gamble, mainly in the area of collaborative working and content management between Origin and the respective clients’ teams. • Successfully built the central facility directly connected to the Internet to host ASP resources for clients and the global Windows 2000 migration and implementation project, including the roll out of Active Directory.• Responsible for the build and implementation of a global content and knowledge management and content publishing system, as well as the aforementioned web based collaborative work environment based on Documentum and Interwoven products including the build of one of the first Extranets for B2B communications.

• Managed the Implementation of a SAP ERP solution worldwide in 32 countries with 1,200 end-users. • Acted as the main co-ordinator for the individual projects in each of the local countries including designing and implementing a set of simple and efficient programme wide management and planning standards and reporting procedures.• Wrote and managed the global programme plans, including the linkage with each of the local country project plans.• Undertook the collation and presentation of the formal and informal reporting process to management, both within the programme and to the overall steering group, which was the global board of directors. • Conducted the complete review and standardisation of internal governance and reporting processes within each of the 32 member countries, whilst still allowing for local legal and regulatory variances. • Was instrumental in defining these processes and in the subsequent change management needed for global adoption.

Project planning, control and budget management

Working as part of a team, Chris'role consisted of providing statutory advice and legal services to clients, in support of the Accounting teams. This included setting up new companies, handling the corporate governance (including Stock Exchange Yellow Book) matters, contract negotiations, shareholder registration services etc. After three years Chris left the London office to work out of the Birmingham office and established the Company Secretarial practice there, quickly expanding to cover three offices in the Midlands.