Gavin Whitham Email & Phone Number

I retired from working in 2017 to ensure that my children were fully supported and able to complete their education successfully.In October 2023 my daughter, Jasmine, started her career in the finance graduate program at Sellafield Ltd and my son, Elliott, started the 2nd year of his Maths degree at Lancaster University.I am now making the most of my free time by walking and cycling in the Lake District fells and around the Cumbrian coast.

Coventry, United Kingdom

Programme / Portfolio Manager within the Digital & Technology division responsible for the delivery of an exciting portfolio of marketing and customer service projects with an annual budget of over £20m.Projects successfully delivered include Unified View of the Customer, Campaign Management, Omni Channel Coupons and a Call Centre, Online & Store Customer Service solution. These solutions have created the foundation for the next phase of Sainsbury's exciting digital evolution.Also responsible for defining the Programme & Project Management methodology within the new D&T Operating Model which incorporates Waterfall, Agile and Hybrid delivery. The new Operating Model was rolled out in late 2015.

Coventry, United Kingdom

Independent consultancy specialising in the successful delivery of IT programmes / projects.Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd - Programme/project manager delivering business change initiatives.Responsible for the successful delivery of a change programme to create an HR Shared Services operation to support the HR, payroll and pension needs of the Mercedes-Benz employees across the UK. Also delivered a large project to refresh owned and franchise Dealership websites to improve local content management, ensure national consistency and provide social media integration and video technology.Jaguar Land Rover Ltd - Programme manager for Payroll and Time & Attendance programme.Responsible for the definition, initiation and delivery of a £10m+ programme to deliver UK-wide payroll and T&A solutions to over 30,000 Jaguar and Land Rover employees.

Huntingdon, United Kingdom

Responsible for the delivery of all IS programmes and projects across Anglian Water Services Ltd.The portfolio of programmes included the implementation, enhancement and upgrade of business systems and infrastructure to enable Anglian Water's business strategy.The systems included an extensive SAP system, mobile workforce solutions, enterprise content management and numerous specialist and telemetry systems to support the needs of the east of England's water utility.

London, United Kingdom

Independent consultancy specialising in the successful delivery of IT programmes / projects.Burberry plc - Worked with Burberry plc managing global projects to deliver a group CRM system and a footfall / sales reporting system to all 400+ stores in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Both projects drove efficiency and profitability improvements and provided dashboards of corporate KPIs to group management.M&S plc / Ceridian Ltd - Worked with M&S plc / Ceridian Ltd and was responsible for the delivery of the technical workstreams within the M&S HR Transformation programme. The programme focused upon H&R / payroll improvements that were being enabled by the migration from PeopleSoft HRMS to Cerdian's HRe solution.

Reading, United Kingdom

Lead a key programme within the groups overall Business Change Programme. Global Programme Manager responsible for the programme to deliver a single PeopleSoft HR management & payroll system to employees across the Wolseley group.The programme delivered a single instance PeopleSoft HR Management System to over 40,000 employees in the companies UK and US businesses. The programme also delivered an integrated PeopleSoft payroll & benefits solution to over 25,000 employees in the groups US businesses.The projects within the programme were delivered to plan and budget and drove significant business process improvement and cost reduction within the HR, payroll & benefits areas.Also lead the development and implementation of an MSP/PRINCE2 based programme/project management methodology for use across the Wolseley group. The methodology implemented standard processes for programme/project management with the objective of improving the quality and timeliness of delivery of programmes and projects within the groups Business Change Programme.

Nottingham, United Kingdom

Business Information Systems (BIS) Director for BPB’s UK operations.Responsible for a department of 50 people and the provision of information systems strategy, support services, systems development and project delivery capabilities to the 4 UK operating companies.Member of the Executive teams of both British Gypsum and Artex and a member of the European IT management team.

London, United Kingdom

Responsible for a programme to re-implement and upgrade PeopleSoft HR systems across BAT.The £10m programme involved a re-implementation of BAT’s strategic global system to manage over 15,000 managers and the consolidation of operational systems to form a single instance global system for all HR processes.The operational system was implemented in group companies including Japan, where the implementation saved over 75% of the cost of a standalone implementation

London, United Kingdom

Responsible for IT projects and systems within the corporate finance function.The role included strategy development, project initiation, budgetary control and the development of the ongoing relationship between IT and Finance.Delivered projects included a European Treasury Service Centre utilising a single global banking system, treasury modules of SAP R/3 and a web based free cash reporting system. This project enabled the cost of sterling banking to be reduced by over 20%.

London, United Kingdom

Managed the supply of IT services from a £10m p.a. outsourcing contract to 3,000 users at 15 BAT sites in the UK. The services included Helpdesk, desktop and infrastructure support, training and a Project Office.The priorities during this period were to develop the relationship with the outsourcer and to ensure an improvement in the overall value delivered by the contract. During this period services were improved so that SLAs were met and issues were addressed in a prompt and professional manner.

Rugby, United Kingdom

Responsible for the development of the company’s first IS strategy to guide the future direction of IT.Managed the 15 members of the IS support & development teams and provision of support to 800 users at the 2 sites.

Rugby, United Kingdom

Managed the expansion of the Computer Services Department into the Information Systems Department. In this role I developed the company’s first information systems strategy.Also project managed the on-time delivery of an enterprise wide business system based upon Cedar Financials and Business Objects that reduced the Finance headcount by 30%.

Rugby, United Kingdom

Managed a team of engineers and project managed development projects for T&N group companies around the world.Completed secondments in Köln, Germany and Detroit, USA to share best practise analytical techniques and improve my business knowledge.

M.B.A., Business Administration And Management

Final Year Dissertation - An Investigation into the Organisation and Sourcing Options for a Corporate IT Function to Satisfy the Needs.

M.Sc, Finite Elements & Mathematical Modelling

B.Sc (Hons) 1St Class, Civil Engineering

Department Prize - Final Year Exams Concrete Society Prize - 2nd Year Design Project.