I am CEO of Red Olive, a thriving, independent Data and Analytics company headquartered in the UK and serving client organisations internationally. Our mission from the start has been simple: to help our clients extract value from data. We aim to do this by providing outstanding advice, analysis, design, execution, products and ongoing support to our clients, who are a diverse range of large and small organisations in both commercial and not-for-profit sectors. Whatever data problem you’re facing, we have a tailored solution to help you overcome it and excel in your line of business. From the beginning, Red Olive was founded on the values of client understanding and empathy, being an ethical business and providing delivery excellence. Working with Red Olive should feel like you’re speaking with a close colleague who really gets what matters most to your organisation; someone you know is trustworthy and aims to act in your best interests; someone who lives for the benefits that applying data can bring, and who always gets the job done. We aspire to provide the professionalism of PwC combined with the innovation of Google. We aim to be an attractive employer and investor in people, and we offer exciting career development and challenging opportunities consistent with tackling leading-edge data challenges. If you would like to discuss joining our team or engaging us as a trustworthy and knowledgeable business partner, please drop us a line: hello@red-olive.co.uk.

Red Olive was founded by a team of experienced Analytics, Business Intelligence and Data Management Professionals with a love for creating tangible business improvement. Our aim is to improve our clients' business performance fast, by helping them apply one of their greatest assets, their data, more effectively. Recent personal engagements include developing an information strategy for a high profile financial services organisation, helping introduce predictive analytical modelling to a very large national retailer, designing and implementing a data warehouse and MDM solution for a household name media company, helping a major water company to better predict and prevent potential flooding, and working with a top 6 energy company on their strategy for information provision. Our three-part client value proposition is simple: 1) We aim to be strongly business-aligned and so offer a great customer experience. 2) We aim to provide short time-to-value, delivering tangible business benefits typically in blocks of 3 months or less. 3) We aim to conduct all our business dealings ethically. One practical implication is that there are certain business sectors for which we do not work. Another is that our clients' interests come before Red Olive's. This means we only take on work if we believe the value to the client will outweigh the cost of engaging us.These values are unchanging, but they seem to have taken on particular relevance for our clients since the financial crisis.

Lead data consultant on a 3 year, €50M business transformation programme for the European division of the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of scientific equipment, global turnover $10 billion US. The client’s aims were to improve customer experience and increase productivity to better serve their growing customer base. I successfully bid to run data as a stream independent from the client’s systems integrator and software vendor partners. I was one of the 8 principal people on the leadership team for the transformation programme and my responsibilities were: • European data management strategy. The main area implemented to date is Europe-wide master data management and improvement of data quality for product and customer data. • Business engagement. Initially with global and European senior managers, later with country managers in preparation for the first go-live and wave 2. • Design of the new business data processes, including how to design in the right level of data quality. I created the design process for the new SOA-compliant data environment, including a multi-domain data hub. This also included making provision for the future data governance structures and introduction of an MDM system. • Implementation of data quality improvement. This covers both reactive cleansing of up to 4 years of historic data, and proactive design of new data capture processes to prevent poor quality recurring in the future. • Data migration for the business transformation to the new ERP system and a new data warehouse. The migration covers legacy systems in 14 countries and 20 businesses, with roughly 800,000 products and 50,000 customers in each country.

TAH is a specialist Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing company. Roughly two thirds of our revenue is from consulting services and the remainder from selling and subsequently supporting Business Intelligence software. We partner with Business Objects, Cognos and Microsoft. Above all our aim is to provide independent advice to our clients to satisfy their business decision-making needs.

In 2004 Unilever announced its intention to simplify its business structure. Board membership was cut by half and European business groups were merged. A major business transformation programme was undertaken to create a single Unilever business in Europe (combined turnover around €20Bn), including creation of a set of service organisations for the region. With a budget of €10M I was responsible for: • Development of an enterprise vision for information through to 2009. • Replacing all existing information systems ahead of the SAP R/3 roll-out, from Apr 2006; integrating the long term vision into the roll-out plans. Among my achievements: • Established a united single team of 55 staff across 4 countries, providing information and data services to Unilever Europe’s business units. The two technologies standardised upon were SAP BW and Business Objects Data Integrator. • Created from scratch a support hub in Karachi, with annual savings in support of around €300k from 2006. • Set up a European Business Objects development team providing report development services off a shared, common platform; cut annual maintenance costs by over €100k.

Home and Personal Care Europe (HPCE) was the division of Unilever that manufactured and sold products including Persil, Lynx and Dove. With a turnover of around €5bn, it employed 10,000 people throughout Europe. A new CIO arrived in late 2003 and I was promoted to overall head of Business Intelligence. With a budget of €3.7M, my responsibilities were: • Running a permanent staff of 20 based in the UK and France. • Developing a BI strategy for HPCE over 3 to 5 years; creating a compelling business vision and selling it internally to a targeted audience to promote centralisation. • Building sound relationships with senior stakeholders, both externally (software and consultancy providers) and internally (business sponsors and enterprise architects). • Design and construction of an integrated data model and data warehouse covering internal processes and external data such as EPOS from retailers. • Development of reporting systems for all levels of audience, from materials sourcing to effectiveness of advertising campaigns and summary board reports. My key deliverables included: • Winning a Unilever global award for IT excellence. • Successfully combining legacy data warehouses into one unified model. • Becoming Business Objects relationship manager by establishing a Europe-wide agreement and mobilising Business Objects as our partner.

Unilever has a long history of recruiting high-potential graduates onto their graduate scheme with the expectation of providing them with the training and broad management experience needed to rise to the top of their organisation. I benefitted from intensive early leadership development through excellent formalised training and also hands-on international work experience: Trained and qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant with experience in international budgeting and the preparation of consolidated accounts, Europe-wide factory accounts and supply chain accounting (A/R, A/P, G/L, Forex, management accounts, transfer pricing...). Worked in Kingston, Brussels and Leeds. Worked on placement in UK Brand Marketing, helping launch a multi-SKU brand called Physio Sport. Worked on qualitative and quantitative market research, TV advertising and consumer panel interviewing. Was part of the team responsible for organising an advisory panel of sports experts to provide input into the product development; the panel included Lawrence Dallaglio, Sian Brice and Kyran Bracken.

After receiving so much during my time at university I wanted to give something in return. I approached several international charities to work for them, but they all wanted me to be fully self-funding and I didn't have any money. Instead I wrote to the Chinese embassy in London, was interviewed and then applied to several technical institutes to teach English to adults. I eventually chose Anshan, which I only later discovered to be China's second largest steel production centre, after Shanghai. With no more than £200 to my name, I boarded a plane to Beijing in August 1996 ready to start fifteen months in China. Quite simply, what followed was an experience that profoundly affected me. I gradually learned to communicate in Mandarin and came to love both the Chinese and China.