John Shepherd Email & Phone Number

Gentoo is a housing association in the North East of England which owns and manages more than 29,000 homes. As Head of Solutions in Gentoo’s Technology and Transformation department, I was responsible for the group’s in-house Business Analysis, Systems Analysis and Software Development capabilities. As part of an ambitious digital transformation programme, Gentoo has launched a partnership with Salesforce UK and Globant Salesforce Studio to develop new, gold-standard solutions for the social housing sector. These include a housing-focussed CRM, a lead management system for the group’s new build properties, and a fire safety inspection system which is now in use across the group’s high-rise tower blocks. I was involved with the Salesforce partnership from the outset, initiating the very first discussions between Gentoo and the Salesforce team, preparing business cases for board approval, facilitating Design Thinking workshops with Gentoo SMEs and senior stakeholders, running Technical Design Authority meetings between all parties, and overseeing SDLC activity relating to the project.

Following the acquisition of Orange Bus by Capita plc I became a Lead Architect in Cloud Platforms/Rapid Application design and the Solutions & Innovation Lead for Capita Consulting's Newcastle-based Digital Delivery Centre. In this post I was responsible for establishing reference architectures, operating principles, playbooks and key service catalogue offerings. I would contribute to the technical & solution aspects of RFP/RFQ documents passing through the department and frequently take part in client-facing pitches and presentations. Over this period I delivered high-profile projects for clients including bbc.co.uk, The Royal Navy, Police Scotland, Teachers Pensions and Racing Point Formula 1.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Orange Bus was a digital agency based in Newcastle upon Tyne, specialising in user-centred service and experience design. I joined the company as a senior developer during its formative years, working as technical lead on projects such as the Aston Martin WTC Racing App (winner of the North East Business Award for innovation) and Palmer & Harvey’s iVan system (iOS-based mobile logistics software for the biggest confectionary wholesaler in the UK), before spending several months on-site at HMRC Newcastle with an embedded Orange Bus Scrum team working on Scala-based gov.uk projects using GDS methodologies and standards.My interest in emerging technologies and prize-winning participation in industry hack days for organisations such as Engie Utilities and Nissan Motor Group led to a lead role in Orange Bus’s nascent R&D division, “Orange Bus Futures”. During this time I was responsible for prototyping solutions in technologies such as Voice UI, Augmented Reality, Chatbots and AI Machine Learning for a diverse range of clients including Army Recruitment and Scholastic Horrible Histories.Orange Bus had a strong culture of collaboration and cross-disciplinary knowledge sharing which I greatly enjoyed, and through this process I became interested in the disciplines of Design Thinking, user research-driven Lean/Agile delivery methodologies and their practical application to solutions development frameworks. I presented numerous innovation-focussed design workshops in collaboration with colleagues from our User Experience practice, authored applied innovation playbooks and processes for the company, and was responsible for the design of dedicated “Innovation Lab” studios at our Newcastle and Manchester offices.

Freelance creator of games, web sites, apps, video content and all-things-digital. Clients included: Twenty-First Artists, Carbon Silicon Records, Community Channel Television

Senior Consultant & Enterprise Java Developer working on the e5 Financial Management System and B2B procurement portals

Financial software development & support

University placement