Kilmarnock is one of New Zealand’s leading social enterprises. We specialise in disability employment and training and operate a very successful contract manufacturing business. Our core purpose is to change attitudes about intellectual disability and develop real pathways to employment.

In my role as General Manager at Synapsys NZ Ltd, I have been accountable for company profitability and performance. Synapsys is a medium size company specialising in consultancy and development of tailored learning solutions for the education, health and corporate sectors. My role required me to manage all business functions, including business development, client management, human resources, finance, project management and the service team.

Provided leadership in operational management in support of data and information services. Responsibilities and achievements included:• Leadership and management of 30 professional service staff (including off-shore).• Developed and implemented 3 year strategic plan and associated operating plans. Annual budget responsibility of $NZ 6 million.• Project Managed integration of complex direct marketing database systems during merger of the UK’s two largest cancer research charities. I scoped, planned and project managed the integration project, which had multiple dependencies, workstreams and stakeholders. I applied an agile SDLC Project Management methodology and the project was delivered on time and budget.• Service Management – Established a “centre of excellence” support service, based on ITIL best practice. Included product enhancement and development lifecycles. Ongoing support included; tiered support layers, service desk, incident management, problem management, technical analysis and document management (SLA and SOPs). Development lifecycle included; project management, business analysis, design, development, testing, end-user training, acceptance criteria testing, signoff and deployment.• Led the department through significant change impacting people, culture, ways of working, and technology. Effective change management proved critical to underpinning the successful transformation.• Fostered a culture of incremental innovation and improvement to existing business processes, e.g. improved interfaces between web and databases; rationalisation and consolidation of business processes.• Led on integration of complex information systems during merger of the UK’s two largest cancer charities. Required knowledge and application of Project Management methodology (principles & governance), and best practice.