The Green Action Trust (GATrust) is the trusted delivery partner focussed on environmental and regeneration outcomes for Scotland. We plan, collaborate and deliver positive action across the country to achieve Scotland’s climate change ambitions. We turn ideas into tangible change to build more sustainable communities and a greener country.

I am an independent consultant specialising in Strategy and Project Management / Programme Director roles. I am currently helping a pension company prepare for the Pensions Dashboard.I specialise in best practice IT Governance and I enjoy delivering an IT Strategy and capability aligned to an organisation’s aims. My management style is highly collaborative and involves building close relationships with fellow directors, suppliers and colleagues and motivating teams to deliver quality results at speed.

The Cammo Estate is a Local Nature Reserve and one of the largest and most natural parks in Edinburgh. Whilst the old estate house is a ruin, there remains mature woodlands, fields, a pinetum, a small ornamental canal and a walled garden. Over recent decades, the Friends of Cammo have enhanced the natural environment significantly by planting more trees, hedgerows and wild flowers creating a haven for people and wildlife. I am on the committee providing support on environmental matters and maintaining the website which includes some excellent photographs and sightings of local wildlife contributed by visitors.

I spent over thirteen years at Origo Services, the not-for-profit FinTech company that improves financial outcomes for consumers by delivering cross-industry services. As Development Director, I was responsible for all service development, identifying new opportunities and bringing these to market. This involved working across the whole of the savings and investment industry.I led the development of Origo’s industry IT services such as the Origo Transfer Service, the Origo Integration Hub, Unipass Letter of Authority (ULoA) and developing Origo’s capability to support the UK Pensions Dashboard.

The Origo Transfer Service enables the transfer of pensions, ISAs and general investments. The service is used by more than 120 pension companies and platforms and has reduced average transfer times from 53 working days to 12 calendar days. It has transferred ~ £200 billion of pension pots since its launch in 2008.

My team also launched the Origo Integration Hub which supports integration between financial adviser software and platforms / providers. New trading relationships for services such as account opening, valuations, transaction history and transfer tracking can be established more quickly and cheaply than via point-to-point integrations. The Origo Hub has become the de facto method of establishing new trading relationships.The Unipass Letter of Authority (ULoA) service launched in late 2020 and is predicted to be the industry-standard approach for advisers to submit electronic requests to providers / platforms in order to see their client’s investment details and advise them accordingly.

Origo has been at the heart of the UK Pensions Dashboard initiative. My team worked with government, the pensions industry, identity professionals and others on DWP’s proposed solution. Origo remains a thought-leader and is well-positioned to play a key role in the industry solution.