Paul Cuming Email & Phone Number

I successfully set up, financed and directed the day to day running of this property development company dealing with both commercial and residential builds as well as barn and bungalow conversions. As Managing Director, I produce and update detailed business and project plans to secure financial backing, complete the purchase and sale of properties, and work closely with relevant local authorities to gain approval for proposed builds and projects. In addition, I source and manage subcontractors including architects, structural engineers and tradesmen. I calculate materials required and negotiate best rates to maximise profits whilst maintaining quality standards. I also oversee all aspects of the business including finances, accounting, recruitment of staff, health and safety management, CIS payments, VAT returns and execution of work schedules. Most notably, I oversaw and coordinated several substantial residential and commercial build projects on time and within budget to make significant profits.These projects include:A bungalow conversion into a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom property which nearly quadrupled in value by the time of sale.The full refurbishment of 4 Vet practices

In this role I was responsible for the delivery of 4 IT and business projects as part of the Aggregation Project which aimed to relocate the sorting and valuation processes for the Diamond Trading Company from London to Africa.I managed the full end to end project lifecycle of these projects including formalising business cases, performing cost benefit analysis, approving and reviewing project deliverables, setting up and monitoring performance of project teams, managing resource plans, leading on risk and quality management and presenting detailed reports to the Directorate and Project Board.In addition, I acted as Senior User on the project board of other workstreams and monitored the performance of other project managers and external contractors.These multi million £ projects were all delivered on schedule and on budget.

This was a global, cross functional strategic project of the utmost importance to the DeBeers group as it provided them with enhanced pricing capabilities that had a direct impact on their sales figures of +/- $6 billion / annum. This was a £2m project which encompassed 5 individual workstreams to enhance the pricing capability of the DTC. The project involved delivering improved IT systems to track polished diamond prices internationally, to predict the polished cut, clarity, size and colour of rough diamond. As well as deliver new IT systems to optimise rough diamond prices and to capture the impact of assortment changes (the way in which rough diamonds are sorted and valued) and to streamline the process.I was responsible for the full end to end lifecycle of this project from establishing project objectives and deliverables, building project teams, recruiting and monitoring external contractors, project resourcing, risk management, managing the project team (approx 30 staff), establishing and monitoring acceptance criteria and key payment milestones, all testing phases and user training. All of these workstreams were delivered ontime and within budget and also resulted in additional sales of $70m in the 2006 / 2007 financial year.

During this time I had numerous roles within the De Beers group most of which were as Project Manager.My most noticable achievement was the coordination and delivery of a major global pipeline reduction project which was the first of its kind to review, document and streamline all rough diamond processes from mine to sale. This project was delivered on time and under budget and delivered overall time savings in excess of 40%. This work involved detailed costing and cost benefit analysis, liasing and negotiating with overseas sorthouses and mining operations and therefore significant travel to diamond producing countries. I was responsible for presenting the projects achievements to the Global Management Group of approx 300 representatives.Other roles within this period included:Designer team supervisor working on the Integrated Stock Management Project with Accenture. Controller for CSO Valuations Namibia responsible for managing a workforce of approx 20 staff made up of expatriate and local staff.Responsibility for maintaining the Russian Collateral Stockpile within the DTC London (at its peak worth approx $1 billion)