Responsible for the day to day operation of several parks, whilst aligning to the strategic direction of the wider business. Reviewed operational models, identified and recruited strong teams whilst managing the P&L for the park. Performed risk assessments to ensure legal and H&S compliance, implemented best practices and efficiencies and developed opportunities to increase the revenue on each park. Central to my approach was a strong customer focus and excellent customer service, continually looking to improve their holiday experiences.

Stabilised a struggling business through implementation of a revised operating model that controlled the costs whilst revisiting the business strategy. By developing an online presence with a booking capability linked to a cloud based business system and re-launching the brand on social media, I increased the footfall to the site leading to an upturn in bookings. An aggressive redevelopment and modernisation of areas of the park, combined with my focus on sales, led to an increase in static owners and further touring visitors. By closely managing the P&L, maintaining 5* gradings, opening a site shop and proactively selling holiday packages, I doubled the turnover from £350k to £700k within 5 years.

Having returned to work with my IT career, I continued with an oversight role to ensure that the business tracked to the new strategy and budget. I continued to regularly attend BHHPA meetings and trade shows, as well as visiting site to assist with decisions and direction.

For 9 months I stepped away from my IT career to work full time in the business as the park was not profitable and required a fresh, more realistic strategy. Pivotal to my review was examining all aspects of the business and understanding the detailed finances so I could restructure them, streamline the expenses and implement controls to prevent overspending. Analysis of the touring pricing led to the implementation of a new pricing structure that targeted the key cost factors. This culminated in a presentation of the business case back to the bank to justify their continued lending, which was successful.

In parallel to my professional IT career, I was heavily involved in the development of the park. From designing and undertaking the building work, through to developing the business plan, implementing working practices and IT systems, I was instrumental in supporting the early establishment of the business. Over time, I delved into HR, park and finance legislation as well as researching and learning about the industry.

Delivered a successful rollout programme of Bureau de Change and FX Services to John Lewis, delivering an annual £2M turnover per bureau. Implemented initial 5 bureau’s as well as implementing a multi-channel travel money platform, enabling online ordering. I previously established a significant transformation programme to replace the suite of bespoke legacy systems with a Microsoft Dynamics platform.

During Richard’s time at the FSA, he has been integral to facilitating the transition from an in-house development structure to an outsourced arrangement with multiple suppliers (including offshore). He has a natural aptitude for problem solving and has worked closely with third party suppliers, the Project Management Office and the business to deliver multi-million pound projects, which have required strong governance, innovation, project management and co-ordination coupled with the need to ensure processes are appropriately followed. Richard has delivered a range of projects, both from an in-flight position and from start-up and initiation through to closure. Events onlineRichard was tasked with delivering this failing project which had been stalling for several years. Richard delivered an externally hosted solution within three months for a fraction of the anticipated budget. He established a light weight approach to implementing low cost, low risk solutions within the delivery frameworkDelivery AssuranceBased on Richards experience and ability, Richard was asked to implement a Delivery Assurance function for the FSA. Richard managed a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to select a partner to execute deep dive/specialist assurance reviews, whilst simultaneously establishing a framework and team to run the business as usual function. As part of this role, Richard carried out some assurance reviews and advised on recovery actions for several projects.

Strategic Contact & Case ManagementRichard joined this significant top category project, with an expected budget of £5-10M, during the requirement gathering phase. It immediately became clear that the scope was not tightly defined and therefore the project was struggling to establish itself. Richard challenged the board structure/composition, the project objectives, deliverables and planned implementation. Alongside a solution consulting phase to understand the possible solutions and indicative costs, he brought structure and clarity to the approach and re-developed the Business Case with a clear scope, timeline and budget. The revised Business Case of £7-9M was approved, however was subsequently put on hold due to the FSA restructuring.Key aspects of this were the diverse stakeholder management, redeveloping the business case and approach, and establishing appropriate governance and control.Transaction Reporting SystemThis was a £1M+ business as usual project that was failing from the outset, before Richard was given the project and brought it under control. He re-planned and re-phased the project, reforecast the budget, tailored and implemented the governance framework and worked with the supplier to redefine and re-align the project via Change Control.The first phase was delivered on time and to budget.Alerts and Risk Indicator Engine (ARI)Prior to Richard becoming involved in the project, the project had overrun and overspent. Richard compiled a detailed recovery plan and budget to close the project, which included a knowledge transfer to the offshore support partner as part of the migration into support.The project delivered on the revised schedule and under the revised budget.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) ProcurementRichard joined this project to bring focus and control over a project that had failed to materialise during the preceding months. Richard’s immediate focus was to deliver a cohesive work package within a contractual framework as part of a RFP to an aggressive timeline for the multi-million pound programme.Richard’s project, Knowledgebase, was a late addition to the procurement process, so he structured a programme of work to deliver the required project documentation into the RFP to meet the challenging timelines. Key aspects of this were the management of multiple external suppliers and senior internal stakeholders, and ensuring strong governance and control. MiFID (Markets in Instruments Financial Directive)Richard was responsible for delivering this multi-million pound, strategic and time critical project to implement wide ranging system changes to ensure the FSA was both compliant and prepared to meet its legal obligations under this European directive from 1st November 2007.Richard was responsible for the full project lifecycle, from initiation through to project closure and additionally had to manage the transition from an in house development organisation to an outsourced arrangement. Richard worked closely with the third party suppliers and the business, developing critical relationships that were required to deliver this. The key aspects of this project were establishing strong governance and the management of the risks associated with delivering to an aggressive legal deadline, whilst embarking on an outsourced delivery for the first time.

Data AuditRichard was required to transform this FSA system wide Data Audit from a business-as-usual task into a project detailing several cost options, appropriate controls, deliverables and governance. The two key challenges on this project that Richard had to manage were the un-motivated existing staff and the wide ranging stakeholders with non-conforming personal objectives.Business IntelligenceA multi-million pound programme following an initiative to replace the SQL Server data warehouse with a consolidated Oracle warehouse using the Cognos toolset. Richard was required to lead the initial releases, whilst establishing the controls and processes to ensure that the appropriate quality was developed.Due to the widespread demand for BI, one of the major activities was the planning of parallel releases and the associated stakeholder and risk management. Each release was treated as a mini project, and was taken through the full project management and development lifecycles, applying appropriate control and diligence.

Business Intelligence Project - Financial Services AuthorityAs a lead developer, Richard was required to design, develop and lead a data warehouse implementation using SQL Server 2000, DTS and Cognos products. Within this complex system, data from diverse source systems had to be consolidated, cleansed, de-normalised and transformed (ETL) to produce a presentation layer to support the business reporting requirements. Richard engaged with the users throughout the development lifecycle to ensure that the project delivered the business value required. In Richard’s capacity as release manager, he was responsible for developing the processes and delivering each release into production in addition to leading and mentoring team members. Data Migration Project - ConsigniaRichard joined the project to develop and support the data migration from the Unisys system to the AS/400 using SQL Server as an intermediary staging area for data manipulation and mapping.

Richard was a Visual Basic developer on a client/server system, interacting with SQL Server and Oracle databases. A prominent stream of work that Richard led was developing interfaces to third party products. He was responsible for delivering project schedules, technical documentation and training in accordance with ISO 9001 quality standards.

Richard was involved in delivering a collision warning system for RAF fast jet aircraft, from securing the contract, through to design and implementation. Additionally, he was involved with several other contract bids enabling him to gain an insight into the processes and documentation required for successful bids.