Rob Shepherd Email & Phone Number

Crawley, England, United Kingdom

• Commercial Lead for a major Unmanned Air Vehicle programme portfolio valued in excess of £1bn through design, delivery and subsequent support contract. > Acting as the primary point of contact for the UK MoD team and internal Thales team on all contract/commercial activity relating to the contract performance as well as dealing with any ad-hoc tasking requests (contract changes) that are regularly processed on the contract. > Managing the closure aspect of the existing long term delivery contract whilst balancing the completion of the final deliverables. > Drove improvements that resulted in the project team being recognised within the UK MoD as one of the most improved and high achieving programmes to undertake Strategic Partnering Programme. > Strong focus on capturing and managing contract change• Commercial Lead for new, competitively won Unmanned Air System programme being delivered to the Royal Navy. > Requiring strong customer/stakeholder 360° management to ensure successful delivery of contractual requirements by both Thales and its key supplier, in line with Urgent Operational Capability requirement.• Commercial support to the Future Unmanned Air Systems team in smaller ad-hoc, but strategically critical prospects/projects through various framework arrangements. > Supported a business improvement objective to establish more commercial awareness amongst the portfolio.• Leading in the termination settlement negotiations following premature closure of an availability based contract. > This required completion of a detailed analysis of the contract terms to establish contractual entitlements as well as a need to form a strategy to facilitate a negotiation to conclusion. • General contract management support to other DMS projects including establishing multi-party collaboration and teaming agreements.• Responsible for line managing, coaching and developing a small team, including a graduate placement

Crawley, England, United Kingdom

• Commercial lead and prime customer point of contact for major international aircraft manufacturer for flight avionics programme. > Focused on delivering existing contracts as well as developing and leading commercial strategy to expand flight avionics portfolio. > Managed and recovered challenging customer relationship > Secured next major avionics programme through protracted and complex contract arrangements.• Support to transitional and harmonisation activity with another Thales team to becoming the prime interface for future contracts including negotiation of bespoke inter-company framework agreement• Completed the final negotiations for the sale and novation of a Thales product to an external company and thereafter supported the delivery of the novation project to conclusion. > Included fulfilling the obligations in the agreement as well as novating existing contracts with other customers who’d previously purchased the product.• Line management and coaching of Senior Commercial Officer.

Crawley, England, United Kingdom

• Dedicated commercial lead, part of core management team and prime customer point of contact for the radar delivery programme in excess of £100m. > Worked closely with procurement and provided commercial guidance to all functions across the project. > Drove Change Management of the programme whilst balancing its complex technical requirements. > This was a role I was specifically requested to do due to my customer management/relationship building skills recognised within Thales.• Concluded negotiation for long term support contract with UK MoD including SSRO; price audit discussions.• Graduated from the Thales Front Line Leaders course • Generated and lead the rollout of Commercial Awareness Training course that was rolled out across multiple Thales functions

Basingstoke, England, United Kingdom

• Commercial lead for the US Navy delivery portfolio. > Worked closely to establish strong working relationship with US Defense Contract Management Agency and ensure timely delivery of units on online system• Commercial lead for the new (follow on) contract bid and negotiation with major US equipment supplier including working collaboratively with Thales USA on joint aspects.• Commercial lead for UK MoD delivery programme; including regular bidding/negotiation activity and strategising around varying quantities.• Key support to Export/Trade Compliance team to facilitate US Export agreements (e.g. Technical Assistance Agreements, Manufacturing Licence Agreements)• Commercial role included responsibility for establishing competitive and profitable pricing structures and payment terms• Oversight of other UK/US projects through line management responsibilities of small team.

Crawley, United Kingdom

• Commercial lead for a multi-national military transporter aircraft portfolio valued in excess of €250m; comprising of simulation equipment delivery contracts for OCCAR, a Training Service for the UK MoD and other long term service based contracts. > Establishing customer requirements, strategising and scoping proposals for follow on opportunities > Key achievement in capturing, scoping, negotiating a multi-year support contract for customer devices at their training centre. > Provided key financial and performance metrics and KPI reporting to both internal and external customers to manage cash flow, track retentions and securing payment for programme milestones• Integrated with Thales sales team to support wider business opportunity and growth including regular visits to customer sites for commercial negotiations.• Positive feedback received direct from customer about my approach to work for the programme and the benefits this has on the relationship to overcoming issues.• Identified as a high performer and invited to participate in several working groups in support of wider AVS Legal and Contracts initiatives

Crawley, United Kingdom

(formerly Thales Training & Simulation Limited (Civil Simulation))• Worked in fast moving civil simulation market handling international customer base, mainly US, UK, Europe, Middle and Far East.• Pre and post contract review and negotiation of varied terms and conditions in customer contracts.• Developed and maintained an invoicing database, which I used to ensure financial objectives were met. • Managed challenging Intercompany trading terms for the supply of simulators.• Identified and mitigated novation compliance issues prior to divestment of part of the Thales Training & Simulation business to L-3 Link UK and continued to manage novation compliance after transferring to L-3 Link UK.

Basingstoke, United Kingdom

Thales UK Limited - Missile Electronics • Part of the Commercial team responsible for a US production programme direct to a US supplier and supported a $35m rebid to successful conclusion. The same programme received a customer satisfaction award for customer relationship.• Commercial ownership and responsibility of a US production programme with US Navy requiring close working relationship with government agency and satisfying strict audit requirements. Received accolade for improvement in joint working relationship.• Supported the pricing strategy of a large bid (in excess of $100m) to US Government on tight timescales and deliverables.• Delivered key bid to UK MoD for development programme as part of Thales' product policy and successfully negotiated to signature.• Experience with reviewing and negotiating variety of contract terms and conditions (DEFCONs, US FAR/DFAR) and legal documentation (Non Disclosure Agreements, Technical Assistance Agreements).