I am looking for a new engagement where I can put my experience and skill to use to best benefit my employer and my team.

Took over project management of a refurbishment project. Reduced wastage, cost and improved efficiency by managing and motivating the project team and removed risk by agreeing process and procedure changes with the client.Prepared proposals to clients, concluded successful contracts with new clients. Hired and trained production teams, including processes and procedures for continual review and improvement. Regular reviews proved the methodologies were working, ensuring a motivated and engaged team. Regular client reviews were extremely positive about results, team motivation and well-defined reporting.Management of and mentoring the administrative, human resources, logistics and financial teams together with the implementation of structured reporting and analysis tools improved morale, controls and results.

Using my prior experience I applied an Agile project (in DevOps) approach to the assignment; successfully defined the reporting criteria for the Singapore and Hong Kong offices for reporting of foreign nationals for tax purposes as required by USA’s Foreign Nationals Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard (CRS).Regular scrum master-like reviews accompanied by progressive product and documentation delivery.Developed simplified training and documentation for use by the financial administrators and account managers to verify and validate reporting.Developed a suite of tools to enable consistent and timely reporting to the relevant tax authorities in Singapore & Hong Kong.

Leveraging off my experience at Absa Group I trained a BDO team in the fundamentals of FATCA and CRS regulations and reporting requirements. Negotiated contracts with banks, investment companies, insurers and trading houses to train their staff, do due diligence on customer information capture, data mining and reporting readiness to the local tax authority.Working under pressure to complete work within budget and reporting deadlines all engagements were handled as Agile projects in a DevOps approach, with clearly identified scrum masters (normally BDO staff assigned to a client), product owners, technical staff and users. Sprints typically set to fortnightly and daily stand-ups conducted, documented and risks managed directly by myself, my team and the client team. All contracts were completed successfully under budget, prior to the reporting deadlines and to the tax authority’s satisfaction (substantiated by their auditors).

AML/CFT ProjectThe project requirement was to enhance risk profiling for the 13 countries where Absa Group and Barclays Africa operate, ensuring conformance to expanded regulatory requirements (jurisdictional and BCBS239).I realised that the diverse regulations had divergent KYC requirements and developed a KYC information matrix. The matrix is now used to verify customer information requirements across all regulations pertaining to the business.I was assigned to the project as data analyst, contributing to the effective enhancement of risk profiling methods, incorporating the various enhanced regulatory requirements.I then worked at incorporating the enhanced profiling methods into the AML/CFT operations and by making pertinent recommendations for changes to the AML/CFT screening engine.I successfully represented the technical teams in interaction and negotiation with the South African Financial Intelligence Centre regarding both their implementation of the UNODC goAML system regarding Absa Group and Barclays Africa compliance to enhanced AML/CFT legislation.

AML/CFT & Risk Profiling ProjectThe initial scope of work was to prepare the Absa Group and Barclays Africa businesses (13 countries) for tax reporting of USA citizens in accordance with the Foreign Nationals Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). Almost a year later the project scope was changed to include Foreign Nationals Tax Reporting (FNTR), based on the OECD Common Reporting Standard (CRS).I became the scrum master in this Agile /DevOps project with all scrum master responsibilities when the project manager was reassigned. I successfully completed the work by taking on responsibilities as business analyst, process analyst and systems analyst. I lead negotiations with senior business management teams in all countries, winning their support.I acted as the technical product owner for the project data.I developed the project scope, work breakdown structures, implementation strategies, procedural changes and policy updates.Despite very significant scope changes, imposed by the local tax authority, successfully completed the project, within budget and ahead of the regulatory reporting deadlines.

My time at AHK was a brief but successful foray into a business completely distanced from my prior experience. I worked at improving the standards and quality of the mechanical devices in use, the skill levels and motivation of the technical team. My responsibilities were variously, for the implementation and improvement of service delivery systems and services, production processes and logistical services. These services were rendered both nationally and internationally. A key project was the refurbishment of a mining sampling and preparation laboratory.

Due to the withdrawal of Panalpina from Nigerian operations I was tasked with the separation of technologies to make Premier IT autonomous. This process took me and my teams about six months to complete with very limited budget.I was responsible for the management (including recruitment), mentoring and training of the IT teams in three computer centres in Nigeria. I lead the team through hardware and software upgrades and program enhancements.I managed VSAT and LAN networks, ensuring maximum uptime and throughput.I managed the facilities services teams, ensuring constant electrical supply through a combination of grid, diesel generators and battery backup systems. I developed, tested and implemented a disaster recovery process, with detailed management and technical documentation. I trained a number of my staff and management colleagues to be able to restore the business to full technical readiness.

The role was similar to that at Premier Logistics. I, of necessity, worked in collaboration with the Swiss technical teams to ensure that all upgrades and changes were consistent with the Panalpina Worldwide technologies.Variously worked in the Panalpina Gabon, Congo, Angola, Ghana and Nigeria offices. Assigned briefly to the Cameroon office to resolve major electrical supply issues.

As a member of a very skilled, multi-disciplinary team we developed an early model of software as a service. Unable to appropriate operational funding, inhibited by network costs and defeated by overheads the team disbanded. The effort was invaluable as a learning exercise and a major contribution to my own development.

I managed the CA Project Management Offices, engaged as project manager / product specialist with vendor project teams and in-house project teams.Managed and mentored IT teams in computer centres at customer sites.Variously dealt with outsourced and internal systems support in numerous countries. Worked as systems support programmer for outsourced systems and applications.I was responsible for assigning my team (and myself) to provide product support at customer sites.Worked on strategic and short-term planning, including financial planning, human resourcing and budget management.

I was manager of the technical team responsible for production automation software. I also worked as a product specialist on a subset of the products that were in use on the EDCON mainframe team, ensuring skills transfers and rigorous quality controls were implemented and documented.The quality and extent of use of these products brought me to the attention of the CA Technologies team and I was offered a job with them.

I was contracted to develop an application for IBM’s Hardware Support Division. The application, with a database back-end was to manage stock of parts and components throughout their locations in South Africa. Due to my Agile / DevOps approach to the project the application evolved into a distributed warehouse management application that IBM commercialised.

I managed several Project Management Offices with vendor project teams and in-house project teams Managed and mentored IT teams in computer centres at customer sites.Variously dealt with outsourced and internal systems support in numerous countries. Worked as systems support programmer for outsourced systems and applications.Worked in each of the following disciplines through the full software development life cycle (SDLC) and providing field product support;Networks, databases, Helpdesk & Change Management systems (Info/Sys products).Security Products (authentication software)Worked as programmer and trainer in PL/I, Yes/LI, LISP, REXX, Basic, C, DB2 and VMAS.Worked in migration projects from ICL to IBM systems, on system integration for company mergers, as a customer support / problem solving specialist, system designer and software developer.Worked in the strategic and short-term planning division, including financial planning, human resourcing and budget management

My team worked on the composition of plastics for medical applications and made numerous breakthroughs on the improvement of the sterility and extension of the shelf life of disposable medical products. I also played a key role in the development of new gas chromatographic components for the analysis of Uranium Fluoride.