Technology Leader and Change Director

Art Grimley

MBA - Bayes Business School, City University, London

077**-****** • *********@*****.***

I’ve had a long career as a leader in technology and organisational transformation in the private, public and third sectors. Eschewing false modesty, I’m an outstanding candidate. I have made an immediate and enduring positive impact on every organisation that I have worked for in a senior capacity. I’m a strong leader with the courage of my convictions but have the humility to be prepared to also just shut-up and listen. As a leader, I see my primary role as creating an environment where the team thrives and delivers both as a collective and as individuals. As a C level executive, I make sure that my department is a dependable partner that exceeds expectations and delivers excellence. As an advisor and colleague, I listen, understand, cooperate and support, always trying to provide options.

My career has slowed down in recent years, not always my choice, and although I currently combine earning a living with a lot of pro bono and charity work, what I really want is to take on a role that will challenge and excite me. I’ve got the drive and the skills, have you got the challenge?

Key Achievements

First wave agile evangelist; created and led an Xtreme Programming team pre-agile manifesto

Rescued a brokerage on the verge of bankruptcy; planning and executing a complete technical and organisational turnaround leading to a profitable exit by the PE owners

Successfully planned and led the post-merger integration of the trading functions of 2 High Street banks, which was delivered on time and within budget

Researched, negotiated and executed the purchase and integration of technology companies to acquire IP and improve competitive position.

Created and implemented a B2B sales process which improved lead conversion rates.

Strategic lead for Department of Health portfolio rationalisation that saved £150m over 2 years.

Career History

Oct 2022 to Present Digital recruitment SME/Charity Fundraising

Whilst searching for my next full-time role and studying for my Diploma in Change Management, I’ve been combining ad-hoc assignments as a DDaT specialist for CHR Solutions, a recruitment company, with my involvement with two local charities, leading on grant applications and corporate fund-raising.

Jan 2022 to Sept 2022 Communisis Ltd (part of OSG group)

Change Consultant

Communisis are an international marketing and communications company undertaking a migration to the SIAM model and transformation of their business processes.

Responsible for the successful delivery of expected benefits, staff education and mentor staff.

Wide ranging brief that extended across the organisation as well as the technology function.

Directly involved in reorganization of product management, customer services, risk and change management.

Creation and implementation of new governance processes as the company moved to a more defined environment. These included SIAM management and PMO.

Supplier disputes resolution.

Nov 2020 to Dec 2021 OPG, Royal Mail

Casual work during the Covid emergency following a period of furlough in the summer of 2020.

June 2019 to Nov 2020 Grupo Antolin

Launch (Delivery) Manager

Launch (Delivery) Manager at Grupo Antolin who are a major (1 in 4 cars worldwide carry Antolin components) supplier to the global automotive market. This was a complex role in a fast-moving environment, managing multiple functions often with immovable delivery dates.

Planning and co-ordination of new product launches from initial prototype through to production at scale.

Manage the design of processes and developed procedures.

Successfully implemented the introduction of new tooling.

Co-ordination of quality assurance of tooling and production SOP.

Jan 2016 to May 2019 Consultancy Assignments

Part time consultancy to fit around the care of a close relative who was seriously ill.

Successfully delivered a wide range of small and medium assignments, including:

Strategy Development. Devising a low cost, fast to market, digital strategy a startup in the property sector, following up with a longer-term strategy to exploit the company gaining traction in the market.

Technology and Digital Strategy. Developed a Technology and Digital Strategy for a large UK housing association. Focused on future state and the organisation’s readiness to adopt digital care solutions including AI and IoT.

Bid Process and Documentation. Reviewed bid documentation on behalf of a client in Iran who successfully bid for the running and digital transformation of a public logistics service. This involved performing due diligence on the technical proposal, acting as a critical friend and providing input to the bid price based on this.

Between assignments, I maintained my professional development, improve my language (French and Spanish) skills and learnt full-stack development.

Jan 2014 – Dec 2015 Department of Health and Social Care

Interim Senior Technology Advisor (CTO)

Brought in on the recommendation of the Government Digital Service, my role was to improve delivery of major programmes by introducing new methods (e.g. agile/devops/lean), assessing and assuring new funding requests, reviewing in-flight programmes, and advising the Secretary of State on investment proposals and corrective measures. Due to the nature of the organisation and the decision-making hierarchy, involving senior civil servants and Government ministers, this role required exceptional stakeholder management and negotiating and influencing skills.

Achievements and responsibilities:

Oversight of conduct of major programme portfolio c. £1.4bn

Successfully provided technology investment recommendations and approvals for change programmes that reduced waste (reducing costs by >£150M p.a.) and improve ROI/benefit realisation.

Crisis intervention steering stalled/problematic major national programmes.

Hands-on management and control in successfully restating a major national programme which had critically stalled.

Working with Cabinet Office and HM Treasury to establish and implement a streamlined approvals and controls process for major public programmes.

Significantly reduced running costs and improved governance for the major health digital service

March 2009 – Aug 2013 City Index Group

Chief Information Officer

City Index was one of the earliest companies to offer financial spread betting and, at one time, had been a market leader. The company was on the brink of liquidation when I joined as part of a new senior leadership team. As the bulk of the problems were due to catastrophic technology failures, I took main responsibility for the solutions. This involved a mix of immediate crisis intervention, tactical improvements and strategic planning and execution.

My most significant achievements were:

Creating an effective global IT Department from 2 completely separate departments in London and the US and optimising spend by balancing in-house resource with a network of off-shore development partners.

Stabilisation of the platforms to eliminate outages and significantly reduce customer churn.

Addressing processes, procedures and working practices to reduce risk and improve delivery. This resulted in a reduction from over 40 inherited audit failures to zero in 2 years.

Improved our commercial position by acquiring technology companies with valuable IP. I was responsible for the whole process, from business case through to integration. One of these investments produced an ROI of 160% in under 2 years.

Took ownership of the PMO and all project planning and management activities. The function was relaunched to respond effectively to business needs.

Establishing City Index as the market leader in trading from mobile devices. Trading by mobile increased from 0.5% to 20% within 6 months of launch and to over 40% in volatile markets.

Successfully leading “White Label” sales pitches to potential clients in the banking sector.

April 2008 - Feb 2009 Rank Group

Interim Chief Technology Officer

Achievements and responsibilities:

Technical leadership for all brands – online and physical (Blue Square, Mecca, Grosvenor Casinos)

Established and managed a digital PMO.

Restructured IT and integrated marking functions to improve product delivery, including the introduction of data analysis and business intelligence techniques to provide an evidence base for marketing and product decisions.

Established metrics for programme success.

July 2006 – April 2008 Bank of America

Interim Programme Manager

Achievements and responsibilities:

Planned and managed a portfolio of change programmes including:

Implementation of regulatory changes – systems and processes – in EMEA and Asia

Set up of a Dutch-based SPV to issue debt on behalf of Bank of America Corporation

Set up of a new mortgage trading team (both business and technology infrastructure)

Prior Experience

Major roles were in FinTech as development leader or Project/Programme Management (PM).

·HBoS (Tech Lead and Change Leader)

·NatWest (Tech Lead)

·West Merchant Bank (PM)

·JP Morgan (PM)

·Societe Generale (PM)

·HSBC (PM)

·Warburgs (Tech Lead)

·ABN Amro (PM)

·Barings (Tech Lead and PM)

ING (Tech Lead)

Education

MBA - Bayes Business School, City University, London

Project Governance & PMO – Open University

Certificate in Mental Health Advocacy in the Workplace - CACHE

Level 2 Cert. in Lean Organisational Management – NCFE

Diploma in Change Management – CP

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