Programme Management

Leon Wiffen

Mobile: +447***-******

Email: ****.******@*****.***

Professional Profile

Highly skilled Project / Programme manager with a proven track record of delivering complex IT projects and programmes within scope, on time, and within budget by leading teams, managing stakeholders, managing vendors and streamlining workflows. Skilled in overseeing the development and implementation of scalable solutions, enhancing operational efficiency, and mitigating risks. Known for fostering collaborative environments, leading change management initiatives, and driving innovation across IT infrastructures. Adept at navigating project complexities, ensuring compliance with industry standards, and aligning technology strategies with corporate goals. Instrumental in managing budgets, controlling resources, and maximising ROI whilst leading teams through agile methodologies. Passionate about leveraging data-driven insights to improve project execution, increase productivity, and elevate customer satisfaction.

Areas of Expertise

IT Programme Management

Project Management

IT Infrastructure Delivery

Cloud Migrations

Technology Strategy

Change Management

Business Continuity Planning

Risk Management & Mitigation

Cross-functional Team Leadership

Disaster Recovery Planning, Testing

Third Party Vendor Management

Waterfall & Agile Methodologies

Management Skills

Excellent communicator

Budgeting, Financial Planning and Control (P & L Management), Procurement

Business case creation

Forecasting, Estimating, Scheduling, Critical Path Analysis

Scope definition and management

Organizational Change management.

Governance and Reporting (project, financial, operational, KPI)

Stakeholder and Vendor management

Risk, Assumption, Issue and Dependency management (RAID)

Resource Planning and management including RACI matrices, resource allocation and tracking.

Key Achievements

Successfully spearheaded the largest IT infrastructure refresh/transformation programme in the history of South African Breweries with a budget of over £50M to a new target operating model including mainframe, all servers (200), databases, Active Directory, upgrade of Windows OS, replacement and deployment of all desktops, laptops and printers (20K devices), MS Office software, MS Exchange Messaging, Intranet, installation of new firewalls, upgrade of LANs at 48 sites and the migration of the WAN from ATM to MPLS at 6 manufacturing and 42 distribution sites. This programme included substantial change management, RFI / RFP and HR workstreams

Spearheaded the upgrade and replacement of corporate Wi-Fi infrastructure and WAN links across all Unilever’s sites (65) in Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey.

Managed migration and integration of Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, LAN, WIFI, and voice VLAN implementations into a new Call Manager cluster for 60 sites as part of the global network refresh of a corporate acquisition.

Completed various large Unified Communications deployments / transformations (3500 to 5000 seats) from Nortel, Avaya and Genesis to Cisco CUCM and MS Teams

Refreshed (replaced) and upgraded the Windows OS for the entire PC / Laptop / Tablet base (deployment of 30 000 devices) on the African continent for Barclays Bank with a budget of £25M

Steered a £10M end-to-end deployment of Audio Visual, ICT infrastructure, desktops, laptops, printers, systems, Unified Communications and integration for two large greenfield offshore contact centres (800 and 1000 seats).

Led all technology deployment (including a mobile app, web site and app, portal, payment processing, support), commercial delivery, including budget management, procurement, financial control, reporting, third-party vendor management and the setting up of an offshore service desk for a Mexican Food-Tech start-up.

Successfully relocated and deployed all ICT and Audio Visual components of 10 large company headquarters and offices with budgets ranging from £500K to £10M.

Qualifications

Bachelor of Science (BSc) Degree (1988) University of Port Elizabeth

AgilePM Foundation Certification (2021) APMG

Prince 2 Practitioner Certification (2015) APMG

Azure Fundamentals Certification (2025) Microsoft

ITIL Foundation Certification (2006) Foster Melliar

Business Management Diploma (1994) Damelin Business School

Certificate in Strategic Management (1992) Unisa School of Business Leadership

Career History

January 2025 to May 2025

Sabbatical

Private

My mother passed away in January and I spent a few months in South Africa caring for my aged father.

July 2022 to December 2024

Project Manager (Office fit-outs, Moves, Migrations, Closures – EMEA region) - Contract

Shell

Spearheaded IT and AV deployments with multiple workstreams for office builds / fit-outs, relocations, expansions, upgrades, and decommissioning across EMEA region, driven by mergers & acquisitions or organisational shifts. Led office fit-out projects, AV deployments for meeting rooms and digital signage, EUC provisioning (laptops, desktops, Windows 11, printers, and workstations), server and storage migrations to the Cloud, WAN infrastructure (SD-WAN, MPLS, circuits, Cisco routers), LAN setups (Cisco switches, cabling), telephony, WIFI deployment (site surveys, controllers, access points), UPS and Generator installations. Managed Active Directory migrations / Entra ID, Voice (SIP), Unified Communications (MS Teams), Contact Centre migrations and integrations, Cyber and physical Security (CCTV, Access Control, Zscaler) systems. Oversaw Audio-Visual installations in meeting rooms, boardrooms, and open spaces, along with disaster recovery/BCP scenario planning, implementation, and testing. Ensured CMDB was updated for new, decommissioned and moved assets. Managed IT equipment room designs and builds, including racks, fire suppression, and cooling systems. Co-ordinated with stakeholders (up to C-suite) and teams, managing third-party vendors for seamless project execution, exit management, staff transfers, procurement, and IT asset management through ServiceNow. Administered finance and budget oversight, ensuring strict project governance and successful delivery.

Led and completed projects with budgets ranging from £500K to £4M.

Orchestrated the fit-out and relocation of regional operations command and cyber defence teams from The Hague to Amsterdam, ensuring seamless transitions.

Oversaw fit-out of two major office buildings in the Hague.

Directed the successful fit-out and relocation of the German head office in Hamburg, achieving operational continuity.

July 2021 to July 2022

Project Manager (mobile networks) - Contract

British Telecom

Oversaw schedules, budgets, scopes, stakeholder engagement, vendor management, reporting, resource allocation, remote team management, risks, issues, and dependencies across multiple projects to ensure successful delivery using the Agile methodology.

Led a portfolio of mobile telecommunications and network capacity enhancement projects, including:

Migration to VoLTE roaming which included management of stakeholders across multiple telecoms companies in multiple countries.

IoT upgrade from 4G to 5G, managing cross-functional, multi-skilled teams.

5G Roaming implementation which included management of stakeholders across multiple telecoms companies in multiple countries.

Contributed to the adoption of Agile practices for the management of projects.

March 2020 to July 2021

Programme Manager - Contract

WIPPI (Mexican Food-Tech start-up) – Remote

Directed all technology and commercial delivery with multiple workstreams, including budget management, procurement, financial control, reporting, and third-party vendor management. Effected governance, disaster recovery scenario planning, and testing by developing and executing IT and support strategies. Migrated applications and data from hosted virtual machines (VMWare) to the Cloud (Azure), Set up security infrastructure including Identity and Access Management (Oauth2), firewalls, encryption, IPSEC, multi-factor authentication, and intrusion prevention. Managed development and testing bespoke mobile and Shopify e-Commerce applications, alongside building the backend for 40 REST API endpoints and integrations with PayPal and Stripe payment processing platforms using C# and MySQL Designed and built company website, monitoring (Uptime), control panel, and admin dashboard. Established an outsourced offshore contact centre and established an IT asset management process and CMDB.

Managed projects utilizing the Agile practices.

Led a team of five remote mobile app developers.

Developed 40 REST API endpoints for mobile app functionality.

Set up the Hubspot CRM system for the company, including integration and automation.

Directed all testing (Unit Testing, Integration Testing, Security Testing, System Testing and UAT)

Enabled seamless integration across multiple platforms, including Hubspot, Stripe, PayPal, Twilio, Vonage, MySQL, MS SQL, Zendesk and WhatsApp by developing low-code IPAAS engine based on REST APIs and JSON/XML.

September 2019 to February 2020

Project Manager / Business Analyst: Mergers & Acquisitions - Contract.

Aveva Software

Led end-to-end project discovery and planning of multiple workstreams for the separation and merger / integration of a company division into another company, managing site discovery, requirements gathering, data analysis, and catalogue creation whilst completing project scoping, SOW, detailed planning, costing, procurement, logistics, and RAID management. Co-ordinated the separation of people, systems, data, infrastructure and assets, overseeing their integration into new company. Planned office construction / builds / relocations to greenfield sites. Ensured seamless stakeholder engagement, including CXO-level and external stakeholders. Created change management strategies, exit plans, UAT strategies, service transition plans, disaster recovery test plans and third-party vendor management strategies. Delivered executive and KPI reporting, technical documentation, and presentations.

Facilitated workshops with senior stakeholders to drive alignment and project success.

Developed detailed project initiation documents, including scope, schedule, RAID, and project charters.

Identified virtual machines (VMWare) to be migrated from on premise to Cloud (Azure + AWS), led the design of the target operating model landscape and planned the migrations.

Designed and planned IAM (Microsoft Azure Active Directory) landscape and migration.

Guided the creation of high-level technical designs based on gathered requirements.

Co-ordinated the development of test, transition, and vendor management strategies and plans.

April 2018 to September 2019

Senior Engagement Manager – Europe, Africa and Middle East - Contract

Verizon (Telecommunications + Professional Services)

Client facing role, steering a diverse portfolio of unified communications, networking, and security projects from initiation through to successful transition to BAU. Managed multiple project managers and cross-functional teams, ensuring high-level (C-Suite) stakeholder engagement, team management including offshore resources, and effective RAID management. Oversaw SOW, logistics, procurement, compliance, customer billing (invoicing), service request creation (ServiceNow), project and technical documentation, UAT planning and execution, KPI reporting, and financial control/forecasting.

Led IP re-addressing consulting for Tesco, improving network architecture.

Managed the migration of telephony to the cloud for a multi-national bank

Executed Cisco Call Manager and UCCE upgrades for major German manufacturing client, optimising communication systems.

Directed migration of Unified Communications systems from legacy Avaya platforms to Cisco CUCM for Johnson & Johnson, enhancing communication infrastructure across 16 sites.

Managed migration and integration of Cisco Unified Communications, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN, LAN, WIFI, and voice VLAN implementations into a new Call Manager cluster as part of the global network refresh of a corporate acquisition.

Directed transition of 10 contact centres from legacy Avaya systems to Cisco, integrated with Interactive Intelligence, for Johnson & Johnson.

Oversaw the migration of desk phones to Cisco Jabber, streamlining communication for a global workforce.

Implemented Cisco Telepresence Video Conferencing devices, enhancing collaboration and remote communication.

Delivered successful proof-of-concept project for Tesco, deploying Forescout Network Access Control technology at four stores, boosting network security.

January 2018 – March 2018

Project Manager - Contract

Cornwall Council (Government)

Took over a flagging EUC deployment project and successfully turned it around.

Oversaw the deployment, configuration, and management of 1300 end-user devices (laptops, desktops, mobile devices, peripherals).

Migration / upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows 10

Project initiation (PID), planning, RAID management, financial control, management reporting, deployment, UAT, implementing new IT asset management process for desktops and laptops and handover to BAU.

July 2017 – Dec 2017

Portfolio Manager - Contract

Vodafone (Telecommunications / Utilities + Professional Services)

Client facing role, accountable for a portfolio of concurrent projects deploying telecommunications infrastructure for new and existing windfarms, power stations and substations for Scottish Power including RAID management, regulatory compliance, reporting, project initiation and documentation (PID), site planning, resource allocation, vendor management, deployment, UAT, transition to BAU.

WAN (SCADA networks, IP networks, Juniper switches)

Fibre implementations, pilot cables

Civil works

Oct 2016 – March 2017

IT Readiness Programme Manager – Contract

Innovation Group (Financial Services)

Steered end-to-end deployment of ICT infrastructure, Audio Visual, systems, and integration for two large greenfield offshore contact centres (800 and 1000 seats) within an agile framework for a global organisation. Worked closely with construction / fit-out team and managed all ICT infrastructure and cloud-based application implementations including SAP SuccessFactors, disaster recovery (DR) planning / testing, and the co-ordination of internal teams and third-party vendors. Updated business cases and controlled project scope, RAID, documentation, and reporting, ensuring budget compliance, C-Suite stakeholder management and successful execution.

Led the Request for Proposal (RFP) process and vendor selection.

Led discovery, planning, costing, design, configuration, and installation of all ICT infrastructure including LAN, WIFI, SD-WAN, Virtual Servers (VMware), Storage, Cabling, Equipment Rooms.

Implemented robust Identity and Access Management (Azure Active Directory) for the contact centres.

Established an IT and AV asset management process and implemented a CMDB.

Directed the provisioning, installation and allocation of EUC equipment including of 1800 Windows 10 PC’s and laptops, Office 365 as well as 25 multi-function printers.

Developed and executed the Contact Centre Disaster Recovery (DR) plan, overseeing DR testing co-ordination.

Maintained control over RAID, documentation (project/technical), reporting, and budget management for programme.

March 2016 – October 2016

Infrastructure Portfolio Delivery Manager - Contract

Lloyds Bank (Financial Services)

Managed a portfolio of migration and upgrade projects including the negotiation of stringent change control procedures. Included scoping, resourcing, planning, execution, RAID and stakeholder management.

Successfully upgraded AIX (IBM Unix) Servers, Connect Direct, MQ to current version.

Migrated servers and storage.

Migrated and upgraded MS SQL Server and Oracle databases.

Implemented Cisco Firepower intrusion prevention system in 2 datacentres.

Jul 2015 – Feb 2016

Africa Delivery Programme Manager – Contract

Dell / Barclays (Financial Services)

Client facing role, led a team of 30 business analysts and EUC engineers as well as third party vendors across Africa, overseeing the deployment, configuration and management of EUC devices in complex and high-risk environments.

Directed the successful refresh of over 30,000 Lenovo Windows XP laptops and desktop PCs to new hardware running Windows 7 across Africa. This included data migration, application testing and remediation, and migration to a new Active Directory domain.

Upgraded and migrated virtual desktops to Windows 7.

Ensured CMDB updates.

Upgraded applications to Windows 7 compatible including banking software and Office 365.

Administered all aspects of the project lifecycle, including PID, financial control, asset management, third-party vendor management, and co-ordination with country leads and teams.

Managed RAID, procurement, logistics, UAT, and provided executive reporting to ensure smooth delivery and alignment with organisational goals.

Jun 2014 – Jun 2015

Systems Development Manager - Contract

Bluespier International (Healthcare)

Oversaw Systems Development and Data Governance team of 10 professionals at Bluespier, a company specialising in medical technologies, providing innovative solutions for Patient Administration Systems (PAS), Electronic Patient Records (EPR), Theatre Management Systems, and Practice Management Software for both private healthcare and NHS sectors.

Steered development of desktop, mobile, and web applications (PHP/HTML/JS/CSS) for medical/healthcare environments.

Directed successful deployment of PAS and Theatre Management Systems across multiple hospitals, overseeing integration through Mulesoft and Rhapsody HL7 interfaces with diverse healthcare systems.

Engineered data integration, reporting, and analysis solutions using SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS for client requirements.

Migrated GP practice Management SaaS to the Cloud (AWS), streamlining healthcare service delivery.

Developed robust HL7/REST API (JSON) and SOAP (XML) integration platform in C#.NET, enabling seamless communication across systems.

Implemented Identity Access Management (Oauth2) for API’s.

Led MS SQL Server database consolidation, implementation, and upgrade projects, along with SQL scripting and VBA automation. Also set up and migrated Windows servers.

Managed the secure migration of sensitive data from legacy systems to Bluespier’s MS SQL Server platform across multiple hospital sites.

Played pivotal role in securing key contracts via participation in bid processes, including RFQ, RFI, and RFP responses.

May 2012 - May 2014

Senior Project / Programme Manager - Contract

British Telecom (Telecommunications + Professional Services) – South Africa

Client facing role managing a portfolio of Unified Communications and telecommunications projects across Africa, Middle East, and Turkey (AMET) regions, leading complex customer-facing initiatives from proposal (pre-Sales), SOW and initiation through to operational handover. Ensured effective stakeholder management, financial oversight, forecasting, customer billing, and reporting whilst co-ordinating customer workshops and managing RAID, third-party vendors, technical leads, and offshore project teams. Oversaw 15-20 concurrent projects.

Led deployment of over 50 WAN links (MPLS and VPN) across Africa, Middle East, and Turkey, deploying Fibre and Microwave solutions for last-mile connectivity using Cisco CPE.

Managed seamless migration of Unilever South Africa’s contact centre from Nortel to Cisco UCCE with NICE call recording.

Directed end-to-end migration of Unilever South Africa’s Unified Communications system from legacy Nortel PABX to Cisco Unified Communications technology (CUCM), supporting 4000 seats from inception to operational handover.

Orchestrated migration of Unilever’s UAE Head Office from legacy Avaya PABX to Cisco Unified Communications technology (CUCM), involving 3500 seats, from bidding through to completion.

Spearheaded the upgrade and replacement of corporate Wi-Fi infrastructure across Unilever’s sites in Africa, the Middle East, and Turkey.

Directed successful relocation of Unilever’s Disaster Recovery (DR) datacentre and the exit from and decommissioning of the old DC.

Led custom integration of SAP ERP with Cisco UCCX, enhancing operational efficiency.

Oversaw deployment and configuration of Checkpoint firewalls as well as Riverbed application acceleration devices at all Unilever sites in the AMET region, strengthening security protocols.

Nov 2002 - Apr 2012

Senior Project Manager, then Regional Service Delivery Manager - Permanent

South African Breweries (Manufacturing / FMCG) – South Africa

Delivered high quality and cost-effective ICT services (including P&L management) and regional ICT projects end-to-end including business case, with the objective of maximising achievement of service levels (SLA’s) and KPI’s, quality and availability.

Successfully spearheaded the largest ICT infrastructure refresh/transformation programme in the history of South African Breweries to a new target operation model including Audio Visual, mainframe, all servers (200), databases, Active Directory, upgrade of PC OS from Windows NT to Windows XP, replacement of all desktops, laptops and printers (20K devices), MS Office software, MS Exchange Messaging, Intranet, installation of new firewalls, upgrade of all LANs and the migration of the WAN from ATM to MPLS at 6 manufacturing and 42 distribution sites. This programme included substantial change management, RFI / RFP and HR workstreams.

Managed the integration and migration of IT infrastructure, systems (SAP ERP and HR), processes and people resulting from a large corporate acquisition.

Completed the build of and relocation to a new regional office for Amalgamated Beverage Industries and decommissioning of the old office. This included all ICT infrastructure (LAN, WAN, WIFI, Servers, desktops, laptops, printers, telephony) and audio visual / video conferencing implementations.

Completed the twice-yearly regional IT Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (DR) test.

Managed all IT operations (EUC, licensing, printers, network, applications, capacity management).

Migrated the IT service desk to an offshore outsourced model and EUC (desktop, laptop and printer) support from an in-sourced model to a managed services model (29K devices).

Changed the helpdesk system to BMC Remedy ITSM Incident management / Service Desk / Problem management system which included the migration of all relevant data.

Implemented a new IT asset management process.

Centralized and virtualized (VMWare) the server estate and implemented an EMC storage area network.

Rolled out WIFI to 30 sites.

Deployed the Citrix Virtual Desktop environment.

Relocated various offices and depots.

Transformed the Business IT function into an IT service management focused organization using ITIL as a framework and BMC Remedy as the ITSM system.

Set up a robust IT asset management process and implemented a CMDB.

Managed the building of and migration to the new SABMiller regional datacentre as well as the exit from and decommissioning of the old DC.

Relocated the Disaster Recovery Datacentre to an outsourced provider and decommissioned the old DC.

Created the SAB Corporate IT Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery process and Plans.

Successfully managed and the planning and execution of the SAB twice yearly IT Disaster Recovery test.

Early Career

May 2002 - Oct 2002 Senior Project Manager Anglo Platinum (Mining)

Managed the relocation of all ICT services including Telephony, EUC, Network, Datacentre, SAN and Contact Centre

Dec 2001 - Apr 2002 Project Manager (pre-Sales) Calltime Solutions (Telecoms)

Managed bid, RFP responses and Implementation of Interactive Intelligence solutions for customer Contact Centres

Apr 2001 - Nov 2001 Project Manager Accenture – (Consulting)

Managed the development, implementation and integration of a new HR system for a telecommunications company.

Apr 1998 - Mar 2001 Systems Integration Manager TransUnion (Financial Services)

Created and managed the EDI framework for the integration between customers and Transunion including Mainframe to Mainframe and Server to Mainframe integration. A large part of this role was the onboarding of new clients. Also managed the migration from a mainframe to server-based architecture.

Feb 1997 - Mar 1998 IT Manager – Manufacturing SBU (PTY) LTD – South Africa

Oct 1995 - Jan 1997 IT Manager – Large Law Firm Webber Wentzel Bowens – South Africa

Sep 1994 - Sep 1995 Senior Networking Specialist Mutual & Federal Insurance Company

Sep 1993 - Sep 1994 Systems Development Project Leader Mutual & Federal Insurance Company

Re-developed the M&F personal claims system.

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