National Operations Lead, Graduate Leadership Programme

• Oct 2021 - Present

Operations and Conference Lead

• Dec 2020 - Nov 2021

Work strategically across programmes and cohorts on a national basis. Lead policy and strategic projects with a view to create operational and delivery efficiencies and innovations. Work with minimal supervision and with a large matrix team and with stakeholders from junior to senior levels to execute project delivery. Use key project management methodology to deliver including using Asana. • Project managed a venue procurement review and negotiated contracts 30% cheaper than previously held by the organisation and held the contract management process. • Established myself in a new team & organisation remotely, developed the scope of a new role within 8-10 weeks and met performance targets within 3 months. • Designed and delivered brand new digital event, project managing end to end and introducing a new broadcast production approach, new content and a brand-new national networking approach.Led operational management of a 7 week academy for the National Graduate Leadership programme, leading organisation wide operations pre and during the event, leading all operations on site and managing the team to deliver operational excellence, working with the wide academy leadership team to do so. • Work with policing sector to develop innovative practice through our events, facilitating national networking.• Work with the Head of Operations to ensure the operations & events team provides exceptional operational support and ways of working that will drive consistent programmatic improvement. Also support with team development strategy and retention. • Relationship manager for all event suppliers including venues and production. • Work in collaboration with other teams to ensure seamless continuity throughout the programme events & operations strategy including recruitment and marketing, force partnerships and the tech team on the implementation of a new digital platform roll out. Show less

Associate Director, Events

• Jan 2019 - Dec 2020

*Accountable and responsible for event delivery operations for over 1500 events per year across different cities and 21 programmes. These events can be one day or large multi-day events with hundreds of delegates. *To deliver these events, work closely with colleagues across organisation including Participant Support, Sales, Technology to ensure all elements link up for effective delivery. *Developed event delivery strategy to create more consistent and seamless processes for delegates as well as more efficiency internally. This includes redeveloping staffing approach, check-in best practice, event management approach across whole organisation. *Part of programme operations leadership team, supporting strategy and culture of wider team. *Lead large events team of 25, including 4 Event Managers, setting strategy and culture for team. *Oversee budget in excess of £1 million. *Hold and maintained positively relationships with key suppliers, negotiating preferential rates, saving over £250,000. *Work on a series of strategic improvements and changes for events team to make it as efficient as possible. This includes setting annual objectives for the team. *Lead the resourcing of the events team, building annual event execution plan for staff across 21 programme areas and creating a process to move staff efficiently and smoothly as needed. *Developed and implemented database of key suppliers and stock management process. *Monitor and evaluate team performance to ensure quality is delivered every time in line with the performance KPIs I set. *Work with stakeholders at all levels from entry level staff to programme leaders to Executive Directors to ensure events team are enabled to deliver quality and structures and processes are set up to enable that. *Present board papers and project updates to senior colleagues to make change as needed such as new policies or ways of working changes. Show less

Associate Director, National Programme Delivery

• Sep 2016 - Feb 2019

*Oversee planning, execution and delivery of large residential conferencing events for up to 1000 delegates.*Commissioned key suppliers for events for bespoke activities and led whole organisation large staff event briefings.*Conduct review of performance after an event or project and produce key recommendations reports. *Part of the middle leadership department senior leadership team, support with succession planning, development and retention strategy for a large team of over 50. *Worked on large programmes with high value government contracts *Oversee and manage budget in excess of £1 million, ensuring value for money in all areas. *Set up pilot international middle leadership network from inception to launch, spanning the USA, Europe and Australia *Designed delivery model of remote accreditations for over 500 participants from concept through to successful delivery for all participants*Set department KPIs and ensure they are met and exceeded. *Work across departments to create streamlined processes that deliver quality and high performance. *Design and deliver quality assurance model for remote accreditation to ensure high quality contractor delivery. *National lead for facilitation strategy and execution across leadership development programmes for middle leaders. This includes recruitment design, quality assurance processes and stakeholder engagement strategy. *Matrix working on a national basis with a team of over 50. *Two-tiered line management of 3 managers and their teams including people development, 1:1s and personal development plans. 11 staff have been promoted under my line management. *Write, implement and oversee the policy development for leadership programmes ensuring they are fit for business need balanced with participant/client needs. *Oversee on boarding process of new participants from sale confirmed to enrolment. *Project lead for the re-design of Salesforce from a business use perspective on day to day programme delivery. Show less

Senior Programme Manager

• Nov 2015 - Jan 2017

- oversee the regional Fellows delivery team: two tiered team consisting of one Senior Programme Co-ordinator and 5 Programme Co-ordinators - accountable for the delivery and execution of the Fellows Programme in the North region, consisting of over 150 evening events and and 8 full day conferences for approx 200 delegates - manage several different project streams at once, ensuring all have correct deadlines and milestones set, checking in on a regular basis to ensure all programme elements (across the different programmes) are delivered on time and to high quality. - manage the Fellows Programme budget up to 200k. - work with a national team to execute our summer residential events: week long conference with approx 500 delegates. - work with the regional Head of Coaching to ensure coaching provision for all participants is successful and troubleshoot problems. - act as key point of contact between Teaching Leaders and senior leaders in schools taking part in our programme. - define regional ways of working within the Fellows delivery team and encourage team members to learn more about each other and understand ways of working: using team days, MBTI, coaching, learning styles amongst other strategies. - Consult with Regional Director and Associate Director to set the strategic direction of the programme for the region - Use monitoring and evaluation processes to ensure programme meets KPIs - use this data to inform programme improvements and use this to direct the strategic direction of programme - work with the national leadership development team to feed in regional feedback to develop national curriculum and programme design and strategy. - Hay group assessor and focused interviewer: assess candidates and centre manage assessment centres for the recruitment of participants to our programmes - Undertake coaching sessions with colleagues and completed coaching skills training. - adept with using Salesforce as our primary CRM service Show less

Fellows Programme Manager

• Jan 2013 - Dec 2015

To lead, implement and manage the Fellows programmes (all cohorts) across the North of England. Working with Middle Leaders from schools in challenging contexts who become Fellows once successfully accepted onto the programme. Managing a team of 8 to create positive relations with Fellows, set up and run training events, and innovate ideas to make the experience of the Teaching Leaders Fellows programme the best it can be. Lead the recruitment of 150 new Fellows across all challenging schools in the North of England. Centre manage and assess at Fellows competency based assessment centres. Lead the direction and strategy for the Fellows programme, including designing delivery hubs, setting suggestions for improvement, and using monitoring and evaluation to track successful progress of the programme. To commission facilitators to deliver our training sessions. To lead on and deliver a week long residential for 350 Fellows. To contribute to the development of the Fellows programme nationally, providing a regional picture. Show less

Participant Experience Manager

• Aug 2011 - Nov 2013

To build positive relationships with 39 Fellows, to ensure their experience of the programme is the best it can be. Working with Middle Leaders from schools in challenging contexts who become Fellows once successfully accepted onto the programme. Keep in regular contact with all Fellows, including designing and writing a fortnightly newsletter for communications. Running up to 10 training events per term - sourcing venues and catering, liaising with facilitators, ensuring all materials are ready. Also adding special touches to events to give them that personal feel.Holding Fellows to account for meeting their programme requirements e.g meeting Teaching Leaders tools deadlines. To provide online platform support and guidance, including learning our in house system in depth and being able to guide Fellows on its use. Completing evaluations of all training events, and using monitoring and evaluation to report to the Associate Director to feed into programme improvements and developments. Creating extra opportunities for Fellows, including termly focus groups where they can come and feedback on programme experience. Making lead calls to potential new Fellows for the 2012 cohort. Making initial calls, following up and recording information on Salesforce. Providing application support and marking applications using competency based assessment. Show less

Young Persons Health Partnership Manager

• Sep 2010 - Aug 2011

Setting up a completely new project across Manchester. Sourcing suitable office space for 30 people on a tight budget. Recruiting 2 cohorts of 30, and internally promoting 4 to team leaders. Managing a team of 30 (60 during the crossover period), who had been long term unemployed. Designing and running employability skills sessions weekly. Completing a piece of in-house research on engagement with health services locally. This included signposting teams to relevant places to approach, and guiding them to make links in the local community. Following this questionnaires would be completed with members of the public. Making links with local not for profit organisations to create developmental opportunities for the team, whilst positively impacting on organisations. Links included NHS North West on a Mindfulness pilot with Breathworks, Men's Health project Wythenshawe, Manchester's GiveGetGo volunteering initiative, North Manchester health and mental health steering group as primary examples. I was responsible for sourcing, contacting and creating these links. I also was aiming to get as many employees into long term work as possible, sourcing guest speakers to come into the office and provide guidance. Liaising closely with other managers across the Greater Manchester region and fostering positive relationships to share learning and best practice across the regions. 6 monthly analysis of health service engagement using SurveyMonkey and creating a report for the board on progress of the project as a whole - statistics of numbers into work, amount of projects linked with, how many organisations positive relationships have been set up with etc. Show less

Events Co-ordinator

• Apr 2010 - Sep 2010