Experience

ZR Consultants

• United Kingdom
• Business Consulting and Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Chief Executive Officer

  • Aug 2003 - Present

  ZR Consultants is a boutique consultancy firm that believes in delivering to the highest standards for their clients. We specialise in helping businesses implement major business transformation programmes or provide short-term strategic advice and technical studies. We are subject matter experts in Sarbanes Oxley (SoX) and have helped many blue chip clients in achieving compliance as well as remediating high volume and complex IT and Business deficiencies. Our consultants are proven experts in their field with a track record of helping some of the world’s leading financial, energy, food, Travel and utility companies. Whether your business wants to explore new opportunities, navigate risk, or deliver lasting change whilst managing the unexpected, ZR consultants are committed to finding solutions that will deliver lasting benefits and a competitive edge Some of the services offered include: - Sarbanes Oxley (SoX) - full lifecycle management - Project/Programme Management - Process Improvements / Change Management - Regulatory Compliance & Reporting - Internal Audit - Niche & Special Projects ZR Consultants provide a Big 4 service at a fraction of the cost and have been utilised by the Big 4 to deliver project for their clients, on their behalf. Show less



BT

• Belgium
• Financial Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Accounting and Financial Controls Director

  • Sep 2020 - May 2022

  Control Transformation – Transforming the entire Business and IT control environment for the BT Group as part of the Global MFB (Making Finance better) Programme SAP Implementation – Implementation of SAP and design of all surrounding processes and controls SAP GRC PC & AC– Implementation of new Risk and Controls repository and testing functionality and Access management tool Control Transformation – Transforming the entire Business and IT control environment for the BT Group as part of the Global MFB (Making Finance better) Programme SAP Implementation – Implementation of SAP and design of all surrounding processes and controls SAP GRC PC & AC– Implementation of new Risk and Controls repository and testing functionality and Access management tool



KPMG

• Brazil
• Construction

• Programme Director - SOX

  • Apr 2017 - Jan 2020

  - SOX Programme Director - Responsible for delivering significant Remediation, rationalisation and full end to end SOX Programme for some of KPMGs largest clients - Delivery of complete SOX programme across Booking.com, Brakes (UK, France and Sweden) & Sysco - Delivery of SOX programme across Booking.com (Amsterdam) and Booking Transport (Manchester) - Generating revenue of over £2.5m every year and full client management at Board level - SOX Programme Director - Responsible for delivering significant Remediation, rationalisation and full end to end SOX Programme for some of KPMGs largest clients - Delivery of complete SOX programme across Booking.com, Brakes (UK, France and Sweden) & Sysco - Delivery of SOX programme across Booking.com (Amsterdam) and Booking Transport (Manchester) - Generating revenue of over £2.5m every year and full client management at Board level



HSBC

• United Kingdom
• Financial Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Operational Risk Transformation Programme (ORTP) - Security, Fraud & Risk PM AND Head of ORTP UK

  • Jun 2016 - Apr 2017

  - Responsible for supporting and monitoring the rollout of the central solution (framework and system) to the Global Business and Global Function working with the respective implementation teams. - Providing the Business Implementation Manager with oversight of the design, development and execution phases of the programme including the onboarding onto the Helios system and Early Life Support (ELS) phase. -Ensure transparency during the implementation and managing issue escalation and ensuring there is an efficient support model in place. - Defining the strategy for onboarding onto Helio (Open Pages), ELS, planning and delivering the phase through working with the core programme teams as well as engaging the impacted business stakeholders. Show less



Barclays Bank

• Senior Programme Manager – PPI / PBA Governance & SOX at Barclays, Barclaycard and UKSL

  • Feb 2012 - Mar 2016

  Responsible for the end to end PPI/PBA Processes for Barclays, Barclaycard, UKSL and PBA (£7.2bn Programme) Succesfully implemented and rolled out Governance and Regulatory frameworks across the business Approved all changes across the programme including Transformation, Off-shoring, Payments processes, IT Systems & Data implementation and migrations etc. Delivered across the S166 review and implemented HMRC S17 projects Succesfully managed all stakeholders both internally and externally (MD's, CEO's, PWC etc) Show less



Royal Bank of Scotland Business

• United Kingdom
• Banking
• 700 & Above Employee

• Senior Project Manager - Current Account Migration

  • Sep 2011 - Feb 2012

  Recovered a 2 year failing programme to implement 4 new Packaged Bank Accounts (Basic, Basic Silver, Silver, Black) and succesfully migrated the existing RBS and Natwest customer base from their existing current accounts Managed all areas of the programme; including Technical migration, Technical build of new current accounts, Data Reconciliations, Third Parties (suppliers such as Affinity, Airport Angels, Greenflag etc.), ATM Blocking and unblocking (Vocalink & VISA), UAT Testing, Customer Journey’s, Legal and Marketing and Production of the NOV’s (Notice of Variance) Show less



Barclaycard

• United Kingdom
• Financial Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Project Manager (6 various Roles)

  • Feb 2010 - Aug 2011

  • Reporting to Operational Risk Department. Responsible for delivery of a number of projects.1. PPI Project ManagerImplementation of SOX and RCSA Operational Risk framework across Barclays, Barclaycard and UKSL. Development of end to end processes and controls as well as hosting a number of Risk and Process workshops2. Business Critical Projects and Risk EventsResponsible for working with the business on a number of business critical projects including contactless stickers, new product approvals and the Recruitment Audit covering UK Cards, Germany Cards and UK Secured Lending.3. Basel II• Responsible for reviewing, testing, documenting and walking through the US & UK Basel II process• Organised workshops and independent reviews of all models, calculations and core systems to ensure appropriate controls exist to mitigate any risks and the models were operating as required4. Impairment / Credit Risk• Responsible for carrying out a comprehensive review of the Impairment processes for UK Cards, Germany, UK Partnerships and UK Business Partnerships• Identified significant improvements to processes and controls which would save millions in the long term.5. General Computer Controls (GCC)• Responsible for SOX compliance Design Effectiveness Assessment (DEA) & Operational Effectiveness Testing (OET) of all GCC processes and risks.6. Business Control Activities (CA)• Responsible for project managing all the DEA and Walkthroughs for all Barclaycard CAs including all Automated Business Controls (ABC’s) and all Manual Business Controls (MBC’s) Show less

• SOX Project Manager

  • Feb 2010 - Apr 2010

  • Responsible for project managing all the DEA and Walkthroughs for all Barclaycard CAs including all Automated Business Controls (ABC’s) and all Manual Business Controls (MBC’s)• Carried out QA of all documentation produced to ensure SOX requirements were being met



Severn Trent Water

• Utilities

• Project Manager Flooding Re-instatement & Insurance Recovery

  • Jul 2007 - Apr 2009

  • Programme Manager, reporting to the Executive Committee and several Directors.• Responsible for setting up and managing a project office and several work streams • Project managed the Insurance project in order to ascertain total costs incurred by Severn Trent as a result of the incident and to maximize the money recovered under the insurance policy (aprox between £35m to £45m)• Identified additional savings of over £4.5m and far exceeded expectations during negotiations of Interim and final settlements with insurers e.g. Interim target was £5m I achieved £10m• Responsible for negotiations with FM Global insurers and Loss Adjustors, Cunningham Lindsey, in order to agree principles on reinstatement of electrical, mechanical & civil Assets• Appointed and managed third party Engineering firm, Mott MacDonald’s, to ensure all Asset Assessments for over 200 sites were carried out efficiently and effectively• Further appointed Morgan Est, Interserve, Mouchels, Adroit & Nomenca to value all damage• Established, built and managed several teams including a Projects Team, Finance Team, Procurement Team, Insurance Team, Legal Team and 3 Technical Team’s for Water, Sewage Pumping stations and Sewage Treatment works etc. Responsible for all recruitment.• Developed and Implemented all Approval and Finance Processes including write offs & QA• Responsible for managing the cost capture and the project budget of around £40m with over 15k transactions which had to be reconciled and analyseded to present to insurers• Appointed/managed resources from Eversheds, Willis, Echelon, Atkins Show less

• Programme Manager (Floods Public Enquiries)

  • Aug 2007 - Oct 2007

  • Project managed the Gloucester 2007 flooding incident by establishing a Programme Office and implementing the Columbus Document and Retrieval system and producing formal reports in response to the public enquiries levied upon Severn Trent whilst ensuring all facts are supported by evidence• Achieved our key deliverable of producing a Interim and Final Report for bodies such as Defra, DWI, Environmental Agency, Consumer Council of Water, Drinking Water Inspectorate, Gloucestershire County Council, Gloucestershire Constabulary, the government, the Cabinet Office and OFWAT• Developed presentations for Directors and provided supporting information in order to ensure that they had all the support they needed for all public enquiry’s and public presentations (including parliament)• Liaised with External bodies in order to ensure we satisfied all Public/External requirements• Liaised with workstream leaders, suppliers and members of the Executive Board. • Work streams established and managed included Gold Command, Silver Command, Business Resilience, Engineering, Distribution, Customer Care, Quality, Alternative Supplies, Sewage, Procurement, Finance, Insurance, Regulations, Communication, IT, Legal and Human Resources. Show less

• Head of Internal Audit

  • Jul 2007 - Aug 2007

  • Responsible for review, planning and management of audits and final reports • Explored new formats for the IA Report / Actions list, Audit Charter, KPI’s, Audit Questionnaire, Competency Framework, Risk Profiles and Process Maps• Responsible for reviewing processes and highlighting improvements



Southern Water

• United Kingdom
• Utilities
• 700 & Above Employee

• Business Process Re-engineering and Change Consultant / SAP Project Manager

  • May 2007 - Jun 2007

  • Review of SAP implementation and presentation of recommendations • Highlighting Process improvements and evaluation of SAP Modules • Review of all current processes and modeling of all processes within Aris • Processes covered included Finance, Billing, Customer Services and Devices • Formal Presentation of results to all Stakeholders • Review of SAP implementation and presentation of recommendations • Highlighting Process improvements and evaluation of SAP Modules • Review of all current processes and modeling of all processes within Aris • Processes covered included Finance, Billing, Customer Services and Devices • Formal Presentation of results to all Stakeholders

• Sarbanes Oxley Project Manager / Senior Consultant

  • Feb 2006 - Feb 2007

  •Project Managed SOX IT (GCC) and Financial Processes. Directly managed 4 teams •Responsible for documenting all processes, risks and controls and then walking through, testing and remediating all IT and Financial controls •Tested all material entries within the SAP Trial Balance and tested and mapped all feeds from various systems/processes into SAP to ensure accuracy and completeness •Produced all Process / Control Documentation for over 50 Processes. Documentation was produced via Workshops & consultations with various stakeholders within the business. •Process / Control documentation produced included; Visio Process Flows, Risk Profile Matrix’s and IT / Finance Control description documentation •Designed Process Templates for DEA Walkthroughs and Test Plans for OET and carried out extensive testing to ensure all controls were operating effectively •Managed a team of 9 external consultants conducting walkthroughs and was responsible for all QA’s and ensured that group standards and SOX requirements were met in all cases •Further Managed a Team of 5 to ensure all IT Controls were Trace Tested. I was responsible for testing 190 IT Controls over Barclaycard, Germany, Spain, MasterLoan, Juniper (US), Cluster Finance, BarclayLoan and First Plus, all of which used different systems and operated within different environments and cultures •PWC commended the quality of my IT control proving and reduce their sample sizes to reflect this •Managed all deficiencies to ensure all failed controls were effectively remediated •Mapping off all Hand in and Hand offs within clusters of Barclaycard to SAP on ARIS •Reviewed all entity level controls and amended risk and compliance documents •Carried out a Review of Impairment process (DEA and OET) in line with PWC by managing another Team of 3 to ensure all Action points were effectively remediated •Carried out a MIFID assessment and review of revised FSA requirements Show less



Unilever

• United Kingdom
• Manufacturing
• 700 & Above Employee

• Sarbanes Oxley Project Manager/ Consultant

  • Jun 2005 - Feb 2006

  •Carried out full Sarbanes Oxley review for the Shared Services finance department of Unilever Europe IT and managed the remediation of all IT / GCC deficiencies •Successfully Completed the SOX Audit before all other Unilever Group Countries despite being 3 months behind when I joined •Testing and process review carried out on both SAP and E-SAP as Unilever switched systems during this period. Also covered testing on the Implementation of E-SAP •Produced process diagrams and Risk and Control Matrix’s in Visio / Excel and carried out walkthroughs for Fixed Assets, Salaries and Wages, Accounts Payable, Treasury Control and EFI, Banking, Accounting and Reporting, Sales Ledger and Tax Processes and IT Audit. •Implemented new SOX Controls for HR and documented process, risk and controls •Set up Test Schedules, Templates and Standards for Walkthroughs which were later mandated by Unilever on a global group level–following recognition from PWC and the Board •Produced the Risk and Control Matrix (RACM) and the Test Plan and Results Summary (TPRS) for all processes •Established and chaired a Deficiencies Steering Committee for all IT Deficiencies •Managed and negotiated corrective action for all deficiencies identified •Fully trained on Sarbanes Oxley methodology and PWC requirements •Developed the Brand Key for Europe IT’s Finance Department Show less



Audit Commission

• United Kingdom
• Accounting
• 200 - 300 Employee

• External Auditor

  • Sep 2004 - Jun 2005

  • Managing, planning, Risk Assessment and testing of public sector external Audits covering Councils, NHS (Strategic Health Authorities) and Police Authorities. • Produced Final report, qualification letters and Amendments for Audited bodies. • Audits include; Housing Benefits and Council Tax, Performance Indicators, Non Domestic Rates, Final Accounts, Mental Illness, AIDS Grant, Single Regeneration, Corporate Governance reviews, National Fraud Initiative (NFI), Electronic Government, Market Initiative (SRB), Sure Start, Teacher Training and Pathfinder Show less



ACIT

• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Internal Auditor

  • Aug 2003 - Apr 2004

  • Public Sector Auditing, including production of test schedules, Risk Assessments, final report and recommendations for Internal Audits. Audits covered local councils • Public Sector Auditing, including production of test schedules, Risk Assessments, final report and recommendations for Internal Audits. Audits covered local councils



SinglePoint

• United Kingdom
• Software Development
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Programme / Project Manager: Implemented Geneva Billing System, ORACLE Financial System and Siebel C

  • Mar 2001 - Aug 2003

  Geneva, Oracle and Siebel Implementation • Project Managed the successful testing, validation and implementation of the new Geneva Billing system, Oracle Financial system and the new Siebel CRM system • Successfully managed the Migration of the Eppix legacy System to the Geneva Billing System • Data mapping of all Geneva Raw Data to the Printers (CMCS) in order to produce the Customer Bills by applying specified Logic to the Data • Organised training, recruitment and operational procedures for new departments established • Implemented all controls and processes and ensured appropriate controls were in place for sign off and releases as well as testing and signing of all new reports and building new departments • Signed off all UAT test scripts, results and releases. Also responsible for writing UAT Test Scripts as part of the Geneva System Implementation and Migration. • Analysed and corrected errors in system program code or related form/report definitions (SQL, Oracle), Business objects • Tendered for the Printing contract worth £60m per annum. Delivered with a saving of £8m a year. • Produced reports on Brio using Data warehousing from Oracle data base Head of Process Improvement • Responsible for setting up a new Process Improvements Department following my successful delivery of the Geneva, Oracle and Siebel system. • Recruited, Managed and developed 18 staff • Managed approximately 60-70 business wide projects at any given time and managed budgets • Responsible for implementation and testing of all IT developments. • Project managed all projects relating to System Support, Finance, Marketing, Call Centre, HR, Billing Operations, IT, Finance and Query Centre • Carried out all Risk Assessments, feasibility and financial viability reviews on Projects Head of Billing Department and Systems Operations • Responsible for monthly validation and authorisation of Bill Run (approx £52m a month) Show less



The Caudwell Group

• United Kingdom
• Telecommunications

• Programme / Project Manager and head of Process Improvements

  • Mar 2001 - Aug 2003

  • Responsible for setting up a new Process Improvements Department following my successful delivery of the Geneva, Oracle and Siebel system. • Recruited, Managed and developed 18 staff • Managed approximately 60-70 business wide projects at any given time and managed budgets with a total programme value of £120m+ • Responsible for implementation and testing of all IT developments. • Project managed all projects relating to System Support, Finance, Marketing, Call Centre, Credit control, Marketing, HR, Billing Operations, IT, Finance and Query Centre • Carried out all Risk Assessments, feasibility and financial viability reviews on Projects • Maintained and built relationships with all departments within the business in order to be in a position to drive forward all projects. Show less

• Senior District Auditor

  • Sep 2000 - Mar 2001

  • Carried out Public Sector Audits on Local Authorities • Compiled and completed Audits on special grants, council tax and large housing benefit claims • Testing of systems, controls and ensuring compliance with existing legislation of particular grants • Production of Audit reports, Findings and discussing future action/recommendations to be followed by Local Authorities in order to address the issues highlighted in the reports • Carried out Public Sector Audits on Local Authorities • Compiled and completed Audits on special grants, council tax and large housing benefit claims • Testing of systems, controls and ensuring compliance with existing legislation of particular grants • Production of Audit reports, Findings and discussing future action/recommendations to be followed by Local Authorities in order to address the issues highlighted in the reports



Punch Taverns

• United Kingdom

• Senior Financial Accounts Project Manager

  • May 2000 - Sep 2000

  • Approximately £375 million turnover • Reporting to head Accountant, Finance Controller and Finance director. • Project Managed the integration / migration of 3 Companies accounting systems • Maintained & reconciled general ledger, statutory accounts & various other accountancy duties • Produced the consolidated fixed asset registers of the three companies • Fully Trained on Lotus Notes, CMS system, Vanguard system and Sun system • Approximately £375 million turnover • Reporting to head Accountant, Finance Controller and Finance director. • Project Managed the integration / migration of 3 Companies accounting systems • Maintained & reconciled general ledger, statutory accounts & various other accountancy duties • Produced the consolidated fixed asset registers of the three companies • Fully Trained on Lotus Notes, CMS system, Vanguard system and Sun system



Cleres Chartered Accountants

• Senior Accountant

  • Jul 1999 - May 2000

  • Accounts preparation for sole traders, partnerships and Ltd companies, working from incomplete records to final draft stage for partners to review, predominantly dealing with limited companies. • Carried out audits on clients with turnovers in excess of £1.5m • Income Tax computations and VAT returns. • Using IRIS software and working with Sage Line 50 • Accounts preparation for sole traders, partnerships and Ltd companies, working from incomplete records to final draft stage for partners to review, predominantly dealing with limited companies. • Carried out audits on clients with turnovers in excess of £1.5m • Income Tax computations and VAT returns. • Using IRIS software and working with Sage Line 50



Parker & Knight Chartered Accountants

• Supervising Senior Accountant

  • Jun 1998 - Jun 1999

  • Responsible for the training, recruitment and supervision of eight junior accountants. • Full Preparation of Accounts to final stage for sole traders and limited companies. • Responsible for completion of all auditing work • Responsible for the planning and implementation of all large projects e.g. bank and client reconciliation’s for a solicitors firm in London and FTC (turnover of over £8m approx.). • Fully conversant with the APEX accountancy package software • Responsible for the training, recruitment and supervision of eight junior accountants. • Full Preparation of Accounts to final stage for sole traders and limited companies. • Responsible for completion of all auditing work • Responsible for the planning and implementation of all large projects e.g. bank and client reconciliation’s for a solicitors firm in London and FTC (turnover of over £8m approx.). • Fully conversant with the APEX accountancy package software



Rover Finance

• India
• Financial Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Accountant

  • 1997 - 1998

  Client reconciliation’s and other account duties Client reconciliation’s and other account duties