A Force For Change
Expertise & Approach
Entity Transfers
The legal entity transfer at HSBC, necessitated by Brexit, presented me with another opportunity to learn a new skill set. In managing the migration of the Ireland branch, I saw first hand the end to end entity transfer process including all of the challenges it presented.
Critical activities along the way were the granting of the relevant regulatory licenses and the client communication process. The latter demanded careful consideration and engagement with multiple business stakeholders.
The legal aspects were led by external general and local counsel, given that nature of the new European entity being established. Any entity change is all consuming and managing the impact on all aspects of the business is essential, with governance, regulatory reporting and process changes in abundance. This experience gave me an in-depth understanding of all aspects of the business from branding and new entity filings to client messaging and specific product impacts.
This role laid the foundation for my current engagement. As part of my current position I am managing the migration of operations as part of a fund administration entity transfer, again leveraging many of the skills and experiences honed at HSBC.
Regulatory
From when I started my training on the Graduate Training Program at Capco in the wake of the global financial crisis, it was obvious that my career would be profoundly shaped by the expansive new powers afforded to central banks worldwide. This has transpired to be the case as my client engagements have been punctuated by regulatory change.
My financial crime experience has been broadened through exposure to nuances encountered in dealing various jurisdictions as part of the European role I held on the Global Standards program. Since then, I have developed my understanding of the end to end on boarding & monitoring process, as well as the interactions between 1st & 2nd lines of defence. In particular, an understanding of fund administration screening considerations, transaction monitoring and operational best practice processes employed have become valuable assets.
Throughout this experience, understanding what regulators expect in the presence of controls, plans, tactical solutions and strategy have improved my approach to solving problems and defining next steps.
IT Transformation
Observing the transition of software development from waterfall to agile delivery at Lloyds Banking Group provided excellent exposure to the efficiencies available through adoption of this framework. Working for two visionary clients was hugely beneficial for those willing to learn. The investment and focus on agile methods led to dramatic improvements in the software development life cycle and time to market.
The challenges were not just technical in nature - assuring those who were resistant to change and educating sceptics provided even greater hurdles to overcome. Among a complete reconfiguration of the software development process, a new reporting mechanism, an agile workflow tool and enhanced team configuration and collaboration were all required. On the technical front, a refined test strategy, the launch of a DevOps team, a new business release cycle and adoption of best practices such as automated functional testing were some of the many changes implemented.
During this time I also developed an excellent understanding of the end to end technology estate. This was courtesy of my regular interactions with the 10 application development and maintenance platforms (in the technology directorate) who managed the retail and commercial IT estates. In particular, the latent power of the data warehouse platform was becoming the focal point of many companies ‘big data’ efforts, informing them of client experience and user journey weak points.
Strategic Advisory
I have gained experience from many assignments in employing the prescribed consulting tools such as operating & functional model reviews, due diligence assessments and propositions to efficiently convey a specific message.
Such consulting assignments demand organisation, an accelerated delivery schedule and in some cases automation is key to enabling this to be achieved. Having worked on large scale programs, there are many tools I have developed to cater for such demands.
For example, as part of a due diligence assessment that our team conducted, the dashboard we created was a highly efficient summary that captured all of the workshop output and findings in a concentrated format. This tool proved to be one that was reused on other projects. Similarly, structured reviews on future core banking platform recommendations and IT agility at ABN and Barclays respectively are evidence of my strategic advisory experience.
The variety and depth of experience I have gained is an integral component in my ability to advise on strategic initiatives. This is further complimented by the numerous delivery roles I have held whereby, in some cases (from my experience at least), well thought out strategies are not always fit for implementation.