JAMES LAWRENCE ACIBEmail: JamesALawrence@aol.com

Mobile:+44 (0)779 220 3663Home Location: Northamptonshire

Highly experienced Senior Portfolio / Programme Office Manager and professionally qualified financial services expert, with over 15 years spent in extremely dynamic Programme Management Office / Portfolio Management environments, operating across multiple countries / cultures. Has real commercial awareness combined with excellent skills in planning / financial management, as well as leadership and matrix management of direct and virtual teams across Europe. Committed to working as part of a peak performing team and driven to find innovative ways to continually improve.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Portfolio / Programme Management Disciplines Financial ManagementEnterprise / Risk Management Governance FrameworksProject Management (Prince 2 trained)KPI / MI Development & DeliveryBusiness Case Development & ManagementPrioritisation

Change ManagementStakeholder ManagementMatrix ManagementResource Management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Visa EuropePortfolio / Investment Management

2008 to Date

Achievements

Created and delivered MI Roadmap to introduce Portfolio Health measures across the entire portfolio if Visa Europe Projects

Introduced Return on Investment measures to projects to all projects ensuring a growing commercial focus across the all projects in the Portfolio

Developed and implemented key elements for a refreshed project governance framework Design and delivered new Business Case management tool and process via NIKU/Clarity Facilitated the introduction of robust prioritisation and scheduling to support Investment

choices across multiple Portfolios / Accountable Executives Segmented the Portfolio of Investments based around the organisations Strategic

objectives, to enable understanding of how the Investment choices will help delivery against the defined strategy

Revised the templates and processes supporting the Business Case, again to ensure greater focus on the commercial benefits of each project

Managed a contractor to enhance our Clarity (NIKU) capabilities by creating Portfolio / Resource dashboard information available for all Senior Leaders up to and including the CIO

Implemented resource management principles across the entire IT community (circa 1000 people)

Conducted quarterly reviews on behalf of the Investment Committee of the benefits management surrounding Business Cases and Benefits Realisation across the entire Portfolio of Investments. In additional, recommendations were made and accepted on how to improve control and probability of benefits delivery

Undertaken analysis across multiple attributes to understand the current state of the Portfolio. This includes RAG status trends / Benefits Realisation / Delivery Performance / Business Readiness and Resource hotspots

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Responsibilities

Primary responsibility for the Visa Europe Investment Committee chaired by Visa President / CEO. Production of all meeting packs and crafting of difficult messages for an executive audience

Work across the whole organisation to support project sponsors to craft presentations to be presented requesting Investment funds from the Investment Committee’s Central Project Budget

Development and introduction of Portfolio Management principles and processes across the entire Visa Europe organisation

Development / build and ongoing support of KPIs and Management Information to support the Change & Governance function as well as the wider Project Supply community

Barclaycard Western Europe & ABSAPlanning & Change Finance Manager – Programme Management Office

2005 to 2008

Achievements

Developed & implemented new Strategic Investment Governance process, through consultation with stakeholders and subsequent selling of benefits to Executive Committee, ensuring tight financial governance of project spend, Change lifecycle controlled and optimised the end to end supply chain

Designed, built and implemented new reporting suite for all Change financials through detailed analysis of key stakeholders needs, exceeding expectations by delivering a more robust MI capability providing ‘a single version of the truth’

Mitigated risks (approved by external auditors) of up to £15m through designing, developing and implementing a process to review the impairment risks of projects

Key member / influencer of the Strategic Investment Steering Group a sub committee and governance forum of the Executive Committee. Acted as the gateway /control point for all new demand from the business into the Change Delivery function and beyond to key suppliers

Responsibilities

Controlling annual £40m Strategic Investment budget with personal limit of authority of up to £200k on behalf of the Chief Operating Officer

Reviewed / challenged business cases to ensure appropriate projects only are progressed with demonstrable benefits that reach or exceed hurdle rates

Management of 7 Cost Centres (circa £6m per Cost Centre) coving BI (Barclaycard International) Change in the UK, Spain, Germany, Africa and APAC

Responsible for development of all Short Term Plans / Medium Term Plans for Change Activity across the BI, working across the business ensuring Strategic Investment is targeted on delivery of real business benefit

Key member of the PMO Senior Leadership Team, working across the function to support coach and grow the talent with the PMO Team

Leadership of 3 FTE ‘s with influence across the whole Change function (100+ FTE’s)

International Planning Manager Operations & Planning 2004 to 2005 Built / Delivered / Improved the BI Operating Plan that was used to ensure the Change

projects being worked on were dovetailed to the Short Term / Medium Term plans, contributing to the business delivering its targets during a period of unprecedented growth.

Control exponential increase in the Change Plan budget, with appropriate controls to demonstrate expenditure correctly targeted and to facilitate fact based decision making. Chaired the Small Change Committee (budget £200k)

International Project Office Manager – IT 2001 to 2004

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Set up Project Office function from scratch Creating / Maintain / Enhance Annual System Plan and controlled associated financials Delivered recruitment plans for the IT Team and undertook relationship management of

key IT suppliers. Was responsible within BI for the transfer/TUPE of IT into XBP/BXP (outsourcing arrangement with Xansa/Steria)

International Project Manager 2001 to 2001 Integral member of a small team (3 PM’s) delivering directly for the Managing Director on

activities where additional support was required. This included IT finance and planning support

International Implementation Manager 1999 to 2001 Completed initial start up activity for the launch of Barclaycard in Ireland Project Managed the launch of BI Internet capability across multiple countries (Germany,

Spain, France and Greece) delivering Brochure Ware, On-Line Applications and Account Servicing

Project Manager – Fraud Prevention 1996 to 1999 Successful delivery for on time and to budget delivery of a multi million pound project to

deliver HNC’s (Fair Isaac’s) Falcon Fraud Detection solution into both the Retail Banking (Connect) and UK Credit Card businesses. Delivery included a full MI capability to allow tracking of benefits demonstrating delivery ahead of business case

Various roles leading to above including July 1987 to 1996 Project Manager Triumph Major Transformation (circa £100m Programme) Business Analyst Fraud Prevention Supervisor Fraud Prevention Analyst Personnel

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT / EDUCATION / QUALIFICATIONSWorkPrince 2 (Foundation Level) Associate of the Institute Of BankersSAP Training Accountable Executives TrainingBenefits Managers Training Effective CommunicationTrain the Trainer Value Based Management

MS Office Products including Advanced use of Excel / PowerPoint and Word.Additionally skilled in the use of MS Project, Visio, Clarity (NIKU) and SAP / Oracle GL

Education2 A’ Levels Economics & Geography 7 O’ Levels inc. Maths and English

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS / QUALIFICATIONSAssociate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (Feb 1996)

INTERESTS / ACTIVITIES / VOLUNTEERING EXPERIENCEEnjoys many outdoor pursuits including fell walking / sailing and skiing as well as photography for which several exhibitions have been held. Through the Barclaycard work in the community scheme, spent a number of days supporting the local community whilst outside of work is a member of the Pitsford Open Garden committee as well as a long time member of Radio Nene Valley, Northampton’s local Hospital Radio service.

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