Rob combines experience in start-up, consulting and FTSE 100 organisations.  He held Chief Information Officer, Application Development & Maintenance Director and Programme Director positions at Old Mutual (Skandia) and Sky Television.  Rob is highly experienced in delivering IT transformation through restructuring, outsourcing and re-platforming to enable new business strategies and achieve major cost reduction.  He has also led the provision of strategic business intelligence solutions.

Examples of Rob’s experience include:

• Leading the design of Old Mutual’s Global IT Organisation.  This includes over 2,500 people in 20 countries.  Implementation is in progress with the first two levels of management now in place.
• As CIO, enabling Skandia UK to transform from a traditional life & pensions company into a successful online investment business through the provision of leading platform technology.  The company secured the number one position in its market through this channel, achieving sales growth of 138% in 2010.
• Delivery of a new Business Intelligence platform providing strategic product information to the Executive of Old Mutual Wealth Management.  Decisions taken using this information rapidly improved profitability and enabled the company to comply with forthcoming regulatory requirements (Solvency II).
• Taking on the leadership of Skandia UK’s IT department just after a major outsource when it lacked direction and morale was very low.  Rob led the embedding of a new vision, culture and strategy, restored motivation and completed the critical offshore transition phase.  In this role, Rob delivered over £20M of annual cost reductions, doubled development capacity to address the backlog of business projects, reduced headcount by a third and led the mid-term re-negotiation of the primary outsource contract to meet the company’s future needs.
• As Programme Director, delivery of a £250M customer platform replacement programme for Sky Television that has enabled both increased and diversified sales, improved efficiency and the rapid launch of new products and services.  Rob led the two largest phases of the programme: the first to deploy the platform for new customers and the second to migrate all 10M existing customers to it. Both were achieved in their target month.

Rob holds Bachelor of Science (first class) and Master of Philosophy degrees from Aston Business School.  He is also a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Information Technology Professional.  He served on several Regulated Boards as an Executive Director at Old Mutual and was a UK Financial Services Authority Approved Person.  Rob is a regular speaker at professional conferences.