Stealth start-up fintech

Building a stealth start-up fintech in the banking and financial services space.

Building a start-up fintech | Programme Director | Operations Director | SaaS | Blockchain

Career Break

Supporting extended family

OMNIO

Omnio Group is a Cards & Payments FinTech, also creating Banking-As-A-Service (BaaS), transitioning from start-up to scale-up.

Objective
Recruited by the CEO to enable accelerated revenue growth, and reduce programme delivery costs through better, faster delivery and leadership of a central team.

●	Full lifecycle delivery management using multi-disciplinary teams

●	Led the creation of a white-label current account, both the technology aspect and BAU operational processes including KYC, AML, compliance and support

●	Led an additional ring-fenced team of 30 people supporting key clients on highly unstable legacy platforms the pending availability of the new Omnicore platform

●	Reduced delivery costs by: facilitating uplifts in individuals performance using coaching and feedback; designing and implementing Agile methodology and governance; identifying and mitigating risks and issues early using the new methodology and reporting

●	Reduced remedial work and costs by: allocation of quality assurance resource; enhanced Sprint planning; better control of requirements documentation and Change Requests

●	Created new Change Management function, leading a team of programme and project managers, business analysts and PMO

●	Revenues accelerated by: earlier delivery rather than many months late

Results
Improved financials by over £5 million pa by mitigating the risk of lost revenues, managing key supplier relationships and accelerating new revenue growth. Reduced delivery and remedial costs by over £1.5 million pa, and mitigated programme overruns.

Program Director

The private equity investors asked me to lead a subsidiary business PCT London with a team of 30, to move key clients, suppliers and staff to the core Omnio business and then close the PCT limited company, at the same time as continuing programme delivery and business as usual operational activities.

Managing Director

Aion Digital

Aion Digital is a FinTech company creating digital banking applications across the Middle East, transitioning from start-up to scale-up.

Objective
To enable accelerated revenue growth, reduce programme delivery costs through better, faster delivery and leadership of a central team.

●	Full lifecycle program management simultaneously in 3 countries across the Middle East, using multi-disciplinary teams

●	Revenues accelerated by; earlier completion payments through delivery on time rather than typically 2 months late; better programme planning; careful management of Project Managers across Kuwait, Bahrain and Dubai

●	Delivery costs reduced by: delivering on time by designing and implementing a programme delivery framework based on Agile methodology with structured governance and oversight; facilitating an uplift in Project Manager performance through regular development reviews, feedback and coaching; creation of transparent internal and external reporting, enabling early communication of issues and remedial actions

●	Remedial work costs reduced by: control of business requirements documents and Change Requests; enhanced Sprint planning; allocation of quality assurance resource

●	Established new Delivery function leading a team of programme and project managers, business analysts and PMO

Results
Improved financials by over $5 million pa by mitigating the risk of lost revenues, managing key supplier relationships and accelerating new revenue growth. Reduced delivery and remedial costs by over $1 million pa, and mitigated programme overruns.

Transformation Director

Williams Lea

Williams Lea Tag is a global marketing and communications business.

Objective
Mitigate delivery risk by turnaround of failing GDPR programme

●	Full lifecycle programme management

●	Mixture of onshore and offshore teams

Results
Delivered 2 months ahead of plan and 42% under budget

Program Manager

Post Office Ltd

Joint venture with Bank of Ireland.

Objective
Increase revenues by the turnaround of a failing strategic programme where 4 others had failed.

●	Deployment of tablet technology and digital content to 500 strategic locations

●	Recovery of broken relationships with 3 of the 4 key IT suppliers

●	Full lifecycle programme management

●	Leadership of multi-disciplinary onshore and offshore teams

Results
Revenue increase in excess of £15 million pa.

Deloitte

Objective
Increase revenues by creating a new service following my direct approach to the UK Managing Partner with a new business idea.

●	Design and implementation of a new data analytics service

●	Full lifecycle programme management

●	Matrix organisation leading multi-disciplinary teams

●	Sale of service to key strategic clients to ensure year 1 profitability

Results
Revenues in excess of £5 million pa.

Capa

Capa is a boutique consultancy. Delivery of finance programmes at large retailers.

Some jurisdictions refer to this as Programme Manager.

MERIDIAN COST BENEFIT LIMITED

Meridian is a boutique consultancy. Delivery of finance programmes in local authorities, legal, retail, manufacturing, engineering and utilities sectors.

Project Manager

EURODEBT FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED

Financial Services franchise selling to personal customers.

Owner

Programme Director. I help CEOs of UK-based Fintech businesses, deliver annual revenue growth of £15m+, by leading the change and client delivery performance effectively.

Are you a CEO in FinTech or financial services and want to accelerate your revenue growth?

Do you fear the next meeting with investors and shareholders?

Are you frustrated about not being able to get the revenue performance from the assets you have?

Are you worried for your position as CEO even?

Wouldn’t it be better if your revenue growth gained the spring in its step that you keep promising?

If your meetings with investors were handshakes and not ass-kickings?

And if it came without having to throw a whole ton of budget at delivery and sales functions?

It’s because your delivery capability is not optimised, and revenues are slow to be captured. The SDLC and governance are lacking, and sub-optimal delivery decisions are made against this context.

This is good news, because it’s not expensive or radical to fix. It just needs diligent and experienced delivery leadership. Then your revenues will grow faster – happy days.

In my 15+ years’ experience I have led the delivery contribution to revenue growth of c. £15m pa, including my last two roles. That’s why a fintech former colleague said of me:

"…Strategic/critical thinking, excellent communication/articulation and strong analytical ability. He has an ability to focus on business outcomes as well as stated objectives and operates confidently at the Board level."

The same types of issues arise repeatedly – I expect them, am adept at negotiating them and have done so many times.

If you would like me to help you increase revenues by leading and optimising your Change or Delivery function, then direct message me on LinkedIn now.

Paul Meredith

🌟 FinTech friends and financial services leaders — let’s have a real chat about change. Because, honestly, it’s not just about growth anymore. Sometimes, it’s about survival. 

🌟 I’ve been in the Change & Transformation game for over 20 years now. And here’s something I’ve noticed: a lot of people talk about change like they want it — but what they really mean is they want everyone else to change. 

Funny how that works, right? The truth is, change can be scary when it means changing yourself.

Why is that?

➡️Maybe people don’t feel totally ready for what’s coming
➡️Or maybe they’re just comfortable where they are
➡️Ambiguity? It can freak people out
➡️And if someone’s been burned by messy change efforts before, why would they jump back in?

So, how do we make this less scary?

➡️Talk openly - explain the what, the why, the when, and what’s in it for them
➡️Get everyone involved early, especially those doing the day-to-day work — they know the pain points better than the exec team
➡️Tailor your communication — Board members want slides, end users want Q&As

Give the right training
➡️Keep the support going after launch
➡️And most importantly, listen. Feedback is gold for tweaking and improving

When we do change right, it sets us up for success — real success tied to actual business goals, the stuff we promised when we started the journey.

How are you embracing change in your organisation? Any lessons or tips you’ve picked up along the way? Let’s swap stories.

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Building a startup fintech. I help fintech CEOs deliver annual revenue growth of £15m+, by leading the change and client delivery function effectively

Chaucer Group

Pricing Transformation Programme, 
DORA
Lloyds Market - Blueprint 2
Microsoft 365 Copilot AI Champion

Senior Project Manager - Pricing Transformation, DORA, Blueprint 2

A Finance Transformation environment in which I manage a complex programme to develop valuation models with significant risk and potential for financial impact. This involves the consolidation of technology and the development of new actuarial models and process automation for business valuation and risk management. All migrating into a new cloud, vendor-managed solution.
I led the hiring of specialist development teams and executed the RFP process with major consultancies and software vendors.  I manage teams of contractors and consultants to develop and deliver the new actuarial models required for valuation, which are being migrated to the FIS Managed Cloud Solution.

Programme Manager - 'FIS® Insurance Risk Suite (formerly Prophet)' Implementation

IQ-EQ

IQ-EQ is growing through numerous and continual mergers and acquisitions in the wealth management industry. 
I was brought in to procure and implement a Risk Management Platform (MetricStream) and a Bulk Screening solution (Napier) for all global business units within the group. This is a key initiative for IQ-EQ to have a robust risk solution, framework and culture to unify the group.

Project Manager - Risk & Compliance

10x Psychology

As the Senior Project Manager at 10x Psychology, I was responsible for delivering product and cloud architecture development whilst ensuring excellence in solution development and maximising client value. Excelling at engaging with people at all levels, focusing on team and personal productivity.
Working closely with Azure Architects and Developers to optimise solutions in Microsft Azure.
Ensuring that all teams within the organisation are aligned and ready to meet all client needs from the solutions we’ve developed
Developing teams and processes to support the development of solutions the market wants and build a company that can scale.
Example Projects:
➜ Forming and managing a Scrum Team of 6 people, through requirements analysis to design and develop SaaS products capturing large volumes of data and utilising data analytics to present actionable data to users via visual dashboards (Optimize)
➜ Working with Azure Architects, DevOps Engineers, Front and Backend Developers and SDETs to enhance existing products and infrastructure to optimize SaaS solutions in Microsoft Azure; improving security, efficiency of delivery and cost savings
➜ Develop Azure B2C single sign-on solution for a large Health Insurance Company
➜ Supporting the RFP process and onboarding a large International Bank to use a number of our solutions.

Senior Project Manager - Cloud Archictecture and Product Delivery

Delivering FIS Insurance products which form a business-driven IT product suite for the insurance industry in each of the following major business lines: life/health/annuities/pensions, property and casualty and reinsurance. iWorks offers a range of products and services including front-office tools, policy administration, reinsurance, actuarial calculations, financial accounting, investment accounting, and reporting. FIS partners with customers to deliver products and services that align with changing business and regulatory needs.

My  role is to ensure the success of a portfolio of projects and provide the services of the Project Management Office (PMO) function which oversees all Insurance-Prophet development projects. I project manage a number teams to effectively co-ordinate and manage the portfolio of Prophet products in all phases of the project life-cycle.
Other duties include:
➜ Develop portfolio dashboard reports and present to programme board and executive teams
➜ Provide project assurance and support for project teams.
➜ Develop and document PMO and project management best practices and templates (e.g. business cases, PIDs, Risk & Issue Logs, MS Project development plans)
➜ Implement and train the team to use new practices and methodologies such as agile, scrum and kanban.
➜ Capture and propagate best practices (and lessons learnt)
➜ Facilitate good communication across and within teams
➜ Implement and support content management and workflow management systems (e.g. SharePoint, Team Foundation Server)
➜ Supporting the development of product road-maps
➜ Line Manage the user documentation team to deliver for product launches

Project Portfolio Manager -Product Roadmap Delivery

Delivering software development programmes and projects for a number of products, to deliver solutions with multi-staged delivery, to meet varied client and regulatory needs of the insurance sector.
Managing the full project and product life-cycle from business case development and requirements gathering to post-delivery benefit realisation.
Creation and continual improvement of software development and implementation methodologies (including Agile) based on PRINCE2 project governance, Project management practices and experience gained best practices.
Creation of Quality Management Strategy for Risk Management operations.

Example Programme: 
➜ US Single Platform - A team of 80 people for 3 years for a programme to develop and deliver a single platform for ALM, pricing, planning and valuation that delivers the right combination of governance, flexibility and speed today's U.S. insurers demand. Requiring the enhancement of existing products and the development of new ones

Senior Project Manager - Software Product Development

SunGard Financial Systems - now part of FIS

Senior Project Manager in the Insurance Prophet Consultancy team in Chertsey specialising  in the implementation of Prophet Enterprise.

Project Experience:
➜ Customer 1 - Project managed SunGard delivery to first (pilot) Prophet Enterprise customer. This involved defining requirements with customer, and quality acceptance criteria; managing regular project reviews; issue and change request resolution and managing risks. Working closely with PE development team to meet schedule and quality expectations of customer. I was also involved in detailed contractual and service level development.
➜ Customer 2 – Project managed implementation and delivered a successful PE installation, and coordinated efforts to enhance customers business process around Prophet and aligned with their concurrent 6 sigma initiative. Working closely with customer project manager to ensure optimal benefit realisation.
➜ Customer 3 – Liaised with customer to understand their requirements (and expectations) of Prophet Enterprise. Leading to additional module development (HPC grid computing) to fulfil customer’s requirements.
➜ Customer 4 – Project manage scoping exercise to coordinate data gathering and analysis of customers as-is process and to define initial to-be Prophet Enterprise scenario. Understanding customers business, and required project structure and identifying further opportunities for customer benefit in utilising SunGard products and services during the Prophet Enterprise implementation. Also providing detailed project planning and organisation for subsequent implementations

Senior Project Manager - Product & Client Implementation

DHL Systems ltd

Business Transformation Project Manager (Europe). Deployed a change management programme of tools, methods and IT applications in order to optimise and standardise processes and realise cost savings

•Implementation and tracking of a major change programme across Europe. 
•Dealt with various integrated organisations/people with diverse working practices and cultures
•Deployment of bespoke software; MS Office based tools and reports; and standardised business processes based on Prince2 Methodology.
•Developed close working relationships with country senior management.
•Managed the development, testing and deployment of new applications and methods. 
•Provided executives with necessary information
•With business goals firmly in mind I tracked the consequent realisation of cost savings and benefits against agreed targets.

Transformation Programme Manager

DHL Systems Ltd

Deployed various projects across Europe, these included integration projects; customs clearance, finance and billing IT applications; process and change management projects; and production IT systems. 
•Involved from the conception of projects, to their deployment and implementation.
•Built relationships with country senior management, project managers, implementers, trainers, IT services and 3rd party suppliers. 
•Managed Pilots, UATs, confidence and BETA tests.
•Managed and trained local teams. 
•Maintained optimal communication flow in a consultative & collaborative approach with all direct and indirect stakeholders. 
•Achieved rapid, effective country deployment and operation levels to provide achievement of the defined business case benefits.
•Successfully managed risks, showed leadership and produced quick and decisive decisions to overcome default against project milestones.

Deployment Project Manager

Delivered in-house and 3rd party technical solutions to automate customs clearance, inventory and billing.
•Managed the business requirements development for DHL propriety applications.
•Managed/developed 3rd party supplier relationships.
•Monitored performance against SLAs whilst analysing and improving on performance levels. 
•Liased with country and global IS, business staff and suppliers to ensure that applications were properly installed; configured; ready for use; and that support met the business requirements. 
•Managed the change process both internally and externally (with 3rd party suppliers).

Global IS Programme Manager

Managed technical deployment and support of proprietary customs/finance applications; working on HP-UX platform and Informix database applications.
•Managing interfaces with 3rd party software suppliers. 
•Giving technical training to country teams. 
•Application upgrades. 
•Pilots and BETA tests.
•Liased with country IT and business entities in order to fully understand existing local software before attempting to integrate the new applications with the existing ones. 
•Managing change requests and business requirement driven development.
•Managing and training the new support team in Prague when the data centre and support functions were moved.

Solutions Team Leader

Tested the operational production systems as part of the development team.
•SEI CMM level 5 IT software engineering development environment.
•Set up hardware for test environment and new team in Malaysia. 
•Configured and managed the testing environment.
•Developed testing scripts.
•Tested outsourced software development

Test Manager

Reuters

Provided time critical financial content to financial services via desktop and web applications.
•Managed the quality of various content streams from external and internal suppliers. 
•Managed several financial sources directly.
•Liased with 3rd party suppliers.
•Researched further sources and instigated contact to develop supplier relationships. 
•Edited financial and other data formats through varying degrees and also enhanced the data quality through editorial review to satisfy the business requirements and needs of our clients.

Content Manager

ContentGenerators

Provided consultation services to clients as to what various technologies could offer to fulfil their business requirements; and managed various projects to analyse, develop and manage content sources to meet the objectives of their web presence. 
•Dealt with issues of usability, visitor relationship management (including CRM), footprinting and optimisation. Developed an elementary understanding of many aspects of the Internet, website design and user interaction. 
•Thorough understanding of various Internet technologies and our clients’ use of them. 
•Developed new products and service offerings, from conception to software and product development; to marketing and ultimately delivering the defined product/consultancy services to our customers. 

Developed, tested and implemented strategies to improve our clients’ Internet presence (e.g. search engine ranking).

Chief Analyst

Delivering transformational change using expert knowledge & practical experience in portfolio delivery to lead programmes and project teams.

A chartered Project Professional with over 20 years of experience, I work within programmes and projects to help organisations when they need to deliver change; I do this by ensuring alignment of people, processes and technology with strategy and objectives.

My Expertise:
Pragmatic and outcome-focused, I have extensive experience in building relationships and leading high-profile Business Transformation programmes: 
➜ Software/Product Development
➜ Risk Management
➜ Regulatory Change
➜ Change Management

I lead change programmes to deliver:
➜ Organisational change
➜ Process change
➜ Technological change
➜ Cultural Change

Throughout my career, I have developed leadership and coaching skills, customer focus, organisational skills, and a strong interpersonal communication style to help diverse matrix teams (virtual, remote and on-site in various global locations) of up to 80 people working together. My teams solve problems and deliver within budgets (~£5m). 

Industry Experience:
With considerable experience in achieving successful project delivery within highly pressured product growth, integration and change environments. I have delivered projects globally and have been at the vanguard of working with remote teams to achieve business goal delivery in multiple industries within start-ups and large enterprises  (including FTSE & Fortune 500 companies) in Information Technology, Logistic and Financial Services / FinTech, Lloyds Market and often partnering with large consultancies.

My style:
I deliver projects with maximum engagement at all levels to ensure shared visions of business benefits and project success. I do this by quickly establishing and assuring project fundamentals and governance. My deep understanding of project methodologies, techniques and practical experience then enables me to keep the focus on stakeholder engagement and momentum, 
I manage and coach project teams at all levels and stages to achieve optimal results. I bring oversized value by supporting and increasing the contribution of everyone on the team. Fostering ways of working that strive for excellence. All done with a passion for engagement, team and personal productivity and aligning fun with success.

Certified in: 
➜ SAFe®
➜ Scrum®
➜ AgilePM® (DSDM Atern) 
➜ PRINCE2®
➜ PRINCE2 Agile®
➜ Association of Project Management (APM) Chartered Project Professional (ChPP)

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