DS Smith

IT Business Partner for the Sales, Marketing, and Innovation functions within Packaging.  Helping the business shape a myriad of initiatives ranging from CRM to e-commerce, and from marketing tools/processes to leveraging internal innovation.

IT Business Partner SMI

Asahi Europe (ex-SABMiller): Koninklijke Grolsch, Asahi UK, & Brands Europe

Strategic IS business partner to the executive teams of Asahi Europe Netherlands, UK & Brands Europe, responsible for aligning local business / IS requirements with regional and global strategies.

IS Lead

Deloitte

Generated revenue and growth for Deloitte Consulting Services through business transformation projects and strategic consulting.

A selection of projects:
- In charge of the European leg of an HR Transformation (HRT) project for the world’s third 
largest independent chemical company, maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of their 
HR service delivery model and technology solutions.
- Responsible for driving a CIO on-boarding programme for one of the largest international 
beer brewers, providing a deep understanding of the IT department, the environment it operates in, and identifying opportunities for improving operations.  Specifically the project focused on business-IT alignment, expenditure, organisation & processes, strategy & projects, sourcing, and applications & infrastructure as a foundation for a 100 day plan.
- Co-lead advanced analytics workshop for a major FMCG, helped shape workforce analytics within HRT service line

Senior Manager

Unilever

Built and lead global organisational expertise team focused on increasing efficiency of service delivery of non-core corporate activities and on developing a capability to improve insights and drive sound decisions about human capital, talent and organisation in line with corporate strategy.  Role focused on driving key performance indicators (KPIs), supporting corporate change initiatives, process improvements, data quality, communication, and simplification to improve the speed, agility, and data driven decision making capability of the global HR function.

Global Organisational Effectiveness Director

Corporate strategy focus on core brands and activities, leading to global initiatives aimed at creating a simpler and more flexible organisation to meet changing business needs, providing financial headroom to allow for investment in and growth of the core business:

- Supported Asia Africa Middle Eastern region business transformation agenda, with delivery 
of an IT services outsourcing capability, facilitating delivery of 200M Euro business change 
programme, aimed at decreasing input costs and reducing internal staff.
- Lead the change agenda for Unilever Europe’s country IT organisations and identified value 
creation opportunities. Responsible for influencing a 15% budget reduction over 2 years, through activity rationalisation, headcount reductions, best practice sharing, and centralisation, releasing funds to the business.

Organisational Transformation Director

IT Director for Unilever Belgium (700 employees, 800 Million Euro turnover).  Member of the management team leading a business change programme that lowered indirect costs from 10% to 7% through process and systems (SAP) footprint simplification.  Streamlining enabled the integration of different functions, leading to a 30% headcount reduction.  Also responsible for directing all aspects of IT outsourcing strategy for Unilever Belgium, decreasing headcount from 37 to 8 people, and reducing budget from 6, 5 Million Euro to 3, 5 Million Euro, whilst delivering the business project portfolio in full and improving service levels (user satisfaction) from 3.1 to 4.0 (out of 5 points), and reducing support issue calls from +/-900 p/m to +/- 400 p/m.

IT Director / Head of IT

Appointed to drive the development and management of a pan European consumer intelligence capability for global and local products. Programme collected consumer data and supported multi-channel one-to-one/relationship marketing programmes across Europe for more than 30M households, both digital as well as paper based initiatives. Developed web platforms for Dove.com, Sunsilk.com, Knorr.com, and several Axe (Lynx) country sites, amongst others, as well as implemented and managed consumer databases and loyalty programmes for several major European countries. Enabled data driven email marketing and campaign management activities, based on insights from consumer databases, across Europe. Started the role with modest means of 150K Euro, developing the function to a team of 12 with a budget of 2.2M Euro. In-house capabilities brought savings of 25M Euros over a 5 year period to the European Marketing function, as well as proving incremental sales effect of programme.

European Consumer Marketing Systems Manager

General Electric

Member of IT management team with a key role in the systems integration of the Bayer and GE Silicones joint venture, aimed at creating operational synergies. Responsible for commercial systems, delivering integrated demand forecasting and the sales order process to major accounts, to ensure consistent high levels of customer care. Also lead and managed the development and implementation of a web based order entry system, focused on improving customer satisfaction through quicker and more accurate order entry. Managed a small team of five external system developers.

Leader Commercial Systems

Sun Microsystems

Developed and implemented a pan European CRM capability that linked the supply chain with the ‘voice of the customer’. Customer focused and needs driven platforms delivered several enhancements such as packaging configuration changes and multiple product quality improvements. Key spin-off from this programme drove the re-engineering of the European manufacturing DOA process. This resulted in $2M USD savings, and improved availability of root cause analysis data by an average of 7 days.

Programme Manager

Lead a pan European programme to improve inventory management for centralised warehousing for high value components. Managed the development of an intranet application that streamlined order discrepancy handling, as well as improved data capture to enable better insights to business logistics performance. The project led to $700K USD in savings within the first year.

Process Improvement Leader

As an IT Business Partner for the Sales, Marketing, and Innovation functions within Packaging at DS Smith, I help the business shape a myriad of initiatives ranging from CRM to e-commerce, and from marketing tools/processes to leveraging internal innovation. With over 4.5 years of experience in this role, I have developed strong analytical, communication, and collaboration skills to align business and IT requirements and deliver value-added solutions.

Prior to joining DS Smith, I was a strategic IS business partner to the executive teams of Asahi Europe Netherlands, UK & Brands Europe, where I led several business transformation projects and strategic consulting engagements. I also have a background in management consulting, having worked as a senior manager at Deloitte for over a year. I hold an MBA in Marketing and Management, and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing. I speak four languages: English, Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese.

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