Renier’s Executive CV

Renier Botha

MIoD MBCS CITP FCMI

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/renierbotha/

@renierbotha

http://www.renierbotha.com

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY / PROFILE

A successful, energetic and results-driven Senior Executive (CEO, CIO, COO) and Technology Change Leader, bringing enthusiasm and vision to his teams delivering demonstrable performance, quality and business growth. Experienced in leading technology organisations and large IT operations combined with complex change and digital transformation programmes across multiple industries and market sectors.

  • Business Leader – Motivated, results-driven and commercially astute business and technology leader with experience in roles as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Information Officer (CIO), Managing Director (MD), IT Director, Programme Director and Non-Executive Director (NED).
  • Leader of People – Proven leadership skills in directing, developing, motivating, coaching and empowering people and teams of up to 190 individuals in achieving their objectives and business goals.
  • Board Director – 20 years experience as Executive and Non-Executive Director in small and medium enterprise (SME) companies, adding value in formulating and prioritising visionary business & technology strategies including: mergers & acquisition, major capital projects, profit enhancement, governance, compliance, risk management, business & organisation development and business re-engineering with an in-depth understanding of Information Technology and Digital Transformation.
  • Chartered IT Professional – Bringing 20+ years’ experience in the Information Services (IS) industry, in multiple international market sectors, directing technology companies and teams delivering product development (software & hardware), programme and project management, and IT service operations of the highest quality.
  • Change Professional – Able to lead the design and execution of organisational change & business transformation programmes, developing and executing strategies to improve business value chain operations aligned with customer needs.
  • Delivery & Quality Focused – A proven track record in quality target delivery involving through proven methodologies like PRINCE2, PMI, Agile LEAN & SCRUM, ITIL, ITSM, BPM, ISO20000, ISO9001 and ISO27001. Through continuous stakeholder engagement, the alignment of deliverables to expectation is ensured resulting in customer satisfaction and retention.
  • Trusted Advisor – Advising CxOs, Boards and Entrepreneurs in integrating technology innovation into their mainstream revenue channels, promoting continuous business improvement and business growth.

RECENT ACHIEVEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

  • Customer Due Diligence Automation: Deployed the TruNarrative SaaS platform to automate regulatory financial crime and customer due-diligence for Shawbrook Bank, enabling new markets while freeing up c67% of specialist resource time.
  • Programme-managed the Ambit Enterprise deployment for Shawbrook Business Finance, used as the asset management application for 15 business units for multiple product offerings, assuring business operations while reducing technical debt – described by Shawbrook executives as a miraculous and the best managed delivery in Shawbrook.
  • Established the Shawbrook Business Finance Tech-Hub in Glasgow as a centre of excellence and introduced innovative new standards and agile driven governance enabling project and service delivery teams to repeatedly exceed delivery targets. Rescued and delivered the Ambit Enterprise Upgrade programme as per re-baselined plan, on time and 9.4% under budget.
  • Established the Rainbird AI platform implementation processes and an Agile delivery approach using JIRA as the project governance toolset with custom workflows and issue types configured to accommodate the niche aspects of the AI platform. Delivered of a POC implementation project for PWC, spearheading an international rollout in 157 countries.
  • Led Systems Powering Healthcare Ltd (SPHERE) from a Start-Up (2015) to an established Medium Sized Enterprise (2017). Developed a six year strategic business plan and executed the first two years to achieve a shareholder ROI of 280% (82% IRR, £3.1M NPV) in 2017 which secures the path for a six year return of 1149% (£12.6M NPV). Achieved revenue growth of 42% and an overall 700% increase in assets.
  • As trusted advisor to the CIO and COO of Regus, who were under pressure to reduce cost, identified technology driven innovation and business transformation initiatives used to develop an IT transformation plan, which through efficient modelling of the requirements into a service business model, accomplished an annual operational saving of £3.6M.
  • Directed the technology product development team to develop a functional first version customer loyalty system for Allegiant Airlines within 10 development weeks to secure critical stock exchange & shareholder support in 2013.
  • Designed and implemented a transformation strategy focused on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as the foundation of an IT centralization initiative in Collinson Group, establishing Collinson Technology Services (CTS). With full P&L accountability, exceeded budget targets by 5% – £15M budget.

EXPERIENCE / CAREER HISTORY

Dec 2019 – Present: Head of Delivery and Innovation (Central Functions), Shawbrook Bank

Objective: Lead the portfolio delivery for the bank’s central functions (covering the change initiatives for Risk & Regulatory, Finance, Human Resources, Procurement and IT Infrastructure teams) to achieve annual growth and service delivery targets.

Assignments & Achievements:

Enabled strategic and continuous change while taking technology ownership of applications and associated service delivery for the bank’s central functions. Directed the change teams responsible for delivering a £5.5m central functions strategic & continuous change portfolio.

  • Delivering the 2020 Change Portfolio to stakeholder and customer expectation, forecasting a 10.1% saving against budget, covering 16 change initiatives & continuous change workstreams. More detail on the portfolio can be read here.
  • Built a highly skilled, customer focused and empowered core change team (key knowledge retention).
  • Maintained strong relations with flexible resource partners for specialist delivery resources on demand.
  • Established central function’s Portfolio Management Office (PMO) mentored to collate delivery and service metrics to produce automated real-time Management Information (MI) for proactive governance.
  • Delivered the Ambit Enterprise programme as defined under ‘Recent Achievement Highlights’ section above.

Aug 2018 – Sep 2019: Programme Director, Shawbrook Bank

Shawbrook is a growing UK specialist bank. Proudly different – what sets us apart is the deep relationships we develop with our customers and business partners. We take the time to get to know them.

Objective: Engaged within the Innovation & Delivery division transforming the Asset Finance, Working Capital, Structured Finance and Development Finance technologies and IT operations. Responsible to govern and deliver a portfolio of transformation and change programmes and projects.

Achievements:

  • Define and deliver the “Tech-Hub Maturity Transformation” Programme
    • Definition of the “As Is” state through technology due-diligence of the PMO, Change Delivery, Solution Architecture, Business Analysis, Application Support, Software Development and Testing functions
    • Defined and Implemented a Target Operating Model (TOM) with recommendations and justification for transformation to a fit for purpose “To Be” maturity level
    • Developed the portfolio governance and associates metrics, KPIs, tooling and management information (MI) to manage delivery with measurable improvements covering change initiatives, business application support and business as usual
  • Established the Business Finance PMO (Portfolio Management Office)
  • Define, build and establish a “Testing Capability” for the bank, including the risk mitigating test strategy, automation framework, and associated Azure cloud development and test environments.
  • Rescued and Delivered the Ambit Enterprise Upgrade Programme as per re-baselined plan, on time and 9.4% below budget.
  • Consulting, Coaching and Mentoring

May 2018 – Aug 2018: Project Manager & Technology Management Consultant, Heron.AI & Rainbird.AI

Heron AI, delivering technology-agnostic consultancy and solutions using Applied Artificial Intelligence. Rainbird is an AI-powered automated decision-making platform that allows businesses to replicate and scale their best workers.

Objective: Define and deliver projects for Heron.ai – implementing and integrating the Rainbird.ai AI-powered decision-making platform.

Achievements:

  • Delivery of a POC implementation for PWC, spearheading an international rollout in 157 countries.
  • Implemented Rainbird AI for the Grant Thornton, Tax and Advisory Services provider.
  • Established the Rainbird AI platform implementation processes.
  • Established an Agile delivery approach using JIRA as the project governance toolset with custom workflows and issue types configured to accommodate the niche aspects of the AI platform.

Jan 2018 – Jan 2019: Non Executive Director, KAMOHA Tech

Kamoha Tech is a Technology Solutions Provider – we build and design software on mobile and web, while we uniquely provide both IT and Business support.

Objective: Served as NED on the board of the new start-up, which originated as a spin-off from GSA’s (Global Student Accommodation) IT department, to assist with corporate governance – to establish the company as an independent IT Service Provider.

Dec 2015 – Nov 2017: Managing Director & Head of Service, Systems Powering Healthcare

Systems Powering Healthcare (SPHERE) is a £10M turnover, IT specialist organisation, employing 75 staff delivering core IT infrastructure and shared services to more than 10,000 healthcare workers in the NHS.

Objective: Stabilize the newly founded business with specific focus to move away from a cost plus model to a commercial service catalogue model. Prepare and grow the business through onboarding of other NHS trusts and healthcare clients.

Achievements:

  • Compiled a six-year strategic business plan and associated budget for SPHERE, with clear annual investment and service delivery milestones. Executed the plan and grew the business from a start-up to an established medium sized enterprise, achieving the third year’s targets at the end of the second financial year, increasing assets with 700%.
  • Through M&A, business transformation and key service improvement initiatives (as per strategy) grew SPHERE’s Revenue by 42%. This growth delivered a shareholder investment ROI of 280% (82% IRR, £3.1M NPV) in 2017, which secures 1149% ROI (£12.6M NPV) over the six-year strategic plan. The new shared service solution saved the NHS £3M per annum.
  • Directed the development and execution of a five year IT strategy and associated transformation programme totaling £42M (£14.4M Capex and ongoing Opex of £5.56M pa), to future proof the IT infrastructure of three NHS trusts.
  • Developed a service orientated Target Operating Model (TOM) for SPHERE and introduced and implemented “Service-Now” as the supporting Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and operations toolset servicing more than 10,000 end-users. This digital transformation further increased SPHERE’s IT Service Management maturity while delivering the associated five-year £2.4M NPV saving in operational cost, ROI of 493% (288% IRR).
  • Defined “Cost per IT User” as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI), demonstrating the value proposition of SPHERE’s IT services to its shareholders and clients. Executed the strategic business plan delivering an 11% reduction in the Cost per IT User in 2016 and a further 13% reduction in 2017, exceeding the set business success target KPI by 12%.
  • Developed the commercial Service Catalogue that was successfully used to win a tender bid to become an IT Service Provider to Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, worth up to £10M.
  • Through promoting a commercially aware, customer centric and people focused business culture, built a high performing, involved and empowered team – resulting in staff retention increasing from 82% at the beginning of 2016 to 98% at the end of 2017.

Clients include: 3 Prominent London NHS Trusts, Community Services, Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), RM Partners.

May – Nov 2015: Chief Executive Officer (Contractor), Amberlight

Amberlight is an user experience (UX) research, design and engineering consultancy turning £1.5M with 25 employees.

Objective: Work closely with the business owner to realise his vision. Develop a business transformation plan; pivoting the business model and repositioning the core business focus enable new revenue opportunities.

Achievements:

  • Compiled and executed the business plan transforming the business model, which repositioned Amberlight’s core business focus (pivoting the business), and reduced the company liabilities by 12.5%.

Clients include: Disney, BBC, EE, MARS, Microsoft, Sky, Vodafone, Hotels.com, and others.

Aug 2014 – Apr 2015: Global Head of Systems and Professional Services (Contractor), Regus

Regus is the world’s largest (FTSE 250, £2.3B turnover) provider of flexible workspaces: offices, virtual offices, business lounges and more. Employs a technology team of 105 resources. 25 employees.

Objective: Direct the Regus IT Systems and Professional Services teams to deliver a portfolio of IT programmes and projects while ensuring high availability of operational IT systems through multi-disciplined IT service delivery and support.

Achievements:

  • Developed an IT Department transformation plan, which through efficient modelling of the technology requirements into a service delivery model accomplished an annual operational saving of £3.6M.
  • Programme managed the £7M Oracle Sales Cloud programme, deploying and integrating the Enterprise Resource Planning & Client Relations Management (ERP & CRM) solutions, replacing legacy systems. The programme consisted of 32 projects and work-streams, integrating the “Oracle Sales Cloud” into the Regus global-systems estate.

Oct 2013 – Jul 2014: Programme & Product Director (Contractor), Lola Tech & Cloud Troopers

Lola is a company on a mission: to bring awesome software to the global travel industry through unconventional brilliance, excelling in building and improving travel systems to increase uptime and conversion.

Objective: Develop a commercially points driven loyalty engine that integrates with the Allegiant Airline booking system to drive continuous customer engagements, increasing the effectiveness of existing and newly introduced revenue streams.

Achievements:

  • Directed the technology development team that successfully delivered the customer loyalty system for Allegiant Airlines – $2.4M budget. A functional first version was delivered within 10 development weeks to secure critical stock exchange & shareholder support.

Client: Allegiant Airlines

Jul 2008 – Oct 2013: Group Technology Director (CIO), Collinson Group

Collinson Group is a global organisation that uses data, customer insight and marketing expertise for the benefit of its companies, clients and their customers. With four core divisions: International Membership & Travel Clubs, Loyalty Marketing Services, Insurance and Group R&D and Proprietary Products, Collinson Group turns £350M and operates in 24 global locations.

Objective: Direct the technology development and service delivery in Collinson Group to deliver products and services that increase customer acquisition, optimization and retention.

Achievements:

  • To minimise effort duplication and reduce IT costs, designed and implemented a transformation strategy focused on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as the foundation of IT centralization in the Collinson Group establishing Collinson Technology Services (CTS). With full P&L accountability achieved a £0.75M saving in IT cost, in the 2012-13 FY, exceeding budgeted targets by 5% – £15M budget.
  • By focusing on engaging and empowering people, achieved the highest staff retention rate of all companies within Collinson for three consecutive years.
  • Introduced Agile software development methodologies to the non-technology businesses within Collinson Group (ICLP, Vivid Lime & Cogent Analytics) increasing business stakeholder involvement which improved technology/business integration resulting in better technology products and customer satisfaction.
  • Negotiated contracts and introduced offshore & outsourced software development partners to Collinson Group improving resource flexibility and reducing the software development and support costs by approximately 25% per annum.
  • Introduced hardware virtualization into Collinson Group IT estate and directed the migration of the datacenter infrastructure from Colt to Telstra, reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) by 45% (£450,000) per annum.
  • Introduced Software as a Service (SaaS) and Private Cloud technologies to Collinson Group. Evolved the TLS (The Loyalty Solution) product to be delivered as a SaaS solution, resulting in the onboarding of six new client accounts – successfully converting business development opportunities securing recurring revenue across Collinson Group companies.
  • Directed the product development, deployment and business integration, system enhancements and change request and support services of enterprise level IT programmes for a portfolio of 14 global client accounts.
  • Developed and executed a transformation strategy for Global Marketing Software (GMS), aligning IT operations and programme management with financial goals – establishing commercial awareness in the IT teams. The strategy covered Business Process Re-engineering (BPM) aligning the business services including marketing, sales, product development, solution deployment and support services using best practices of ITIL, PMI and ISO9001. This resulted in a first year revenue improvement of £1.5M in 2009 and an average 30% profit improvement, for three consecutive financial years from 2010.

Clients include: Columbus Insurance, Travel Pass, Intel, IHG, Avis, L’Oreal, Cathay Pacific, Flying Blue, Harrods and others.

Prior 2008

Dec 2001 – Jun 2008: General Manager & Technical Director, Customer Feedback Systems (CFS)

Jul 2000 – Oct 2001: Group IT Manager, VWV Group

Feb 1999 – Jun 2000: Head IT Product Development and Engineering, MessageLink (Autopage & Radiospoor)

Nov 1997 – Jan 1999: Computer Support Engineer & Systems Administrator, Technicare

Feb 1997 – Nov 2006: Entrepreneur, Principal & Lecturer, RYB, Mega Stores, CDC, Greenpoint

Jan 1988 – Feb 1997: Commanding Officer – Biomedical & Planning Office, South African Military

QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING

  • Company Direction – Institute of Directors (IoD) (2015-2017)
  • Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP) – British Computer Society (2007)
  • Project Management – George Washington University – School of Business and Public Management (2000)
  • National Diploma in Electronic Engineering (with distinction) – Pretoria College of Engineering (1994-1996)
  • Electronic and Computer Engineering (3yr) – University of Pretoria (1989-1993)
  • British Citizen
  • Mentor at Chartered Management Institute (CMI): mentoring aspiring technologist to be more commercially aware.
  • Case studies and other career supporting documents can be viewed at https://renierbotha.com/tag/cv/
  • Activities: Cross Country Motorcycle and 4×4 Safaris, Big Game Photography, Archery, Golf

TESTIMONIALS

“Renier is a highly experienced IM&T professional… He had responsibility for taking SPHERE from start-up joint venture to a fully-fledged technology service provider. He led a number of innovative projects, written value adding business cases and developed a commercial service catalogue. In addition, he oversaw the on-boarding of two additional clients, which added 50% to the original size of the organisation. Renier is a highly motivated professional with a real focus on the positive impact technology can have for the end user, supporting delivery to patients and clinicians. He develops excellent working relationships with colleagues and is very supportive of the teams that work for him.”; Marcus Thornman –Chairman of SPHERE’s Board & CFO of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.

“There are many challenges to running a burgeoning dynamic company in the public sector, and Renier is a leader who demonstrates the drive, ambition, expertise and negotiating skills to make it a success. In our time together he has always led by example, sought to teach rather than replace, and always act in the best interests of the organisation. He is a man of immense integrity who never shies away from a challenge. Working for him can sometimes feel like an adventure, but when you achieve great things, as we did by winning an NHS bid worth up to £10 million, and introducing a new ServiceNow instance to serve 10,000 users, you realise what you’re really capable of.”; Francis Brignon – Service Architect and Product Manager

“With the drive, skills and tenacity to see things through from start to finish, Renier is a forthright leader committed to transforming and continuously improving operations. Always abreast of the latest IT trends, tools and suppliers, he is adept at developing strategic growth and technology roadmaps to deliver the best possible solutions and competitive advantage for the business. His management style is inclusive, and he forms relationships easily enabling him to work effectively across organisational boundaries in complex and unsettled environments.”; Risto Robert Gladden – Change Management Consultant

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

  • British Citizen
  • Mentor at Chartered Management Institute (CMI): mentoring aspiring technologist to be more commercially aware.
  • Case studies and other career supporting documents can be viewed at https://renierbotha.com/tag/cv/
  • Activities: Cross Country Motorcycle and 4×4 Safaris, Big Game Photography, Archery, Golf

Business Leadership, Technology Leadership, Operations, Innovation, Integration, Digital Transformation, Change, Product Development, Software, Hardware, Infrastructure, Service Development, Service Delivery, ITSM, ITIL, ISO9000, Quality Assurance, Business Analysis, Stakeholder Client Customer Relations, Vision, Strategy, Business Plan, Target Operating Model, TOM, Budgets, P&L, Portfolio Manager, Programme Manager, Project Manager, Value Proposition, Delivery Focus, Commercial, Mentoring, Coaching, Em

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