Emily Blackwood

Stakeholder Management Skills • Identifying key stakeholders, creating and maintaining collaborative rapport. • Gathering stakeholder requirements / MoSCoW analysis. • Coordinating with all relevant teams and stakeholders for validation, training, documentation and launch phases of all development. • Collaborating with Vendor Management, IT Applications, and the Continuous Improvement Office to complete vendor qualification and approval steps. • Communication and engagement planning & delivery, supporting business understanding of the project development and adoption of releases. • Handling stakeholder challenges or escalating where appropriate. Project Management/Organization Skills • Defining Project scope (managing scope creep where necessary) • Drafting Project Charter, development epics and timelines for Sponsor/Board approval. • Planning and chairing project meetings, including project boards, workshops and lessons learned. • Producing and implementing a release plan for all deliverables. • Ensuring valid roll-back plans exist for all release packages. • RAID Maintenance; Escalating concerns & formulating mitigations and next steps. • Producing status reports & delivery metrics for Senior Management • Ensuring releases are delivered to time, budget and of a high quality. • Drafting and maintaining Benefits Analysis for each change initiative. • Training needs analysis. Writing training content and delivery where required. • Process Impact Assessment (PIA) and process mapping using iGrafx. Training & Support • Induction & training support for new team members. • Supporting CIO Director with Programme Structural Developments. • Undertaking the MRN Management Development Programme.

Corporate Support: • Providing Executive level administrative support to the Vice President of Business Quality Development and 7 function heads within this group. • Full Diary management, screening and responding to communications. • Organizing and minuting senior management meetings. • Monitoring meeting actions and ensure follow up. • Contract redaction for audits. • Quality Liaison Representative for the Corporate Support Office. • Ownership of Company Environmental objectives. • Key holder, First Aider and Fire Marshall. Travel Manager: • Overseeing all MRN travel: Streamlining booking processes, procedures and supplier management. • Making travel arrangements for Executives and MRN employees ensuring complex Visa and Covid requirements were met. • MRN point of contact for all travel-related queries. Change Management Support: • Identified and implemented a new travel booking system; requirements gathering, process impacts; business training and all business communication relevant to this change. • Supporting Senior EDs with their Change Management admin duties; planning, task management, sprint planning and workshop scheduling, Completion of Vendor Contracts and NDA maintenance. • Using Atlassian Jira to create and manage Epics, Timelines and Tasks & Confluence to maintain project documentation.

- Overseeing all operations for a UK inbound Tour Operator (from sole operations person, soon after inception, to leading a team of 10). • Creating and continuously improving operations delivery processes and in-house systems. • Scheduling work for up to 25-30 tour guides at any one time; often under pressure. • Coordinating all private group tours to the UK and Europe, working on different stages of the process for 30-35 tours at any one time. • Maintaining customer/supplier relationships. • Delivering excellent tour standards within set budgets; negotiating with suppliers to ensure budgets and profit levels are met. • Maintaining outstanding customer service: answering calls and resolving queries; investigating and resolving customer complaints; communicating with international clients. • Problem solving in a complex and often stressful environment. • Managing supplier performance to ensure excellent standards and compliance with legal requirements. • Data Protection Officer – Coordinated transition to GDPR compliance. • HR: Recruitment, training and performance management of the team; liaising with payroll provider; company policies & procedures; point of contact for staff concerns/grievances. • Sourced, interviewed, referenced and contracted all tour guides for the business. • Basic accounts duties.

June 2010 – March 2011 Senior Recruitment Consultant • Recruitment service for external clients: Sourcing opportunities and candidates; creating job advertisements; candidate screening; candidate preparation for interview(s); managing the interview/offer process through to completion. • Working to KPIs; call volume, job leads, new clients and candidates. • Daily business development calls to accounts teams to develop relationships and generate opportunities. 2002 – June 2010 Resourcer / Senior Resourcer/National Resourcing Manager National award - Support team member of the year • All team recruitment, induction, training, KPI analysis and management of 13 Resourcers nationwide • Reporting national missed revenue and competitor analysis to the operating board. • Constant promotion of the benefits of the Resourcing function results. • Coordinated national marketing campaigns to generate key skill requirements. • Coordinated the Page Personnel side of a national database merge. • Working to KPIs to generate new business; call volume, job leads, new clients and candidates. • Providing excellent customer service by way of candidate calls and aftercare scheduling.