ian ellis

Managing a change portfolio of strategic and regulatory programmes / projects for Coutts Bank with an annual budget of circa £30 million. As a Portfolio Manager I was responsible for applying best practice tools and techniques to facilitate management and control of the change portfolio to ensure strategic objectives / business priorities were delivered. I maintained the portfolio plan, risks and issues, project stage gates, financial tracking and governance reporting. I produced high quality, fit-for-purpose divisional reporting to Executive and senior management on the design and delivery status of the investment portfolio.

Working for RBS International based in Jersey on a 12 month secondment specifically to drive the adoption of RBS tools (Planview) and methodologies (P3M) and to improve the change delivery capabilities of the Transformation Change Team. Defining change methodologies and embedding a robust governance model by training and empowering PMO staff to undertake project stage gates, ensuring project delivery was on track and risks and issues as well as project governance was being effectively managed. Devising and introducing financial and resource management processes across a change team containing more that 300 people to ensure accurate management and reporting. Arranging and undertaking a series of training workshops, as well as targeted one to one sessions, ensuring project managers and PMO staff were taught the skills to enable them to undertake their jobs more effectively.

Complaints Policy Manager for Natwest and RBS Retail Branches, responsible for ensuring that Financial Services Authority (FSA) requirements were met, including Treating Customers Fairly. Undertaking complaint quality audits and acting on findings. Reviewing complaints data and engaging stakeholders to ensure continuous improvement. Maintaining staff support manuals and training material including customer information held on external websites.

Working as a Project Manager on a complex project involving the divestment of 316 RBS branches, responsibilities included ensuring compliance to the sales agreement, monitoring risks and issues including any impact on the retained business, ensuring relevant mitigating actions were allocated and followed through. I also managed the team responsible for the creation of new Head Office functions for Marketing, Products and Online Services. This included writing role profiles, creating operating models, gathering requirements for properties and recruiting and training staff.

Responsible for the entire risk agenda through a network of 4 Regional Directors, 47 Senior Bank Managers and 270 NatWest Branches. Ensuring compliance to internal policy and process as well as regulatory (FSA) compliance. Responsibilities included ICOB, Fraud, Money Laundering, New Account Processes, Internal Audits, Investigations, LEAN. Monitoring cash losses and bank errors. Contigency and incident management including branch raids and demonstrations.

Maintaining a robust sales process, managing branch targets, reviewing results and devising action plans. Consistently meeting and exceeding branch sales targets. Ensuring excellent customer service, monitoring complaints and customer feedback identifying trends and being proactive in rectifying, resolving and preventing. Completing regular staff reviews, addressing performance issues and providing coaching to produce the best possible performance from each member of staff. Ensuring processes and procedures are strictly adhered to and the branch achieved a good internal audit result, meaning losses to the bank through fraud and errors were kept to a minimum.