Leading the IT separation of a global marine business.

Why this mattered to me

Marine was the first time I had led something of this scale from start to finish, with a result that mattered in the financial reporting of the business. It was also the first time I could really put my stamp on the culture of a team and a programme.

The challenge

Separate the technology of Rolls-Royce’s Commercial Marine business as part of a £500m divestment, while preparing the business to operate independently.

My role

Programme Executive – IT Separation. I led the end-to-end programme, reporting directly to the Commercial Marine board and Group CIO.

What I did

• Commercial negotiations: negotiated Siemens licence novation, securing £2m in licence savings, and managed the supplier arrangements needed for the separation.
• Applications: led separation approach across expenses, ERP, procurement and HR, including Workday. Each part had to support the business as it moved out of Rolls-Royce.
• Infrastructure: led the network and hosting separation, including data centres, alongside the application work.
• Managed services: established the arrangements for IT service desk and onsite support as part of preparing the business to operate independently.
• Organisation and delivery: built a 100-person global team of employees, contractors and partners. I designed the target operating model and five-year cloud-first roadmap, led seller-side IT due diligence and set expectations for how we would work together.

What changed

• Delivered the separation on time for £25m against a £30m budget.
• Secured £2m in licence savings through Siemens licence novation negotiations.
• Established the technology foundations and operating model for an independent business.