Project Description

Gareth James Managing Director

Gareth James

Managing Director

Areas Of Expertise

  • Business Transformation
  • Large complex programs
  • Global programs
  • Sales/Retail Operations, Claims
  • HR, Contact Centers
  • Shared Services
  • CRM
  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Post-Merger Integration & Operations Strategy

Education

  • Bachelor of Commerce & Administration (Economics & Finance)
  • PRINCE 2 Practitioner – Office of Government & Commerce
  • Mental Health First Aid

About

Gareth joined Seven Consulting’s Sydney practice in February 2013. He became Managing Director in October 2017. He has an impressive track record in the delivery of transformational outcomes. 

Gareth excels in developing and championing transformational change including the redesign of operating models, service delivery models, business process improvement, performance management, new or remediated enabling technologies and the management of the associated change management activities. 

He has a strong track record of ensuring that the organisation moves seamlessly into an environment where continuous improvement is given the highest priority. Gareth has strong stakeholder management and engagement skills at all levels and has consistently held reporting lines at CxO level.


Key Clients

  • Optus Wholesale
  • Superpartners, Australia
  • National Australia Bank Wealth Division – MLC, Australia
  • du (Telecommunications) – UAE, India, Egypt, Jordan
  • Etihad Airways, Global
  • Vodafone Group, UK
  • Marsh, UK
  • Aviva PLC, UK
  • Play.com, UK
  • QBE, Global
  • ABN Amro, Global
  • Lloyds TSB, UK
  • British Petroleum, UK
  • Royal Bank of Scotland, EMEA
  • ANZ Banking Corporation, New Zealand
  • Coca Cola, South east Asia
  • Nawas, Oman

What Gareth brings

  • Extensive experience leading large teams across EMEA, North America, LATAM and AsiaPac.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead and resolve contractual issues with managed services.
  • Extensive experience in audit and health check of program delivery advising on associated governance uplift actions required.
  • Extensive experience in PMBoK and PRINCE2 based project management and Six Sigma, Lean and TQM eTOM process methodologies.
  • Establishment, remediation and leading of programs and PMOs, providing governance frameworks, tools and processes to enable delivery to scope, cost, schedule and quality.

Key Achievements

Gareth has led significant business transformation with responsibility for budgets upwards of $500m USD, teams of 1000+ across global footprints and has successfully delivered outcomes across 48 countries. He excels in developing and championing transformational change including the redesign of operating models, service delivery models and the associated organisational change management activities.


As Program Director, Customer Experience Transformation Program for du (telecommunications) a group wide transformation targeting increased revenue through enhanced customer experience across the Sales, Complaints & Billing processes. Delivered significant improvements across all target KPIs and benefits in excess of the business case on time and within budget. Cumulative spread of $500m USD throughout the period with transformational improvements across CX, product delivery, provisioning, problem and fault resolution, billing, and the retail experience.


As Global Program Director, OneHR@QBE Transformation Program for QBE, responsible for turn around and delivery of this global program that transitioned QBE’s four operating divisions with 17,000 employees across 39 countries onto a standard service delivery model supported by globally aligned business process. Including standardising process across core HR processes and new HCM, Payroll, recruitment and learning applications. A re-planning exercise was conducted, and the program was managed on time and under budget.


As Program Director, Contributions Program, for Superpartners, Gareth led a program reset to enable Australian Super, HOSTPLUS, Hesta, MTAA Super, Cbus and Austsafe to meet their 2015 SuperStream compliance obligations. Advising the Superparters board, executive management team and the Client executive Committee on strategies for engaging Industry bodies, the ATO and for managing future Contributions operational efficiency and compliance obligations. Restructured the Program, implemented new program controls and governance framework.


As 2IC Program Director, SuperStream Program, for NAB Wealth (MLC) responsible for a program rescue to allow NAB Wealth to meet the 2013 SuperStream compliance obligations for the superannuation products covered under Masterkey and Wrap. This included the delivery of a new application and infrastructure bridging both the MLC & NAB Group domains. Subsequently led the project initiation and planning for the Legacy products, Contributions & MCS Reporting 2014 and 2015 Compliance obligations.


As Program Lead – CRM, Customer Loyalty, Global Sales & Commercial Strategy IT Transformation, for Etihad Airways. Led a program of work to deliver a more customer centric model for the management of sales & customer loyalty. Scope covered improvements to the B2C, B2B & B2T CRM platforms; upgrades to the frequent flyer database: remediation to Agency reporting and forecasting capability; introduction of dashboard and workflow capability for the Salesforce.com deployment; delivery of a new multi-channel campaign management capability; and delivery of a series of strategic change initiatives.


As Program Director, Fixed Business Transformation for du (telecommunications), delivered automation of the Order & Problem Management processes. Achieving a 500%+ improvement in average speed of resolution for voice & data faults. An 800% improvement in average time to provision data. Delivered on time and within budget.


As Project Director, Network Managed Services Transition for Nawras Telecommunications was brought in to rescue an ‘at risk’ Managed Services transition with a contract value of US$1B. Led negotiation team to close all open points in both the Master Services Agreement and its associated schedules prior to planned contract signing. Led construction of an aligned transition plan between Nawras, Ericsson & Huawei.


Other Team Members