Project Description
John Middlemist
PMO Director
Areas Of Expertise:
- PMO
- Methodologies
- Project Healthcheck
- Programme Management
- Financial Services
- Core Banking
- Business Transformation
- Engineering
- Manufacturing
- Government
Education:
- Higher National Certificate (HNC) Engineering
- Incorporated Engineer (UK) – 1994
- Certified Project management Professional (PMP) –1996
- Certified Program Management Professional (PgMP) (1st in Asia Pacific and 70th in the world) – 2008
- SAFe 4 Certified Agilest – since 2018
About John Middlemist
John is a skilled PMO Director, originally joining Seven Consulting’s Sydney Practice in 2005, then spending 3 years overseas from 2018 to 2021 and now returned to Seven. He has over 20 years of experience in Program/Project Management Consulting, in engineering, procurement and delivery with major global organisations. John has a successful track record of implementing many PMO’s for major programs across three continents and various industries, providing the vision and strategy for successful delivery.
What John brings
- Over 20 years Management & Leadership experience with excellent communication skills.
- Experienced in the application of several project management software tools & methodologies.
- Demonstrated knowledge of industry developments covering the domains of PMO Development, IT outsourcing and co-sourcing.
- Experienced in managing stakeholders across complex and multi-cultural environments.
Client feedback:
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Triona Quinlan, General Manager-Technology – 2025
“John is a seasoned professional who has excellent stakeholder engagement skills and leverages his past experiences to solve any issue which arises.” |
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Senior Project Manager, Financial market exchange – 2024
“John is an exceptional leader and a great operator. He brings wealth of experience in managing large-scale transformation programs and guides the teams in the right direction keeping the big picture in mind on all project management related matters.” |
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Amy Camenzuli, Legal Counsel – 2023
“John’s communication skills are highly developed – our team never had to question John’s timelines for delivery of documents or deliverables; he was constantly in touch about ETAs and any potential blockers. He made our job very easy. He is also extremely forward thinking and takes the initiative to seek out answers to questions asked by others.” |
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Katie McDermott, General Manager – 2022
“John is highly respected on the team. He is a trusted pair of very capable hands who needs gets things done and needs little direction to do so. He greatly valued in the project.” |
Key Clients:
- Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
- Colonial First State (CFS)
- Nordea Bank (Denmark)
- Macquarie Group
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)
- Stockland
- EDS (Australia, New Zealand and Canada)
- Telecom New Zealand
- Westpac Banking Corporation
- New Zealand Government
- UK Ministry of Defence
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Deloitte Consulting
- Canadian Department of Defense
- Unysis Defense Systems Canada
- Marathon Oil Company
- British Petroleum
- Shell Oil Company
- ExxonMobil
- Chevron
Key Achievements:
As PMO Director for Nordea Bank’s Core Banking Program, John implemented and led their large PMO. A large multiyear program involving top tier IT providers (Temenos, Accenture, Cap Gemini and TCS), valued at approx. €800 over 5 years with 700+ FTE utilising a hybrid approach of blended agile/waterfall, achieving 3 major releases per year. Leading a team of 18 FTE that covered all areas of the PMO including schedule, risk, issue, resources, financial, scope, reporting and governance management and leading and facilitating various governance committees. The project moved from 4 core banking platforms to 1 modern platform, with a simpler product set and the ease of the enhanced self-service facilities. The Bank has achieved a lower cost to income ratio whilst creating a great customer experience that is highly digital.
As PMO Director for Macquarie Bank Core Banking Transformation Programme, John implemented and led the PMO. This was an initiative involving approx. 500 FTE to upgrade its Core Banking platform to support the banks strategic growth by investing in new capabilities and technology to improve client experience, innovative new products, increase speed to market and gain operational efficiency through a single platform. The Program was valued in excess of $350m over 3 years with multiple vendors, including SAP, Accenture, Cuscal, and FIS. John led a team of 10 FTE that covered all areas of the PMO including schedule, risk, issue, resource, financial, scope, reporting and governance management. John also led and facilitated various governance committees. The new retail customer transaction account offer was the ‘fastest’ implementation of an SAP Banking Product in only 8 months from idea to go live. The implementation of the SAP Home Loan product was the first in the world offering customers a fully online experience which has allowed this Bank to be the fastest growing loan book in Australia.
As PMO Director for Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Core Banking Modernisation program, John implemented and led their large PMO. A large multiyear program involving top tier IT providers (Accenture, SAP, IBM, HCL and TCS), valued at approx. $1.5B over 6 years with 1250+ FTE. Program delivery has been reported as ‘world’s best practice’ by Gartner in June 2012 and assisted the Bank in improving is Customer Satisfaction Score from 65% (2006) to 85% (2013). Leading a team of 20 FTE that covered all areas of the PMO including schedule, risk, issue, resource, financial, scope, reporting and governance management. John was leading and facilitating various governance committees with attendance in monthly governance meetings with CEO (Sponsor) and Group Executives.
As PMO Director for Australian Stock Exchange CHESS Replacement, John lead the PMO that closed down the previous project and commenced the new project to define and plan the new solution. This included the High-Level Design, RFP process and Business Case for the new project which was rigorously reviewed by independent appointed auditors and met all conditions imposed by the regulator.
As PMO Director for Colonial First State Separation from CommBank, John designed, built and implemented a new PMO Framework which was fit for purpose for the new entity that was to become a standalone business on 1st December 2021. The scope of work included: working with key stakeholders to design a simpler methodology that reduced the number of end-to-end steps by 50%, fewer project lifecycle phases, easier to use templates, a new Intranet site and training to over 100 users.
As PMO Director for Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s HR & Payroll Replacement Program, John implemented and led the PMO. This was a critical / complex program that replaced PeopleSoft HR / Payroll with Workday and ADP. The program was valued over $60m with approx. 150 FTE, integration into 60 other CBA systems and migration of over 40,000 employees HR data and pay.
As PMO Director for Stockland, John implemented program management processes, tools and EPO for the CIO of Stockland. This involved design, development and implementation of PMLC and SDLC processes and tools for entire IT division which resulted in providing a fit for purpose solution that resulted in improved project delivery.
As PMO Director for CBA, John was responsible for the implementation and leading the Consumer Lending Program Management Office for the CBA. This was a very large Business Change Program in CBA valued at over $300M. The Program consisted of a portfolio of over 15 projects valued between $2M and $30M, which were delivered by EDS, IBM and the Bank.
As PMO Director for CBA, John implemented and managed the CBA NetBank Replacement PMO. The program was valued in excess of $90M and consisted of 10 major IT and Change Management projects which were delivered by EDS, IBM, Siebel and CBA. Duration of program was 24 months with over 225 staff.
As PMO Director for EDS, John implemented and managed the EDS New Zealand Solution Centre PMO. Leading and mentoring PMO staff and establishing a culture that led to the Solution Centre achieving a CMM (SEI’s Capability Maturity Model) level 2 for project management-related KPIs. The Solution Centre had a workforce of approx. 700 people who provided consulting, application development and project/program management services to major NZ Banking, Telecom and Government clients.
As PMO Director for EDS, John implemented and managed the Enterprise Program Office (EPO) for the EDS Telecom New Zealand outsourcing account. This was the largest information technology outsourcing program in New Zealand history, valued in excess of $1.5B. Portfolio of projects exceeded more than 50 at any one time with an annual budget of $150M and total number of staff in excess of 700.
As Program Control Manager for PwC, John implemented and managed the Program Control department for the Accounting Systems Integrator (ASI) CAPITAL program. At its time, this was the largest systems integration and management of change program in Europe, valued in excess of £150M. The ASI was a joint venture between PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Consulting, who were responsible for implementing Oracle Financials for the Ministry of Defence. Duration of program was 3 years with over 450 staff.
As PMO Manager for EDS, John implemented and managed the PMO for a major systems integration program for EDS System House and the Department of National Defence (CFSSU – Canadian Forces Supply System Upgrade) valued at CND$150M. Duration of program was 24 months with over 200 staff.
As Program Master Scheduler for Unisys, John established the planning department for the systems integration phase of the NSA/NSH program at Unisys Canada. This entailed delivery of 43 EH101 Helicopters for the Canadian Dept. of National Defense – Contract value CND$1.2B.
As Program Controls Manager for Hibernia Oilfield GBS Utility Shaft Fabrication Contract valued at approx. CND$75M, John was responsible for implementing and leading all project controls.
As Chief Planning Engineer for Canadian Frigate Program, a joint venture between Unysis, Saint John Shipbuilding and MIL. John was responsible for overall planning that entailed the design, build and system integration of 12 Halifax class frigates for the Canadian Navy valued in excess of CND$5B.
As Senior Production Engineer, John was responsible for engineering activities for various offshore oil & gas development projects (ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Marathon, and Chevron) in the North Sea.
