WORK HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE ​

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• At Post Office Limited Chris provided procurement and commercial advice in the technology space and has managed various technology procurements as well as commercial disputes.  This has included:

  • Liaising with external law firms on procurement regulatory issues and negotiating strategic agreements.

  •  Devising the procurement strategy, managing the procurement programme and leading negotiations of the Post Office’s homephone and broadband contract with the preferred bidder for the Post Office’s circa 500,000 customers of that service.

  • Re-procuring the Post Office’s Common Digital Platform on the CCS Digital Outcomes and Services framework and leading the negotiation with the preferred bidder.

  • Renegotiating the Post Office’s client-side SIAM tower contract with Atos to bring capability back into the Post Office.

  • Advising the Post Office on a strategy for a joint venture partnership in the digital identity space and negotiating the heads of terms with the private sector partner as well as managing a successful outcome to a dispute with the outgoing private sector partner.

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• At the Cabinet Office, as Deputy Director of the Complex Transactions Team Chris provided advice and support to Government Departments on their most complex commercial agreements and procurements. This included:

  • Redrafting the Digital Outcomes framework agreement with GDS.

  • Advising the NHS and DEFRA on IT agreements.

  • Leading the commercial renegotiation of the MOD’s desktop IT services agreement with HP and Fujitsu, one of the largest UK public sector IT agreements.

  • Managing the complex re-procurement of pension administration services managed by the Cabinet Office.

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• At Elexon, Chris advised on the successful procurement and execution of an IT and business process service agreement with Steria to develop, maintain and operate the settlement systems for the Government’s Electricity Market Reform (EMR) policies via EMR Settlement Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of ELEXON designated by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) as the EMR Settlement Services Provider. He also advised the company on connected negotiations with DECC.

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• At Cable and Wireless Worldwide, Chris was an adviser to the Head of CWW’s public sector business unit in London and an interim member of the public sector senior management team with a remit covering procurement, commercial, legal and regulatory issues. This included:

  • Providing guidance on contract management and commercial strategy.

  • Drafting contractual documentation (change control notes).

  • Engaging with suppliers to the company on a range of commercial issues.

  • Managing disputes with suppliers and enhancing revenue collection from existing customer contracts.

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• At The Home Office (UK Government), Chris was the commercial manager for the e-Borders programme.  This involved:

  • Drafting contractual documentation (change control notes and contract variations).

  • Instructing counsel for various opinions; managing dispute resolution processes.

  • Leading the provision of commercial advice to the e-Borders programme; drafting all correspondence to the supplier on behalf of the programme; leading major commercial negotiations over commercial issues; advising the SRO and other senior stakeholders; overseeing the management of the e-Borders programme budget and generally liaising on commercial issues with the prime contractor.

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• At Defra (UK Government), Chris was the commercial manager for the Genesis Programme.  He was brought in to successfully turn around the “Genesis” project, which at the time was on the National Audit Office’s list of the top 10 failing Government IT programmes. This involved:

  • Liaising with the system integrator responsible for development of the Genesis programme, Atos Origin and the company providing the technology environment, IBM.

  • Conducting major contract re-negotiation.

  • Dealing with numerous change proposals; contract drafting.

  • Commercial management.

  • Managing the programme budget (£200M) as well as being a member of the executive team on the programme.

  • Leading negotiations on a multi-million-pound proposed hosting agreement with IBM.

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