1. Mr Jess Gerrard, ACMA/CGMA
Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Mobile: 07538 242753 Email: jess.gerrard@hotmail.co.uk
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Professional Profile
A CIMA qualified finance professional with 15+ years senior managerial experience gained across financial and
management accounting, project & change management, process improvement and business analysis.
A valuable blend of financial and business analysis expertise gained across a range of sectors and organisations,
creating a highly commercial individual capable of a smart approach to a range of business situations.
Expertise/Key Skills
 Strong commercial and financial awareness with a particular emphasis on improving business performance
 Led and successfully delivered large scale projects achieving significant financial savings, operational process
improvements and faster, more accurate information provision
 System design & Implementation from feasibility through to post implementation reviews
 Business Case production and subsequent management of project delivery and benefits realisation
 Experience of both Agile & Waterfall development methodologies and business process mapping
 Requirements management, delivering & facilitating business design and requirements gathering workshops
with senior management teams and business stakeholders
 Qualified Chartered Management Accountant (CIMA) and Project Management (PRINCE II Practitioner)
 Proficient in MS office applications (advanced Excel), Visio, SAP and Business Warehouse finance systems
 Intuitive with a passion for doing the right thing, adopting a common sense approach
 Successfully running a Ltd Company (J Gerrard Ltd), developing key business skills
Career Highlights
 Led the centralisation of the General Ledger & Cashiers function for the major UK Postal services company,
delivering headcount reductions in excess of 80 people with associated savings of £3m+ pa, going from nine
physical locations down to just one – developed the new business processes to support the changes
 Design and production of a major Programme (3 year+, £1.3bn) Business Balanced Scorecard, combining a
mix of financial & non-finance performance measures captured across the organisation. I also developed and
documented the procedures to capture the necessary information, with supporting narrative. The scorecard was
submitted monthly to Government and received praise for its design, content and structure
 Programme Accountant for the Delivery Methods project, the largest transformation project undertaken by
Royal Mail at the time. Played an instrumental part in constructing the successful business case with an
authorised expenditure of £220m and recurring end state benefits in excess of £100m pa, requiring concurrence
from the Royal Mail Holdings Board
Professional Qualifications & relevant Technical & Management Training
• Member of the institute of Chartered Global Management Accountants GCMA, previously CIMA
• Association of Accounting Technicians
• PRINCE II: Project Management methodology – Practitioner certification
• ITIL – Foundation: Information Technology and Information Library.
• British Computer Society (BCS) – Chartered Institute for IT – Certification in Requirements Engineering
• British Computer Society (BCS) – Chartered Institute for IT – Certification in System Modelling Techniques

2. • Recent Accounting Standards, Manager as Coach, Better Budgeting & Forecasting, Internal Controls and Risk
Management, Negotiation Skills, Influencing Skills, Advanced Excel,
• Baseline Personal Security Standard (BPSS) approved – October 2014.
Career History
The Bridgehammer Partnership – Business Analyst, Associate Contractor Feb 2016-Present
Working on an associate basis providing business analysis, IT and project management consultancy to a varied client
base. Drawing upon my skills and experience of business analysis in order to help companies achieve their project
aims. Arranging and holding key stakeholder meetings (with senior management team client personnel) in order to
gather information, asses the “as-is” operational position and help formulate the desired “to-be” future state processes.
Use of change management methodologies to help clients deliver effective and efficient business change with
measurable and sustainable improvements, with agreed time, cost and quality measurement criteria.
The Post Office (2012-2014) and Atos (2014-2016) – Senior Business Analyst Feb 2012-2016
Initially commissioned for a six months assignment which developed into a period of 4 years and an uninterrupted
mixture of both contracting and Fixed Term Contract assignments (including a TUPE’D outsourcing from The Post
Office to Atos of the Post Office IT department in 2014), I performed the role of Senior Business Analyst working for
The Post Office/ on the Post Office account. Working on various programmes and major change management
initiatives, I have led on the gathering of business requirements, ran and facilitated business design workshops,
produced conceptual design documentation and managed requirements traceability.
Often working alongside implementation partners (including IBM, PWC, CGI and Trans-Track International) the role
involved providing expert business knowledge as part of system and process design.
Working with senior personnel from within the organisation my role varied between working independently, often being
the sponsor’s single Business Analyst resource, to forming part of a team of BA resource working on larger
programmes. I have been involved in efficiency activity, working on SAP system implementations and analysing
product transaction times on The Post Office “Horizon” branch counter system (one of the biggest transactional
systems in Europe, operational in 11,000+ locations, c. 30,000 counter positions generating c. 2bn daily transactions
for hundreds of Clients) and identifying step process improvement opportunities for inclusion in new system design.
Capita plc – Finance Analyst 2012 (2 months)
A short term assignment undertaking a review of IT contract billing arrangements with the regional health organisations
for which Capita provided IT services. I produced recommendations which were endorsed by the sponsor for onward
development and implementation, part of a revenue generating programme.
Royal Mail Group plc 1990-2011
Programme Accountant – Royal Mail Finance Operations 2009- 2011
Applying investment appraisal techniques to ensure projects are financially robust and appropriate control measures
applied. Supporting programme & project managers, performing monthly financial reporting up to Board level &
providing sound finance advice and expertise along with challenging and critiquing project forecasts and plans.
I was Programme Accountant for the Delivery Methods project, the largest transformation project undertaken by Royal
Mail. Instrumental in constructing the business case financials, with an authorised expenditure of £220m and recurring
end state benefits in excess of £100m pa, requiring concurrence from the RM Holdings Board
Financial Business partner for all Collection & Delivery transformational programmes, personally challenging
expenditure requirements which generated financial savings/deferrals in excess of £8m pa

3. Management Accountant – Information Technology - Central Functions Finance 2006-2009
Senior member of the IT finance team, providing monthly financial reporting to stakeholder and senior management
teams across the organisation. Production of robust financial budgets plans and forecasts for the Royal Mail IT function
(c. £300m pa. OPEX and CAPEX), including all IT projects.
Presentation of the monthly financial performance reporting with associated narrative to the IT Directorate.
Manage, develop and support other members of the IT finance team, with two direct managerial reports.
I led the structural reporting and budget changes associated with the Technology reorganisation. This was a major
exercise, involving re-cutting the c. £210m OPEX IT budget in line with the new reporting & cost centre structure
working to very stretching timescales.
I re-engineered the IT financial data processing and associated reporting processes in response to the impact of staff
reductions within the team, part of the wider business headcount reduction initiative. I also led on the initiative to
accelerate the monthly reporting timeline to a Day 4 full detailed management reporting deadline close.
Information Technology Evaluation and Benefits Manager – Group Finance 2002-2006
Manage the IT Outsourcing Business Case financial benefits process providing key commentary and associated
variance analysis. Line management of two direct management reports responsible for the IT Demand Planning
processes and the IT billing process across the organisation, initiating various process improvement projects
I was the lead finance representative on various cross business unit IT related cost saving initiatives, including
rationalisation/data cleansing of IT assets records, behavioural issues and price/sourcing negotiations all of which
delivered significant financial year on year financial savings to the organisation.
Finance Consultant – Post Office Consulting 2000-2002
Part of the in-house finance consultancy team working on numerous business wide projects including process
redesign, outsourcing, efficiency initiatives etc.
As part of outsourcing of the IT function, I personally led the financial strand, responsible for producing the closing
business accounts and the balance sheet of the business unit along with other financial information provision, used
extensively during the due diligence process and subsequent outsourcing.
Product Leader – Finance Excellence Programme – Group Finance 1998-2000
Product leader on various finance projects, part of the Royal Mail finance transformation, targeted with delivering
sustainable process & efficiency improvements across all finance functions. I personally led the centralisation of the
Royal Mail General Ledger and Cashiers functions which involved developing and deploying significant process
changes and delivered an end state headcount reduction in excess of 80 people with associated savings of £3m+ pa.
Costing Analyst – National Costing Project – Royal Mail Consulting 1994-1998
Working on the national roll out of the Royal Mail activity based costing system responsibilities included data
collection and analysis at operational delivery and processing sites, system implementation and training for the
local Divisional teams.
References
References, including current and past employment and personal are all available upon request.