John has been involved with Arras since 2001, bringing both breadth and depth in the field of Programme and Project Management and significant business management experience. Arras People represents the third phase of John’s career which has previously seen him work in the UK’s manufacturing sector and in the professional services sector for global blue chip organisations.

Trained as a mechanical & production engineer John spent his early career making things from a metal and various other materials. His organisational skills then became engaged as he progressed in to material and production control where he first came across the use of computers in the business environment. Creating a shop floor documentation system on an Apple II was no mean feat, and after this experience he decided to let others do the coding work whilst he got on with implementing MRP (Material Requirements Planning) and MRPII (Manufacturing Resource Planning) systems before joining a recently formed management buyout company as their production controller.  Upon this blank canvas systems were created and implemented, products made and delivered and eventually he managed the planning and implementation of a full blown MRP2 solution (Manufacturing, Sales & Financial control). Once delivered, the impending return to business as usual rather than the roller coaster of delivering projects meant it was time to move on.

John joined Honeywell’s manufacturing automation group as a consultant where he was involved with many UK based manufacturing and distribution companies looking to implement computer based business solutions. He then joined Hewlett-Packard as a Manufacturing Consultant as the company embarked on a journey to create a professional services division. Initially working with MRP2 solutions, John then got involved in the next generation ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution SAP R/3 in the early 90’s and managed its delivery to clients across many sectors in the UK and Europe. Throughout this period John continued to use and develop his skills in the Projects arena (including Prince training in 1993) and gained significant commercial experience.

As John’s experience of delivering projects grew he moved out of the ERP space and was involved in a wide range of business transformation projects working with clients such as the Inland Revenue and the BBC. In 1996 he managed the UK Office Shopping project, a joint venture with Sainsbury which offered 20,000 product lines and paved the way for today’s home shopping solutions. Possibly one of the few successes from that crazy time around the now infamous dot-com bubble! In the latter stages of this career phase John spent some time managing the Dublin operations and then took on the role of Business Manager. Taking P&L responsibility, with a $30M revenue targets he had responsibility for a team of Programme and Project Managers and their business performance. He was also part of the UK Business Operations Leadership Team, which had the responsibility for directing and managing the divisions UK business.

Today John is responsible for the business operations at Arras, leading the recruitment team and developing the business. He still gets his hands dirty both in terms of running projects (new web site!), recruiting (occasionally), and taking clinics with candidates,  as well as partaking in public speaking engagements. John is also the driving force behind the Annual Arras People Project Management Benchmark Report which he manages and produces each year.