What is your mission as the Head of Customer Delivery for Specialized Finance?
As Head of Customer Delivery, my role is to make sure we deliver an excellent service to our customers. We operate in a specialised finance environment, and the majority of our customers consume our products as SaaS (Software as a Service) to power critical parts of their business.
My primary responsibility is to ensure that our SaaS delivery is as strong as it can possibly be. Once customers transition out of the Professional Services or project phase, they are handed over to my team. From that point on, we are responsible for running the service day to day.
What does ‘run’ look like for your customers on a day‑to‑day basis?
For our customers, “run” is really about consistent, day‑to‑day service. We support around 60 customers globally, across North America, Africa, Australia, and Europe, and our focus is on making sure everything just works.
That means the software is stable, available, and performing as it should every day. If customers have any issues or questions, those come straight to my teams, who handle the full support lifecycle. Beyond that, we also manage the customer relationship from a service‑delivery point of view, making sure they’re getting real value from the service they’ve signed up for.
With such a global and complex operation, what are the biggest challenges you and your team face in delivering this level of service?
I’d say the biggest challenge for me and my teams is our drive for perfection. When we see 85% customer health, we want 100%. When uptime is 99.95%, we aim for zero downtime. I’m competitive: I like to win. But the risk is that we focus too much on what’s not perfect, rather than celebrating what’s going well. In our weekly team meetings, it’s easy to get bogged down in problems. So, I make a point of highlighting successes. We get customer feedback every week, and it’s often very positive. For example, at the sales conference last January, a senior executive from one of our major clients specifically praised how my team delivers service and how strong the partnership feels. The real challenge is finding the right balance: pushing ourselves to improve, while also taking the time to recognise the great work that’s already being done.
You touched on your competitive mindset, does anything you do outside of work influence how you approach leadership and challenges?
Outside of work, sport has been a big part of my life. I played football for around 40 years, and over the last 10 to 12 years I’ve moved into coaching. I’ve coached both kids and adults, and at the moment I coach under‑18s: players who are just transitioning into adult football. Through that, I’ve also taken coaching courses with the Football Association in the UK. What’s really interesting is how much of that is about leadership and motivation. Even though it’s a hobby, I’ve learned a lot about how to motivate people, build confidence, and get the best out of a team, and I apply that directly in my professional role. It gives me the best of both worlds: something I enjoy outside of work, and skills I can bring straight back into how I lead and tackle challenges at work.
Looking ahead, what are your top priorities for 2026 as Head of Customer Delivery?
One of the key areas I want to focus on this year is how we evolve from service delivery into true customer success. This is an initiative across SBS, and it’s really about strengthening our relationships with customers: understanding how they’re using our service today, where their business is heading, and what they actually want to achieve.
There’s a gap at the moment in how customers fully utilise the software they already have. So my focus this year is on helping customers grow through better use of the products they’ve already subscribed to. If that naturally leads to opportunities for additional products, then of course we can bring in the marketing and sales teams to support that. But even if they don’t buy anything new, helping them get more value from what they already have is a big win, for them and for us.
Do you have a memorable anecdote to share so far ?
OK, so I’m going to surprise you now. This year will actually be my 33rd year with the company. At a leadership meeting in Paris last summer, we did an icebreaker about tenure. I ended up being the longest-serving person in my group. It was a fun moment, but also a reminder of how much the company and I have grown together. So yes… it’s been a long time. And a pretty interesting journey.
After 33 years, what keeps you excited and motivated in your role?
When I joined, we were just starting our SaaS journey with only two customers. It was quiet, but full of potential. Today, we support over 60 major banks and financial organisations across multiple countries. I’ve held many roles here, which has kept my work varied and engaging. So when I look back, I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, and I see even more opportunity ahead, especially in markets like North America. The journey is far from over.
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