David Mcneill
Program Director
Experience
Program Director
LetterOne & Remedica
- Led the Greenfield implementation of SAP S/4HANA at Remedica Pharma on behalf of Private Equity owners
- Defined overall strategy based on template approach with key vendors & partners
- Led licensing model decisions and negotiations
- Acted as interim CIO and provided executive advisory to company board and private equity on TOM and technology improvements
- Prepared and drove initial planning, business case, budget, requirements gathering, phase zero and RFP process, negotiations, selection, onboarding and kickoff
- Developed and managed comprehensive project plans with achievable milestones, resources, and budgets
- Ensured alignment of the project with business goals, particularly in the context of pharmaceutical industry regulations, standards and expectations from private equity
- Assembled and led a cross-functional project team, including internal staff, consultants, and external vendors
- Provided leadership, guidance, and support to the project team, fostering a collaborative and results-driven environment
- Acted as the primary point of contact between the board/leadership, project team, senior management, and key stakeholders
- Facilitated regular key status meetings, including steering, board updates, program management and managed stakeholder expectations throughout the project lifecycle
- Collaborated with business process owners across departments to ensure that SAP S/4HANA meets organizational needs
- Identified risks and issues early and developed strategies to mitigate and resolve them
- Managed the entire budget, ensuring that all costs are tracked and controlled
- Optimized resource allocation and utilization to achieve project objectives efficiently
- Drove change management and user adoption with key initiatives and simple to embed strategies
- Led planning and integration with acquisitions, incorporating TSAs and carve-out strategies
Program Lead
Nomad Foods
- Led the ERP program for finance, supply chain, logistics and purchasing entity
- Managed the build of the template and deployment to UK & Ireland
- Ensured deliverables were met by implementation partners and transitioned to business
- Drove strategic benefits for sponsorships
- Implemented improvements to change management, governance and key stakeholder engagement
- Led program boards, steering and managed critical escalations to successful mitigation
Program Manager
Novartis
- Led global accelerated SAP S/4 and Ariba programs that were behind schedule and needed a new direction
- Developed a flexible recovery plan and reshaped the program organizational structure through quick wins and medium-term solutions
- Managed overall program budget, governance, planning, risk and issue management
- Implemented a new agile-based delivery model, reporting/build/project management tools and new direction for change and communications
- Increased efficiency by hiring and onboarding niche partners, establishing a new PMO office and securing key experts in roles such as solution architects and delivery leads
- Led strategy review with SAP and system integrator to ensure alignment with long-term business goals
Program Lead
Roche
- Managed the Aspire program, one of the largest global greenfield transformation programs in the pharmaceutical industry to build a new global template based on SAP S/4 with key integrations
- Prepared and drove approval of the business case, defined scope, built program team and multi-year budget then led the initiation phase
- Oversaw delivery of SAP S/4, master data hub and analytics across finance, procurement, supply chain, order to cash, manufacturing, EAM and quality systems
- Translated program proposal into projects, work packages and delivery streams for the global template
- Managed a large global team of senior internal, external and offshore resources through organizational changes
- Drove medium to long-term strategy and thought leadership, including roadmap for RPA, advanced analytics and machine learning
- Led rollout for Asia and European sites including go-live readiness, testing, UAT, training, data migration, cutover, hypercare and transition to support
- Managed budgets and senior stakeholder relationships
- Implemented agile best practices and change management for future deployments
- Integrated satellite programs including organizational change management, GEP, Cloudera, Collibra and proof of concepts
- Coached managers and team leads to encourage high-performing teams and improve collaboration
- Reviewed and challenged project plans, risks and mitigation actions, resolving deviations in timelines or quality
Program Manager
Invenio Business Solutions
- Managed multiple programs across UK, US and Qatar including S/4 HANA, tax revenue management, Odoo point of sale, data migration strategy and cloud HEC & AWS migrations
- Directed implementation of the first fully automated, government-agent integrated, cloud-hosted online tax system for the State of Qatar
- Led delivery through RFP, proposal and contractual obligations
- Ensured client satisfaction at executive level while maintaining consistent profitability and developing future opportunity pipeline
- Built and led a core team of circa 150 resources through initiation, delivery and transition to service/support
- Introduced smart governance model and agile lean ways of working with SAP Activate and SCRUM, adding scrum masters and tools such as Jira and Solution Manager
- Acted as escalation point for critical issues and risks, chaired steering meetings with clients
- Managed change management, budgets, financial reporting and business development opportunities
Head of Finance Programs / Program Director
Vodafone
- Defined strategy, delivery and implementation of ERP programs within finance transformation roadmap using SAP S/4 as digital core across 23 live markets
- Managed in-flight programs across finance, supply chain and HR, integrated S/4 with Concur, Ariba, SuccessFactors, Fieldglass and analytics platforms
- Oversaw migration and upgrade from SAP WM to EWM with S/4 integration
- Delivered business case realization, transformation roadmap and key benefits
- Built a program team of over 100 and coached managers to transition talent to BAU
- Managed scope, cost, schedule and contractual deliverables up to 100 million euros
- Led migration to Business Suite on HANA and conversion to S/4 with integration to major programs and local ERP/interfaces
- Established change management stream for communications, stakeholder management, training and deployment
- Conducted roadshows to local markets
- Drove innovation workshops and prototyping for finance processes with S/4, AI, automation, blockchain and IoT
- Ensured alignment to IFRS regulations
- Acted as escalation point for high-level risks and issues
- Communicated seamlessly to markets and stakeholders
- Led contract negotiations with vendors and suppliers
Program Manager
Meggitt
- Managed global SAP data centre migration from DXC (HP) to IBM cloud, upgraded to SAP Business Suite on HANA with SAP S/4 and SAP Analytics integrations
- Established multi-stream delivery: network installation, firewalls & security, disaster recovery, database migration/restricted data removal, integrations, EHP8 upgrade, HANA optimizations, SAP GUI rollout, EAM, GTS 11 upgrade, BODS 4.2 upgrade and testing
- Led project managers, architects, team leads, developers, business analysts, test managers and change managers including off-shore and on-site resources
- Drove stakeholder communications, chaired steering up to CIO and exec level
- Managed budget, plan, delivery timelines, risk and issue mitigation, change management and benefits realization
Program Manager
Rolls Royce
- Delivered digital transformation program for customer & services across civil and defence business areas globally
- Managed inflight and end-to-end projects with full transition to support
- Ensured enhanced integrations for MRO between SAP, Maximo, MS Dynamics and bespoke applications
- Led projects including hybrid cloud migration with MS Azure, global business portal consolidation, AWS service centre integrations, aircraft datacenter IoT integration, asset management modernization and e-commerce platform integrations
- Managed UX/UI strategy and implementation
- Introduced agile and iterative methodologies, refined checkpoint process across ecosystem vendors
- Managed portfolio budget (CapEx and OpEx), performed benefits analysis and negotiated supplier funding
- Engaged stakeholders up to C-Level, chaired steering and board meetings
- Defined governance and delivery model, built core delivery team and design authority
- Managed a large resource pool of internal, external and SI resources
- Collaborated with enterprise architecture on digital, BI, big data, cloud and portals strategy
Program Manager
Henderson Global Investors
- Managed finance transformation projects including FI controlling, MI/FCA reporting, consolidation, master data management, procurement and profitability cost management across Europe, America and Asia
- Used waterfall and agile methodologies from initiation to go-live and system decommissioning
- Led a team of permanent, contract and SI consultants including developers, architects, leads and managers
- Advised on strategy, goals, ROI and roadmap for finance and SAP ERP to meet TOM
- Designed general ledger consolidation and planning in ECC6, BPC10, PCM, BW7.3 & BI4
- Managed MI and FCA reporting suite with Business Objects BI4.1, Webi, Analysis Office and EPM
- Owned project plans, resourcing, SI selection and budget forecasts
- Ran stakeholder engagements, status updates, RAID logs and executive presentations
- Directed mixed-methodology delivery (SCRUM and Prince2)
- Provided program updates, challenged scope, budget and risks
- Led transition to BAU and support with AMS provider
- Defined governance, PMO management and vendor invoice approval
- Negotiated with product, SI and vendors via RFP/proposals, SOWs and contracts
- Drove improved communications and impact assessment to minimize risk
Program Lead
Capita
- Led global transformation program to deliver new analytics/BI and reporting solutions across PS, FI, SD, HR, SRM and MM
- Analyzed ERP and BW pain points, provided improvement recommendations with minimal business disruption
- Led ECC6 upgrade, BW7.4 re-implementation and Business Objects BI4.1 installation
- Evaluated and recommended reporting tools including SAP BO, Tableau, Spotfire, Antivia and Axiom
- Defined hardware/software requirements based on sizing models
- Provided cost-benefit analysis and ROI
- Created BI strategy, roadmap and architecture aligned with new data centre
- Managed system move to new data centre and expanded team resourcing
- Controlled budgets and project plans
- Led SAP HANA business case for BW with HANA Live integration
- Directed licensing discussions and negotiations
- Maintained current system while phasing in BW7.4 & BI4.1
- Drove Salesforce and other integrations for analytics
- Advised on HR transition to SuccessFactors
Project Manager
Deloitte
- Managed delivery of SAP BW7.3, BPC10 and SAP Fiori
- Ran requirements workshops and provided business analysis for HR, FI, PTP, procurement, OTC, shopping carts and BPC budget/forecast reporting
- Defined architecture from ECC to BW including BPC HR/finance model integration
- Evaluated and approved specifications, transports and change requests
- Developed technical strategy, roadmap and performance improvements
- Engaged stakeholders and chaired update meetings
- Managed risk and mitigation efforts
Project Manager
Shell
- Delivered self-service BI project using SAP BI4, HANA, SAP BW7.3 and SpotFire
- Managed parallel global go-lives across multiple business areas
- Defined interim and long-term strategy aligned with business goals
- Provided project governance, planning, budget and resourcing
- Evaluated architecture boundaries, infrastructure impacts and risk management strategy
- Implemented change management, governance and controls
- Defined project team roles and responsibilities (onsite/offshore)
- Provided technical architecture for easy adoption of BI tools
- Defined BI roadmap for new tools like mobile, Antivia and Design Studio
- Integrated SAP BI Webi reports with SharePoint 2010 for self-service publishing
- Evaluated BI system performance and recommended improvements
- Led workshops and stakeholder engagement
Program Lead
Hess
- Set up and ran program to implement SAP BW powered by HANA and BI4
- Led system performance improvements
- Defined BI/reporting roadmap and enterprise-wide self-service BI adoption strategy
- Architected and led installation/integration of SAP BI4 with SharePoint 2010 using .NET 3.5
- Interviewed executives and provided four-year strategy recommendations including change management, CoE, support, BI implementation and data warehouse options
- Managed program initiation, SI negotiation (RFP and SOW) and technology recommendations
- Oversaw stakeholders, communications, project plans, deliverables, budget and resources
Account Manager
SAP America
- Provided RFQs and RFPs to clients on SAP HANA and SAP BI4
- Analyzed existing systems and interviewed key staff up to C-Level
- Developed high-level solutions and implementation plans
- Led commercial negotiations for clients in engineering, hospitality and financial services
Industries Experience
See where this freelancer has spent most of their professional time. Longer bars indicate deeper hands-on experience, while shorter ones reflect targeted or project-based work.
Experienced in Pharmaceutical (6 years), Professional Services (2.5 years), Aerospace and Defense (1.5 years), Information Technology (1 year), Food and Beverage (0.5 years), and Telecommunication (0.5 years).
Business Areas Experience
The graph below provides a cumulative view of the freelancer's experience across multiple business areas, calculated from completed and active engagements. It highlights the areas where the freelancer has most frequently contributed to planning, execution, and delivery of business outcomes.
Experienced in Project Management (12.5 years), Information Technology (10.5 years), Supply Chain Management (4.5 years), Business Intelligence (4 years), Strategy (2.5 years), and Finance (2 years).
Summary
I am an experienced Business & Technology Transformation Senior Project/Program Manager within Finance, Logistics, Procurement, Manufacturing, HR, Digital, Analytics and ERP / SAP. In additional to having a very successful track record of delivering some of the largest, innovative, complex projects & programs in the transition space on time and within budget. My goals are to implement sustainable strategies, build high performing teams, increase sales & profitability, provide a maximum return on investment and reduce TCO. I regularly work with and advise C-Level Executives & Boards, along with having a great network of contacts with Suppliers, Vendors and 3rd parties to call on. I am also an experienced Speaker at Events and Conferences. Coming from a blended strategic, accounting, business & technical background this experience provides me with the skillset to be adaptable and add value especially in pressurised environments.
Skills
- Program/project Management: Msp, Pmp, Prince 2, Agile, Safe, Scrum, Activate & Goal Directed Project Management. Tools Include: Jira, Calm, Focus Build Solman, Ms Project, Excel, Smartsheet, Planview & Clarity
- Stakeholder Management: Strong Stakeholder Relationship Management, Including 3rd Parties, Multiple Suppliers And Vendors To C-level
- Finance/budget Management: From Small To Multi-million Budgets, Accurate Forecasting, Cost Benefit Analysis, Supplier Or Vendor Commercial Negotiations, Rfq/rfp And Sales Bid Management
- Digital: Cloud (Aws, Azure), Saas, E-commerce Platforms, B2b, Payment Systems, Single Sign On, Integrations, Crm And Portals
- Business Intelligence & Analytics: Sap Bi / Business Objects, Tableau, Qlikview, Birst, Spotfire, Cognos, Power Bi & Oracle Bi
- Erp, Ai, Data Warehousing, Etl, Epm, Crm & Big Data: Sap, Oracle, Informatica, Sales Force, Hyperion, Sql, Ms Dynamics & Axiom
- Sap: S/4 Hana, Ecc, Ewm, Bpc, Bw/bi, Success Factors, Ariba, Concur & Hybris
- Financial Services: Asset Management, Investment Management, Financial Control, Mi & Fca Regulatory Reporting
- Strategy & Architecture: Target Operating Model, Ssadm, Sdlc & Lean Six Sigma
Languages
Education
Liverpool University
Computing & Information Systems · Computing & Information Systems · Liverpool, United Kingdom
Liverpool University
Technology Management · Technology Management · Liverpool, United Kingdom
St. Malachy’s Grammar School, Antrim Road, Belfast
Belfast, United Kingdom
Profile
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