GREG MEEKINGS

Hill Court,
Park View Road,
Woldingham,
Surrey CR3 7DN

Tel +44 (0) 1 883 652 024

Fax +44 (0) 1 883 652 488

 

 

EDUCATION

 

B.A. Computer Systems - Honours Class 1, University of Essex 1974

 

GENERAL

 

A dynamic, effective and internationally experienced, hybrid business and information technology leader. Experience covering general management, technology, marketing and sales, as well as business and P&L accountability. Has a deep interest and empathy with technology and how it may be harnessed to provide business benefit and competitive advantage. Experience of acquisitions and subsequent integration.

 

EXPERIENCE

 

2004-Date          plural non-executive & leisure

 

Independent Chairman. Reuters Pension Fund, a DC/DB scheme with around 8,000 members and assets of £650m.

 

Independent Chairman. Reuters Supplementary Pension Scheme, a DB scheme for Reuters Directors and Senior Management.

 

Chairman SmithBayes. A start up company whose vision is to provide the definitive technological tool and service to enable large companies to model, analyse, plan, and manage Corporate Strategy.

 

Non Executive Director of IT&e Limited an ASX and AIM listed software firm that supplies Risk Management applications to the financial services industry.

 

Chairman Woldingham Parish Council.

 

I am conducting a number of small consulting assignments, typically around technology organisation at the time of large technology and/or organisational change including M&A.

I am working with a number of companies providing advice and mentoring and am looking for one or two further non-executive roles.

 

1992-2004            REUTERS PLC.                                                                                   London

 

2002                    CIO

 

Decide to retire early and did so having recruited both a new CIO and Head of Operations. Previously responsible for all internal systems and applications, business process engineering, sourcing, and shared service centre strategy. Initial direct budget of £100m, now reduced to £80m. Major focus is on cost reduction and on improving customer service and sales effectiveness through CRM and self-service deployment. Direct and indirect cost savings are being driven through standardisation, process re-engineering, outsourcing and smart sourcing.

 

This was a newly created role. I have established a governance model driven by an Advisory Board with senior level customer representation and introduced customer satisfaction, SLA benchmarks and a Balanced Scorecard. I have established a clear application strategy and a firm out-of-the-box approach to benefit delivery. We recently delivered major new business benefit through a global upgrade to Siebel 7.5 and deployment of Oracle self service applications. We have adopted a standard PC build and 1 PC per person policy and have outsourced desk top support services.

 

Member of the Group Operating Committee.

 

2001                                  MANAGING DIRECTOR, GLOBAL SERVICES

 

Global Services was created to lead all Reuters customer facing support and solutions services globally. The solutions business, with revenues of about £250m, covered solutions sales, Reuters Consulting, and Reuters enterprise products. The support side of the group comprised technical and customer support. Technical groups cover field service and 2nd line support operations. Customer support help desks which support all Reuters products globally are located in London, Geneva, Chicago, New York and Sydney.

 

Established Reuters Great Service initiative, a company wide change programme, sponsored by the CEO, with the objective of service excellence and ensuring that “the customer is at the centre of everything we do”.

 

 

2000                                 MANAGING DIRECTOR, TRANSACTIONS

 

Responsible for Reuters global Transactions business line. The business line has revenues of £400m and a contribution of £200m, being 35% of Reuters operating profits. Products include Dealing 3000 Direct and Matching (aka D2/1, D2/2), and Reuters Intertrade Direct. Dealing 3000 is the dominant service for transacting the world’s interbank foreign exchange business. Intertrade Direct is aiming to take a commanding market share in the evolving market for order routing and management of cross border trading inequities, funds and fixed income.

 

Director of the following Reuters subsidiaries; Effix SA, Reuters Intertrade Direct SA, Reuters Transactions Services, Reuters SA, Reuters Portugal, Reuters Espana, Reuters Decision Support Systems, Reuters Italia, Reuters Svenska.

 

1999                                 MANAGING DIRECTOR, GLOBAL SALES & OPERATIONS,                  GENEVA
REUTERS TRADING SYSTEMS

 

Responsible for leading the sales and operations of Reuters Trading Systems Division on a global basis. The Division had annual revenues of over £700m and a contribution of £350m. Business lines include service and software sales and support. Products include Reuters Money & FX Trading Services, Securities Transactions Services, Financial Enterprise Systems Software, including Triarch and TIBCO TIB products, and Kondor+ Risk Management applications. Responsible for technical operation of all production systems for both Reuters Trading Systems and Reuters Information services. Total staff of 2,700. Direct reports based in Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris, Singapore, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Zurich. Reuters global sales & operations were headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

1996                    MANAGING DIRECTOR, CORPORATE TECHNOLOGY GROUP

 

                           Reuters senior IT executive. Member of Reuters Executive Committee. Led the Reuters Development Federation. Chairs the Global Technical Management Group that set global corporate technical policy and strategy and oversaw global operations. Responsible for overall technical architecture and development of both Reuters Financial and Business Information products. Directly managed 1,000 R&D staff with a budget of about £110m. Development locations included Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, UK, and USA. In 1997 this group completed 395 projects consuming 860 man-years of effort.

 

                           Established Reuters Software Process Improvement initiative achieving the Software Engineering Institute’s CMM Level 3.

 

                           Director of the following Reuters subsidiaries: Reuters Information Technology Inc., Effix SA, Equisoft, and ESL.

 

1992                    INTERNATIONAL MARKETING DIRECTOR,
INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (IMS)

 

                           Responsible for Reuters global IMS business. This business generates about £225m of annual revenues for trading systems information technology; notably Reuters PRISM and TRIARCH product lines. It also supplies all client site technology for Reuters Financial Information products. PRISM was the most successful and widely installed trading video switching system with about an 80% market share. TRIARCH is the most open and widely installed digital trading information system in the world; with about a 90% market share.

                          

                           Presided over the highly successful transformation of Reuters services from largely closed terminals, to open terminals and datafeeds. This provided Reuters with a market leading position, particularly in contrast to major competitors such as Bloomberg. Actively involved in the strategic positioning and pricing of Reuters open systems and information products.

 

                           Heavily involved in the successful acquisition and subsequent strategic positioning of Teknekron Software Systems (now TIBCO). Managed OFT (UK), and HSR (US) representations.

 

1989-92               REUTERS INC.                                                                                   CHICAGO

 

1990                    SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, REUTERS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INC.
PRESIDENT, REUTERS CLIENT SITE SYSTEMS INC.

 

                           Responsible for world-wide technical development of all Client Site Systems products.  Managed 200 staff based in Chicago, Hauppauge & Hong Kong.  Contributed to Reuter’s overall technical strategy as member of senior management team.  Initiated and successfully executed major strategic projects.  Successfully completed the technical transformation of Reuters Triarch product line commenced in 1989. Control annual budget of $35 m.  Implemented significant cost savings whilst improving staff productivity and morale.  Planned and managed successful downsizing operation.

 

1989                    SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, RICH INC.

 

                           Transferred to Chicago to manage the new trading room system (TRS) development group.  Responsible for overall operation, Human Resource; MIS; Finance and Admin etc; Chicago is run as a standalone entity.  Rationalised developments and product ranges resulting in improved productivity plus measurable benefits to Reuters profitability and customer satisfaction.  Introduced a full quality development methodology.  Successfully designed and implemented an innovative software quality and metrics program.  Introduced a comprehensive project budgeting/accounting system.  Instigated procedures for quantifiably evaluating staff work satisfaction resulting in dramatically improved staff morale.

 

1986-89               REUTERS PLC                                                                                    LONDON

 

1987                    INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL MANAGER, TRADING ROOM SYSTEMS

 

                           Managed the world-wide developments for the trading room systems (TRS) product group.  Analysed efficiency of extant organisation and project implementation.  Recommended strategic consolidation in Chicago.  Realised significant reduction in research and development costs.  Managed the wind-down of the U.K. group and successful take up of all activities in Chicago.

 

1986                    TECHNICAL MANAGER - HISTORICAL DATABASES

 

                           Responsible for technical strategy, development and operations of world-wide historic database products and services.  Recommended and implemented merger with newly acquired companies, Finsbury Data Services and IP Sharp Associates.  Substantial cost savings and improved technical systems convergence realised.  Specified and designed new terminal communications network for historical database services.

 

1985-86               FIRST COMPUTER LTD                                                                      LONDON

 

                           SERVICES DIRECTOR

 

                           Managed four technical service divisions (Product Management, Training, Field Service and Software Services), of this nation-wide chain of personal computer business centres.  Responsible for all systems consulting, software development, training, field service operations and for qualification and management of all products sold.  Evaluated and recommended new product introductions based on product/marketing plans, competitive selection, profitability, training and support needs.  Responsible for all supplier negotiations and relationships.  Rationalised and revised full range of products sold, significantly reducing inventory costs and improving bottom line profitability.

 

1984-85               CALIBRE TECHNOLOGY LTD                                                             SURREY

 

                           FOUNDER & MANAGING DIRECTOR

 

                           Produced and marketed TurboPrint, a PC DOS utility product.  Sold via mail order and PC distributors.

 

1983-84               BRAID SYSTEMS LTD                                                                         LONDON

 

                           SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR & FOUNDER SHAREHOLDER

                          

                           A start-up company specialising in PC communications products.  Responsible for marketing, sales, manufacture and support of all products.  Installed sales and support admin systems.  Established effective sales/marking strategy and pricing policy to maximise market penetration.  Developed a worldwide network of 100 dealers.  Generated, in 1st year, sales in excess of £1 million per annum and a 60% UK market share for a new telex product.  Successfully raised venture capital for expansion.

 

1974-83               LOGICA PLC                                                                                       LONDON

 

                           BUSINESS MANAGER

 

                           Managed the Industrial Control Systems Division, an autonomous profit centre.  Responsible for sales, consultancy, project implementation, staff and all day to day operations.  In 2 years increased revenues 375% (£5 million p.a.) and expanded to 50 permanent technical staff.  Consistently exceeded all sales and profit targets.

 

                           Prior to this position, completed many successful major projects both as project manager and software designer/programmer.  Architected and implemented one of Logica’s major software products, Master Control.  Total revenues generated in excess of £75 million.  Developed specific expertise in telemetry and process control systems and consultancy. Automated Whitbread’s new brewery in Magor South Wales. Developed one of the 1st ATM’s for Chubb. Developed factory automation systems for Freeman’s mail order. Developed and installed the BBC’s original CEEFAX Teletext head end system. This subsequently developed into a major business line for Logica as Teletext technology was adopted around the world.

 

PERSONAL:       Married; daughter (dob’81), son (dob’83); excellent health.

 

INTERESTS:       Travel, golf, skiing, sailing, tennis, bridge, music, theatre, fine wine and dining.

 

MISC:                 US Green Card holder.