Specialists

Maria is a creative problem solver with a “can do” and flexible attitude. Proactive, focused, with excellent analytical skills and a systematic approach to problem-solving, combined with over 15 years expertise in Business Transformation and Change Management to streamline and improve processes and business performance.
 
Both as an operational manager and a consultant, Maria has a strong and proven background in developing, directing, and operating successful initiatives and programmes for Business Change, Process Design & Improvement, Process Establishment, and ISO readiness and compliance across local, regional, and Pan European distributed organisations: using a blend of Six Sigma, Lean, ITiL and other methodologies and standards blended to suit organisational capability and preference.

Some recent engagements have included:

• Large UK Government Agency  
              Acting as the overall Quality Manager for the organisation, Maria mentored and developed 11 quality managers in different strands of the organisation before identifying and transitioning a full time employee into the role
             Maria developed and deployed an improvement strategy and plan to transform a best practice function within the organisation into a formal service centre.
            Working with key Service Centre stakeholders, Maria designed, developed, and tested, the key customer facing and operating processes needed to operationalise the Service Centre, along with a measurement framework to track the performance of the processes.
             Maria developed the rollout plan for deployment of the processes to the Service Centre’s first tranche of customers. 
             Maria is currently developing a Risk Based Assessment process into the Engineering function of this LGA to develop risk profiles, identify areas of greatest risk, and schedule assessments to drive root cause analysis and improvement actions. This approach will allow the Quality function to target lead indicators and reduce risk rather than concentrating solely on trail indicator compliance audits.
   
  
• The Land Registry where Maria led a programme wide business transformation project to design and implement a framework of key business processes within a large government agency aiming for CMMI accreditation: aligning the processes and framework to meet the needs of the client’s chosen toolset - RUP, ClearCase, and ClearQuest.  This work resulted in the organisation achieving CMMI Maturity Level 2.
• Major Systems Integrator where Maria led and directed a programme wide controls improvement project, using six sigma techniques, which incorporated the identification and effective implementation of controls and advising on remediation action required to close identified gaps. This encompassed both Sarbanes Oxley S404 and Business Critical Controls, and the project culminated in successful certification at the first attempt with no remediation or gaps identified.  Senior Management and External Auditors singled out the project as exemplifying a successful best practice approach.