Elix-IRR Senior Team
Partners and Non-Executives at Elix-IRR
Stephen Newton
Stephen Newton is Managing Partner of Elix-IRR and a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP. He is an internationally recognised specialist in transformational change, strategy and sourcing, with 20 years of experience in these fields.
Stephen Newton - Managing Partner
He was recently a Managing Partner in Accenture responsible for working with Boards to shape their global transformational agendas. In this capacity he has worked with Sainsbury’s, Chrysler, Warner Music Group, AstraZeneca, British Airways, Smiths Group and Walgreens.
Prior to joining Accenture he was IBM’s executive/partner responsible for all transformational consulting and outsourcing in Financial Services, Europe – IBM’s largest client sector. In this capacity he worked with Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase and ING Group. Stephen qualified with KPMG where he spent 9 years focussed on strategy, governance, large programmes of change and regulatory compliance with clients such as Old Mutual, Credit Suisse Group, Bankers Trust (before it was bought by Deutsche Bank) and ING Group.
Michael Henry
Mike Henry is a Partner at Elix-IRR and a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP. He has a Board level CIO/CTO track record within international B2B, IT, consultancy, banking, commercial markets and recruitment industries and a distinguished, proven track record of success.
Mike Henry, Partner
Mike’s B2B experience comes from being the CIO of PetroCosm, an international startup in the Oil and Gas Sector. In this capacity he led the strategy and implementation of the marketplace technology and the creation of JVs to support the rapid expansion.
Mike was also the Technical Director of KPNQwest while working as a Director in KPMG. Here he worked with the CEO to grow the business and infrastructure from inception to a £7bn IPO with an underlying infrastructure supporting 8000 users across Europe.
Mike has had a host of other senior and exec-level roles in multiple FTSE100 firms leading global business change programmes and strategic technology programmes.
Barri Maggott
Barri Maggott is a Partner at Elix-IRR and a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP. He is a registered South African Chartered Accountant. He commenced his career with KPMG, where has was for 16 years, 10 of which as a partner. During his consulting career he was engaged with a wide range of clients mainly in the financial services, oil and gas and retail industries. His consulting experience was gained mainly focusing on IT, risk and finance projects. He consulted on a number of business change programmes encompassing these areas and has a deep understanding of business strategy and related operating models.
Barri Maggott - Partner
He also spent three years at KPMG’s International Headquarters in Amsterdam where he was engaged in driving the strategy and product portfolio for the global IT advisory business, collaborating with consultants across the globe.
Most recently he was the Chief Operating Officer for Momentum Investments following the merger of Momentum and Metropolitan to form the third largest life insurer (MMI) in South Africa. As part of the merger integration he was responsible for the establishment of a shared services centre in the Investments division. He was also appointed to the asset management board in March 2011.
Barri runs Elix-IRR’s African practice.
Christoph Schmidt
Christoph Schmidt is a Partner of Elix-IRR and a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP with 22 years of change and outsourcing experience.
Prior of joining Elix-IRR, Christoph was Chief Marketing/Sales Officer and Member of the Board of a multi-country, multi-company BPO CRM provider and Call Center Operator in Germany. His experience in this role included re-organisation, re-structuring, M&A, cash management in turn-around situations and implementation of sales and marketing activities including client and product portfolio optimization.
Christoph Schmidt - Partner
Before this, Christoph worked as Area Sales Leader for EDS in Central Europe, heading the Sales Executive organization for IT Infrastructure, Applications and BPO and guiding the Sales Support organization. He was awarded European Sales Leader of the Year for his sales results while simultaneously refining the sales approach. During the acquisition of EDS by hp, Christoph became Sales Leader Germany for the integrated hp/ EDS Sales team.
He first started his career at IBM in Germany responsible for Systems Integration and Project Management of large full scope service contracts, joining the Outsourcing unit in early nineties. He developed an expertise leading large national and international deals that delivered business change aligned with business strategies. Further, he held various management and executive positions in IBM’s services business unit, ranging from Application Sales to e-business Innovation to existing accounts in Financial Services Sector. During this time he was also responsible for strategy and staff leadership across IBM’s European business.
His industry experience covers Financial Services/ Insurance, Telecommunication, Media, Retail, e-business and Healthcare.
Ian Ferguson
Ian Ferguson is a is a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP. Ian is a Partner in the Global Sourcing practice at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Pillsbury’s Global Sourcing team has been at the forefront of global sourcing since 1988, when it designed the first-ever large scale IT outsourcing agreement.
Ian Ferguson
Ian has an extensive track record in IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing, business transformation outsourcing, technology transformation, offshore services and strategic services.
Ian has over 25 years experience of sourcing transactions of all kinds, advising both customers and suppliers, across a range of sectors and in particular the financial services sector. His sourcing experience includes multi-jurisdictional and offshore transactions. Prior to joining Pillsbury, Ian was a partner and co-head of the international outsourcing practice at Allen & Overy LLP. Ian was also head of Allen & Overy’s Communications, Media & Technology Group.
Ian has experience of commercial sourcing transactions in many different business sectors. His experience includes advising on collaboration arrangements, joint ventures, services agreements, infrastructure projects, private labelling relationships and supply and distribution contracts. Ian has particular expertise of payments systems and payment card processing arrangements. His clients include many leading international companies in diverse industries. He has advised on transactions for The Bank of New York Mellon, BACS, Barclays, BG, BNP Paribas Securities, GN Store Nord, HBOS, JP Morgan, Pfizer, RBS, Rexam, Swisscom, Telenor, Tesco Bank and Unilever.
Ian is a a member of the IAOP (International Association of Outsourcing Professionals) UK & Ireland Regional Advisory Board.
Mark Goodyear
Mark Goodyear is a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP, with a non-executive role at Elix-IRR. Mark is an expert in all aspects of IT and IT projects; strategy, architecture, design, sourcing, and implementation of large scale IT systems. He also has expertise in Computer Law & IT, Education, General Corporate, Intellectual Property, Patent & Trade secrets, Retail, Technology & Science. Together with his experience of client disputes and dispute avoidance Mark’s end-to-end expertise in both the operational and advisory aspects of IT, including strategy, sourcing and programme optimisation, means that his input into Elix-IRR is extremely valuable.
Mark Goodyear
Mark is an ex-Accenture senior partner, having worked there for 24 years. He was the Technology Lead for the global Products Division, responsible for all technology, consultants, alliances and Intellectual Property. He has worked with major corporate clients, UK and International in all sectors, holding line positions in top organisations he worked for, such as Director of Technology Infrastructure for the DHSS (1990), and Director of Technology and Architecture for Tesco (2002).
Since leaving Accenture in 2004, Mark provides business and IT advice to large enterprises, small companies and start-ups.
Andy Curtis
Andy is a is a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP, with a non-executive role at Elix-IRR. Andy is an expert in all aspects of IT sourcing and IT programme delivery. During his Accenture career he was normally found at the client site, working with the team at the heart of IT programmes which at the time broke new ground for scale and complexity. ‘Making difficult stuff happen!’
Andy Curtis
Andy is an ex-Accenture senior partner, having worked there for 23 years. Andy spent his entire career helping clients to implement large, multi-year IT transformation programmes with budgets in the range £50m to £2bn. Andy was usually the Client Partner with overall responsibility for Accenture’s work and has worked in UK Government, UK Retail Banking, UK/US Telecommunications, German/US Railways, UK/Europe/US Snack Food and Drink Manufacture and more laterly for several of the UK’s leading retailers. Importantly, Andy was involved in all stages – sale, delivery, exit – of Accenture’s largest outsourcing arrangement including the role of the Client Partner.
Since retiring from Accenture in 2006, Andy has provided investment capital and advice to small IT companies and start-ups. He has also sharpened his ‘real world skills’ by leading the turnaround of several small failing IT companies.
Elix-IRR Principals and Consulting Directors
Graham Busby
Graham Busby is a Principal at Elix-IRR, experienced in large, complex outsourcing deals. His expertise in creating transformational propositions for his clients, which are focussed not only on cost-savings but on empowering the front-line business, means that he is able to ensure Elix-IRR’s clients’ future business visions are not only achievable, but are fundamentally value-creating. His background consists of technology consulting, strategy consulting and outsourcing sales, giving him the perfect skill-set to offer clients in this advisory capacity.
Graham Busby, Principal
Prior to Elix-IRR, Graham was a member of the Global Mega-Deal Team at Accenture, an 8-person team responsible for shaping and selling multi-functional outsourcing deals worth over $500m to clients in all industries and geographies. He has worked with multi-national companies such as Chrysler, AstraZeneca, Warner Music Group, British Airways and Johnson & Johnson. With each of these clients, Graham offered advice on best-in-class approaches to strategy, governance, operations, organisational design, management priorities and solution design. He is a great believer in sourcing decisions not just being about cutting costs, but about adding real value to business processes. As such the vision, business case, roadmap and solution he designs with Elix-IRR’s clients reflect this approach. Graham is also a Member of Elix-IRR Partners LLP
Anthony Potter
Anthony Potter is a Principal at Elix-IRR, with deep consulting experience in sourcing and outsourcing. strategy. His expertise is in shaping cost reduction strategies driven through effective procurement, outsourcing / offshoring strategy and process optimisation. He also has helped shape ground-breaking transformational outsourcing deals, particularly in the IT space and has served blue-chip clients globally on these topics.
Anthony Potter - Principal
Prior to Elix-IRR, Anthony was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey as part of their Business Technology Office serving clients on operations and IT strategic issues mainly in the Financial Services sector, including Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and SocGen. His work focussed particularly on back office operations process reengineering and offshoring. He has also worked at Citigroup as part of their global Expense Management team responsible for driving cost reduction strategies across the bank, and for Accenture where he was a Strategy Consultant working extensively on transformational outsourcing deals both the in business development and operational management roles, serving clients such as Sainsbury’s, Chrysler and AstraZeneca.
Russell Smith
Russell Smith is a Principal at Elix-IRR. He has over ten years of sourcing advisory experience, specialising in IT.
Russell Smith, Principal
Russell is highly experienced in advising clients around all aspects of the sourcing lifecycle, and helping to deliver business transformation. He has a breadth of management experience that also includes strategy development, IT programme management and contract management.
Prior to joining Elix-IRR, Russell spent ten years at Deloitte Consulting, working across industries for a variety of blue-chip clients including Tesco, Royal Mail, Barclays, ABInBev, TfL, and Friends Provident.
His more recent projects have included assisting Unilever with the renegotiation of their global telecommunications services contract.
Joe Dall
Joe Dall is a Principal at Elix-IRR. He has over 20 years of industry and consulting experience, and specialises in strategy and technology-enabled transformation and sourcing. Joe has strong public sector experience gained from several central Government engagements, and from direct experience as a Government CIO (National Savings & Investments) operating in a highly outsourced environment.
Joe Dall - Principal
Joe’s breadth of experience also includes a number of financial services engagements, and operating model design, channel strategy, governance and assurance of outsourced / offshored environments, programme direction, information management and data quality.
Prior to joining Elix-IRR, Joe has worked as a consultant (Deloitte Consulting, Ernst & Young and Sapient) and in industry (NS&I, Apple Computer).
Recent clients include the UK Ministry of Defence (Acquisition Strategy), the Cabinet Office (Pensions Transformation) and PADA (BPO/ITO OJEU), Visa and Credit Suisse.
Jon Stephansen
Jon Stephansen is a Principal at Elix-IRR. He is a specialist sourcing expert and strategy consultant with extensive international experience delivering projects in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, China, South Korea, South Africa, Canada and USA.
Jon Stephansen - Principal
His expertise is in transformation strategy, location strategy, business case and business plan development, complex competitor assessments, go-to-market strategy as well as service and technology benchmarking.
Prior to Elix-IRR, Jon was a Consulting Manager at IDC, responsible for all custom research projects delivered by the European IT Services team. At Frost & Sullivan, Jon was in charge of all Business Process Outsourcing, Customer Relationship Management and other Outsourcing projects within the EIA (Europe, Israel and Africa) region.
He has worked with multinational companies such as Ascom, Atento, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Flextronics, Huawei, Íslandsbanki, Kongsberg Maritime, McKesson, Panasonic, Samsung, Sennheiser, Sony, Sitel, Telenor and YIT.
Some of his more recent projects include developing a location strategy for a leading African bank looking to set up regional processing centres in three Sub-Saharan countries; leading a service and technology benchmark project for the largest HR and Payroll BPO provider in the UK; developing a location strategy and go-to-market plans for a European telecom equipment vendor expanding into Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Eastern Europe; as well as developing a go-to-market strategy for a global BPO/CRM vendor expanding its footprint in the North American market.
Ian Partridge
Ian Partridge is a Consulting Director at Elix-IRR. He has spent over 24 years in the Financial Services sector working for leading companies such as Deutsche Bank and Barclays Bank in a number of front office and back office roles in IT, Operations, Business Management and Strategic Sourcing. He has led programs to improve the operating cost base and flexibility of revenue and non-revenue generating activities by utilising strategic sourcing solutions involving a combination of outsourcing, off-shoring and captive shared service centres. He has specific domain knowledge around the use of vendors in the KPO and BPO sectors which has been used to transform the operating model for banking teams.
Ian Partridge, Consulting Director
He has also worked in the insurance sector, delivering a new shared service centre in India to support the future planned growth of the business. His expertise covers the legal sector where he led a program investigating the use of process re-engineering to transform the delivery of legal services to clients.
Ian has successfully delivered sourcing solutions across the main financial centres throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas. His experience includes working with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including internal control groups, regulatory authorities and providers of outsourcing services.
Stephen Jennett
Stephen Jennett - Consulting Director
Steve Jennett is a Consulting Director at Elix-IRR. He brings a wealth of experience to Elix-IRR as a Senior Operations and Middle Office professional in the Financial Services Sector, where he has operated at Executive and Management Committee levels for over 20 years, in particular at firms such as Santander Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston.
Prior to joining Elix-IRR Steve was UK Head of Operations for Santander Bank’s Global Banking & Markets, Insurance Services and Asset Management Divisions and was very much at the forefront of their strategic programme for Operations globally. Steve was a founding Director of a successful specialist Securities Lending Brokerage business in the earlier stages of his Financial Services career, and was a key contributor to the specification and development of Global 1, a bespoke Securities Lending system which has stood the test of time and is still used in the market today.
Geoff Buultjens
Geoff Buultjens - Consulting Director
Geoff Buultjens is a Consulting Director at Elix-IRR with over 25 years of experience in the Financial Services sector. After qualifying at a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, he held senior positions in both audit and finance at Old Mutual (South Africa). Over the past 12 years he has provided consulting services to clients in South Africa and the UK, including Old Mutual, AXA, Zurich Life (UK) and Capita Life and Pensions. He has a wealth of experience in best practice finance, benchmarking, corporate governance and outsourcing.
More recently, Geoff has specialised mainly in outsourcing and was a member of the consulting teams that supported Zurich Life (UK) and Prudential (UK) in the outsourcing of their back office functions. He has a deep interest in Service Level Agreements and in the measurement of performance against agreed service levels.
