Flexmanager - Commercial Director

Commercial Director

Work Experience

Career Profile

A senior commercial executive with extensive experience in commercial negotiations, contract disputes and customer management, gained within the aerospace industry. Proven record of accomplishment in international negotiation, claim resolution and customer management.

An effective negotiator with strong analytical skill and an innovative yet practical approach to problem solving.

Employment Details:

2002 to Date Consultant/Interim Manager Self-Employed

In 2002 I formed my own consulting company providing consultancy services to the local N.Ireland and UK market in the below areas

Tenders
- Development of bid strategy and management of bid response
- Commercial volume compilation
- Terms and conditions advice and negotiation,
- Establishment of risk sharing arrangements suppliers, partners, customers
- Financial and risk analysis
- Business case modelling

Claims
- Independent Review
- Compilation
- Defence
- Resolution Strategy
- Negotiation
- Avoidance – advice and assistance

Contractual Advice
- Contract management
- Understanding of contractual obligations
- Pricing Strategies
- Negotiation strategies

June 04 – Jan 05 Interim Manager Bae Systems

Responsible for the commercial aspects of a major bid on a number of work packages on the Boeing 7E7 aircraft in excess of $1 Billion. These work packages were design, development and manufacture and had a significant Supply Chain involvement. My role was to develop and implement the strategy for contracting with the customer and the major suppliers to minimise the risk to the company in the customer contract and ensure that the Suppliers were back to back with the customer contract. In addition the work packages had to meet the required financial return and the company governance system. The role involved contract drafting and negotiating (customer and suppliers), financial modelling, Pricing, risk analysis and a core member of the Bid team.

2002 – 2004
Variety of consulting assignments mostly on Tenders and Claims primarily in the UK and some Global sourcing consultancy work

1999 – 2002 Commercial Director Short Brothers Plc
& (Bombardier Aerospace)
1992 - 1997
Responsible for the commercial function of this major aerospace company, which included Contract negotiations and administration, Estimating and Pricing, Bidding, Customer cost reduction initiatives and Claims. Negotiated various contract types with most major civil aerospace companies in Western Europe and North America including, Bae Systems, Rolls Royce, General Electric, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, Snecma, Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed, Textron, Bombardier, B F Goodrich, GKN.
Major achievements were:

• Successfully tendered and negotiated several contracts with Boeing in total value over £750 million

• Managed an international team of lawyers and support staff in compiling, submitting and successfully negotiating a major claim in excess of £50 million against a Dutch company

• Successfully negotiated a major claim ($100 million) jointly with French partners against a British and German consortium for work which was outside the scope of the contract on a design, manufacture and support contract

• Avoided imminent court action with a former customer on a major claim for breach of contract and settled the £5 million claim for 5 cents on the dollar whilst maintaining goodwill with the other party

• Member of the Contracts Advisory Committee of the Society of British Aerospace Companies.

• Introduced a new bidding process which improved the success rate for bids by 35% with a clearly defined criteria for bidding and enhanced processes

1997 – 1999 Program Director US Short Brothers Plc
(Bombardier Aerospace)
Program Director with P& L responsibility for all nacelle customer programs in the US. Customers included GE, BF Goodrich, Honeywell and IAE, with an annual turnover of $100 million. Major achievements were:

• Successfully sold and transferred a major project which included responsibility for Design, Manufacture and Aftermarket support, to another company on time and on budget whilst meeting all the customer’s significant requirements and maintaining the delivery schedule throughout the transfer

• Implemented a major retrofit program for a critical design change on 132 aircraft in service worldwide whilst maintaining the production schedule,

• Turned around a customer claim for a design deficiency to a position where we were able to recoup all of our costs (£10 million)

• Improved the Return on Capital Employed for these contracts by 22% in this period through a variety of strategies including improved performance, renegotiating debtor periods and removing non-performing programs.

1974 – 1992 Various Roles Short Brothers Plc

Worked in Short Brothers plc (part of Bombardier Aerospace) from 1974 to 1992 in a variety of roles with a commercial focus which included Head of Purchasing for a period of 18 months (1989/90) where I was responsible for developing and implementing standard policies and procedures across each purchasing division