Charlotte Willis
Leader and professional | Non-Executive Director | Award winner
Summary
Headline
Over 20 years of corporate management and leadership across technology and Financial Services sectors globally. Specialities include governance, assurance, strategy, business management, and Board membership and engagement. In addition, over 5 years as a Non-Executive Board member with experience in Governance, IT strategy, and remuneration and nominations.
About me
An experienced Director and trusted partner, I am results driven, articulate and professional. I have a keen eye for detail bringing natural curiosity, oversight and assurance to complex environments. I lead by example, bringing teams into a shared vision and championing inclusion. I take satisfaction from orchestrating efficiencies, building in common sense, and avoiding unnecessary complexity.
In 2018 I was named as one of the top 100 tech women in the UK, at the TechWomen100 Awards.
I am a Non-Executive Director (Trustee) on the Board of The MedicAlert Foundation (https://www.medicalert.org.uk) and Chair the Board Governance Committee.
Want to know more? Contact me at the bottom of this page.
What do others say about me?
Confident in strategic oversight while applying attention to detail, Charlotte was a real asset as MedicAlert Board member. On being appointed Chair of the Governance Committee, Charlotte quickly got to grips with its remit, driving forward its agenda, building momentum and getting things done. Charlotte effectively challenged and supported both executive and non-executive colleagues, displaying personal integrity and enabling positive engagement.
- Helen Newman, Former Board Chair, The MedicAlert Foundation
Charlotte exhibits key characteristics which make her an invaluable and exceptional addition to the team; always the most organised person in the room; always thinks about multiple outcomes and anticipates accordingly; intelligent and highly structured analysis and reasoning. Charlotte rapidly becomes a trusted and exceptional delivery partner and someone for whom I would go out of my way to create future working opportunities.
- Paul Williams, Head of Division, Operational Resilience, Bank of England
PROFESSIONAL Experience
The MedicAlert Foundation
Bedfordshire
Non-Executive Director (Trustee) and Governance Committee Chair Jul 2017 - present
I am proud to sit on the Board of The MedicAlert Foundation as a Trustee, contributing to and supporting MedicAlert in its charitable vision and objectives. You can find out more about MedicAlert here: http://www.medicalert.org.uk
- Chair of the Governance Committee
- Member of the Pay and Performance Committee
- Member of the Finance & Audit Committee
- Member of the ICT and Systems Development Committee
Schroder Investment Management Ltd
London
Head of Technology Performance Oct 2022 - Feb 2023
Schroder Investment Management Ltd
London
Head of Governance, Technology Oct 2019 - Sept 2022
Global governance, oversight, assurance. Performance and conformance: alignment to strategy, risk management, performance delivery, resource management, value delivery.
Elected to Schroders UK Employee Forum as Technology representative by my peersElected to Schroders Global Employee Forum to represent the UKCo-Founder and Co-Chair of Schroders' Gender Equality Network (GEN)Schroder Investment Management LtdLondonGlobal Business Manager, Technology Aug 2016 - Sept 2019
Business management, governance, transparency and reliability for Global Technology, particularly infrastructure. Wide remit covering everything from addressing routine business hygiene to production, management and communication of multi-year technology strategies, and addressing cultural and behavioural issues.
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race
Pacific Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, English Channel
Crew, Team Garmin Apr 2016 - July 2016Crew on Team Garmin for Legs 7 and 8 of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2015-2016.
Seattle --> Panama --> New York --> Derry~Londonderry~Doire --> Den Helder --> London10,878 nM
Bank of England
London
Sector Engagement, Resilience Apr 2015 - Apr 2016Direct responsibilities to engage with the finance sector at a macro level to promote and enhance resilience to major operational disruption that could affect financial stability. Achieved by engaging with various Business Continuity forums, promoting sharing of knowledge and resilience good practice, testing and exercising, contingency and response planning, and invocation and response support; most importantly building trust and credibility with senior leaders and key stakeholders.
Key achievements:
- Stakeholder management (engaged with a wide variety of business continuity, operational risk, and resilience colleagues across the sector through coordination and delivery of cross-sector forums, and acted as a point of contact within the team to support the sector’s response to resilience threats, building trusting and credible relationships)
- Project management (one of four team members who designed and delivered a successful and high-profile collaborative public-private UK/US Trans-Atlantic Resilience exercise, to enhance cooperation around the cyber security of critical national infrastructure and incident response, between the UK and US governments and their private sectors. Recipient of a Bank of England Governor’s Award 2015)
Royal Bank of Scotland
London
Logistics (Business) Manager, Security & Resilience Jun 2014 - Mar 2015Direct responsibilities include budget management, S&R operational process control, compliance, and best practice, and stakeholder engagement and relations across the UK&I Security & Resilience function.
Royal Bank of Scotland
London & Edinburgh
Lean Secondment, Corporate Services Jan 2014 - Jun 2014A six-month internal secondment leading a Lean transformation:
Focus on 5 key work-streams with the business and the internal customer:
- Customer (addressed customer engagement concerns, and implemented fresh governance and stakeholder engagement model)
- Efficient Processes (added big-picture 'so what' thinking to governance and change reporting processes to improve quality and communication)
- Mindsets and Behaviours (spotlight on morale and staff engagement, with an emphasis on sharing Lean skills to help staff address everyday operational issues as a team)
- Organisation and Skills (introduced a skills matrix to assist with training and succession planning)
- Performance (implemented three KPIs to monitor, track and report on project management capability and customer satisfaction)Royal Bank of Scotland
London
Manager, CAO Office, Business Resilience Oct 2012 - Dec 2013As Manager of the CAO’s office, I was responsible for providing a business management operations capability to the function, managing data, people, processes, and being the single point of contact for over 100 global staff with a budget of approx £20m/year globally.
Royal Bank of Scotland
London
Lean Secondment, Technology Infrastructure Apr 2012 - Sep 2012Three-month internal secondment to diagnose inefficiencies in the process to migrate servers from high-risk to low-risk data centres to achieve operational resilience, and delivered three main business benefits reducing time, increasing utilisation, and ensuring the process was audit-ready and compliant.
Global Banking & Markets, RBS
London, Edinburgh & India
Global PMO Manager, Technology Infrastructure Jun 2010 - Apr 2012• Promote centre of excellence under which Global Programmes and Projects are governed, managed, and supported, in order to maintain quality reputation
• Review/streamline/challenge/implement appropriate processes to ensure team remains a value-add, delivery support function in line with Business Target Operating Model
• Provide support and executive assistance to Head of Global Programmes, providing accurate and purposeful MI, and compiling and assuring quality of governance packs
• Maintain and uphold an understanding of global processes and business areas; track and report on budgets of c. £400m/year and headcount for c. 500 staff globallyGlobal Banking & Markets, RBS
London
PMO Lead, Technology Infrastructure Feb 2007 - May 2010• PMO Lead, supporting a portfolio of high-profile Technology Infrastructure Data Centre Programmes. Responsibilities include governance and compliance, process improvement, management reporting, risk and issue management, within a Prince 2-aligned project environment
Severn Consultancy GmbH
London & Amsterdam
IT Consultant (Application Development) Jun 2005 - Feb 2007PMO for a variety of Financial Services IT software projects.
Logica
London & SE England
IT Consultant (Software Development & Team Leader) Jul 2002 - Jun 2005
Designed and developed applications for a diverse range of clients; many of which involved high profile client-facing work.
Projects included: mobile phone boarding pass app for British Airways (personally presented to Rod Eddington, then CEO of BA) in the days before smartphones, and a pioneering online supermarket website for the Co-op to demonstrate how shop fronts could move online.
- Professional Qualifications and memberships
I'm a firm believer in continuous improvement and I love to learn. And that I have a responsibility not only to myself, but also to provide inspiration and be a positive role model for the next generation.
SAFe 4.0 Agilist(Scaled Agile, Inc.)January 2017
Social Responsibility
Volunteering and my opportunity to contribute and give back.
Stemettes Partner and Volunteer
Stemettes
Stemettes is an award-winning social enterprise working across the UK & Ireland and beyond to inspire and support young women into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths careers.
Technology Role Model, My Skills My Life
WISE Campaign
My Skills My Life is an interactive game from the WISE Campaign to help girls find rewarding careers in STEM; where girls will be happy and successful. I am a profiled Role Model in the game.
MyBnk/KickStart Money Volunteer
MyBnk/KickStart Money
In collaboration with KickStart Money, MyBnk supports and delivers financial education and money awareness for children. Bringing financial literacy to the classroom, and campaigning for financial education to be added to the national curriculum.
STEM Ambassador
STEMNET
Helping to bring STEM subjects to life and demonstrate the value of them in life and careers.
Personal interests
Tech
Personal technology, wearables, fintech and innovation
Travel & Experiences
57 countries and counting...
Sport & Adventure
London Marathon, London Triathlon, sailing and ocean yacht racing (Clipper Race 15-16), skiing, diving, trampolining
Academic Education
Northumbria University
BSc (Hons) Business Systems and Information Technology
1998 - 2001
Activities: Coach and national competitor - Newcastle University Trampolining Team,
Producer - Newcastle Student Radio (NSR)
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Computer Science1997 - 1998Activities: Coach and national competitor - Newcastle University Trampolining Team,
Producer - Newcastle Student Radio (NSR)
Wycombe Abbey School
10 GCSEs, 3 A-Levels
1990 - 1996
Activities: Head of House, Young Enterprise, Duke of Edinburgh, Trampolining Club/Gymnastics Club founder
Contact me
Want to know more? Have an opportunity you'd like to discuss? Get in touch: