Career Summary

With over 17 years of experience, I have progressed through various roles within the public sector and digital consultancy, focusing on product management, service design, and digital transformation. My career is marked by a commitment to delivering user-centred digital services, fostering effective agile delivery cultures, and delivering business objectives, including M&A activity, commercial strategy, and AI-enabled transformation.

Currently, as Chief Delivery Officer at Hippo Digital, a leading UK public sector digital consultancy, I lead the quality, consistency, and commercial performance of delivery across a portfolio spanning NHS England, DWP, DfE, MoJ, and the BBC. I have grown the permanent consultant workforce from 60 to over 700 professionals and am leading Hippo's AI transformation, shaping how we use AI to accelerate delivery for clients as a structural change to how consulting engagements are designed and executed.

Key Career Milestones

Chief Delivery Officer, Hippo Digital (Aug 2023 - Present): As Chief Delivery Officer, I am responsible for the quality, consistency, and commercial performance of delivery across a portfolio spanning NHS England, DWP, DfE, MoJ, and the BBC. Since taking the role I have scaled the permanent consultant workforce from 60 to over 700 professionals, significantly improving the permanent-to-contractor ratio to build a more sustainable, high-quality delivery model. Alongside headcount growth I led a structural reorganisation, introducing sector verticals across Health, Education, Central Government, and Private sectors, underpinned by a cross-cutting professions layer, and built dedicated delivery leadership teams within each sector to oversee delivery and reduce reliance on any single point of accountability. This gives Hippo the architecture to grow without losing coherence. Delivery outcomes have remained consistently strong throughout: 99% of projects delivered on time, with a client satisfaction rating of 9/10.

A significant focus of my current work is Hippo's AI transformation, shaping how we use AI to accelerate delivery for clients, not just as a tool but as a structural change to how consulting engagements are designed and executed. This includes leading the AI Accelerator initiative, developing AI-augmented delivery methodologies for the public sector, and positioning Hippo's frameworks-led approach as the foundation for outcomes-based, AI-enabled programmes.

Following Hippo's acquisition by Exponent Private Equity in March 2025, I have also played a central role in the company's strategic positioning for growth, contributing to M&A analysis, Investment Committee papers, and the commercial strategy underpinning our next phase.

Interim Chief Commercial Officer, Hippo Digital (Dec 2025 - Jun 2026): Alongside my CDO responsibilities, I covered the Chief Commercial Officer role on an interim basis for six months, leading the commercial function at a period of significant market opportunity. During this period Hippo achieved its highest ever new wins and sales orders, a result of tightening our go-to-market approach, strengthening bid quality, and embedding commercial discipline more deeply into delivery conversations. I also brought in and onboarded a permanent Commercial Director to succeed me in the role.

Director of Service and Delivery, Hippo Digital (Jun 2021 - Jul 2023): I represented Service and Delivery at the board level, focusing on scaling our consultancy services and enhancing our delivery capabilities. My achievements include the expansion of our consultant base and the implementation of a more sustainable staffing model.

Director of Product Quality and Principal Consultant, Hippo Digital (Sep 2019 - Jun 2021): I led Hippo Digital's efforts in delivering high-quality digital products and services, ensuring outcomes aligned with client expectations.

Head of Product, Hippo Digital (Oct 2018 - Aug 2019): I established and mentored a Product Management team, focusing on delivering large-scale, business-critical digital projects using Agile, Service Design, and Lean UX methodologies.

Product Manager and User Research Consultant, Hippo Digital (Jun 2017 - Oct 2018): I spearheaded the establishment of a Product Development and Research team, delivering consultancy services on large-scale digital projects.

Consultancy and Advisory Roles (Jun 2017 - Present)

Throughout my career, I have also undertaken several consultancy and advisory roles, contributing my expertise to high-profile projects across the Government Digital Service, NHS England, and the Department for Education, among others. These roles have allowed me to influence significant digital transformation initiatives, such as the development of digital identity services, data exchange platforms, and digital staff passports.

Early Career in the Civil Service (Jan 2006 - Apr 2013): My career began in the Civil Service, where I held various roles that provided me with a deep understanding of government operations and the importance of delivering services that meet the needs of the public.

Professional Philosophy

I am committed to the delivery of user-centred digital services that create genuine, measurable change in people's lives. Having spent 13 years in the civil service before moving into consultancy, including through the GDS era of digital transformation at DWP, I understand public sector delivery from the inside. That experience shapes everything about how I lead.

But the work I find most meaningful is not just about digital. It is about building organisations that work. Joining Hippo as employee number six in 2017 and watching it grow to over 700 permanent consultants has given me a rare perspective on what it takes to scale a professional services business without losing the culture and quality that made it worth scaling in the first place. I have been part of almost every stage of that journey, and the questions it has raised about structure, identity, leadership, and growth are ones I think about constantly.

My leadership style is direct and outcomes-focused. I invest heavily in the people around me, through honest performance conversations, structured development, and creating the conditions where talented people can do their best work. I care about building cohesive, well-led teams as much as I care about the outcomes those teams deliver. In a consultancy, your people are the product, and that demands a serious and sustained commitment to how you develop, retain, and organise them.

At Hippo I have led significant organisational change, from restructuring delivery around sector verticals and a cross-cutting professions model, to building out leadership pipelines, navigating the cultural shifts that come with private equity investment, and thinking carefully about what the organisation needs to look like in three to five years. That kind of work sits at the intersection of strategy, people, and commercial reality, and it is where I feel most in my element.

I am also deeply practical. I push for clarity on what success looks like before anything else, and I hold that standard throughout. Continuous improvement, for me, applies as much to how an organisation is led as to how its projects are run.

At the heart of it, I believe that well-led organisations deliver better outcomes. For the people who work in them, for the clients who rely on them, and for the users of the public services we help build. That belief has not changed since I started my career. It is what gets me out of bed.

Looking Forward

As I continue in my role as Chief Delivery Officer at Hippo Digital, I am focused on further enhancing our delivery capabilities, expanding our client portfolio, and contributing to the digital transformation landscape in the UK. My goal is to ensure that Hippo remains at the forefront of delivering impactful digital services that make a difference in people's lives.