I have 24 years of experience in the apparel industry having worked for most of my career for Courtaulds. Starting out as a trainee management accountant at a small division in Cheshire producing kids clothing, then with several other divisions up to the position of divisional accountant providing exposure to the manufacturing & distribution of product ranges from baby shoes to knitwear.

Moving into IT 11 years ago, following being part of an implementation team for a new ERP system, taking on a role as a business analyst & then project manager.

During this time I was involved in a number of warehouse/ERP implementations & the design, project management & implementation of Courtaulds core Merchandising systems.

I was also a member of the team responsible for putting what was then Freeborders PLM system into all of Courtaulds’ Businesses, with access of 600 users across 4 continents. Subsequently I took on the support & responsibility for further upgrades over the last three years, project managing the version 4.0 upgrade prior to the move of PLM to Lawson software.

Working closely with Freeborders / Lawson & other members of the Courtaulds IT team & business users, provided guidance & changes to the PLM software helping to improve it’s functionality & usability.

During my tenure in Courtaulds IT, I spent three years managing their helpdesk & business support teams, facilitating significant improvements in customer service levels. I was also at that time IT Security Officer, heavily involved in the construction of IT security policies in line with Sarbanes Oxley regulations whilst Courtaulds was part of Sara Lee (USA).

My varied business & IT roles whilst at Courtaulds has helped me with appreciating the requirements of users, from both their point of view & that of IT. Thus translating real requirements into real solutions.