I have spent the majority of my career successfully managing digital communications teams in higher education and the public sector. This has included responsibility for large, content rich websites, leading major national projects with Government providers like Directgov, working for a web start-up and working as a Programme Manager encouraging the technical take up of open education resources.
I am a digital specialist with more than a decades experience of identifying and implementing solutions that offer business improvements and value for money. I have experience of dealing with senior staff and presenting at ‘Board’ level as well as managing specialist teams and overseeing significant budgets.
I was responsible for identifying and implementing a number of early proof of concept, social web communications channels to to several former employers – including blogs (I setup the jiscinvolve.org blog network in 2007), wikis (both working with the MediaWiki Foundation to teach scientists to better utilise Wikipedia and implementing Confluence as the foundation for a collaborative intranet), podcasts and live video streaming of events. I have also produced social media guidelines for HR on a number of occasions and also implemented monitoring tools to collect metrics on social media activity.
I have authored digital strategies on a number of occasions and have contributed to strategies for other organisations and companies on a consultative basis.
I am an experienced trainer particularly on the topics of content management systems and social media and have considerable experience of working with suppliers from major outsourcing companies to small agencies.
An experienced project manager I have a PRINCE2 practitioner certificate and knowledge of the Managing Successful Programs framework and in particular Scrum Agile methodology.
While at Jiva Technology I was working on Beanbag Learning and conceived and helped launch the beta of Tutorhub.com producing the original wireframes and user journeys for the application. I was overseeing the development team as Product Owner, undertaking competitor analysis, managing Google analytics, building strategic partnerships and managing marketing and PR activity.
I am a prolific blogger (digitalbydefault.com), event organiser for technical events (bettr.org, gov:west and bathcamp.org) and also a Mozilla Foundation & Wikimedia UK volunteer.
Employment
Digital Communications Manager
Medical Research Council
Polaris House
Swindon
Oversee the MRC digital strategy including responsibility for the website(s), intranet and social web presence.
Programme Manager – Information Environment
JISC
University of Bristol
Beacon House
Queens Road
Bristol
BS8 1QU
October 2009 – October 2010
Technical Programme Manager for the UK Open Education Resources programme including overseeing JorumOpen on behalf of JISC. I also represented JISC on a technical group with scholarly publishers and lead the Information Environment team communications and outreach activity.
Product Manager
Jiva Technology
St Thomas Court
Thomas Lane
BS1 6JG
July 2008 – August 2009
* Copywriting
* Strategic planning
* Product design
* Marketing
* Event management
* Customer service
* Community management
Project Manager (Directgov)
Higher Education Funding Council for England
Northavon House
Coldharbour Lane
Frenchay
Bristol
October 2007 – April 2008 (secondment)
Main Responsibilities:
• Project planning for migration of content to Directgov
• Liaison with partner organisations involved in the project (including the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills)
• Budget management for the project
• Management of consultants attached to the project
• Developing a long term strategy for HEFCE involvement with Directgov
• Managing editorial team based at HERO Ltd
I also assisted the HEFCE Corporate Communications team with their first moves towards a social media strategy and advising them on content management issues.
Operations Manager (Communications and Marketing)
Joint Information Systems Committee
University of Bristol
Beacon House
Queens Road
Bristol
BS8 1QU
December 2006 – October 2007
Main Responsibilities:
• Strategic development of JISC web presence focussing on user experience, social media and online communities
• JISC Annual Conference
• Direct line management to four members of staff and overall responsibility for a team of nine
• Budget responsibility for up to £500k pa from numerous budget streams
• Project manager for JISC Business and Community Engagement Communications activity
• JISC representative at UK Web Archiving Consortium
Production Manager
JISC
As above
September 2004 til December 2006
• Development of JISC website
• JISC Visual Identity and print production
• JISC Conference and ad-hoc events
Web Editor
JISC
As above
April 2003 til September 2004
• Content Management
• Usability Research
• Editorial Policy
• Staff Training
• Project management
Website Manager
Economic and Social Research Council
Polaris House
Swindon
June 2001 til April 2003
• Content Management
• Usability Research
• Editorial Policy
• Staff Training
• Project management
Information Executive (Intranet Operations)
Parkman Consulting (now Mouchell Parkman)
Fox Den Road
Stoke Gifford
Bristol
April 1999 – June 2001
• Online research
• Information Architecture
• Content Management
• Internal Communications
Information Assistant
University of the West Of England
Library Services
Frenchay
Bristol
February 1998 – April 1999
• Journal Management
• Issue Desk
• Library Website
• User Training
Education
1993 – 1996
University of Wales, Newport
Joint Honours – English and History BA (Hons)
2 : 2
References
Jon Ellis
COO
Jiva Technology
Robert Haymon-Collins
Director of Communications and Marketing
Joint Information Systems Committee
