Meet the Team

DAVID HERD

David has a long running association with the Shared Services Forum UK being one of the founding members stemming back to 2001 and remains an active & dedicated leader, proud to be part of its heritage in how it has evolved over the years into what it is today as a thriving pedigree of shared service organisations all sharing a common collaborative passion for sharing and knowledge exchange 

David’s day job is Director of Business Shared Services at Amey Ltd leading a talented team providing multi-functional support services for internal Business Units and Group operations. Services cover Customer Services, Finance Transactional Services, People Services and Business Reporting & MI. The business having recently aligned with new shareholders, the role is accountable for shared service strategy & delivering effective synergies aligned with enabling and supporting a business growth agenda.  

David is a FCCA qualified Finance Professional, having held various Director of Shared Services/GBS positions built upon a bed rock of Change Leadership with over two decades of experience enabling effective & best practice front to back-office functions & ERP implementations. Offers a wealth of insight & value acquired across a career in operational leadership, expertise in optimised organisation design strategies, functionally and operational, with an ability to execute on the creation of effective shared service centre operations and performance improvement. 

Previous positions include GBS Delivery Director, Head of Shared Services, Head of BPO, Finance Director and Consultant 

Member of APA Top Influencers Index 2020, 2021 & 2023. 

LISA HOOLEY

Lisa has been involved in helping to shape Shared Services Forum UK since the beginning.  A visionary leader, Lisa takes a purposeful and positive-thinking approach to excellence. She is a genuine people-person and prides herself on being her authentic self with everyone she meets - living and breathing her personal mantra that communication is key and people will always make the difference. 

In her day job, Lisa is Director of Business Services for the Co-operative Group, where she is accountable for setting and driving the business services strategy to enable a sustainable, effective and customer centric way of doing business. She is leading this transformation and improved organisational performance through service mindset, leverage of end to end processes, enablement of digital ecosystem and driving optimisation, in order to help realise Co-op’s goals. 

Lisa’s prior roles include Programme Director for Synergy (a ~£3bn ERP & Shared Services Transformation across ~50% of the UK Civil Service), Vice President of Shared Services at SPXFLOW Corporation (leading from-scratch build of Global Business Services for the EMEA and Amercias) and Managing Director of TetraPak Business Services (leading design and build of EMEA Finance Shared Services and significant multi-functional transformation programmes).  She has also led her own Leadership and Change Advisory business in recent years, where she helped leaders to transform their business’s performance by enabling end to end operational excellence, growing high-performing teams and prioritising customer experience.   

Always purposeful and community-minded, Lisa is Chair of Trustee’s for a local charity, and a valued coach, mentor and advisor across her networks. 

LYNSEY OAKES

Lynsey is our dedicated Operations Director who has been with the Forum since 2019.

As the Operations Director at Shared Services Forum UK, Lynsey leads the development and delivery of our exclusive in-person and online events for our membership community, which consists of over 60 leading organisations in the Shared Services sector. Lynsey has a Certificate in Global Business Services from the Hackett Institute, and over 20 years of experience in event planning, marketing, project and social media management.

Her mission is to create a holistic and valuable experience for our members, by providing them with relevant and insightful content, networking opportunities, and best practice insights.

Lynsey oversees the day-to-day operations of the Forum, ensuring the smooth running of operational, administrative, and financial aspects.

Lynsey is passionate about building and nurturing effective relationships with all our members and stakeholders to support the Forum ethos and the continued growth and evolution of SSF UK.

ALEXANDRA LOMAS

As the Events and Engagement Manager for SSF UK Alexandra will be helping to support the continued development and growth of our SSF UK’s member community. Sharing member benefits and ensures engagement levels are maximised, for the benefit of all. The role owns operational delivery of activities to ensure the smooth running of networks and events, as well as operational administration aspects of the Forum underpinning member communication, engagement, and membership growth.

Alexandra will be the focal point for ongoing member relations throughout the year, building relationships with members to help them gain maximum benefit from their annual membership and helping to provide networking opportunities between member organisations. Alexandra will also support to create the continued holistic experience for our members, managing, planning, scheduling, and leading on the delivery of all SSF UK events.

MATTHEW BENNELL

Senior IT Service Manager, Amey

Matthew is the Senior IT Service Manager at Amey after working there for 15 years and they are on a defining journey in their transformation into a fully-fledged Shared Services. The majority of Matthew's time has been spent in a customer services role, and he is now currently focused on enhancing the customer service element within his new IT role. 

As part of his current role, Matthew is also leading on business continuity and works with several of Amey’s initiatives around employee value proposition and social value.

NATALIE HERSEY

Head of People - HR Services at Cadent Gas

Natalie joined Cadent Gas as Head of People - HR Services in June 2023 and is currently responsible for People Services Helpdesk, Onboarding & Lifecycle team, Systems and MI team and Training Planning. Natalie worked in HR for over 25 Years but specifically in HR Shared Services for 5+ years.

Natalie is currently working with the teams to mature the shared service delivery model, simply and modify processes in line with business and customer needs through the use of technology and innovative solutions.

LISA DENNIS

Director HR Services and Payroll for SPX FLOW

Lisa has been with SPX FLOW for 12 years in a variety of different roles - business transformation work, L&D, overseeing the PtP function…and finally moving into the realms of HR and Payroll Shared Services. Lisa’s current focus is Employee Experience - empowering people managers and employees to self-serve, along with ensuring that the right technology is in the right place, for the right employee group.

KATIE DUXBURY

Head of Payroll Services, Bupa UK

Katie has worked in Human Resources for over 25 years, specialising in Pay, Reward and Benefits.   She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a graduate of CIPP, with a diverse portfolio of experience from managing large scale change initiatives for large employers, to assisting SME’s with employment issues.

She currently works for our member organisation Bupa, leading the Global Payroll Services team as part of the wider People Operations space.  

A vocal advocate for financial wellbeing, she has been instrumental in implementing various initiatives that make every pound of pay count, including leading the roll-out of Earned Pay Access for UK and Ireland Bupa colleagues, a project that won the Project of the Year award at the annual conference in 2020.

Jessica Ritchie

HR Director, People Services and Payroll EMEA, RTX

Jessica is a multi-award winning HR Director with +15 years’ experience, specialising in HR Shared Services, Global Business Services and HR transformation. She is the current Director of EMEA People Services, at Raytheon Technologies, the world’s largest Defence and Aerospace company, prior to which she held a variety of HR and GBS roles at Rolls-Royce. Jessica studied at Exeter University (where she is now a visiting lecturer on HR careers), is a Fellow of the CIPD, and lives in Derbyshire with her husband, daughters and cats.

ANDY POWELL

Head of Source to Pay, Co-op Group

With over 20 years’ experience working in and around Shared Service, Retail Operations and Technology, Andy has a unique perspective on end to end operations and how to tie together business process performance to balance sheet results.

Now at Coop Group, he leads the Source to Pay Team and is Global Process Owner for Purchase to Pay. He’s been instrumental in embedding Coop’s new SAP solution for managing Food supply chain operations and invoice matching over the past year. His team serves all Coop’s diverse businesses including Food, Funeralcare, Legal Services and Insurance services.

Andy’s previously worked at M&S HR Shared Services, Capita and Logica (now CGI). He’s held several different positions during his career, in Technology Service Management, Automation Deployment, Operational Excellence, Proposition Development, Project Management, Retail Operating Model Deployment and Retail Commercial Transformation.

LYNDSEY BYRNE

Cash Management Leader, RSA

Lyndsey has over 20 years’ experience within a shared services environment and has a wealth of knowledge of Cash Management activities including Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and Treasury processes. 

Lyndsey is currently leading the Cash Management Team at RSA Insurance which has allowed her to demonstrate her strong leaderships skills, managing a large team in a highly pressured and control focused environment using several systems and applications. 

She also has extensive experience of process improvements and change management working with a range of stakeholders across the business to develop meaningful and constructive relationships. 

LAURE BROWNE

Director Record to Report EMEA, Bristol Myers Squibb

Laure is an Expert-Comptable (French CPA) and is an experienced leader of shared services accounting. She has been instrumental in the success of Global Shared Services programs in regional operation centers in Chester (UK), Manila (Philippines), Bratislava (Slovakia), Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Bangalore (India). 

Laure moved to the US in early 2014 to implement the North America Capability Center, supporting BMS US legal entities while strategically partnering with Global Process Owners and Governance teams to bring continuous improvement and efficiency. Laure relocated to the UK in 2020 to guide EMEA Record to report team through a large integration project.

For record-to-report operations, Laure has created efficient and effective reporting, reconciliations, the proper controls and has worked extensively to ensure comprehensive knowledge transfer for outsourced processes. She led an expansion of outsourcing for US and LATAM; and has ongoing quality management and oversight for US and Latin America record-to-report operations.

Laue is dedicated to the development of her team members and colleagues. She has been developing the profile and role of the accountant of the future, focused on critical thinking and analysis.

Laure is currently the Director Record to Report for EMEA for Bristol-Myers Squibb and has been working in the Shared Service Industry for over 20 years. She worked in a chartered accountant practice and audit firm before joining Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1999.

FATIHA BOUGRASSA

Assistant Controller, Nutrition and Health at SPX Flow

Across 14 years with SPX FLOW Fatiha has acquired a wealth of knowledge, taking on multiple roles, including SSC AP manager, SSC FA&R manager and Audit and SOX lead. Fatiha is currently the EMEA Nutrition and Health Assistant Controller for SPX Flow. Fatiha is highly experienced within blue-chip organisations and demonstrates proven skills in innovative organisational change programmes. Fatiha brings an established track record of embedding financial controls, processes & KPIs to drive efficiency. Fatiha’s strengths include leading BAU teams within challenging / change-centric environments, managing large and diverse financial project teams all whilst demonstrating the ability to remain calm under pressure.

Fatiha is an enthusiastic, assertive, innovative, and practical business Leader, with a range of transferable skills acquired during a career across Shared Services & Financial Controllership. Fatiha speaks French, Spanish and is a trustee for a local charity.

KERSTIE BLATCHLY

Head of Order to Cash at Shared Services Connected Limited

Kerstie brings a wealth of experience and expertise after working in Order to Cash for the last 19 years. For the last two years, she has been Head of Order to Cash at Shared Service Connected Limited, responsible for the end to end Order to Cash process for 23 Government departments. She has worked to create a workplace culture that thrives on collaboration, innovation and employee well being.

This strategic focus has resulted in improved morale, increased productivity and lower turn over rates.   Her current focus is the implementation of new technologies and innovative solutions to stream line existing processes, reducing costs and accelerating debt recovery.

PAUL QUINTI

Transactional Manager at Rhenus Logistics

With over 20 years’ experience in European Shared Services, Paul has led strategic initiatives, optimised processes, and fostered ensured continuous collaboration across various industries and diverse departments to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our order fulfilment and cash management functions. With a background in Transactional Finance and banking, my leadership focuses on driving seamless transactions, customer satisfaction, and financial excellence within the organisation.

Now at Rhenus, we are working together to improve the current processes through innovation, the use of technology and close working with the business and stakeholders to ensure the right outcomes. All this is

Aside from the new network chair for Order to Cash, Paul is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management and vice-chair and active member on the Northwest branch of the CICM. He has also received the designation of Certified International Credit Professional from the Finance (CICP), Credit and International Business Association.

VICKY DARWIN

Credit Manager at HSS Hire

With over 20 years’ experience in all aspects of finance, Vicky has led process improvements across all departments of shared services focusing on order processing and fulfilment and cash management. 

 Now at HSS she is working together to improve the cash collection process and reduce our overdue debt through building internal and external relationships, using our technology by becoming more interactive with our customers and providing seamless transactions.

Aside from the new network chair for Order to Cash, Vicky is also a qualified accountant.

JOE MOYA

Innovation and Optimisation Director at Shared Services Connected Limited

Joe’s experience spans more than 30 years across core Digital disciplines including Infrastructure, Applications, programme management, supplier and account management. He has led Finance, HR and IT Outsourcing teams. Joe now works at the C-Suite as CIO / CEO advisory, aligning Digital with Business through effective business cases, driving operational excellence through pragmatic digital transformation roadmaps

Currently Joe is working within the SSCL Government Leadership team. Joe’s enjoyed some awards success during 2023, being nominated for six industry awards and successfully winning three for the Digital forms- project which has transformed customer engagement with SSCL. Joe’s focus for 2024 is on AI and Hyper-automation initiatives which will further accelerate operational excellence.

JENNY SIME

Deputy Director at Cabinet Office

Jenny is currently leading Relationship Management and Process Transformation for the Shared Services Strategy for Government in the Cabinet Office, supporting the 18 departments, ALBs and functions of government to deliver the Strategy.

She previously worked on Change, Transformation and digital programmes for Scottish Local Government, specialising in digital leadership, digital skills, Microsoft 365, CRM & ERP implementations. Extensive and varied experience over the last 20 years, along with a history of working in government, also led operations and transformation teams in the energy and healthcare sectors. Skilled in Service Design, Agile methodologies, Operations Management, Programme and Change Management with a Lean Six Sigma (Black Belt). 

Jenny is also a Girlguiding Guide Leader and mentor in Secondary Schools. She is a keen sports and music fan, an avid Swifty and recently voted by her team as the most up for a laugh and challenge.