Turning complexity into delivery

A security and intelligence requirement spanned UK law enforcement, security organisations and five territory governments, with no lead department, funding route or delivery structure.

Chaired a cross-agency working group of 15 with no line authority over any of its members. Built the plan, budget, governance and business documentation from concept, and negotiated agreement across UK and Caribbean law enforcement, Ministers and five territory governments.

Signed off by security partners, Ministers and Caribbean Governors and Premiers as a funded programme with agreed governance. The site was identified, the refit costed and the health and safety requirements defined, leaving it ready to build.

A supplier contract was red-rated, the supplier had missed its contractual milestones, and the internal view was that the $127m was gone.

Inherited a red-rated supplier contract and ran the commercial and legal response alongside UK and US lawyers and Ministers, pursuing the full $127m against an internal view that the money was gone.

Recovered the $127m in full without litigation and took the programme from red to green, closing it with one million doses delivered.

Take a £300m+ portfolio from approval to deployment under sustained public and political scrutiny, across manufacturers, regulators, supply chain partners, NHS delivery teams and government.

Negotiated delivery prioritisation from US and European pharmaceutical suppliers ahead of their other customers, clearing cross-border regulatory, commercial and operational blockers and landing doses two weeks ahead of the spring campaign. Worked between manufacturers, regulators and NHS delivery teams on batch release, shelf-life and logistics issues to keep supply usable.

Delivered 7.5 million doses into the NHS spring campaign, including the world-first deployment of Sanofi's COVID-19 vaccine, with frontline vaccination running without interruption.