Our SIG Chairs are responsible for the planning and running of our SIGs throughout the year with each Chair or Co-Chair looking after a particular SIG.
Philip is Head of Group IT at Mercury, an industry leading multidisciplinary engineering business with unrivalled experience in multiple sectors and geographic regions, delivering complex engineering projects that enhance development in technology, wellbeing and the built environment. In his role, Philip is responsible for the IT strategy, landscape & budget across the Mercury Group, comprising all applications, infrastructure, communications and IT innovation for offices and construction sites. Prior to joining Mercury, Philip worked for Accenture on projects spanning public sector and financial services. Philip is also a Director of the UK & Ireland SAP User Group and served as Chairman from 2013 -2017. He is currently on the Core Leadership team for the SAP User Group Executive Network (SUGEN) which includes leaders from multiple user groups worldwide who are focused on driving the market toward excellence and innovation. Philip graduated from The Queens University of Belfast with a master’s degree in Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering.
Over 30 years of experience, within the rail industry with Alstom in a variety of roles across its European Operations from hands on manufacturing to production control, procurement to customer support, inbound warehousing and product distribution, supply chain improvements, more recently creating a London Materials hub delivering long term material forecasting and short term material planning solutions within SAP, this has now moved to being a UK wide role delivering material planning solutions for the legacy Bombardier business within Alstom.
Rachael has over 23 years of experience in SAP and the Public Sector, through the lens of Local Government, and now in the Private Sector at Sodexo where she currently heads up the UK&I SAP Team based in Salford who are embarking on the next iteration of their SAP roadmap with the implementation of S/4, SuccessFactors and BTP. Rachael is passionate in ensuring that the consumer of the software is at the heart of all we do.
Emma is Head of NATS Integrated Business System, and UKISUG co-chair of the SAP S/4 HANA SIG and Women in SAP Community SIG. She also sits on the Board of Directors for UKISUG. In her role at NATS she drives service and operational improvements as Chair of the Change Control Board which governs the strategic business roadmap of the ERP. She is currently lead for the business on the organisation's ERP Transformation Programme, which will use the transition to SAP S/4 HANA as the key enabler for business change across NATS' corporate services. Her focus is on innovation, modernising user experience, improving sustainability and ensuring the ERP is transforming to meet the challenges of the future.
Jenny has over 18 years of experience of SAP and the Public Sector, through the lens of both Local and Central Government, where she currently heads up the Transformation Support Unit at Department for Levelling Up who are embarking on their next iteration of their SAP roadmap with the implementation of S/4, SuccessFactors and BTP. Specialising in Shared Services, Jenny is passionate in providing long term strategic direction and leadership for the development, enhancement and implementation of systems, whilst challenging the status quo.
After 20+ years training SAP to Newcastle University staff, Roy is now a SAP Analyst on the Core Platforms team, focussing on SRM and CRM. In his previous role he has been involved in major upgrades and implementations and sought new ways to train and support the users. A regular member of project teams for new implementations, his experience of the University and SAP providing a valuable insight.
Martin has been involved in manufacturing since leaving school in 1993. He became involved in SAP during 2009, starting off as a ABAP developer and Basis analyst. Responsible for the scoping and implementing of SAP changes. Martin moved roles to become the SAP Application Specialist across Europe, helping in multiple Go Lives and system improvements. Martin now works as the IT BRM for BorgWarner in Bradford, responsible for the IT and SAP at Plant level.
Craig has been involved in manufacturing for 25 years and has over 20 years experience working with SAP. His background includes sales, sales technical, finance and business analysis, before joining the dark side of IT. He is currently the IT Director – Europe, for Plastipak, a multi-national business manufacturing & recycling PET packaging.
Married, and with 2 boys, I started my professional career as an archaeologist and then shifted my analytical enthusiasm to the world of SAP. This I have been doing for more than 20 years now with most of those in Payroll support. I like learning stuff and passing it on to others.
Brian has been involved in SAP in both an IT Auditing and Security capacity since 2005. He has 21+ years’ experience as an IT Auditor across different sectors. He is currently involved in the security and monitoring of Tata steel’s SAP installations across UK and Europe. Brian has been a member of the SAP UK & Ireland user group Board of Directors for the last 6 years and will soon be stepping down from the board.
Michael has over 25 years retailing experience and over 22 years implementing and managing SAP solutions in multiple retailers. Within this time he has been involved with many full lifecycle implementations, SAP upgrades and strategic retail & logistics projects. Michael Currently manages the SAP solutions at Pets at Home
Trish is the Head of Finance Systems at NATS, where she has been since 2008. Her focus is continuously improving people, processes and systems. She started this journey with Cloud CRM, before moving to Finance to focus on the business & system changes such as BW on HANA with BPC, Concur, Analytics. In the past, she has spoken at various SAP User Group events.
Duncan has an extensive 36-year career in the rail industry, starting in a finance department at British Rail Engineering in 1986. He has since held various positions within operations and headquarters, worked on process development in information systems and procurement, and supported the setup of Bombardier's procurement office in Shanghai, China. Duncan now leads a team at Alstom, where he is responsible for developing, managing and maintaining reporting, data visualisation and business systems within the UK Services Business. He holds a Master's degree in Business Administration and is a Chartered Management Accountant.
Lynne currently works at De La Rue, as Finance Systems Team Manager to manage the support and development of the SAP ByDesign and BPC (Business Planning and Consolidation) systems. Over the past forty years she has worked for many blue chip organisations throughout her career, including Coca Cola, EDS, Hewlett Packard and BP, as well as in the public sector in National Audit Office and Department of the Environment. For the last twenty years her main focus has been on project management and SAP implementations, and she has been responsible for large business functional deployments, to thousands of users around the world. Currently based in Hampshire the DeLaRue SAP ByDesign team are responsible for managing master data, security and system administration. We are also very much focused on providing system enhancements that deliver value to the business, in terms of removing manual effort and providing meaningful information, in support of business decisions.
Paul worked in a number Finance roles over a period of 17 years before switching to a career in IT. Paul has spent 12 years working as an IT Business Analyst largely supporting Finance teams using SAP ECC, SAP BPC, and SAP BW. Paul currently works as an IT Delivery Manager responsible for the successful delivery of business change and system developments in the Finance, Commercial and HR functions. Paul has spent the past 17 years working for UK food manufacturing companies.
Michael is a highly motivated IT professional with over 20 years experience in consultancy, commercial systems and technical roles. He have worked on a wide range of IT projects during his career and now specialises in Customer Experience process and solution implementation. He has experience in the capabilities offered by SAP in Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. In his current role he is working on SAP CX software implementations across Europe. This involves working with customers to match functionality with requirements and to make sure they get the best out of the systems that are being implemented. He has worked on projects ranging from small implementations where he has been responsible for everything (e.g. workshops, system build and training) to large multi-site/country deployments providing development and support.
Leighton has been an IT professional for over 20 years, in a career that has taken in database and application design, development, maintenance and support, customer relationship management, process improvement, IT strategy, team management and more. Leighton has moved on a long way from his COBOL, CICS and DB/2 origins - he is now the Head of SAP and Finance systems at the University of Warwick, working with his team to deliver a robust SAP service and extending and improving the many benefits SAP delivers to the University.
Lynda has been working with SAP HR & Payroll for over 15 years in Bank of Ireland. Currently working as a Business Process & Testing Specialist, her role is to support the continuous improvement and changes to SAP HR and Payroll System. Lynda has a background in payroll (7+ years) as she commenced her career in BOI as a payroll officer, processing high volume payrolls for staff and pensioners for both ROI & UK.
Cheryl project managed the original SAP implementation in Gloucestershire County Council and has maintained responsibility for developing and supporting SAP. More recently she has also taken the lead on the procurement of SAP Rise to support the Council’s Digital Strategy. The implementation will include S/4 HANA, Success Factors and SAP analytics cloud which will provide a modern experience to support agile working and transform the self-service experience for Council staff. Cheryl has co-chaired the Public Sector special interest group for 10 years and has been a Director of the UKISUG for the past 2 years.
Geoff has been working with SAP since the first release of R/3 in 1992. He was head of the finance practice at Diagonal Consulting for 12 years, and has worked for Shell International since 2006. At Shell he is a member of the Downstream Process Integration team.
Richard manages SAP testing for Dwr Cymru Welsh water, who he has been with for 19 years playing a key role in a number of major implementations. Active in the user group since 2005, he focuses on the testing SIG within ALM.
Sandeep has been involved in the Business Intelligence arena for the past 17 yrs. Over this time he has undertaken roles such as Bi Implementation and Exploitation Manager. In his current role Sandeep is looking at how technologies and data around Platform and Database can help drive new insight within organisations.
Rohan has over 16 years of SAP experience across technical and product areas specialising in ALM, SAP Operations and public Cloud technologies. He is passionate about innovating with SAP products, simplifying Operations and SAP best practices enabling customers to run world class SAP lifecycle stages with lower TCO. In his current role at Maersk, he is the SAP Platform Architect for ALM, Tooling and Automation. Prior to this, Rohan held similar roles at bp, GlaxoSmithKline, Centrica and the Royal College of Music. On a more personal note he captains a darts team, enjoys architecture, sports and loves to travel.
Rhian has over 25 years’ service working within the water industry, with a broad range of experience in IT Projects through to Water and Waste Operations and within this time has been involved in many full lifecycle implementations, SAP upgrades and strategic SAP Roadmap projects. Rhian works in Welsh Water’s SAP Collaboration Centre as an SAP Solutions & Assurance Lead, managing a team of Solution specialists specialising in SAP SuccessFactors, Cloud For Customer, Concur, SAP ECC Finance, Plant Maintenance, Reporting and Procurement. Being a key contact for all SAP support processes and SAP Licencing. Previously managed SAP Security team and was Co-Chair of the ACS SIG. Moved to the ALM Support SIG Chair role in March 2022.
I joined LOR as the IT Manufacturing Systems Manager. My role is to manage the implementation and support of all the IT systems used in our MLP Group (Manufacturing, Logistics & Plant) and to own and manage the SAP Platform. My career background has mainly been in the manufacturing sector, for 30 years and I have 26 years of SAP experience. I have over the years gained job experience in a wide range of roles that is required handling the complete left to right-hand processes of an order enquiry through to delivery and payment settlement. With this breadth of experience, I am able to identify and relate to the processes required by the LOR businesses to ensure that they have the right IT processes in place. I have 9 members in my team, ranging from senior roles to junior roles. We all support each other, really great teamwork from everyone. When I’m not at work I enjoy time with my family and our 2 ponies.
Costa has more than 20 years of SAP experience delivering global implementations, strategic projects, upgrades, infrastructure installations, licensing, and cloud migrations. Costa's senior management portfolio includes CoE and Group Infrastructure management positions in global & FTSE organisations such as Pentland, RS Components and Dunelm. His focus is on service delivery excellence, innovation, Agile practices, and Kanban adoption. His aim is to provide long-term strategic direction and leadership for the development, enhancement, and implementation of systems, thinking outside the box and challenging the status quo to help maximise SAP capabilities and drive organisations forward. Costa has supported the SAP User Group as a board director and in various special interest groups for over 10 years, always bringing his skills and enthusiasm to the table.
Steve has worked with SAP since 1998, with experience of Basis, ABAP, GRC and some functional configuration. More recently he has been working in the area of User experience – Fiori/UI5, SAP Screen Personas and Design Thinking. He is the SAP Solution Architect at the University of Warwick.
Lisa has worked on SuccessFactors since joining Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) in 2014. Originally specialising in the Performance & Talent modules, she is now application owner for the full suite of SuccessFactors for CCEP. Her role today includes managing a team of subject matter experts, advising on product enhancements, encouraging user adoption and the reimplementation of SuccessFactors modules following a recent company merger.
With over 20 years of SAP experience, underpinned by a postgraduate MSC from University of Westminster, Caroline's role has involved leading Financial SAP teams and HR SuccessFactors teams. Her role ensuring the smooth day to day operation of the SAP system, whilst planning and delivering SAP projects, this includes upgrades, migration and introducing new areas of functionality.
Richard is responsible for SAP running in a hundred countries at the British Council and has deep manufacturing and supply chain experience on SAP since 2000. Richard has performed sixteen Go Lives in eight countries and managed the system in the day-to-day business with responsive change and service delivery. Richard has presented to the user group membership over the years on topics including Business Process Improvement, Demand Forecasting, Getting the most from your Enterprise Support contract, Information Lifecycle Management (Archiving and GDPR), Migration of the Operating System and Database and conversion of the ERP Application to Unicode, Production Planning, Project Management of an ERP Implementation, Quality Management, and Segregation of Duties. Prior to SAP arriving in Richard’s working life he filled roles in Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Change Management. Richard enjoys mountain biking in the Peak District.
Claire has over 20 years experience in the affordable housing sector, working in a range of roles from front line housing officer to her current role as Lead Functional Architect. She has been working with SAP since 2014, initially as part of a project team at Sanctuary Housing which delivered the first wide scale implementation of SAP in the sector. Claire currently works in Sanctuary’s internal SAP team, working on a range of projects to deliver change and helping to ensure that the business can continue to develop and grow. Claire has been an active member of the user group since 2015 and has been chair of the Real Estate SIG for the past 4 years.
John has been working with SAP BW and Business Objects for 13 years including 2 major full SAP implementations. Currently BI Solution Architect for Business Services in National Grid. John's key focus is around Data Visualisation and Design Thinking and how they can be a key factor in getting value out of BI and Analytics solutions.
John has been working in IT for more than 20yrs and supporting SAP Business One for the last 10yrs. In that time, he’s been involved in taking it from a vanilla Line 50 replacement to one that supports European distribution, warehousing and feeding multiple B2B and B2C websites with up to the minute data.
Fiona has over 17 years’ experience working with SAP systems and nearly 21 years in IT. She is currently the Centre of Excellence Manager at Welsh Water and is responsible for ensuring optimum value is driven from investments in SAP. Prior to that Fiona has worked for EDF, Wales & West Utilities, Hewlett Packard & B&Q on their SAP systems in both technical and managerial roles. She has worked on SAP projects and BAU support giving her a broad first-hand understanding of the challenges that come with running and implementing SAP.
Richard is a Chartered Engineer with an MBA and a background in the consumer products industry. He has worked in manufacturing at Toshiba, Gillette, P&G & Mars. For 6 years he was the owner of the global SAP template for factories at Mars, where SAP is now deployed at more than 80 plants around the world. His current role is digital innovation for Supply Chain, which involves identifying and piloting transformational technologies. In 2022 he was selected as one of the top 100 changemakers in UK manufacturing by The Manufacturer.
