1. To Whom it May Concern
Serco has been undergoing a well-publicised business transformation programme and one of the core
components has been the transformation of its Procurement & Business Services function. To help facilitate
this, I was in need of an extremely capable broad business manager with strong man management skills
combined with an ability to navigate an extremely complex landscape but deliver real sustainable business
outputs.
Having initially engaged David to work for me on an enterprise wide transformation programme of
Procurement at SONY Europe, I asked David to join my Procurement & Business Services team at Serco in a
general management role as Business Services Director.
David worked for me in this capacity for fourteen months between Jan ’15 and March ’16 with P&L
responsibility of c.£30m and some 200 personnel across a wide portfolio of shared services, covering:
Facilities Management (14 sites), Global Travel (UK, North America, ASPAC), Corporate Events, Environmental
Management Services, Environmental Consulting Services, Group Property, Property Consulting
Services and Fleet Management. This also included several external customer relationships across Local
Government, Atomic Weapons Establishment, Deloitte & Mercedes-Benz amongst others.
In that time, in addition to managing operational activities, he led a full-time multi-disciplinary project team
to collaboratively review the services portfolio, business processes and structure. This led to a refocusing on
activities consistent with Serco’s revised strategy; a reorganisation involving a formal collective consultation
process, the elimination of several roles including another Director’s and his own, and Serco’s exit from
unprofitable and non-core businesses.
It has been a pleasure to work with David on two very different engagements and over different periods of
time and I would like to thank David for his consummate professional approach, uncompromising dedication
and commitment and desire to deliver the right outcomes for Serco and the people involved.
Jonathan Patrick
CPO, Procurement & Business Services
Serco Group plc
www.serco.com