Clare Connors

• Lead the PMO function, including line management, coaching, and development of team members, fostering an inclusive and high-performing environment.

• Define and implement portfolio governance frameworks, ensuring consistent standards, controls, and compliance across programmes and projects.

• Provide accurate, timely reporting and insights to senior stakeholders to support strategic decision making.

• Oversee portfolio planning, prioritisation, and resource management to align delivery with organisational objectives.

• Identify, track, and mitigate risks, issues, and dependencies across complex programmes.

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives, enhancing processes, tools, and ways of working to increase efficiency and effectiveness.

• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, influencing at all levels and ensuring alignment across teams.

• Champion transparent communication, ensuring clarity of delivery status, progress, and performance.

• Balance governance and agility, enabling teams to deliver effectively within structured frameworks.

Responsible for managing the schedule and deployment of the quarterly Operating System patches and Non-Core Release activity, to ensure quality was controlled and accepted, to maintain production integrity and stability of Visa's payment authorisation system. To help steer interactions between the Change Management and Operational Management functions to support transition of service change into BAU Production, and identify and mitigate Operational risks, as well as support the decommissioning processes.

• Manage the schedule and deployment of the quarterly Operating System patches and Non-Core Release activity, ensuring quality control and acceptance with the full project portfolio.

• Work extensively with Change Management to avoid conflicts and ensure that all planned maintenance meets the Change criteria and Company policy. Produce necessary documentation to support Change Management agreed methodology and governance process.

• Work with Automation to manage the schedule and on-boarding of the weekly Patch Automation Batches. Produce timely results to key Stakeholders showing analysis of successes and failures.

• Work with Stakeholders to support the Decommissioning process, ensuring that all changes raised are progressed through to completion, updating supporting methodology documents accordingly.

• System input for orders.

• Administrative ownership of all review and design meetings and their subsequent output.

• Contractual requirements compliance.

• Stage-gate compliance.

• Liaison with Factories with regard to Banknote and Paper printing.

• Arrangement of deliveries with Customer, Shipping and Security Department.

• Management of order amendments and incident reports.

• Liaison with third parties regarding public education materials and/or promotional literature.

• Purchase order and invoice raising.

• Management of Bank Guarantees.

• Internal Auditor for Department

• Development and ongoing maintenance of the full project portfolio, project methodology and governance process. Adherence monitoring of Company PMM.

• Production of timely reports to multiple stakeholders showing analysis of spend against project progress.

• Managing Transformation training budget for over 200 staff, identifying local cost savings and making recommendations to measurably reduce spend.

• Control of 20 project codes supporting purely BAU activity.

• Overseeing Reporting for Continuous Improvement, including accuracy of estimates against actuals.

• Maintenance of Risks & Issues Logs.

• Tracking of all Headcount, including Contractors and FTE Recruitment support.

• Mentoring/ongoing support of junior members of staff, and one Apprentice, within the Team.

• Delegate in the absence of the Team Manager.

• Support for 20 Resource Managers covering multiple teams within two specific areas - Operate (BAU) and Change (Projects).

• Control of resource requests from Technical Project Managers to key delivery teams.

• Creation and maintenance of a Resource Management tracker, detailing involvement in approx. 70+ Projects.

• Control of 20 project codes supporting purely BAU activity.

• Chairing/taking Minutes of weekly project and monthly resource management meetings.

• Support for and delivery of training to Resource Managers, encompassing Niku policies and procedures

A variety of roles during my first ten years with Visa starting with Receptionist upon joining, moving onto Office Services Administrator and then Company Secretary/PA to the Head of the Data Centre and his Management Team.

Duties included: calendar/diary management; minuting meetings; preparing Board packs; travel and meeting bookings; managing stationery budget; expense submissions; arrangement of Company social events; writing internal communications, processes and procedures; organisation of Desk Moves; other ad hoc tasks as required.