Summary
Overview
Work history
Education
Skills
Custom Section
References
Certification
Timeline
Generic

Graeme Funston

Portadown

Summary

Driven professional with keen eye for detail and strong analytical skills. Possesses expertise in data analysis and regulatory compliance, coupled with excellent communication and problem-solving abilities. Capable of enhancing processes and ensuring robust compliance standards.

Overview

20
20
years of professional experience
2012
2012
years of post-secondary education
1
1
Certification

Work history

Cross Border Data Privacy Clearance Manager

Citi
Belfast
06.2018 - 03.2026
  • My cross discipline role within CBDC entails a large number of responsibilities across the compliance, ops and risk management framework, with a key one being the deadline driven review and clearance of global cross border data clearances for new projects and teams to have access to data from other countries for various purposes whilst maintaining regulatory compliance. This requires me to be a subject matter expert for each country's regulations and laws, to ensure that all cross border requirements are met; I have golden source documents and reports I maintain to ensure that these individual country requirements are noted as reliable points of reference for both my colleagues and I.
  • These requirements could refer to a number of legal contracts, bank secrecy transfer, committee approvals, AML guidance, and bank regulator approvals depending on the country, and the role enables me to show my meticulous attention to detail and an abundant desire for knowledge. I would communicate via email, Teams and Zoom regularly with several stakeholders, including individual country and business contacts at various levels (e.g. ICRM, legal, DPO, senior management) to discuss clearances and to constantly ensure my knowledge of country requirements remains informed.
  • I am trained to make clearances for almost 60 countries, with the majority being in the EMEA region – some examples being UK, Germany, Russia, Senegal, Qatar, which shows I have knowledge of a diverse range of country requirements and regulations. For example while Germany has similar requirements to many EU countries, it also has a specific works council requirement for initiatives related to employee performance monitoring, and it has a complex country committee that are required to make approvals for outsourcing. I would approve/reject these country clearances on an in house application named the Cross Border Automation Tool, where I would also view key data privacy files and documents such as PIAs (Privacy Impact Assessments).
  • I have been the team's lead testing representative for new software updates – so when any new releases to our systems required a testing phase, I would be involved in this process. I additionally am responsible for the creation of our team's QA (Quality Assurance) process, which is an important control that I established in my first year in the team, and have continued to manage and further innovate ever since; this process is a checking procedure where the whole team are assigned a randomly assigned number of clearances from the prior month that had been made by colleagues, so that we can ensure that we are maintaining a high standard, and so remediation can be made if required.
  • I am responsible for the MCA (Manager's Control Assessment) for our team, with the QA process an important part of this. I maintain our weekly Priority List, which is an excel document with a number of pivot tables which is utilised primarily to identify and track our priority clearances. I initially joined the team at an officer level in its transformation phase, before ultimately progressing upwards to AVP and then to my current level VP within the same team; this is an illustration of my ambition and the success that I have been since joining the firm.

Retirement Analyst

Mercer, Belfast
Belfast
09.2014 - 06.2018
  • Involved me using a combination of in house software and excel to calculate pension liabilities of different companies in an actuarial type work, with the end result of illustrating the final liabilities in year-end disclosures. I spent the first 6 months of my time working on UK pensions before progressing into the European team where I would be more involved in calculating French, and Belgian pensions. My role required me to analyse large data files that often entailed several thousand policy members for me to scrutinise and search for discrepancies, which allowed me to showcase my investigative talents. During my time with the company I progressed into a project manager and checker role which required me to take full ownership of independent cases by checking and reviewing the work of analysts in the team, and to then liaise directly with consultants and senior officials in the Paris and Brussels offices; this would allow me to showcase my organisational and communicational abilities, as well as to show my drive and ambition to progress.

Sales Advisor

Fat Face, Banbridge
Banbridge
07.2013 - 06.2014

Technical Support Executive

Texthelp Systems, Antrim
Antrim
08.2012 - 06.2013
  • Undertook a year's placement as part of my university degree working as a key part of a four person technical support team in a prominent assistive software company. I was responsible for resolving customer software issues that I received through both email and phone call, which vastly enhanced my communication skills as well as my problem solving abilities. I was also required to both test new software and to troubleshoot issues with current software which greatly improved my troubleshooting and time management abilities.

Sales Advisor

Halfords
Craigavon
07.2006 - 01.2012

Education

Computer Information Technology -

Queen's University of Belfast
01.2010 - 01.2014

GCSE - Maths-A, English Lit-A, English-B, Additional Maths-B, ICT-B, French-B, History-B, Double Award Science-BB

A LEVEL - Maths-B, ICT-C, English Literature-C

Portadown College

Skills

  • Analytical Mindset
  • Data Privacy Regulations Awareness
  • Interpersonal Communication
  • Problem Solving
  • Process Improvement
  • Quality Assurance
  • Result-Driven Mindset
  • Self-Starter
  • Stakeholder Relations
  • Teamwork
  • Time Management
  • Privacy Professional Certification
  • MS Office Proficiency

Custom Section

I am a highly proficient, intelligent, quick-learning individual with a wide range of skills gained through many years education and employment. I have excellent interpersonal and communication abilities which I utilise every day in my current role, in communicating with various stakeholders across my sphere of work, some of whom sit at high levels of seniority. I have continually developed and grown throughout my varied working life so far, and have a proven track record when it comes to achieving results both as an individual and a member of a team., I have been regularly involved in deadline driven side projects throughout my time in Citi, which require first-rate communication, a driven character and selfless teamwork for the successful completion of the project. I am able to work collaboratively and effectively with colleagues whether they are my immediate team that sit beside me in the office, or in another country, as is the case with many of my current colleagues based around the globe. I have built up an impressive rapport with my peers and see myself as a valuable member of the team there., I attained a B at Maths at A Level; I also scored a high A at GCSE and a high B for Additional Maths too; my mathematical background in my formative years helped build my strong problem solving aptitude and analytical mindset.

References

Adrienn Molnar, Manager, Citi, 07387318413

Certification

• CIPP/E (Certified Information Privacy Professional/ Europe), administered by IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals)
• ISTQB Foundation Level certificate in software testing

Timeline

Cross Border Data Privacy Clearance Manager

Citi
06.2018 - 03.2026

Retirement Analyst

Mercer, Belfast
09.2014 - 06.2018

Sales Advisor

Fat Face, Banbridge
07.2013 - 06.2014

Technical Support Executive

Texthelp Systems, Antrim
08.2012 - 06.2013

Computer Information Technology -

Queen's University of Belfast
01.2010 - 01.2014

Sales Advisor

Halfords
07.2006 - 01.2012

GCSE - Maths-A, English Lit-A, English-B, Additional Maths-B, ICT-B, French-B, History-B, Double Award Science-BB

A LEVEL - Maths-B, ICT-C, English Literature-C

Portadown College
Graeme Funston