Project Description
Andrew Cheesman
Program Director
Areas Of Expertise:
- Program Management
- Business Transformation
- Retail Banking and Payments
- Telecommunications
- Superannuation
Education:
- B.A. Economics & Econometrics, University of Nottingham
About Andrew Cheesman
Andrew joined Seven Consulting in August 2020. He is an experienced Program Director and ICT leader with a track record of successfully executing large programs across various domains within Technology and Business.
Andrew has proven experience in managing complex teams and has consistently delivered transformational change in complex organisations. He has demonstrated the ability to rapidly assess business challenges and applying people, service management, and technology solutions to fix business issues.
What Andrew brings
- A seasoned Program Director with experience in executing large scale programs both as a technology and a business lead.
- Demonstrated experience in rescuing and turning around troubled programs and businesses.
- A strong leader with a proven track record in Payments Infrastructure, digital strategy, online platforms, analytics, and product development.
- Proficiency in building teams and creating technology solutions within highly competitive industries.
- Trusted advisor to executives and boards, proving the benefits of information technology to solve business issues and support business strategies and market positioning.
Key Clients:
- Ubank (part of NAB Ltd)
- ASX Ltd
- Xinja Bank Ltd
- Woolworths, Australia
- Commonwealth Bank Australia (CBA)
- Staffware Pty Ltd, Australia
- FPS Pty Ltd, Australia
- TRAC Software, South Africa
- FileNET Solutions, South Africa
Key Achievements:
As Program Director for UBank, Andrew established the Digital Banking Integration Program (DBI), which supports the integration of UBank and 86 400, after NAB acquired 86 400. Under Andrew’s leadership, 86 400 were able to transfer their customers and balances to NAB, hand back their Banking license to APRA, AFSL to ASIC, and launch a new UBank brand (retiring 86 400). In addition, the DBI program has established a ‘go forward’ operating model for the combined UBank and is migrating the original UBank customers off the legacy ledger, to the 86 400-technology stack.
As Program Director for ASX, Andrew supported the CHESS Replacement project in transforming from a traditional governance and operating model to a scaled agile operating model. This included organizing and facilitating the first PI (Program Increment) Planning event. The CHESS Replacement project will replace legacy Clearing and Settlement technology, with state-of-the-art solutions based on Distributed Ledger Technology, with project delivery scheduled for April 2023.
As Director, Payments Business for Xinja, Andrew established their full retail payment and fraud management capabilities. This included establishing key strategic partnerships with service providers across the full payments landscape, including settlement services (Australian Settlements Ltd), payment card scheme (Mastercard), card payment processing (GPS), digital wallet services (Apple and Google) and fraud management (IBM). Xinja launched successfully onto the market in October 2019.
As Program Director for Woolworths, working in WooliesX (the digital division of Woolworths), Andrew successfully delivered a Digital Wallet program allowing Rewards customers of Woolworths to digitize their Rewards cards into Apple Wallet and Google Pay, and then use them in-store via NFC. To date, over 600,000 customers have taken the opportunity to do that.
As Managing Director for the Bank’s Strategic Projects at CBA, Andrew was the Business Owner and Benefits Sponsor for five strategic initiatives funded by CBA Group. The initiatives were critical investments in Payment’s infrastructure, Online Platforms, Analytics, and specific industry-based innovations. Total investment across the initiatives was budgeted between $150M and $200M.
For CBA’s Payment Infrastructure Program, Andrew successfully achieved further investments of $45M and gained executive sponsorship for Phase 2 of Analytics Strategic Roadmap.
As Managing Director of Merchants Channels & Analytics (MCA) for CBA), Andrew successfully executed the ongoing Digital Strategy including delivery of highly critical initiatives for the $290M revenue business unit. Andrew’s portfolio incorporated Merchant Acquiring, Business Online (digital platform for Corporate and Institutional customers), Domestic Payables & Receivables and Analytics. He was able to deliver strategic initiatives in Digital Platforms, Analytics, Receivables and Payments.
For the MCA Business Unit at CBA, Andrew successfully executed the Digital Strategy and delivered the implementation of NetLock which was well received by the Bank. Concurrently to this, Andrew successfully gained business case approval for DailyIQ Release2 which was a highly strategic innovative investment in Analytics by the Bank.
As Managing Director for CBAs Payments & Cash Management Division (PCM), successfully led a large specialist team of 70+FTE and a revenue budget of approx. $900M. Andrew had accountability for full product management lifecycle of the Payments and Cash Management suite. This included product development through innovation, P&L responsibility, and end-to-end accountability for processes and operational risk.
For CBA’s Payments & Cash Management Division, Andrew successfully implemented BASEL III (regulatory) changes to Cash Management product suite. He also delivered Albert and Pi, world leading innovations in the Merchant Acquiring industry while simultaneously realising OPEX savings in excess of $15M/per annum by rationalising services, implementing Agile pricing capability, and leading vendor re-negotiations.
Andrew led CBA’s Merchant Solutions Division and led all innovation, product development, and industry & regulatory compliance programs. As part of his role, he delivered several critical programs including a complete refresh of the terminal fleet, leading the market in Australia in the implementation of contactless technology, providing the Bank’s merchants with fund settlement 7 days/week, 365 days/year, and providing simple pricing options to merchants.
As General Manager for CBA’s Business Banking & Payment ES Division, Andrew introduced and delivered a number of strategically important initiatives. Key programs delivered include Core Payments infrastructure upgrade, the transition of application support to an outsourced/offshore model, implementation of a Payments Hub using Clear2Pay, IP Connectivity to all payment terminals, upgrades to Asset Finance and Margin Lending payment platforms, and critical upgrades of the main payment interchanges with other Financial Institutions. Andrew had a portfolio budget of $75M to deliver the highly visible & critical programs.
As Executive Manager for CBA’s CommSee Program, Andrew was responsible for initiating and delivering the Commercial Lending Origination project for the Commsee Platform. The highly visible program was delivered successfully over a number of releases with the support of a large team (80+ FTE) under Andrew’s leadership.
As Senior Project Manager for CBA, Andrew was responsible for delivering the Home Loan Origination Module (CHL) of ComSee, with emphasis on extending the solution to support the Retail Bank segment.
For TRAC Software, Andrew provided specialized project delivery services to clients in Investment Banking, Life Insurance and Mining industries.
