Focus on..

As Head of Customer Operations within Black Horse, part of the Lloyds Banking Group David is responsible for managing circa 1,100 employees over a wide range of operational areas in both Cardiff and Edinburgh, including the Customer Contact Centres, Process & Admin, Collections Support, External Relations, Field Collections and Customer Solutions Centre. In addition to this more recently David has been overseeing the Operations integration of the Band of Scotland equivalent business into Blackhorse.

He is passionate and focused about leading his team to deliver excellent customer service and has a clear vision for Customer Operations. A strong ambassador for Lean processing and methodologies, which are now firmly embedded in the Cardiff Operation, and enhancing the customer experience through continuous improvement. His vision is for the team to work together as a single unit, and for colleagues to be able to comfortably move between different areas of the operational areas, extending their knowledge and skills.

Development is something which is high on David’s agenda, endorsing internal programmes; Gateway and Break Thru + for aspiring and developing managers. He has always been keen to promote external recognition for talented individuals and high-performing teams. Recent successes resulted in the Customer Services team winning the Welsh Contact Centre Award in February 2010, and this team has also gained 45th position in the UK Top 50 Contact Centres.

David has also received an award of his own – the Leading Wales Award in the category of businesses with over 250 employees, and was subsequently pleased to be invited to sit on the Advisory Board for the Business School at Cardiff University. A position he still holds today.

Other recent appointments include being an assessor for the Lloyds Banking Group Graduate Leadership Programme and a trustee for the Lloyds TSB Asset Finance Pension Scheme. He is also involved with Arts and Business Cymru and has spoken on behalf of Breast Cancer Cymru at the Senedd.

In his spare time David is a big fan of live music (ranging from opera to rock!), ballet (watching - not dancing), Newcastle United, skiing (badly - despite years of practice), enjoys travel, likes good food and spending time with friends.