Rachel Obrien

Background

About Rachel Obrien

I’m a Senior Executive who combines proven operational leadership abilities with a track record shaping and delivering £multi-million global programmes which drive growth and performance transformation. I bring extensive experience leading multi-year transformation initiatives focused on increasing productivity, building capabilities and delivering innovation to deliver an organisations’ digital objectives. Career highlights include: Driving Innovation: Enabled Pearson to maximise the commercial opportunities offered by digital technology and meet customer needs by driving swift and effective delivery of technology programmes. Combined commercial creativity with rigorous delivery controls to develop a new supply chain model for e-books at Penguin, and subsequently across the Pearson Group. Performance Transformation: Track record in identification and mitigation of the root cause of under-performance across complex portfolios and businesses, rescoping and reprioritising resources to deliver value, innovation and competitive advantage. Embedded a data driven approach to decision making, led re-engineering of supply chain and managed in-house, third party, multi-country and multi-disciplinary programme and business as usual teams at Pearson. Capability Building: Repeated success designing restructuring, talent development and cultural change programmes to ensure organisations have the people, resources and capabilities to deliver strategy. Sponsored initiatives across Pearson Technology to calibrate talent, rightsize operations, offshore/outsource, automate and standardize processes, and embed standards including a global delivery lifecycle. Specialties: Digital Strategy, Operational Leadership, Technology Investment & Prioritisation, Performance Transformation, Change Programmes, Communications, Capability Building, Technology & Programme Governance, Risk Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Talent Strategy, Portfolio Management, Matrix Management