Newcastle upon Tyne-based digital transformation specialist whyaye has strengthened its operational resilience team with three key appointments, after experiencing increased demand for its services as financial services firms look to manage risk more effectively and comply with key regulations, such as the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) operational resilience regulations.
The company has appointed Stuart Birnie, Mark Edwards and Frankie Love as operational resilience specialists to work alongside Jordan Stokoe. The whyaye operational resilience team provide clients with capabilities including operational resilience, operational risk, business continuity and reviewing, assuring or implementing Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) solutions.
Founded in 2019 by Maureen Robson Norman, Anna Bisset and Lisa Smith, whyaye was set up to bring a fresh, new approach to the UK consultancy landscape and aims to put ‘the yay in everyone’s working day’.
Headquartered at Hoults Yard in Newcastle upon Tyne, whyaye provides a variety of digital transformation services. It is also a premier partner for the ServiceNow digital platform, which help companies manage digital workflows, and is the 2021 ServiceNow EMEA Premier Segment Partner of the Year.
whyaye’s core service areas, as well as operational resilience and risk, include business change and adoption, enterprise transformation, product and platform assurance and programme delivery.
The new operational resilience regulations, which come into force on 31 March 2022, require in-scope businesses in the financial services sector to ensure that in the event of a severe but plausible operational disruption, they have sufficiently resilient systems and processes to avoid significant customer harm.
The company combines extensive resilience and risk expertise with business change capabilities to embed operational resilience into the DNA of organisations. This helps businesses to prevent and respond effectively to operational incidents, reduce risk, create a better customer experience and achieve regulatory compliance. Its team of specialists have worked across the operational resilience and risk landscape for decades, giving them a deep understanding of the origins and impact of the PRA and FCA regulations.
With more than 20 years’ experience, working in senior roles at PwC and RBS, Stuart Birnie has extensive experience in helping clients with risk management, operational resilience, project delivery and project assurance.
Commenting on his appointment, Stuart said: “whyaye has already built up an excellent reputation in delivering major transformation projects and I am looking forward to utilising my industry knowledge to further enhance the operational resilience and risk services we offer our customers.”
Prior to joining whyaye, Mark Edwards worked for RBS and the London Stock Exchange in various roles before beginning his operational resilience journey in 2010 as a business resilience consultant, followed by a business continuity lead.
Mark said: “I am delighted to be joining whyaye. It has a fun, dynamic working environment and it’s a pleasure to be a part of the team!”
Frankie Love has more than a decade of experience working at RBS in business continuity planning and tooling, risk and control framework, resilience policy and assurance. Frankie added: “I was attracted to working for whyaye as I feel it offers something genuinely different to other consultancies and makes a real, long-term difference to the organisations it works with.”
Jordan Stokoe, said: “I am delighted to welcome Stuart, Mark and Frankie to the team. It’s great to have specialists of their calibre and industry experience on board as we help organisations to develop, streamline and accelerate their operational resilience programmes.
Maureen Robson Norman, CEO of whyaye, said: “Operational resilience and risk is a key part of our offering and we are building a team that reflects the ever-increasing importance operational resilience and risk management has for today’s financial services sector.
“Our specialists have been instrumental in delivering operational resilience and risk programmes and providing thought leadership that is shaping industry thinking in this space. They have an in-depth understanding of the challenges facing businesses in implementing operational resilience strategies and of the regulatory landscape.
“Our operational resilience offering is fully integrated with our wider capabilities in digital transformation and FS providers can benefit from our holistic approach and draw on whyaye’s multi-layered expertise.”
whyaye is planning a series of webinars and round table events on operational resilience and risk in the coming months, and its team blog extensively on topics surrounding operational resilience and risk.
whyaye’s clients include Danske Bank, Solutionize Global and multinational financial services, consumer goods and energy companies.
For more information visit https://whyayeltd.com/