Operations Strategy and Investment

Dear Colleague

Following Paul Barron’s organisation announcement on 2 February 2009, I would now like to inform you of some changes that will be taking place in Operations Strategy and Investment (OS&I).

Aligned to the new organisation under Ian Hall, Director Development and Investment, OS&I will be re-focussing to provide clear strategic direction, in order to have greater impact on the development of our operations and the wider NERL business. To achieve this, OS&I is being restructured, with the aim of separating strategic functions from service delivery and implementation.

The new structure means that OS&I will be moving towards becoming more efficient and highly focussed on strategy, investment and policy, with strong links into the Government, the CAA and Europe. The operational, day-to-day, service delivery and implementation functions within OS&I will move to those areas of the business where they can work more closely with the operation, and thereby achieve a better partnership in delivering those services.

I am therefore announcing the following changes - 

Air Traffic Control Systems Support and Development (ATCSSD)
ATCSSD is moving from OS&I into Engineering Service Delivery (ESD). Phil Bradshaw, Manager ATC Systems Development, and his team will now report into Graham Campbell, Head of Centres Engineering Support. The skills in ATCSSD, for delivery, implementation and support, fit well with the role that ESD now performs as a NATS-wide delivery organisation.

Network Management
In line with the strategy for the changes in OS&I, the service delivery and strategic development elements of Network Management are being separated. Dave Barrett, Manager ATFCM, and Dave White, Head of Network Management Strategy & Development, are staying in OS&I to focus on network strategy and improvement. The rest of the Network Management team will move from OS&I into Swanwick, to become part of the Swanwick Service Delivery team.

Operational Analysis
Sean Jones, Head of Operational Analysis, and the rest of his Operational Analysis team will be moving from Technical and Scientific Services into OS&I, reporting into me. This move will ensure that development of the NERL operational strategy is informed by operational data and analysis, whilst allowing continued work on strategic ATM studies on behalf of external customers. The Forecasting and Business Information team will move from OA into Business Performance.

Asset Management
As part of their next phase, and following the positive impact that they have had on the quality of NERL’s capital investment plans, Gary Gibson and his Asset Management team have already moved from OS&I to report into Chris Odam, Director Supply Chain and Facilities Management. Remaining as part of the wider NERL Investment Group, Gary and his team will continue their capital investment work, but will intensify the focus on managing the operating and maintenance costs for NERL’s assets.

Business Reporting
The Business Reporting team, led by Mayesta Ewer, Business Performance & Reporting Manager, will be moving from OS&I to Business Performance, reporting into John Conolly, General Manager, Business Performance Delivery.

All other OS&I functions and roles remain where they are currently. As I continue to establish a structure that fully supports the evolving needs of NERL, I anticipate that there will be further changes, and they will be carried out by working closely together with the Trade Unions. I will keep you informed about these as soon as I’m able to.  

All these changes take effect on 1 March 2009.

Please brief your colleagues and teams of these changes as appropriate.

Kind regards

Alex Bristol
General Manager, OS&I