Director, Resource Synergies Ltd
Bath, United Kingdom
- Current
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- Director at Resource Synergies Ltd
- Past
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- Director of Resources, Environment and Transport at Cambridgeshire County Council
- Head of Conservation Policy Unit at Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs
- civil servant at Scottish Office
- Head of Finance Division at Property Services Agency
- Education
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- ACCA
- Birkbeck, U. of London
- University of Cambridge
- Connections
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9
connections
- Industry
- Management Consulting
- Websites
Mark O'Sullivan’s Summary
Now an interim manager and consultant, Mark O'Sullivan has delivered policy advice, line management and major projects in senior roles in Government departments, local authorities and public bodies in London, the provinces, Scotland and overseas. He is familiar with the environment and educational worlds, and expert in managing support services. He is qualified in business psychology, HR & finance.
He has a number of current consultancy contracts, including work for the National College for School Leadership on a new signature course. In addition he is supporting the expansion of the Association of Business Psychologists, of which he is Treasurer, and is working on a book designed to give practising managers a better understanding of how much of current management literature is froth and how much is serious. He is looking to complete his current portfolio with some additional support to organisations, especially in the environment or education fields.
Mark O'Sullivan’s Specialties:
Organisational change, performance and capacity improvement, programme and project management, environmental and educational policy analysis, budget scrutiny and VFM studies
Mark O'Sullivan’s Experience
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Director
Resource Synergies Ltd
(Management Consulting industry)
2005 — Present (4 years)
Key projects include managing a national project for succession planning for headteachers, and feasibility/implementation work for a top leadership development programme and for provincial rollout of an accelerated school headship scheme. Other projects include executive coaching, performance development, recruitment, organisational change and development, ERP implementation (SAP and Oracle), options appraisal, retention strategy, cost reductions in Children’s Services (£1m) and Culture & Sport (£0.5m), identification of income opportunities, in-year forecasting tools. Clients include Milton Keynes Council, HBS Business Systems, the National College for School Leadership, Institute of Payroll and Pensions Management, Integrated Resources Ltd, Future Leaders Ltd, Creasy Lockyer Ltd, Cambridgeshire YMCA.
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Director of Resources, Environment and Transport
Cambridgeshire County Council
(Government Agency; 10,001 or more employees; Government Administration industry)
2001 — 2005 (4 years)
HR, finance, performance management, ICT and FM support for 400 staff & budget of £50m. This Department twice won the award as Local Transport Authority of the Year, scored excellent in the CPA, and excelled in modernisation despite low tax and tight resourcing.
Achievements included top team enhancement, capacity building, implementing Oracle financials, 30% sickness absence reduction, 20% accommodation costs saving, IiP accreditation, £2000m funding plan for Cambridge Growth Area, Best Value Review on transport provision across services, regional initiative for automated lorry weight enforcement to cut highway maintenance spend.
Outside the Council, member of Infrastructure Partnership Steering Group, & alternate on Local Strategic Partnership. Vice-chair of regional finance officers, and on Regional Assembly officer finance group for growth area work.
Nationally, member of the County Surveyors’ Society Finance Committee and of the CIPD Public Sector Forum Steering Committee. -
Head of Conservation Policy Unit
Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs
(Government Administration industry)
1998 — 2001 (3 years)
Managed UK membership of wildlife treaties and WTO implications of policy.
Key achievements:
• Led successful negotiations on new treaty on albatross conservation
• Negotiated successful reconfiguration of World Conservation Monitoring Centre to become part of UNO
• Elected leader of working group developing performance management indicators for the Convention on Migratory Species and its Secretariat. -
civil servant
Scottish Office
(Government Administration industry)
1989 — 1998 (9 years)
Policy, support and project-based posts included financial management, setting up administration of Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland, upper secondary education, the Shetland oilspill, the Forestry Review, the setting up of SEPA, pre-school education vouchers, study on personnel consequences of devolution.
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Head of Finance Division
Property Services Agency
(Government Administration industry)
1985 — 1989 (4 years)
Mark O'Sullivan’s Education
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ACCA
Diploma , Accounting and Finance , 2001 — 2002
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Birkbeck, U. of London
MSc , Organisational Behaviour , 1999 — 2001
Distinction for dissertation "Effects of fixed-term contracts on employee performance"
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University of Cambridge
MA , Classics , 1970 — 1974
Won open scholarship
Additional Information
Mark O'Sullivan’s Websites:
Mark O'Sullivan’s Interests:
Arts etc; entertaining. Walking (includes Southern Upland Way, Demi-Tour du Mont Blanc, and Otter Trail in the Cape; often seen in the Wye Valley or the Black Mountains). Founder-chairman of local Bath residents’ association with around 200 members; member of Bath Natural History Society; trustee of Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. Creative writing (publications: short story Road Rage in Visible Ink Compiled, ed A Potter, Pentalpha Publishing, Edinburgh, 1998; editor of An Unknown Planet, in press with Park Corner Books, Warrington; novel Britanniæ recently completed).
Mark O'Sullivan’s Groups:
Fellow of Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development; member of its Public Sector Forum Steering Group
Hon Treasurer of Association of Business Psychologists
Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.
Lately Member of Society of Personnel Officers in Government (SOCPO – now renamed PPMA)
Registered as a psychometrician with the British Psychological Society.
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The Association of Business Psychologists
Mark O'Sullivan’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
