James McGuigan is an innovator and leader with over 20 years spent in organisational and technological transformations.
In his most recent role as a Global Head of Operations at Nomad, James was responsible for formulating business strategy with the leadership team to enable growth of the consultancy. He also designed policies that align to the company’s strategy, established a culture that would form part of the growing entity, and implemented software development processes and standards. As part of this role he also ensured compliance, governance was being met and evaluated organisational risk, resourcing, vendor contracts etc.
Prior to this, James was working in the change and transformation space within the FinTech scene of Hong Kong. As a transformation specialist with extensive experience of agile coaching and agile working practices, he has driven improvements in quality with a decrease in speed to market by guiding teams and organisation along the agile journey. Using Kanban, Scrum frameworks or using lean methodology to optimise existing processes, James delivers a legacy where teams are always looking for feedback opportunities in their product delivery processes.
In addition to focusing on process, James has built and shaped existing onshore and offshore teams into product focused entities through his strong leadership capabilities. By putting people first, he creates an environment where members feel valued through ownership and belonging. The result of this are teams that are product focused, and will go the extra mile to delivering what the customer wants.
From Liverpool to Hong Kong
Before leaving for Hong Kong in 2017, James was a Technical Lead at MoneySuperMarket.com for over ten years where he was responsible for the delivery of many of its key revenue impacting business verticals such as Car Insurance, Home Insurance and Travel Insurance. His teams have helped the business establish itself as a heavily regulated FTSE 250 financial services business and saved its customers many thousands of pounds over the years.
Earlier on in his career James was responsible for delivering solutions in the accessibility space for Royal Bank of Scotland, and the Department for Work and Pensions. His work in this space is still positively impacting visually impaired users many years after its delivery.
James received his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Durham. He also holds a MSc (by research) in Software Engineering also from the University of Durham.