Published on 24 March 2010

Matthew White joined CHP Consulting in 1999 as employee number 45. He joined straight from Oxford University as a junior consultant and now, some 10 years later, he has risen to the position of associate director.

White’s career with CHP has coincided with a period of significant growth for the company. Founded in 1990, CHP was well into making its impact in the asset finance and leasing industry when White joined on the company’s fast-track graduate programme.

And yet, consultancy with a top-flight software company had not been in his intended career sights. Schooled in Woking he progressed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, undertaking a three-year degree course in Law.

Preference for small organisations

“I selected Corpus Christi,” he said, “because it was at the time the smallest Oxford College. I always have had a preference for small organisations. I studied law because I thought it would open a variety of career opportunities for me.” He enjoyed university. Especially, he says, the social life, including “the football playing, the coffee drinking during the day and the beer drinking during the evenings”. He admits having to “cram like mad in the last two terms” – but he got his 2:1.

CHP has traditionally held a high-profile presence at Oxbridge Universities. White came across them first at university “employment days” and was attracted to “the fact that the company was still small numerically and run by its founding directors”. The more he learnt about it, the more the attractions of consultancy work grew on him as did the appeal of delivering something tangible for client companies.

“My requirements were fairly simple,” he said, “I wanted to work for a small compact company with a ‘family’ feel and with good opportunities for advancement. Even though CHP has grown considerably it retains that small company culture. At CHP I came to learn that when you are good enough at what you do, then you are ready for promotion.”

The biggest challenge

He admits that his biggest challenge upon joining the IT consultancy was programming. “I had always been interested in technology,” he stressed, “but had no programming experience. So it took me some time to get used to systems programming. Ironically, although I don’t get much chance to do it nowadays, I miss it – especially the organisation and structuring of a programme. In fact I could still pass many happy hours doing it!”

Another challenge would be learning the specifics of the asset finance industry. But this, White confirms, was achieved by listening and learning from the users, CHP supervisors and managers of client companies.

One year after joining CHP White was at a client’s site helping the user team implement ALFA Systems (CHP’s class-leading software solution). Two years later he had a team of 10 consultants working under him.

Vast industry experience

Then he was seconded onto a project at Shell UK for the planned build-up to the launch of a new retail motor finance operation, Shell Auto Finance (SAF). It was there that he was able to work closely with SAF’s management team including prospective chief operating officer, David Bird, and vice presidents Mike Smith and Tarun Mistry. “All had vast industry experience,” he said, “and I learned much about the automotive finance industry from them.”

In the event, SAF’s launch was pulled at the last moment by its parent, but Bird’s new enterprise, Leasedrive, implemented CHP’s ALFA system and White continued his project management at the newly-acquired fleet company.

Over the intervening 7 years White continued to manage bigger projects and more projects concurrently until he was managing some of the largest asset finance software implementations in Europe.

During the depths of the current economic downturn, White’s principal activity was managing projects during a recessionary environment. “This involved concentrating clients’ efforts less on front-end activity and more on operational efficiency and collections work,” he said.

New large projects

He explained: “My job now is running big projects for CHP. Most of these have a multi-country setting on a pan-European basis. Many new large projects are reappearing as the recession lessens. However, business cases have to be very clear and be seen to be increasing efficiency. In addition, the launch of ALFA v5 has caused great interest in the industry and I am currently working on its implementation with three major clients. To tell the truth, I have never been so busy.”

During his time with CHP, White has seen the technology industry move from the classic “waterfall” concept to that of “agile” implementation. White describes this as allowing “a project to adapt to changes quickly and shorten the distance between the developer and the end user”. “Agile concepts,” he said, “are very much in line with the way that CHP has always worked. The emphasis is on frequent delivery of working software as the primary measure of progress. This, when combined with the preference for face-to-face communication, produces effective teams delivering for clients’ changing requirements. It is now fast becoming the mainstream concept for software implementation.”

Paternal yet professional

White acknowledges that he has benefited from CHP’s paternal – yet professional – approach to its staff. Staff appraisals are held twice annually for junior staff and once each year for senior staff. Progress is closely monitored and mentored. His personal skills have clearly been honed during the last 10 years, and he admits to enjoying working in a team and having the authority to empower his colleagues to achieve their full potential. Modestly, he describes himself as “a generalist who is reasonably good at a variety of things”.

His immediate task is to “mentor my project managers so that they are able to implement systems in multiple countries”.

He has no time now for football, or indeed other pastimes. Far too much time is spent with his wife Polly looking after their one-year old daughter Elsa. In what looks to be a particularly busy year for White and his family, a house move is underway to the attractive village of Overton in Hampshire.

The above was published online by Asset Finance Europe on 18 March 2010.
Reproduced by permission of the publisher.