Martin is a Human Resources professional with over 20 years experience in the field of HR Transformation and Technology. He is a Graduate of the University of Teesside and as well as an Honours Degree in Humanities, he holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Personnel Management. He is also a visiting fellow in Human Resources at the same University. His first appointment was a Personnel & Industrial Relations Officer within a British Shipbuilders subsidiary in the North East.

In 1984 Martin joined B&Q to mastermind large scale recruitment campaigns based around the growth of DIY Supercentres in the UK. He also continued to work on computerised HR Systems based on the early adoption of Oracle database technology as well as Job Analysis and Evaluation and centralised B&Q’s HR operations within the Southampton Head Office. In 1986 Martin joined the Octopus Publishing Group’s Distribution Division as number 2 in HR where he introduced new HR Technology, masterminded Merchandiser recruitment campaigns nationwide and worked with Trade Unions again

In 1987, Martin became joined an Anglo-Swedish Management Development consultancy and spent two years in Stockholm and Helsinki selling and delivering Management Communication Training courses (Presentation & Meetings skills) in one to one or group scenarios.

Martin returned to the UK in 1989 and joined Vosper Thornycroft Shipbuilders as Industrial Relations and Recruitment Manager where he introduced shorter working weeks in the UK shipyards as a pre-requisite to reducing production costs.

In 1990, Martin joined Oracle where he was the first Oracle HR professional in the UK. He spent four and a half years pre-selling, selling and delivering implementations of Oracle HR in the UK, Norway, Belgium, Portugal, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Colombia. In 1994, he was headhunted into SAP to launch their UK HR solution. After spending eighteen months creating the pre-sales, sales, product management and consulting infrastructure, he was promoted to Director of the HR Product Centre of Expertise in SAP’s Headquarters in Walldorf, Germany with the brief of replicating the success of the UK in the Nordic, Irish and Latin-European markets.

In 1997, Martin was headhunted into Deloitte Consulting to launch their SAP HR Practice in the UK and consequently Europe, building an inherited team of 5 up to at one point, 33. He was responsible for the sales and delivery of implementation programmes in the UK, Poland & Portugal until being headhunted into IBM to launch the concept of e-HR Transformation.

When Martin joined IBM in 2000, he inherited responsibility for the SAP HR Practice as well as the Oracle & PeopleSoft lines of business. He also re-launched IBM’s HR Access product into the UK and developed IBM’s go-to-market proposition for HR Transformation into an offering based on lessons learned from IBM’s own Transformation into a shared service culture. By the end of 2001 this business was worth $30 million in Northern Europe and in 2002, Martin was asked to replicate this across other European countries. He left IBM to join Towers Perrin at the beginning of 2003, but became rapidly disillusioned with the go-to-market approach and ultimately set up his own consulting business