Our Team

WHO WE ARE

PARTNERS

Mark Homer – Managing Partner

Digital transformation specialist. Smart Services coach with 30 years in service leadership, compliance and service technology. Coaching in service Innovation strategies and tactics for complex service organisations from a proven, highly successful digital transformation leader with technological vision, commercial acumen and an outstanding record for driving service transformation.

 

As COO at Service Power plc, he was responsible for Service Operations in both USA and Europe, headed global value engineering and strategic consultancy team that generated and supported direct sales, partner channels and business development (£multimillion projects).

 

More recently as SVP at ServiceMax, he was responsible for Global Customer Digital Transformation, ISV Technology Partners and Corporate Development projects. With a focus on working with prospects and existing customers to understand and unlock the true value of service execution within their field service organisation.  At GE Digital a leading voice at industry forums and events on Digital Service Transformation, the use of Digital Twins and AI-based predictive technologies and implementing Asset Performance Management & Field Execution Platforms. Prior to working in the Service Industry Mark was Director at John Matchett Limited, Systems and Technology Training Business, Adkins Matchett and Toy and The Matchett Group during which he was responsible for launching Registrar from Silton Bookman System and Skillscape Inc into the European Market.

 

Mark was a founding Fellow of the Institute of IT Training and has served as a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University, School of Through Life Engineering.

Marc Vincent – Senior Partner

Marc specialises in Field Service Management, Aftermarket solutions, Service Life Cycle Management, and Supply Chain solutions. As a seasoned international sales and general manager, he has a proven track record of driving growth, leading successful restructurings, and managing M&A in technology multinationals and start-ups. An experienced board member, he has collaborated closely with executive leadership, boards, VCs, and Investment teams to scale businesses effectively.

 

Marc is passionate about empowering B2B sales teams to succeed by focusing on long-term customer value and leveraging digital transformation.

 

Marc helps go-to-market teams develop value props, advises on sales playbooks, provides coaching to foster best practices, and drives sales performance. He also coaches field service and engineering teams in being trusted advisors and how to up-sell and provide exceptional customer service.

 

With over 20 years of experience in product lifecycle management (CAD, CAM, CAE, PLM, FSM, and EAM), Marc spent 12 years at PTC, where he led cross-functional teams in Spain, Southern Europe, and Western Europe as Vice President. He later held international sales leadership roles at ServiceMax, GE Digital, and IFS. As a French citizen, he possesses a global mindset, having lived for 3 years in the USA and 10 years in Spain, which has enriched his international expertise and cultural adaptability.

Prof Shaun West

Shaun West has worked for over 25 years since graduating in Engineering from Imperial College in London. He worked in several businesses over that period, and all of them related to industrial services. At AEA Technology, he learnt some of the basic lessons of delivery service (as a consultancy business).

 

At National Power, he provided services internally and externally before moving into a business development role where he developed and sold services to external businesses here he learnt about selling services and the change management associated with the business transformation. During his time with GE Energy Services, he modelled and negotiated long-term service agreements for power plants here his contracting capabilities were improved and he learnt that the contract is as important as the technical work that is being delivered.

 

At Sulzer, he drafted the strategy that led to the service division tripping in size over 10 years and executed part of the strategy by acquiring a 220M CHF service business. He also spent time working on improving operations and sales at Sulzer before moving to Hochschule Luzern (or Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in English).

 

In Lucerne, he is responsible for teaching Product Service System Innovation at both an undergraduate and a graduate level. He focuses his research on supporting industrial firms start-ups, large and small to develop and deliver new services and implement service-friendly business models. He has been working with his Master Students on a process for the design of Smart Services.
He lives in Switzerland with his wife and two children close to Zurich. He climbs, skis and runs.

 

Prof Product Service System Innovation Lucerne
BEng (Hons) and PhD – Imperial College (London)
MBA – HEC (Paris)
Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology

Dr Howard W Lightfoot, Bsc, PhD, C Eng., FIET

Dr Howard Lightfoot is a leading international authority on servitization and has spent much of the last 10 years working hands-on with both global and SME manufacturing companies to understand the  servitization process in practice and the associated businesses transformation issues.

 

More recently he managed Cranfield University’s Operations Excellence Institute, where a key area of development is the application of Virtual and Augmented technology, with the capability to support the delivery of effective and efficient field maintenance and service.

 

His book Made to Serve: How manufacturers can compete through servitization and product service systems described as, ‘Essential reading for any companies or executives looking to explore this
option for their business’ provides a practical guide to servitization, based on in-depth research with leading corporations such as Xerox, Caterpillar, Alstom and MAN Truck & Bus UK.

 

Prior to this, he spent over 25 years working in the UK technology manufacturing sector in senior operational positions and hence has a  personal understanding of the challenges faced by the manufacturing and technology industry and of the practical issues when manufacturers implement change strategies such as the move to a servitization business model.

 

He has International business development experience gained in Western Europe, the USA and the Far East.

Janine Elton

Janine is the founder and director of Elton Mellor Ltd, a learning and development company with edge and flair.

 

Janine’s refreshing approach inspires, motivates and challenges individuals and organizations to achieve their full potential. She enjoys long-term business relationships with top-tier investment banks, service organisations, global commercial businesses, charities and individuals.

 

Her expertise is in relationship interface – the dynamic interaction of people when working together. She is passionate about helping people communicate clearly and confidently – whether in writing, face-to-face, via Zoom or phone. She works with all levels of people in all contexts, coaching, training, speaking and facilitating.

 

Janine’s passion is for presentation, and she coaches senior service leaders to present formally and informally  – so that they find renewed creativity and energy, confidence and credibility. She is honest, direct and fun – and has a reputation for helping all people at all abilities to deliver high-performance presentations.

 

Janine’s recent work is with leading service organisations and top-tier investment banks, delivering a range of commercial training courses: relationship management, presentation skills and facilitation skills. She works in partnership with her clients to design relevant
learning experiences that will build skills for employees at all levels.

 

Janine is an accredited executive coach, having trained with Academy of Executive Coaches, and is an active member of the globally-recognized International Coach Federation. She is an NLP master practitioner and is qualified to administer MBTI, SDI and Belbin.

 

She has worked in learning and development management in the technology sector and has 28 years of development and delivery experience. She has also worked as a lecturer, a recruiter, a career coach and an actor.

Kevin Bill

Kevin has over 20 years of experience leading and developing high-performing virtual and multi-location teams. He partners with organisations in a wide variety of sectors at all phases of their growth and development, working with people on the front line to help them to better understand their customers, facilitate greater collaboration, and make communication more effective across all levels of an organisation.

 

His work includes developing senior leaders so they can lead and develop a high-performance culture which engages and motivates their people so they can be the best version of themselves, resulting in greater communication and collaboration between the Executive and Senior leaders, both as a peer-based team and as leaders of their own specialist, functional areas.

 

His proven track record in operational leadership is founded on his previous role as National Client Services Director at Goldman Sachs (via partnership with Williams Lea), which included recruiting, mentoring and coaching entire teams, with a focus on collaboration, agility, team effectiveness.

 

Kevin is happily based in San Francisco where, as a native Midwesterner, he enjoys snow-free winters and mosquito-free summers. He still misses hisprevious home of NYC, but not during the humid summer months.

Paul Thompson

Paul has over 22 years of experience in the field of organisational and people development at both a strategic and operational level. This experience spans a wide range of industries in both the public and private sectors. He is well-versed in the nuances and cultural awareness needs of regionalised development, as well as the practical challenges that such delivery involves.

 

Core competencies include leading and developing a highly-functional corporate culture, Executive and Board development, transformational leadership effectiveness, sales team and sales leadership development, and team effectiveness.

 

Paul’s assignments have led him to develop a wide range of programs using Insights Discovery, with a speciality in delivering result showing permanent and measurable change. Programs are specialised for each client as well as for each level of an organisation, from Executive level to team leadership to sales leadership enablement.

 

He works across all levels of an organisation, adapting his approach accordingly, to ensure he hits the target with every group, at every level. Paul has a current focus on, and extensive experience of working with early to late start-ups in the UK and San Francisco Bay Area as they grow their people, teams, culture and leadership capabilities.

Steven Cummins

Over 40 years of financial experience including; Auditor, Budgeting, Forecasting, Tender Application Pricing, Costing, Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Published Accounts and Credit Management.

 

Overlaid with over 25 years Operations and Service Management experience in a wide range of industries including Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Quarrying, Manufacturing, Wholesale Warehousing and Logistics. Outsourced Soft Service Facilities Management; Print, Post, Archiving and Office Services. Online Retail.

 

Extensive experience in analysing problem contracts, services and businesses. Identifying underlying traits/issues and determining appropriate correction techniques using tools such as Kaizen, 6 Sigma, Blue Ocean Strategy and Ratio Analysis.

Roy Peters

Roy Peters is a Service Executive with over 25 years experience in managing services in Industries such as IT, cash automation, post-printing, document management and industrial manufacturing. Within these roles, Roy was responsible for service development, service sales, field service & support and service parts management. This formidable experience makes him an all-round service leader who can drive complex transformations at local as well as global service organisations.

 

In his vast tenure at multiple ‘blue-chip’ companies, Roy had full P&L responsibility for business sizes up to $200 M and 1500 FTE. He transformed country-based service models into global service operations and managed the impact of various ERP/CRM implementations (SAP, ServiceMax, parts planning, remote/self-diagnostics etc.). During these implementation journeys, Roy has gained considerable experience in complex change processes both commercially and operationally. Roy created new revenue streams and halted the erosion of the traditional maintenance incomes, by converting conventional maintenance and repair models into ‘value add’ service models, based on machine performance, in terms productivity and throughput.

 

Roy has extensive experience managing the cost base within a business, as he has optimized service infrastructures by centralization of back-office functions and increased field service efficiency by implementing preventive and predictive service solutions and global spare parts planning models. Being natively Dutch, whilst working and living abroad for global enterprises, Roy has seen that such changes often need adept skills in dealing with the cultural changes and techniques required both for service sales and the requisite differing skills and processes required within service delivery. Roy can help your business moving to the next phase of its transformation in many service disciplines. Program management, short term interim support and workshop in combination with business coaching.

 

Christopher Ganz

Christopher Ganz is a thought leader on industrial innovation, digitalization, and servitization, with more than 30 years of experience along the innovation value chain. To bring together market requirements and future technologies to enable innovative solutions is Christopher’s key motivation when developing innovation strategies.

 

In his latest role at ABB, Christopher Ganz was leading a team looking into future solutions for future customers at ABB Future Labs. Before that, he was Group Vice President for Service and Digital Research & Development, responsible for improving service aspects in research and development and for cross-division projects such as remote services, internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). He was involved in developing ABB’s digital strategy and was a valued member of the group technology management team. Christopher was also an associate member of the Industrial Internet Consortium steering committee.

 

After joining ABB’s power generation division in 1995 Christopher held positions of increasing responsibility in research and development, finally leading the global product management team in the power plant control unit. He became the research program manager for control and optimization and later ran the program on the ‘Internet of Things, Services and People’.

 

Christopher holds a doctoral degree from ETH Zurich with a focus on Automatic Control and an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the same institute. His academic and professional credentials have made him a renowned speaker on digital technology topics worldwide.

Thomas Volkert

Thomas has more than 25 years’ global Generalist experience in HR/People Operations and Talent Acquisition (Recruitment) supporting organisations and business leaders through high growth, business transformation, merger & acquisitions and organizational re-design challenges. Thomas has worked in various industries ranging from Telecommunications, Semiconductor, Financial Services to Enterprise Software with companies like France Telecom, Analog Devices, General Electric, SuccessFactors, SAP/Hybris, Box, Aiven, HiveMQ and most recently Wayflyer.

 

The mix of small and large organisations has given Thomas a great insight into the different approach to HR, running strategic global projects at large scale in Succession Planning, Compensation & Benefits, Learning and Culture & Employee Engagement. Working most recently with start-ups in FinTech, IoT, Open Source Data Infrastructure has shifted the focus very much towards turning HR into an immediate problem solver building a recruitment function at scale, implement HR Operations processes and systems, develop career progression frameworks, design the compensation & benefits philosophy, act as a sounding board to leaders covering every aspect of HR including organizational design and leadership development.

 

Thomas has worked with and learned from experienced business leaders as well as highly innovative entrepreneurs growing their businesses from scratch to Unicorn valuation stage. The business leaders describe Thomas as a very approachable, highly pragmatic and creative problem solver who understands to connect business priorities and people requirements.

 

Thomas leads the HR consultancy practice for Trusted Voice Europe Ltd who specializes in supporting technology start-ups both in Europe and in North America wishing to expand their operations across Europe and need support scaling up and finding the right talents.

Sarah Volkert (nee Lloyd Parry)

Sarah has more than 20 years’ experience in technology marketing across enterprise software, augmented analytics, fintech, HCM, field service, content management, storage, telecommunications and hardware.  Companies in the early stage of her career include Vignette, NetApp and Nortel Networks.

 

Over the last 12+ years Sarah’s focus has been in marketing Cloud/SaaS Technology including start-up cloud technology companies; SuccessFactors, ServiceMax, Avora, AccessFintech and Helpall Social.  Prior to her CMO roles, Sarah built the EMEA Marketing team and regional presence at ServiceMax, including the marketing integration following the acquisition by GE Digital for $1 billion in 2017.  Sarah built and grew the SuccessFactors EMEA marketing operations over four years, including the EMEA marketing integration following SAP’s $3.4 billion acquisition.

 

Sarah as a marketing generalist brings a wealth of experience across all aspects of go-to-market initiatives including brand, PR, demand generation, partner marketing, sales enablement, product marketing and marketing operations.  She has operated at both, a corporate and at European level.   Sarah and her teams have won several Marketing and Business Awards.  Business leaders describe Sarah as dynamic, highly reliable, creative, and able to bring vision and ideas to life, operating at both a strategy and tactical level to deliver great emotive marketing.

 

As a managing partner of Trusted Voice Europe Ltd, Sarah leads the marketing practice specialized in supporting technology start-ups in Europe and in North America wishing to expand their operation across Europe needing help and support scaling up impactful marketing in the region.

Adrian Shiel

Adrian is a LinkedIn Social Selling Consultant and Coach who helps businesses to grow their revenue by using LinkedIn to generate leads and open new sales opportunities.

 

He has worked in online marketing for the last 9 years, specialising in LinkedIn for the last 6. Prior to this he spent over 20 years in the Engineering and Field Service Sectors.

 

He has a wealth of knowledge and experience having helped hundreds of businesses to improve their performance using LinkedIn as a lead generation tool resulting in significant overall sales performance. His areas of expertise include Outreach Strategy, Profile Optimisation, Content Creation, Digital Asset Creation and Sales Navigator.