Jason Rowlands

Cero is a wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie's Green Investment Group (GIG).  It has a 26GW pipeline of solar PV and battery projects across eight European countries.  The company was formed in early 2021 when it was spun out of GIG, of which I was a founding member.  I reported to the CEO and was a member of the executive committee with responsibility for people & culture, communications, IT, and corporate services.

• Built from scratch the people & culture, communications, IT, and corporate services capabilities (people, systems and processes), supporting the growth in headcount and capability across the group to 240, upper-quartile employee engagement of 81%, >50% direct hiring, and rolling voluntary attrition of 0% during the crucial change of control due diligence process.
• Enabled business expansion into new European countries, integrated acquired companies into Cero, and provided greater goverance of, and harmonisation with, JV companies.  
• Led the annual company performance process - translation of the strategy into annual KPIs and OKRs, cascading and alignment of these across the company, and the development of a rigorous opex budgeting process and people analytics.
• Defined, developed and implemented governance, policies, and procedures in preparation for a prospective exit event due diligence, and led the preparation and presentation of the people and performance sections of management presentations.

NextEnergy Capital Group is a privately-owned solar investment and asset manager with a workforce of 200 across three continents.  I was a direct report of, and a trusted partner to, the Founder & Group CEO, and a member of the group leadership team with responsibility for HR, organisation & leadership development, and business management.

• Prepared the company for expansion into new markets (USA, Spain, India, Mexico), which included org redesign, upskilling the leadership to lead through the growth, developing and communicating the group's mission, culture and values, and refreshing the brand identity.
• Implemented management systems to enable the group to scale sustainably.  These included the development of a cohesive leadership structure, group strategy development and the translation of this into KPIs and OKRs, the implementation of a risk management framework and budgeting process.
• Delivered an employee value proposition and experience, taking a data-driven approach based on employee feedback.  Key initiatives included the implementation of a market-based compensation and benefits structure, delivering a learning and development offering supported by a learning platform, and driving significant improvements in communication, collaboration and remote working ability through the implementation of Microsoft Teams.
• Improved the group's resilience and reduced the exposure to risk through the development of a group-wide governance structure, standardisation of technology platforms and systems (cost reduction of >£500k pa), consolidation of insurance coverage, identification and removal of regulatory risks (potential exposure of >£2m), reduction in office overhead (cost reduction of >£450k pa), management of complex employee relations issues, GDPR and SMCR compliance, development of business continuity and disaster recovery plans, and protection of the brand's IP.

Sonnedix is a high-growth early-stage solar power producer with operations/offices in Chile, USA, Puerto Rico, UK, South Africa, France, Italy, Thailand, and Japan.  I reported to the CEO and was a member of the leadership team with responsibility for people operations, talent, organisational effectiveness, communications, IT, and facilities.

• Redesigned and reorganised the company from country-based silos to globally flexible functions coupled with central shared services, thereby creating a scalable and sustainable operating platform.  Doubled the headcount (from 70 to 150) whilst tripling operating capacity over a two-year period.
• Reshaped and grew the leadership beyond the original founder group, providing clarity of roles, responsibilities and accountabilities.  Enabled the leadership to make the successful transition from operating in a founder-led to institutionally-owned company.  Notably, in 2016 alone, 'leadership effectiveness' increased by 18% over the previous year.
• Built from scratch a People (HR) capability that delivered both the key management systems required for sustainable growth (performance, compensation, budgeting, engagement, communications) and to deliver on the employee proposition and experience (hiring, onboarding, development, career paths).
• Established an internal and external communications capability, and led the project to update and connect the company's brand.  Also standardised and strengthened the global IT platform and introduced social technologies that enabled greater collaboration and connection across the company.
• Led the people aspects of the due diligence for both the JV and subsequent transfer to full institutional ownership.

Led the people agenda with the Technology CIO covering a global workforce of 4,900. Established and delivered against a people plan to address: organisation size, shape and cost; performance management; employee engagement (EVP); talent identification and utilisation; and people manager capability.  Also, led the pay and bonus model creation and management for the Markets Logistics division (10,000 people).

Lloyds Banking Group (Group Technology) - supported the four CTOs covering Retail, Wholesale, Wealth and Central Functions businesses.  Full generalist role with an emphasis on organisation efficiency, hiring, leadership coaching and org redesign.

Environmental Resources Management  - as Global Resourcing Director, established a direct hiring strategy and capability for the attraction of partner-level talent globally. Introduced market mapping, reconfigured the applicant tracking system to improve the process and improve data quality, and developed a suite of manpower forecasting models, tools and analytics to align growth with business priorities.  As HR Director for EMEA, led the regional HR team of nine HR managers, ran the Partner selection process, introduced a talent management framework and played a lead role in the creation of the global people strategy.

Full generalist roles supporting global technology and operations functions and commercial product teams ranging from 150 - 1,500 people.  Led on the upgrading, identification and hiring of talent, headcount modelling and forecasting, creating a global policy framework and managing manual, data intensive, year-end compensation processes.  Led reorganisations resulting in annual savings of £1m with no operational impact.  Managed the people aspects of the BoA / Merrill Lynch integration. Coached MDs on their roles and the development of their leadership teams.

Full generalist role supporting the Exploration division across Europe, Africa and Asia (300 people across 14 countries).  Redesigned the remuneration structures of the South Africa and Botswana operations, redesigned the organisation resulting in the sub-division of one of the operating regions, and co-led the development and implementation of a global technical competency framework for geoscientists.

Progressed through a number of specialist roles (HRIS, compensation, employee relations, policy) to be the HR leader for the Middle East (4,500 employees), responsible for all aspects of HR, and leading a team of 70.  Led on all people aspects of the strategy to create a home market and establish local, independent trading entities within Saudi Arabia.  Completed due diligence on local acquisitions and defined the governance standard for these acquisitions to adhere to.  Developed and implemented a recruitment and retention strategy to sustain the expatriate workforce in the face of terrorist activity in the country.  Redesigned the HR function to deliver against new business needs.

Various personnel roles both in the UK and overseas.