For Ian, Ascentia forms the culmination of a career dedicated to solving problems from a business improvement and automation perspective. With a natural talent for analysing process weaknesses, Ian is often called on to investigate and find solutions to poor control systems and processes and where automation works best.  

Businesses need people like Ian acting as a small cog in the big machine – vital to analysing processes to make them run as expected. He comes with a diverse set of skills that offer insightful, real value advice to strengthen businesses process and automation capability.  

He often asks clients “how can we streamline and automate processes to strengthen customer services, eliminate waste, and support risk and compliance practices?”

With over fifteen years working for three of New Zealand’s leading banks and an offshore engagement with the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia, Ian has crafted his skills across process improvement, automation, risk, and assurance. In addition to financial services, Ian has worked for other business sectors such as energy, healthcare, and infrastructure, including major New Zealand government agencies and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

Drawing on this diverse experience, Ian has successfully provided solid advice to executives and senior managers at both strategic and operational levels. Ian’s niche spans both business and technology to design control systems in processes that can be automated.

In addition to his analytical nature Ian also has a natural ability with people to listen, engage and motivate. He believes that industry jargon can quickly become a roadblock with people – and while it might sound plausible, it just obscures meaning and progress.

Ian recognises the complexity facing businesses today and the importance of balancing the demands of driving innovation while creating structured ways of addressing business problems needing expertise across process, automation, risk, and assurance. For Ian this is all about finding the right tension to support a compliant, flexible, and agile business that works for people.

For Ian’s current thinking on processes and automation practices, check out the blog.

Outside of analysing business problems Ian enjoys travel, fishing, 4X4 off-road, and is an avid reader of economic history, especially the circumstances surrounding financial crises.