Establishing a Portfolio Office
Further to my announcement in January of my intent to establish an RNLI Portfolio Office to better plan, co-ordinate and oversee the delivery of all major programmes and the generation of a single view of change, I am pleased to announce that Rob Faricy will be taking on this important responsibility, in addition to his Safety and Independent Assurance remit.
Rob’s exceptional organisational skills, thoughtful stakeholder management, and instinctively collaborative ways of working, mark him out as the ideal person to take on this key leadership role. Therefore, with effect from 31 March 2025, Rob Faricy will change his job title and become the RNLI’s Chief Delivery Officer. Jade Rampling, Portfolio Manager, and her team have already transferred from the Finance Directorate over to Safety and Independent Assurance under Rob’s leadership.
I am clear, that if we are to deliver our ambitious RNLI 2040 vision and sustain our vital lifesaving service, we need to better prioritise and co-ordinate our programme and change agenda, delivering our key enabling activity and initiatives to time, cost and performance, across all lines of development. During my first nine months in post, it has become apparent to me that we are trying to deliver far too many projects, some out of our agreed processes and governance framework, others misaligned to our strategic priorities, and we are often not tracking or realising the forecast benefits.
Working with ET colleagues, Rob and his team will seek to generate an initial operating capability by 1 June 2025 and will, thereafter, develop and refine our ways of working, and put in place the enabling resources necessary to ensure long-term success. This will need a behavioural change across the organisation, with everyone required to sacrifice functional gains for the greater good of the RNLI 2040 vision. It will be challenging at times as we question what projects we must, should, could or won’t action, but we all need to play our role in driving this change to secure the future of this remarkable charity.
Thank you for your continuing support as we strive to save every one.
Peter Sparkes
Chief Executive