Portfolio Manager

Hazel Crompton, IT Change & Project Delivery

I am the Portfolio Manager  in UCL’s Information Services Division. Based in the IT Change and Project Delivery Department, I lead the Portfolio Management Services Group who oversee the totality of ISD’s projects handling the processes for funding, resourcing and scheduling. We are responsible for ensuring appropriate governance is applied to projects and for managing project stage/gate processes, finances and project reporting.
 

Our remit is very broad which makes for a varied and busy workload. As a team, we try to remain focussed on facilitating project delivery whilst helping projects adhere to the correct governance processes. Team members have a mix of skills which combine a highly analytical, process-driven mind-set with a people focussed, service-oriented approach.

Prior to joining UCL, my experience was largely in IT sales and marketing roles in the private sector. In my early career, whilst studying for my A-Levels, I supervised a petrol station at the weekends. This gave me a strong sense of customer service, something I have continued to value throughout my career. Following two years as a Marketing Co-ordinator for a Management Consultancy, I joined UCL in 2002 as an Administrative Assistant in the General Office of the Information Systems department. At that time, I had decided marketing wasn’t for me and had fallen back on my strong administrative skills whilst I worked out what my next career move would be. 

I supported two senior managers in the Information Systems department which enabled me to get involved in lots of different project work. At that time, I was also responsible for scheduling all IT room bookings for student teaching across UCL.
 
When I joined UCL, I was delighted by the warm, friendly and vibrant working environment. I  wanted to learn as much as possible about the Higher Education Sector. In 2005, I embarked upon the Association of University Administrator’s Postgraduate Certificate in Professional Practice in Higher Education Administration and Management which not only gave me a well-rounded understanding of the sector, but also provided an opportunity to focus on my career progression.

Change and transformation is never dull and my involvement in projects meant that I got to work on some really interesting initiatives. I worked on procuring UCL’s first high performance computing systems, our first centrally managed print charging system, the first lecture capture service and even our first centralised diary system. I also played a key role in co-ordinating a very large datacentre relocation. This experience led to my secondment in 2010 to the IT Portfolio Manager role in ISD’s Divisional Office. I then gained the PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner project management qualifications and later the Management of Portfolios (MoP) Practitioner accreditation.

My advice to others would be to continue to develop your knowledge and skills in areas that interest you and to never turn down an opportunity for development. Understanding your skills set and where your skills might be transferrable is also important. It sounds clichéd but a willingness to continually learn, improve and be the best version of yourself goes a long way. Keeping an eye on the priorities of the organisation, the latest legislation and how you can ensure your work is aligned to these is vital in these changing times. Most of all, working in change and transformation means truly championing change especially, when it impacts you directly.