Rob Young
Rob Young was the Head of the Finance & Accounting function at the UK Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) organisation, which is part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) before taking early retirement 2 years ago and setting up his own Consultancy company.
He has recently successfully supported a number of companies win bids with the Ministry of Defence and also in support of the International Fund for Ukraine.
He is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant with over 35 years experience across Local and Central Government.
Rob joined the MoD working for Commander-in-Chief Fleet at the National Command Centre. He then became the first qualified accountant to hold the role of Corporate Finance Manager for the entire MoD working closely with Her Majesty’s Treasury on the 2004 government spending review and moving them from Cash Accounting to UK GAAP accruals based accounting. Subsequently he took up role as Deputy Command Secretary for Royal Air Force Personnel and Training Command.
At DE&S he was responsible for finance policy, processes, systems, compliance, capability and capacity to support the business deliver its £14bn per annum order book of acquisition and in-service support contracts to the Front Line Commands.
Rob started his career in Local Government and has worked across the whole range of organisations finally becoming Chief Accountant (and Section 151 officer) for a Borough Council where he won a National Award for Innovation using new technology to transform the IT service & Financial management. Wanting a new challenge and change of direction he moved over to Central Government becoming the first Finance Manager for Her Majesty’s Prison Pentonville in London, one of the oldest and largest Prisons in the Country.
He has a Joint honours degree in Botany and Geography which he studied at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Married for 30 years to Debbie, and with their daughter Samantha, they live on the edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire.
Derek Sandison
Derek Sandison is a senior partner at Landmark Decisions Inc., a Canadian niche consulting firm. Derek provides leadership and support to Landmark’s Performance Alignment advisory services.
Derek is a subject matter expert for the collaborative research organization, the Consortium for Advanced Management International (CAM-I) and is recognized as a leading authority in the field of Performance Management.
He is an author, facilitator and frequent speaker particularly in the real-world deployment of performance management solutions for critical business improvement. His career has encompassed the design of innovative methodologies and solutions in aerospace, engineering and software systems.
A pioneer of Activity Based Management and Balanced Scorecard concepts, Derek was founder and CEO of Sapling Corporation and was instrumental in the original design, development and deployment of Sapling’s Performance Management software and implementation methodology. After Sapling was acquired by Hyperion (now Oracle), Derek continued his career as an independent management consultant and designed and developed advanced Performance Management systems for over one hundred companies internationally.
Derek has a B.Sc. in mathematics from Aberdeen University, Scotland and a Certificate in Operations Research from the University of Toronto. He has acted as an advisory member of the board for several technology related companies. On behalf of Sapling Corporation, he received the National Quality Institute Award for Innovation and he recently received the CAM-I Bonsack Award for Distinguished Contribution in the Advancement of Cost Management.