Darren is a highly qualified individual with a track record of providing Project and Programme Management expertise to a diverse range of industries on a global scale. His extensive subject matter knowledge has been accumulated over the past 15 years through his practical experience of managing projects, working in a PMO environment, providing PPM Learning and Development solutions and through the achievement of numerous PPM qualifications.

Darren is experienced in working with sponsors, the PPM community, project stakeholders, apprentices and external solutions providers. He has utilised different delivery formats and platforms which has ensured knowledge can be easily transferred, understood and retained by the client’s organisation to allow long lasting business benefits to be realised.

Specialist Areas

Darren specialises in the development of project and programme professionals, assisting with sales support during initial engagements with client’s right through to the delivery of bespoke training, workshops, presentations and formal examination events. A large proportion of his time is spent in the delivery of QA’s bespoke ‘Living Learning Programmes’, which are typically 13-week programmes of blended delivery to support qualifications such as APMQ. PRINCE2 and MSP for clients and apprenticeship schemes.

Darren’s varied background makes him particularly suitable for working in the following areas:

  • Training delivery – APM, MSP and Management of Risk (MoR)
  • Public sector organisations (having worked for a variety of Local councils, Primary Health Care Trusts and uniformed emergency services)
  • Military / MoD projects / civil service depts (due to his Security Clearance)
  • Charities and not for profit organisations
  • Online learning platforms (such as WebEx, Teams and GoTo Learning)
  • Computer simulation facilitation events (Specifically Prado and Simultrain products)

Darren is particularly comfortable with non-standard, work-based training assignments which transcend ‘off the shelf’ solutions.

Qualifications

  • BEng Hons Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering
  • Certificate in Business Administration
  • Management of Portfolios (MOP) Practitioner
  • Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Practitioner
  • PRINCE2 Practitioner
  • Association for Project Management Qualification (APMQ)
  • Management of Risk (MoR) Practitioner
  • Agile Project Management
  • APMG Change Management
  • APM Earned Value Qualification
  • Belbin Associate
  • TAP Delivery

Industry Experience

Darren began his involvement with Project and Programme Management working in a PPMO, supporting bid work for a large MoD contractor. After 2 years a ‘hands on’ project role presented itself in the form of an internal company wide IT upgrade (which included end user training). Having enjoyed this aspect of the project the most, he then moved into the specialisation of PPM training and consultancy.

He spent the next 7 years, working for a number of well-known Industry suppliers, starting with Hemsley Fraser where he helped them achieve ATO status for the PRINCE2 portfolio, followed by Maven Training, where he achieved most of his formal PPM qualifications, (many to advanced level gaining ‘trainer status’) and became Lead Trainer managing a team of 5 permanent staff and 20 associates.

A 3-year period working as a freelance Project Management Consultant followed, before an opportunity presented itself to join Thales Learning and Development (part of Thales UK) as a Project Management Specialist. The role focussed on the upgrade and implementation of the APM and IPMA (level A-D) academy programme, He also designed strategic learning solutions to support the internal Bid and Project Management community, expanded the external training portfolio capability by 35%, conducted Competency Framework assessments and Maturity Modelling assignments. Towards the end of this period, Darren ‘returned to his roots’, transferring into a Programme Office as a PMO Lead/Scheduler to support a £800M defence related programme. The role included PPM assurance activities to ensure compliance with the internal PPM methodology that he had been involved with rolling out over the previous 3 years.

Darren joined QA Ltd in 2016 as a Learning Programme Manager, specialising in the provision of bespoke PPM solutions including work-based Living Learning Programmes, Maturity modelling and online delivery.