Head - Program Managment Practice and Senior Program Director
Henlie van Rooyen has 15 years of extensive experience in the project management field – both in the Public and Private Sectors. He has managed projects through the full life cycle on both strategic and operational levels.
Henlie started his career in 1993 by joining the South African National Defence Force and becoming an officer in the Telecommunications Division. Managing various training and development interventions he led a team of staff in skills development of new recruits. Apart from designing leadership development courses he also specialised in Information Technology and Telecommunications training of officers and non commissioned officers.
Henlie left the School of Signals to start studying at the Military Academy in South Africa at the beginning of 1995. Students at this satellite faculty of the University of Stellenbosch study for a Bachelors Degree in Military Science while being in full time employment and responsible for managing projects on behalf of their home units during semester breaks. He graduated at the end of 1997 with a B Mill Degree returning to mainstream project management responsibilities in the Defence Force.
Whilst on a part time basis completing an Honours Degree in Industrial Psychology through the University of South Africa, Henlie managed a team of staff responsible for leadership development and apprenticeship training. The technical training component included overseeing (on a project basis) Hardware repair and Software development through a Programme Management structure. Henlie also formed part of a team of senior staff responsible for revising technical training strategy.
Henlie joined the national unit responsible for all Information Technology services throughout the South African Defence Force during 2000. He was appointed as a regional business unit manager charged with establishing an IT and Telecommunications Service Centre responsible for high profile Defence clients from scratch. During this period of time he also managed national projects including an IT Audit of all computer equipment in the Defence Force.
Henlie started his MBA degree at the University of Pretoria in 2002 (graduating 2004) and applied this knowledge practically whilst responsible for Government Financial Management and spending on budgets in excess of a million pounds a year. Part of the senior management team, he also led a team of software developers enhancing service delivery by producing bespoke solutions to the national unit.
After a 10 career in the Department of Defence, Henlie joined the private sector as the Chief Operations Officer of one of the divisions of Desto Pty Ltd based in Gauteng South Africa. The role involved Programme Managing Training and Development qualifications based on an apprenticeship model for IT Support technicians and Developers as well as Small Business Entrepreneurs. Henlie worked very closely with government bodies responsible for Education and Training by redesigning strategy and qualifications. He was also a keynote speaker at the National Conference for Disabled Learning presented by the Services Sector Education and Training Authority of South Africa.
Based on a need for wider international exposure and personal development, Henlie relocated to the United Kingdom at the end of 2005. Joining an organisation called Support for Living (then Ealing Consortium) as the Head of Training and Development during 2006, gave him the foundation in the Health and Social Care Sector to take on the role of Projects Director from January 2007 for the same organisation. He also became a PRINCE II Project Management Practitioner in the same year and applied this methodology on a programme management level.
Henlie reported directly to the CEO and Board of the organisation and was responsible to programme manage a merger between two organisations with staff employed by 4 different employers, including a London local authority. This very complex project was managed through a matrix (cross functional) team approach (led by Henlie) and with complicated work streams in HR, Finance, Operations, IT and Public Relations. In this role he was also responsible for redesigning the IT infrastructure and support for the organisation with two head offices and 45 remote sites scattered throughout West London.
A successful merger was achieved between the two organisations during July 2007.
Henlie is currently completing his Doctorate through the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
STRENGTHS:
Extensive Project and Programme Management experience and skills in both the Public and Private SectorFull Project Life Cycle experience Strong Information Technology Background
