Alex O'Leary

 

Where did you first hear about a graduate career with AkzoNobel?

I grew up in the North West of England, and ICI (now part of AkzoNobel) was a big employer in the area, I knew it was a massive company with brands such as Dulux, so when I was at university I found out about the Graduate Development Programme and I quickly applied. I knew I wanted to work for a successful multinational company so that I could experience diverse cultural environments which offered the opportunity to fast track through the company. AkzoNobel ticked all the boxes.

What have your training experiences entailed?

In my first two years of working for AkzoNobel I took part in the Graduate Development Programme which involves residential courses that aim to develop graduates understanding of key areas of the business, such as finance and marketing. As my degree had focused on economics and IT I particularly found the module on understanding marketing extremely beneficial.

Thanks to AkzoNobel’s policy of investing in the development of its people, I have also undertaken some courses directly relevant to my role, so I am now a certified Prince2 Project Manager and soon I will be a certified SAP practitioner. In addition, I’ve attended an ITil course which is for IT corporate governance and I’m a trained Business Excellence Assessor for the European Foundation Quality Management Framework.

What are the main challenges you have faced and how have you overcome them?

My main challenge to date was to project manage the design, build and implementation of a new payment system for one of our largest customers. I spent 12 months working with people across AkzoNobel’s Dulux Decorator Centre business - this meant a lot of travelling. The new payment system was successfully implemented and is now actively being used in stores across the UK.

During my next placement, I worked as a Business Analyst managing R&D’s formulation management tool and as a System Analyst assisting and managing infrastructure projects.

I am now currently part of the Enterprise Resource Planning global transformation project which involves replacing all core business information systems with SAP.

What are your interests away from work?

I am a keen sportsman and I play football regularly and workout in the gym. I’m a keen football supporter, so I also enjoy getting to as many Liverpool football games as possible.