Scaling a payments PMO from the UK to EMEA
Director, EMEA Project Management Office, Verifone (2021–2026)
The challenge
Verifone's payment clients were expanding across Europe. Delivery governance built for the UK had to scale to pan-European, Tier 1 programmes in PCI-regulated environments, where delays hit revenue recognition directly.
What I did
I expanded the PMO from the UK to EMEA and standardised governance end to end, from intake and stage gates through delivery, BAU handover and billing. I led multi-role project and programme teams running concurrent omni-channel programmes across retail, hospitality, e-commerce and banking, including in-app wallets, Pay-by-Link and alternative payment methods such as Klarna, Alipay and WeChat Pay. I owned the regional numbers against EBITDA targets, with monthly and quarterly project financials covering charge rates, utilisation and margin.
The result
A single, consistent EMEA delivery function that cut delivery times and budget overruns, protecting revenue recognition and margin across a multi-million-pound portfolio.
More from Stuart
Stuart LesterA decade of continuous improvement in PMO tooling and reporting
Verifone, over ten years of PMO and professional services leadership
Manual effort automated across the region, consistent reporting leaders could act on, and a PMO toolset that evolved with the business rather than holding it back. That decade of lessons is what Quantum Delivery Hub is built on.
Read the case study- Stuart Lester
Lean process improvement from bid to BAU
Senior Professional Services Manager (2011–2020) and Director, PMO & Business Operations, UK & Ireland (2020–2021), Verifone
Tier 1–3 and pan-European clients kept continuity of service after go-live, long-standing cross-functional pain points were resolved, and projects were delivered to time and cost, including some of the UK's early contactless and electronic-wallet implementations.
Read the case study