London · Paris · International

Christophe
Lys-Septier

Programme Manager | Technical & Technology Programmes | M&A Integration | PMO & Governance | Data, AI & Enterprise Transformation | Turning Strategy into Operational Reality

Programme and transformation leader with more than 12 years of experience leading complex strategic change across acquisitions and post-merger integration, international expansion, business establishment, technology platforms, data centres, cloud and AI.

12+Years leading change
£100m+Acquisition programme scale
15+Concurrent workstreams led
500+Activities governed in one programme

Transformation in practice

Complexity should become easier to run.

PMO & governance

Need to simplify fragmented governance?

Turn reporting overhead into clear ownership, decision routes and a governance system people can actually use.

Workstream coordination

Need to align parallel workstreams?

Connect teams, milestones and dependencies so separate delivery streams move as one programme.

Budget & risk

Need earlier visibility of budget and risk?

Bring forecast, actuals and exposure together so intervention happens before overspend or delivery risk becomes material.

Selected programmes

Complex change.
Clear execution.

M&A · Infrastructure · International Expansion

02

Cross-Border Acquisition & Data Centre

Directed a ~£25m acquisition and operational establishment programme in Colombia spanning property, data centre infrastructure, office fit-out, legal entity creation, recruitment and transition to operations.

100+ seat operational hub established
  • Property acquisition and due diligence
  • Data centre power, cooling, network and server infrastructure

M&A · Technology · Integration

03

Gaming Platform Acquisition & Integration

Built programme governance for a nine-figure acquisition involving a core online gaming platform and multiple brands, coordinating integration readiness across business and technology workstreams.

15+ coordinated workstreams
  • Integration governance and readiness gates
  • Cross-functional dependency management

Cloud · Data · Platform

04

Cloud & Data Transformation

Delivered cloud and data initiatives including migration of a data platform to GCP and later platform, SRE, database, security and observability programmes.

Multi-team technology transformation
  • GCP migration
  • Platform and SRE delivery

The Journey

Built through delivery.

2013 — 2017Digital programmes

Digital platforms and audience growth

Built the foundations in digital product delivery, platform launches, audience growth and vendor-led execution.

1.5m+ audience reached
Platform strategy and launchHigh-volume digital communicationsTeam and vendor coordination
2017 — 2019Pickup Services · DPDgroup

Last-mile digital services

Delivered high-volume customer notification, tracking and delivery propositions across a multi-country parcel network.

600k emails + 300k SMS/day
40,000 pickup points across 26 countriesAward-winning rapid-delivery conceptTracking, locker and notification programmes
2019 — 2022FDJ UNITED

Global cloud and data programmes

Managed concurrent technology programmes across cloud migration, data platforms, enterprise services and customer delivery.

~£5m combined programme budgets
FDJ Gaming Solutions and Sporting SolutionsGCP data-platform migrationEnterprise customers across seven countries
2022 — 2025The Workshop Ltd

Colombia acquisition and operational hub

Led a cross-border acquisition and business-establishment programme spanning property, construction, technology, recruitment and operational readiness.

£25m programme · 263-rack data centre
100+ employee operational hubComplex infrastructure deliveryOperational transition
2023 — 2025The Workshop Ltd

Programme governance at scale

Designed a programme-control system built around distributed ownership, automation, exception reporting and executive decision support.

500+ activities · 95% adoption
15+ concurrent workstreams85 milestones and 23 critical decisionsTwo-person central team controlling programme scale
2025 — 2026Quartz Enterprises

Enterprise AI platform

Led delivery of reusable enterprise LLM capability across operations, data, ML engineering, platform engineering, infrastructure and security.

~9,000 agent hours/month opportunity
Model-agnostic APICentralised model servingHuman approval retained for record updates
2025 — 2026Quartz Enterprises

Major acquisition and platform integration

Led governance and cross-functional coordination for a major acquisition, aligning Day 1, continuity and post-completion integration across business and technology.

£100m+ acquisition · 15+ workstreams
Executive readiness viewTechnology and operational integrationSupplier transition and decision governance

Expertise

What I bring to complex change.

01
Enterprise Programmes & Portfolios

Structuring complex portfolios around outcomes, ownership, sequencing, capacity and executive decisions rather than status reporting.

02
Post-Merger Integration & Day 1

Turning acquisition strategy into Day 1 readiness, business continuity and practical post-completion integration across business and technology.

03
International Expansion

Coordinating legal, regulatory, workplace, technology, infrastructure, recruitment and operating-model readiness for new entities and hubs.

04
Executive Governance

Giving sponsors a concise view of readiness, financial exposure, material risk and the decisions where leadership intervention is required.

05
AI, Data, Cloud & Platforms

Leading technical programmes while keeping integration, support, adoption and operational outcomes connected to delivery.

06
Integrated Planning & Control

Connecting milestones, critical path, RAID, dependencies and decision routes into one executable view of programme reality.

07
PMO & Delivery Systems

Building reusable governance and workflow systems that distribute accountability, automate control and scale without adding bureaucracy.

08
Vendor & Financial Leadership

Managing suppliers, forecasts, purchase commitments, actuals and cross-functional trade-offs so commercial exposure stays visible.

Insights

Ideas worth carrying into delivery.

Programme Governance

When Green Isn't Really Green

A programme can stay green long after delivery confidence has started to deteriorate. The issue is often not the status itself, but what the status is allowed to hide.

5 min readRead

Risk & Decision-Making

The Risk Wasn't in the Plan

The most consequential programme risks are not always visible in the RAID log. Sometimes the real challenge is discovering that an assumption was never true in the first place.

6 min readRead

PMO & Delivery Systems

Governance Should Reduce Work

Good governance is not more reporting. It is a system that distributes ownership, surfaces exceptions and gives leadership the information needed to decide.

7 min readRead

Contact

Turn complexity into momentum.

If you have a programme that needs clearer control, stronger alignment or faster decisions, let’s talk.

Start a conversation on LinkedIn