Murray Allan, an expert in the complex challenges that face multi-national businesses today, has been appointed director of Optima’s expanding team in Customer Strategy and Engagement.
Based in Optima’s London hub, Murray will lead this important practice area following a multi-million investment by BGF which will fund growth in employee numbers to increase delivery capability.
Murray has been promoted from within Optima, where he has worked for five years, initially as a consultant and then as head of marketing technology enablement. Murray attributes his rapid progression to director to the support, training and encouragement he has experienced at Optima Partners.
Murray said:
After graduating from his engineering degree in 2011, Murray worked in oil and gas, including spending three years as an engineer in Mexico before deciding to change direction.
Recently married and living in west London, Murray grew up in Edinburgh where Optima Partners is headquartered. He represented Scotland at under-20s rugby and also played for Loughborough University teams.
“Optima has invested in me as an individual and allowed me to develop my ability to drive value in the business. I appreciate the people-driven culture that Optima has. It is a strong team with really positive values. It is also really exciting to work in a growing business where there is room to take on new roles and responsibilities.”
With a background initially as an engineer, Murray gained experience of managing large projects involving cross-functional teams. After an MBA at Edinburgh University, Murray moved into consulting, where he discovered a talent for solving wider business challenges an understanding customer strategy.
“Moving away from engineering into consulting, I found I have a passion for problem-solving. I enjoy formulating the complex challenges large organisations face, establishing and leading a team that can solve them. Providing tangible customer value is immensely rewarding.
“We are building a reputation for world-class tech enablement. We start by helping our clients to get the maximum return on the investment they have already made in technology. The adoption of tech tools may be uneven, or there may be issues with data management. We help clients to understand what is right for them and how they can best use a mix of new and existing technology to achieve their objectives.”
Optima CEO Alan Crawley said:
“We spotted Murray’s talent early on. He is a fantastic team player, great at working with people across our customer organisations and also within Optima.
“Murray is laser-focused on providing customer value. He also understands how our business works – he is commercial and can think strategically. For these reasons, we decided he would be the best person to lead this key practice area as we move into our next phase of rapid growth.”
About Optima Partners UK
Optima Partners is an insight-led consultancy firm that helps large consumer businesses to unlock value in their customer bases. Optima delivers transformation towards customer-centricity by combining deep expertise in customer strategy, agile change, and design innovation. All this is underpinned by leading-edge data science.
Leading consumer brands including OVO, Lloyds Banking Group, PayPal, BT, HMD Global and Biogen have achieved transformational change and delivered millions of pounds of incremental value thanks to advice and collaborative working with Optima. Unlike more generalist management consulting firms, Optima looks for opportunities to leverage existing technology investments and focuses on making clients self-sufficient in new ways of working and in embedding a culture of continuous improvement.
Optima’s 100% client referenceability record is testament to this.
Optima continues to attract the best available talent to its ranks of employees and associates because of its dynamic growth, interesting work, and development potential.
