High Potential Programme (HIPO): Greg Bowles

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT AT SRG

Hello Greg, thank you for taking the time to talk about HIPO with us today. To get us started, could you tell us how long you’ve been working with Specialist Risk Group (SRG) and what you’re responsible for?

Thanks for having me. Absolutely! I have been working for SRG since April 2019, so that’s over three years now.

My title is Infrastructure Manager, which means that I am responsible for the infrastructure support team within the IT Department. The team is made up of seven individuals and we provide the business with day-to-day support on all applications used within the business. We ensure our colleagues throughout the business are comfortable using our technology and look for strategic alternatives wherever possible.

I am also heavily involved in integrating any new acquisitions into the SRG IT framework. So far I’ve been involved in the integrations of 14 legal entities throughout my career.

And why did you choose to join SRG?

When the company started to grow, I was approached by a member of  staff that worked here, who I had previous experience working with at another company.

I knew that SRG was undergoing an ambitious and rapid growth phase through a robust M&A strategy. This appealed to me as it is fair to say that it is not too common for an IT professional to be exposed to such a high volume of integrations in such a condensed time. I knew this was the ideal environment to fast-track my learning and move forward with my career.

What roles did you have before joining SRG?

I have only had one other role prior to SRG. This was at another insurance company and I joined them as an IT apprentice in April 2012, I was 17 at the time and I worked there for around seven years.

During that time, I underwent a lot of IT-related Microsoft examinations. I was not managing anyone in this role, and my career goal was to become an IT Operations Support Executive. I was mainly helping my colleagues with any IT needs. It was not a strategic role and I could not foresee any opportunities at that company for this pathway. The experience I gained was great and it was good fun, but I wanted to take a step up in my career.