We know there's one thing that really sets us apart: our people. In this new series, we take you behind the scenes with people from all over DB Results and show you what really makes us tick.
I'm Jarrod Ellery – I'm an Executive Consultant and a Delivery Executive. That means I own one of DB Results' accounts in the financial services sector, and I am essentially responsible for the outcomes of that account: the work that's done, the team that's in place, all of that. I'm also the 2IC to our Chief Delivery Officer, Matt Nidd, across all of our financial services customers.
I'm a 20-year veteran in insurance – I’ve worked in the life insurance industry in a number of roles, across delivery and operations. My first role was in banking, followed by a role in a niche UK consultancy that had a number of key customers within insurance; after that I led a delivery practice for a global reinsurer servicing all of their clients across Asia Pacific and India. About eight years ago I made a conscious decision to move onto the customer side, taking on a number of operations leadership roles within the insurance industry and culminating in the Chief Operating Officer role at a large Australian life insurer.
In my last role at a life insurance company, I worked with DB Results on the largest life insurance transformation project in Australia. I was really excited and energised by the work we were doing there – it was an incredibly complex program with a great vision and an incredibly aspirational outcome. When that project finished, I left the company I worked for and jumped at the chance to work for DB Results. I love the challenge of execution and delivery in a complex environment and now use my experience of really “living” in the customer’s shoes to help them meet their challenges and solve their problems.
I’m still fairly new at DB Results, so I’ve been involved in a number of short, sharp, strategic engagements. My first engagement was a highlight – I worked with three other consultants with one of the Big 4 banks to build out a separation playbook for them, leveraging DB Results’ experience with large separation and transition programs. There’s also a management aspect to my role where I support our sales team in shaping proposals as well as reviewing resourcing across our whole financial services team, making sure we’ve got the right people in the right roles to meet our customers’ needs.
One of the best things about my role is that you’re never stuck in a rut with the work that you’re doing. We’re working with a lot of different customers who all have different problems we need to help them solve, so there’s an immense amount of variety. Developing relationships with your customers and helping them solve their problems is really important and incredibly rewarding. And the people that I work with at DB Results are an amazing team; incredibly smart, talented people who are really committed to delivering great outcomes. I’ve got this saying, “commitment beats experience” if you’ve got a bunch of committed individuals, you’ll overcome anything. Put that commitment together with the experience DB Results has, and it’s an unbeatable combination.
I've got three boys, 15, 14 and 11, so they keep me pretty busy. The two younger boys are keen mountain bikers, so I get out on the mountain bike quite a lot, we’ll get up to Lysterfield and the You Yangs. And I'm a massive fan of scuba diving – I haven't done a lot in the last couple of years, but I've dived all over the world: Egypt, Italy, the US, Asia, Fiji, Cook Islands and back in New Zealand. I've even dived out in Port Phillip Bay, although that was a bit cold and dreary! And then, being a true-blue Kiwi, I'm an avid rugby fan, so I try to follow the All Blacks and watch a bit of rugby when I can.
We got a dog at the beginning of lockdown in March last year, an English Staffy. My perfect Sunday morning, rain, hail or shine, is to get up with my wife and take the dog and for a walk. We live fairly close to the beach, so we grab a coffee and walk along the beach for half an hour, an hour, just catching up, enjoying each other's company and (literally!) talking about the dog!
Want to find out more about the fantastic people behind DB Results?
Make sure to check out the rest of the series: Renee Cook, Michelle Marchewka, Robbie Purcell and Febina Rodrigues.
