Lisa Brown

Said the following about Dave Whittall:

“Dave is Head of Compliance at Virgin Trains, he is an excellent manager whose knowledge of retail is boundless and who leads by example, ensuring that risk is mitigated, whilst continuously looking for ways to improve processes to make them more efficient and robust, along with making sure his team feel supported and have the tools to confidently carry out their roles.

When Dave became Compliance manager around 9 years ago he was a team of only one person, his key focus was on Ticket offices and adherence to the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, since then he has increased his remit and built a team of 9 who focus on, mitigating retail risks, external & internal fraud, business assurance, and supporting cross business functions to implement process change.

It would be difficult to list all the achievements but some keys changes that have taken place that have been down to Dave’s vision, insight and determination to make improvements are:

• Centralisation of Accounts meaning that station teams were freed from task and able to deliver the excellent customer experience for which Virgin is renowned

• Instrumental the use of intelligent safes at key locations

• Introduced more efficient methods for cash reconciliation meaning we could move away from legacy systems and that the Retail accounts teams are able to check by exception.

In the last 18 months alone Dave has…

• Garnered support and implemented for a new approach to fraud detection and prevention, which saw the Compliance team increase from a team of 7 to 9 with the introduction of the Fraud team, focusing largely on delay repay fraud which included the delivery of a dedicated delay repay fraud tool, a TOC first, this saw immediate successes with revenue in excess of 300K being protected.

• Initiated the move away from legacy systems used for checking ‘risk type’ transactions and helped develop some business intelligence reporting that has totally changed how we work, removing manual paper-based checks and introducing a more efficient method of working whilst maintaining risk mitigation.

• Led compliance testing and supported with the successful delivery of a new mobile Ticket issuing system to all our ticket offices. This new technology has totally changed how we mitigate risk going forward which has created many challenges for the team but Dave has led from the front, focused on solutions and made sure everyone has had the support they needed.

• Implemented delivery of a new cash reconciliation tool to help us move away from another legacy system.

Dave is always available with an encouraging word, will support with his knowledge and ideas, and for all these reasons plus many more I think he undoubtedly deserves Manager of the year.“

Laura Duncan

Said the following about Dave Whittall:

“Dave is a great leader – he always has ambitious plans and is never afraid to question or challenge the status quo. When coupled with his ability to visualise the steps needed to reach these goals the Compliance and Fraud Team has achieved so much under his leadership. He is immensely reassuring and manages to get the best from his team by inspiring them and motivating them with his own enthusiasm for all things Compliance!

Dave embraces technology and has his finger on the pulse for new innovations that can help the Compliance Team to deliver as much value for the business as possible. He has been instrumental in the introduction of I-Safes at a number of locations, reducing the risks associated with Cash Handling and saving frontline teams many hours that were previously spent counting the cash! He has modernised our internal compliance processes, taking full advantage of the available business intelligence and ticket scanning data to save more time and again reduce the risks for the business that are associated with the Retailing of Tickets. He has led a project to streamline our Station Accounting Processes including the implementation of a new matching tool ADRA. Recently Dave has also expanded the team to include a dedicated Fraud Team who have saved the business over £320,000 from Delay Repay Fraud among other things. They also have an intelligent bespoke tech solution to help deliver great results by identifying potentially fraudulent cases using a defined and adaptable set of rules. This has not only saved our teams time but has improved timescales for our customers who have submitted genuine claims for Delay Repay!

While he is constantly striving for the best for the business, he also has our individual development and job satisfaction in mind. He has given us so many opportunities to learn and develop whilst ensuring that each member of the team is utilised in roles that take full advantage of each individuals strengths. It is a privilege to be part of Dave’s Team!“