Vote 100

Her passion for her role and ability to inspire people across the business are just some of the reasons why head of portfolio management, Anna Gray, from the Finance Business Services team has been nominated for our Vote 100 campaign.

Programme and project management team manager, Marianne Brown, from the Change Portfolio Centre of Excellence, said: ‘I got to know Anna when I approached her to be my mentor a number of years ago. In 2017, she then became my line manager, which I was absolutely delighted about.

‘Anna is a very personable manager who has a real passion, not only for the role she does and her direct team, but for supporting and inspiring people across the organisation. She has given me more support on a personal level in relation to diversity issues than I would ever have imagined from a line manager. 

‘Not only has she quickly implemented reasonable adjustments to enable me to carry out my role on a day-to-day basis, but she has provided on-going emotional support both inside and outside of work. In short, Anna lives and breathes the Royal Mail values.

‘Anna is always willing to go the extra mile and this shines through in everything she does. Whether it’s bringing people on board across the business to adopt a new IT system or engaging her team to bring about change and new ways of working. She sets the highest standards for herself and the team, developing, coaching and supporting people to deliver excellence in everything they do.

‘Outside of her team, Anna is a strong champion of diversity at all levels and has spoken at a number of London Women’s Network events over the years, bringing people together from across Royal Mail. Anna’s sessions have always inspired the group, providing practical tools and techniques which they could take away and use both for themselves and with their teams.’

Anna has been with Royal Mail for almost 15 years. She has held a number of key roles across Marketing, Data, International, Technology and Operations over this time. In 2009, she held the role of import product manager within International, responsible for circa £100m of import product revenue and the associated project design, development and management activity in that area.

In 2012, Anna moved across to Technology as head of Technology portfolio management and was responsible for the set up and running of control and governance processes for Technology capital projects. This was quickly followed by a move into Operations to lead and develop a new strategic relationship between Operations and Technology across both capital projects and service. In April 2016, Anna was appointed programme director for the P3M (Portfolio, Programme and Project Management) Programme.

As head of portfolio management, Anna’s current team is responsible for both the analysis of our investment portfolio to determine risk, complexity and strategic alignment, and also to support the delivery of our largest and most complex investments.

‘On the surface, my current role looks a long way off from where I started as PA to the marketing director 15 years ago,’ said Anna. ‘But many of the essentials are surprisingly similar – the pleasure and challenge of building relationships with colleagues at all levels and parts of the business, and the pride of working for one of the most recognised and valued brands in the UK.

‘My current role gives me something I’ve never had before: the opportunity to build a team and a culture that genuinely put diversity at the heart of what we do. I am so proud of the team I’ve built – that we’ve built together – of the talent, the range of experience, our balance of gender and ethnicity and the way we’ve put into practice Royal Mail’s commitment to diversity through flexible working.

‘I’m chuffed to bits to have been nominated for this campaign, but really, it is my team and our business that deserve the recognition. I hope they are as proud as I am.’

Vote 100

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Our Vote 100 campaign is your chance to help us showcase the enormous contribution Royal Mail women make each and every day both to colleagues and customers, ensuring we remain the UK’s most trusted postal operator.

If there is someone in your workplace who you admire for their outstanding work ethic, their drive to improve their own and others’ skills, their knack for supporting or mentoring others, showing kindness, overcoming obstacles, or influencing positive behaviour – we want to hear from you!

Please send your name and contact details plus the name of the colleague you wish to nominate to vote100@royalmail.com. We will then be in touch to obtain further details.