tl;dr
This is Patrick Acheampong... Employee Experience Maven - Author - Tech Junkie - Would be Philanthropist - Entrepreneur - Bon Vivant - Aspiring World Changer
Patrick is the founder of Ahumka Digital, a Digital as a Service (DaaS) agency providing affordable fixed price services that enable SMEs to scale their profits.
Patrick has over 20 years of experience working in global businesses in the UK, North America, Australia, Asia, and was most recently the regional head of Employee Experience and Service Delivery at Zurich Insurance, based in Hong Kong. Patrick is a thought leader in HR Transformation, having spoken at and chaired conferences, appeared on podcasts, and published public articles on the subject. At one point, his public articles on SlideShare, were among the top 4% of read articles.
Patrick is also a creative builder and advisor in the startup space, with extensive leadership experience managing multicultural local and remote teams within diverse global organisations.
In addition, Patrick is also a published author. His CyberSafe books, (teaching easy ways to stay safe online for SMEs and individuals) are published and sold by several bookstores including Amazon and Gumroad.
Patrick has a passion for the innovative use of technology, how it can be used to improve lives and businesses, and a hunger to share that knowledge.
Pat has also been a lifelong active participant in and advocate of charity work. He also enjoys healthy leisure time with his family, and participating in sporting activities.
Would you like to know more? Click on the headings below...
Patrick Acheampong was most recently the APAC head of Employee Experience and Service Delivery for Zurich Insurance, based in Hong Kong. Pat is the founder of Ahumka Digital. and co-owner of BookWise. Hong Kong's premier online childrens bookstore.
Prior to that, he was a Vice President at Wells Fargo in Hong Kong. In this role, he was the APAC regional HR project manager for strategic inititives. Primarily responsible for managing HR projects including M&A transactions; International Branch office openings and closures; Risk and audit; Technology strategy and implementation.
Before joining Wells Fargo, Patrick spent some time as an Independent Information Systems Consultant. He assisted and advised the owners and managers of SMEs on the best ways to improve their business through effective business processes and innovative technology. One such project involved the implementation of SilkRoad HRIS for Objective Corporation. He also worked on a Business Analysis and Process Re-engineering project for the New South Wales Department of Education as part of their Learning Management Business Reform initiative.
Before branching out as an independent consultant, Patrick was the Pacific Zone HR Shared Services Manager at Schneider Electric in Australia. In this capacity, Patrick was responsible for transforming the Pacific Zone shared services function. This function included Payroll; Injury Management; HR Operations; HRIS & Reporting; International mobility; Compensation and Benefits. Patrick’s achievements while at Schneider Electric included:
Prior to Schneider Electric, Patrick consulted in a couple of other organisations. One of these was Origin Energy in Adelaide, South Australia, where he was the HR Transformation Consultant. Patrick was responsible for formulating the transformation strategy for the delivery of People Services (HR Admin, payroll, systems, etc.) within Origin, and helping to implement that strategy. This included strategies for change management, organisation development, training, communications, branding, technology implementation, and process re-engineering. In addition to this strategy work, Patrick also designed and built technology solutions for Origin HR to manage redundancy, position management, and transactional metrics.
Before that, Patrick also spent a short stint at Macquarie Group in Sydney, Australia. In this role, he was tasked with designing the strategy, and building the business case for a global HR service delivery model for Macquarie international benefits and payroll.
Patrick’s longest single career stint was at Morgan Stanley. Starting as an Associate in London, Patrick rose to the position of Vice President after moving overseas to work in Hong Kong and Australia. Patrick was initially responsible for application support, design, and development; management reporting; and user training for Human Resources. During that time he built, and designed innovative business intelligence analytics, as well as technology solutions to manage among others, Performance management; Year-End bonuses; intranets; and other end-user computing solutions when corporate web technology was in its infancy.
After moving to Asia with Morgan Stanley, Patrick was instrumental in delivering technology platforms (including multi-lingual solutions)to make the Morgan Stanley Asia HR team more effective. In Australia, Patrick set up an award-winning APAC HR Shared Services team, and infrastructure operating out of dual hubs in Sydney and Mumbai. These hubs generated significant savings for the Firm. Patrick also led the HR Systems team that delivered innovative technology solutions for the APAC region. Some of these included a Client Relationship Management (CRM) solution for the shared services centre; automated workflows for HR processes, saving hundreds of work hours; an emergency assistance system that allowed the firm to track employees globally in the event of an incident; and an absence tracking system. He was also involved in regional and global system implementations including PeopleSoft, online employee background checking; global employee self-service, as well as managing risk, regulatory (e.g. SOX), and internal audit issues, and leading a global HR analytics team in Manila.
Patrick’s professional career began as an Analyst/Programmer at Sturge Holdings, a Lloyds' market reinsurance company. While there, he was responsible for end-user support; developing applications for the reinsurance market; Vendor liaison; and the creation and updating of documentation and new programming standards. He was also worked on development work on Lloyds Corporation market-wide projects like Equitas (google it, it’s part of UK financial crisis folklore!).
Patrick graduated from the University of Glamorgan (now the University of South Wales) in Pontypridd -nestled in the green, green valleys of Wales- with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in computer studies. As part of his degree course he completed a years internship at Rank Xerox in Uxbridge, just outside London. It was there he developed an interest in HR technology while working on management reporting, technical support, training, as well as application development for HR.
Besides formal education, Patrick is a lifelong learner, and a big believer in ongoing professional education, and has taken numerous courses to improve his knowledge, including:
as well as additional certifications that you can view here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmacheampong/details/certifications/
They say work hard, play hard is the secret to a fulfilled life. As well as spending time with his wife, children, and two dogs, Patrick still finds time for other leisure pursuits.
He has a lifelong passion for the beautiful game, and has represented both his high school and university at football/soccer. He continues to play, although at a slightly more leisurely pace than yesteryear. He also enjoys the hiking trails of Hong Kong and cycling when he can find a safe road in Hong Kong to take his bike on!
When time permits Patrick is also a keen outrigger paddler having competed in both National and International events.
It wouldn’t be sporting in Hong Kong not to try one’s hand at Dragon Boating, and Patrick has competed in several Dragon boat tournaments both in Hong Kong and Australia. Continuing the water sports based theme, Patrick holds a PADI advanced diving certification.
Patrick is also keen on giving back to the community. He has been a lifelong participant, donor, organiser, and volunteer on various charity committees and charity events, several of which he has received awards for. Patrick is currently working on setting up his own foundation to benefit causes he believes in.
Finally, Patrick has qualified as a Toastmasters International competent communicator, and is a member of the high IQ society Mensa.
Before beginning his professional career, Patrick spent a couple of summers at the beautiful Camp Johnsonburg, in Johnsonburg New Jersey as a Camp Counsellor, and Ropes Course Instructor. There he learnt among other things that you never truly win an argument with a child!
Patrick has also been the founder of a couple of startups. Parking Maestro, was built to take the stress out of parking in urban environments, and HK Yardsale which aimed to be the easiest way to buy, sell, or rent your stuff in Hong Kong.
In addition to his own startups, Patrick has also advised other startups, including The Fashion Sleuth, and Nut & Co, Hong Kong’s producer of premium Almond Milk.
When not advising startups, Patrick is busy working on his curated online list of great tools for transforming your business. Patrick has also created a project plan for startups to kickstart their projects. He is also an occasional contributor to the travel technology web site “Too Many Adapters”.
Patrick has also been sought out as a public speaker. As a result of his knowledge of Shared Services, Employee Experience, and global HR systems and processes. Patrick has been invited to speak at, and chair international HR conferences, as well as being a guest on the HR Data Labs podcast. His presentations on business, workflow, globalisation, and HR shared services were at one time among the top 4% most viewed on Slideshare.
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Expat Pat. Content thieves will be eaten - then killed :-)