The Service Excellence Network is a member-led network founded by Alex McDonnell, Paula Lawton and Meredith Fischer. A council of members to oversee the chapters and sector leads is being formed and will be announced here. In the meantime you’re welcome to contact any of the founders below, or send a message to the council.
Co-founder
Alex McDonnell
Co-founder, Service Excellence Network
Alex co-founded the network and convenes it worldwide. He started out as an engineer at Ericsson, where he helped set up its original software development centre: his first experience of managing complexity at scale, in teams whose output depended on each other’s work. He went on to Eircom (now eir) as GM of IT Service Delivery and Director of Business Excellence, then became GM of Dell’s EMEA Factory Outlet. As Group CEO of IDOC International he led its growth and sale to Bowne of New York, founding Bowne Global Solutions.
More about Alex
He has founded and scaled several businesses, starting in 1984 with Technodisc, a business process outsourcing company, and in 2003 co-founded Expertivity Technologies, where he is CEO. He also served as a non-executive director of Ask Jeeves Europe.
Alex holds an MSc in Strategic Quality Management and an MBA from the University of Limerick, is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and completed MIT Sloan’s executive programme in Business Dynamics. He has been a guest lecturer at Syracuse University, the University of Limerick, DCU, TU Dublin and DIT, and developed the Business Execution Canvas® and Structured Collaboration.
Co-founder
Paula Lawton
Co-founder, Service Excellence Network
Paula is a co-founder of the network. She has spent more than 30 years in operations, first running them and then improving them for others. At Maidenform’s EMEA distribution centre in Shannon she rose from Purchasing and Inventory Manager to Operations Manager and then General Manager, responsible for EMEA strategy, operations, sales and distribution. Along the way she cut stock holding by 30% while supporting sales growth, and took the centre from three shifts to one.
More about Paula
Earlier, at Burle Industries, she led the company’s ERP implementation, from the stock room through electronics production to management reporting. As a Senior Associate with O’Kelly Sutton, she then advised SMEs in Ireland and the UK on structure, process and performance reporting.
At Expertivity Technologies, which she co-founded and where she is COO, Paula leads delivery of the firm’s Lean and operational excellence programmes. She has worked with the senior teams of Bank of Ireland, Irish Life, New Ireland, PermanentTSB, Rabobank/ACCBank, FBD Insurance, ICON and Kforce Clinical Research in the USA, and with senior clinicians and front-line staff in healthcare. She combines practical Lean methods with coaching and leadership development, so the capability stays with the client.
Paula holds a Diploma in Lean and Six Sigma Quality Systems from the University of Limerick, and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, a Master NLP Practitioner and a qualified life and business coach.