Senior CRM leadership for customer-led growth.

I’m a Head of CRM with 15+ years’ experience leading customer lifecycle, marketing automation and engagement programmes across subscription, travel, publishing and regulated industries. I help businesses build CRM that improves retention, conversion and revenue while keeping the customer experience clear, relevant and respectful.

impact

Selected highlights.

A concise view of the scale, commercial impact and lifecycle work I’ve led across CRM, marketing automation and customer engagement.

£100m+CRM revenue influenced across lifecycle, retention, acquisition support and customer engagement programmes.

1bn+Customer messages delivered across email, SMS, push, on-site messaging and direct mail.

110+Automated journeys managed across onboarding, engagement, renewal, retention and win-back.

65%Customer-triggered comms at Findmypast, increased from 15%.

16.7%Growth in paid subscriptions through CRM and lifecycle improvements.

experience

Experience and selected impact.

A role-by-role view of the CRM work I’ve led, combining career history with the commercial outcomes, migrations and lifecycle programmes behind it.

Findmypast

Jan 2023–Present

Senior Customer Engagement Manager · Jan 2023–Mar 2025
Head of CRM · Apr 2025–Present

Leading CRM across email, push and on-site messaging for a subscription genealogy business where relevance, trust and timing matter.

Increased customer-triggered comms from 15% to 65%.
Increased free trial conversion by 5.5%.
Grew overall paid subscriptions by 16.7%.
Led the migration from Selligent to Iterable.
Lead the CRM team responsible for lifecycle, promotional and retention activity.

CRM leadershipLifecycle strategyIterableSubscriptions

CRM Manager · Tote

Aug 2019–Jan 2023

Managed CRM across email, SMS, push and direct mail in a regulated, fast-moving betting and horse racing environment.

Grew CRM revenue by 54.4% year-on-year.
Led the migration from SendGrid to Iterable.
Built personalised race-day communications using live content and behavioural data.
Worked across retention, reactivation, promotion and race-day engagement.

CRM revenuePlatform migrationRegulated marketPersonalisation

CRM Manager · Manchester Airport Group

Aug 2016–Jul 2019

Worked across Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, supporting high-volume commercial CRM across travel products.

Delivered over 300 million emails per year.
Supported the migration from Eloqua to Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Drove direct revenue through email and SMS programmes.
Worked across parking, lounges, fast track and customer travel journeys.

Travel CRMSFMCHigh volumeCommercial growth

Senior Digital Marketing Executive · Oxford University Press

Oct 2011–Jul 2016

Supported global English Language Teaching teams with email marketing, campaign delivery, training and platform migration.

Delivered 1,200+ campaigns per year across international markets.
Led the migration from Adestra to Dotdigital.
Trained teams in Japan, South Korea, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.
Supported campaign planning, delivery, reporting and platform adoption.

Global teamsDotdigitalTrainingEmail operations

testimonials

What colleagues say.

A few comments from colleagues focused on CRM implementation, stakeholder management, digital marketing leadership and communication.

CRM implementation

“Phil is an expert in his area. He taught me everything I needed to know when we implemented a new CRM together, and is always thinking of new ways to improve the success of our comms.”

Product and CRM colleague

Stakeholders

“Phil is knowledgeable, pro-active and driven. He’s proven to be successful at managing relationships with key stakeholders and explaining email jargon to others.”

CRM technology colleague

Digital marketing

“Phil has proved himself to be a highly effective digital marketer, both in terms of his deep understanding of digital marketing and how he communicates and works with stakeholders.”

Marketing and communications colleague

contact

Start a conversation.

For senior CRM leadership, customer lifecycle strategy or selected advisory conversations, the easiest route is LinkedIn or email. I’m based in Frodsham, Cheshire, and usually work remotely, travelling regularly for planned collaboration in Manchester, Chester, Liverpool, London and other UK locations where useful.

LinkedIn phil@four-drops.net Back to top