Harry Robertson

Harry Robertson qualified as a Chartered Accountant from prestigious Public Accounting firms in the city of London during the mid ‘70s. After pursuing the early part of his career with the audit firms, he was selected by American Express in 1979 for their Corporate Audit department. He served there in various positions that involved amongst other things, over 1000 international flights for business.

His work required him to travel extensively and experience the vast diversity of various cultures the world over. He became a true global leader, comfortable in dealing with both multiple and unique environments.

An inflection in Harry’s career came during 1993 when he was picked to lead the setting up of the first-ever global finance transformation centre for American Express in New Delhi. It was then called the Financial Resource Centre – East (FRC-E). Harry took up the challenge and got a team in place that started from a small project office and created a world-class iconic facility on Mathura Road.

Creating a world-class office facility in a record time; they migrated ~ 300 jobs from 18 divergent countries of the JAPA region, including specialists in languages such as Japanese, Mandarin, and several others. The transformations caused major disruptions within the JAPA region, which were proficiently tackled by hiring, training and finally seamlessly migrating these well-settled jobs out of their comfort zones into a relatively new location at Delhi. Despite pressures, the team continued writing and rewriting the engagement & deployment rulebook along the way – a first by any global corporate at that scale. Soon FRC-E became a global shared service centre for Amex and started servicing diverse geographies and languages. By the turn of the millennium it had crossed 1000 headcount mark and became a true 24×7 operating centre.

Harry laid the foundation of an entirely new industry segment in India. He not only created the first-ever global shared service in India but also brought impactful transformation by delivering everlasting value to business, industry and society. Little wonder, therefore, that when Harry decided to retire from the company in 2001, the New Delhi centre set up by him was named the ‘Harry Robertson Centre of Excellence’.

With his excellent communication skills, liberally sprinkled with his inimitable sense of humour, Harry has found plenty to do in his retirement. From language teaching, to running an internet bookselling business, to editing a monthly church newspaper for the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton, Harry keeps his retired life quite like his business life – rich and full!