ATHENS, GREECE · 37.9838° N, 23.7275° E
Nikolaos Frestis
The approach
Every system I have been handed arrived as noise. Five compliance frameworks landing at once. A platform becoming a regulated institution. A rollout across thirty countries. The work is the same each time: find the signal, build the frame, ship the order.
I am a senior project manager based in Athens. Over fifteen years I have led programmes in regulated financial services, insurance, gaming and global pharmaceuticals, managing budgets beyond $20M and platforms serving more than 25,000 people.
More than a decade of that has been fully remote. I build and run distributed teams across different cultures, time zones, mindsets and working styles, and make them move like one team with one clock.
What I sell is calm: the certainty that scope, risk, auditors and engineers will arrive at the same place, on the date we said.
Somebody's morning is always somebody's midnight. Running that seam is the job.
What I do
Three crafts,one standard.
Programme delivery
End-to-end ownership of complex technology programmes, from first scoping to final handover.
- Remote and distributed team leadership
- Agile, Lean and hybrid frameworks
- SDLC oversight
- Risk management
- Budget and resource allocation
- Vendor and partner management
- Multi-stakeholder delivery
Security & compliance
Regulatory programmes run as engineering projects: controls, evidence, audit, accreditation.
- Cybersecurity programme management
- Audit readiness and evidence
- Incident and vulnerability response
- Third-party security assessments
- Data governance
- ITIL service management
Transformation & AI
Modernisation that survives contact with reality, measured in adoption rather than slideware.
- Process automation
- Cloud platforms, GCP and AWS
- Data analytics
- AI strategy and implementation
- AI operations
- Emerging technology assessment
M.Sc. Decision Sciences and B.Sc. Computer Systems Technology, University of Westminster, London
Proof
Delivered,not promised.
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Compliance
Full accreditation, from zero
- Led a regulated financial institution's complete accreditation programme across PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, NYDFS §500 and GDPR, from first control to final audit.
- Currently leading SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification programmes for a technology organisation, covering controls, evidence and audit readiness.
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Transformation
Thirty countries, zero downtime
- Orchestrated an enterprise SaaS rollout to more than 25,000 people across 30+ countries with 100% business continuity, recognised with a global CIO award.
- Standardised back-office processes across dozens of markets, cutting processing overhead by 20%.
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Delivery
A 96% on-time record
- Delivered more than twenty complex technology projects end-to-end at a 96% on-time completion rate.
- Directed a payment card issuance programme across major card networks with five external partners, within budgets beyond $20M under management.
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Security
Calm under fire
- Held a 99.9% response rate across cybersecurity incident and vulnerability programmes protecting a high-value platform.
- Cut security and IT operating costs by 75% through contract audits and disciplined vendor management, and secured $500k in dedicated security funding.
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Leadership
Teams that speed up
- Designed hybrid Agile frameworks across engineering, product, legal and finance that lifted project velocity by 40%.
- Raised sprint predictability by 35% and cut software delivery cycles by 30% across globally distributed teams.
The measures
The numberskeep the promises.
Also on the ledger: more than ten years of fully remote leadership, a 75% cut to security and IT operating costs, a 40% lift in project velocity and a 98% customer satisfaction rate under ITIL service management.
Frameworks held
Audited, accredited,and kept that way.
The company
Ν. Φρέστης Ε.Ε.
N. Frestis L.P.
Engagements run through my practice, registered in Athens in April 2021. Software development, IT consulting, data and web platforms, and project management services.
Registered in Greece · ΚΑΔ 62 · 63.11 · 70.22
Contact
Bring me thenoise.
I take on a small number of engagements each year. If yours needs order, the door is on LinkedIn.
linkedin.com/in/nikolaos-frestis