Senior programme governance, without building a senior programme function.
Critical programmes need a seasoned director in the room — not a junior layer, not a consulting team, not a methodology deck. One principal, on retainer, accountable for the outcome.
Three stages: Diagnostic → Project → Retainer. Retainer from $2,700 USD/month. Up to three concurrent clients. One embedded director. No junior layer.
Mid-market companies run complex programmes every year. Few have a senior PMO on staff.
An ERP migration. A post-merger integration. A new plant. A regulatory deadline. A digital transformation with no internal owner. Each demands a seasoned programme director — and each ends before the cost of a full-time hire is justified.
Andvance closes that gap. One senior professional, embedded on retainer, personally responsible for the cadence, the risk register, and the outcome. No bloated consulting team. No junior layer between principal and client. No PMO theatre. Alongside your existing team — never in place of it.
Six moments when this engagement makes immediate sense.
The programme is drifting and the sponsor knows it
An ERP rollout, systems migration, or transformation initiative has lost cadence. Milestones are slipping, reporting is inconsistent, and accountability is unclear.
Post-merger integration lacks a programme owner
The transaction closed. Now the hard part begins — systems, people, processes, and cultures to align. There is no one holding the governance thread.
The executive sponsor has too much on their plate
The CEO or COO is the de facto programme director. They are running the business and the initiative simultaneously. One of those things is suffering.
The PMO function is absent, temporary, or too junior
There is a PMO in name — but not in weight. The programme needs director-level authority in the room, not project coordination from the side.
A critical programme cannot afford another false start
A previous attempt failed. The organisation is trying again with higher stakes, tighter timelines, and less tolerance for ambiguity. This one has to land.
Executive reporting discipline is missing
The board or leadership group is not getting the visibility they need. Decisions are delayed because no one is producing the right intelligence at the right cadence.
Embedded Programme Director.
Cadence you can defend
Steering structures, escalation paths, and the weekly rhythm that turns heroic effort into a predictable plan.
A register that earns its place
Risks named, owned, priced, and re-priced. No risk theatre. No slide that says "medium" with nothing behind it.
The call that moves the work
Sitting alongside the CEO, the COO, or the sponsor — for the thirty minutes a week that make the difference.
What the retainer actually covers.
Weekly sponsor steering
A standing call — or in-person — with the CEO, COO, or programme sponsor. Decisions made, not deferred.
Live risk register
Named, owned, priced. Updated every week. Not a slide that says "medium" with nothing behind it.
Executive reporting
The one-page that leadership actually reads. Status, risks, decisions required, outlook. Written to be forwarded.
Decision & issue log
A running record of what was decided, by whom, and when. Eliminates re-litigation and protects the programme memory.
Escalation management
Issues that need leadership attention are surfaced fast, framed correctly, and resolved — not buried in status reports.
90-day stabilisation plan
For programmes in recovery or at inception. A written plan, agreed in week two, that resets expectations and sets the cadence.
Cross-functional alignment
The work that happens between the steering calls — keeping workstream leads, finance, IT, and operations moving in the same direction.
Programme reset
For programmes that have drifted. A structured diagnostic, a reset conversation with the sponsor, and a new baseline — within the first month.
Twenty years. Three continents. One senior professional.
Three programmes. What changed.
Engagements presented under NDA convention. Sector, geography, and scale are accurate. Client and employer names withheld.
Three stages. No procurement theatre.
A conversation.
Thirty minutes. You describe the programme, the tension, and the constraints. I tell you directly whether the Diagnostic is the right next step.
Programme Health Assessment.
2–3 weeks. One document — risks, governance gaps, and a prioritised recommendation set. Low risk entry point. No ongoing commitment required.
Defined scope engagement.
6–10 weeks. Stand up a PMO function, manage an integration track, or run a programme recovery. Conversion conversation at week 4.
We start the week after.
6 or 12-month term. Week one is listening. Week two is instrumenting. By week three the cadence is live and the risk register is current.
A principal-led embedded programme director practice for mid-market companies running critical programmes across Michigan and Ontario. Three stages: Diagnostic, Project, Retainer. No junior layer. No consulting team.
Book a discovery call →Juan Camilo Sarmiento Jaramillo. Twenty years of programme delivery — now offered one client at a time.
to follow
Andvance is a practice, not an agency. There is one senior consultant, and that consultant is me. The engagements I take on are the ones I can personally see through.
I spent the first part of my career at Fujitsu across European markets, the middle years as Managing Director of a French professional services group where I built and ran a multi-country operation from zero, and the more recent years between Ontario innovation programming and cross-border delivery with European and North American partners.
I've been the person in the steering meeting when a programme is quietly drifting, and I've been the person who pulls it back. That is the work Andvance is built around.
How I work, in writing.
If the engagements above look familiar — if you recognise your programme in them — the next step is a thirty-minute conversation. No contract, no intake form, no junior screening.
Book a discovery call →Thirty minutes. We decide together whether there is a fit.
I do the call myself. No intake form, no junior screening, no obligation on either side.
The most useful thing you can share is a one-line description of the programme, who is sponsoring it, and the one thing you wish were already resolved. Everything else we can build from there.
Tell me about your programme. I will reply within one business day.
Responses handled personally · within one business day