Throughout my 29-year career in the industry, and specifically my technical engineering roles, I have maintained a deep knowledge of industry trends, technology sets, modern designs, industry best-practices, and organisational use-cases.  This has optimised my current role which has enabled me to advocate and articulate different approaches to transformation.  My experience shows that I have been able to learn technologies consistently and to maintain expert level of knowledge.

Over the past 5 years I have been closely aligned with customers’ C-Suite and Technology leaders to help define their strategies and roadmaps.  I engage collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders (suppliers, service providers etc) to help bridge the gap between organisational aims and current or future capabilities, requirements & operational challenges (such as internal skill sets), support levels, financial targets & constraints, business value and Target Operating Models (TOM).

My personality lends itself to working with stakeholders and contributors, be they internal or external to the organisation.  As a naturally strong leader, my opinions are always sought, and have contributed greatly to the many Mergers and Acquisitions which are part of everyday working life.  My excellent interpersonal skills are critical particularly when mobilising customers, 3^rd party contributors and vendors as this requires the negotiation of different personalities and agendas.

Sometimes referred to as a consultant, my experience as an implementation engineer was specifically focused on the implementation of a technology (or stack) and the deployment of new capabilities for end-users as a defined project.  Consultation was around how the customer would integrate this technology and operate the environment Day 2 onwards and throughout the expected lifecycle of the solution.

During my time as an implementation engineer the tasks required expert knowledge of technology sets, designs, best-practices. The role is often referred to as a consultant due to requirement to consult around the challenges and wisdom of the implementation of complex technologies (or stacks), or the deployment of a specific strategy as new capabilities for customers (cloud-first as an example).  This requires not only technical knowledge but also knowledge and understanding of relevant project management approaches.

Since 2011 I have worked closely with leading and developing vendors to align use-cases, requirements, and suitability, with industry demands of modernisation and revitalisation of infrastructure and organisation capabilities.

I have an excellent ability to explain complex technologies to an audience with different and varied knowledge levels and different roles within the business and have cultivated this skill within the teams I have led. I always advocate that it is vital to convey the benefits and capabilities of a complex solution simply, rather than demonstrate your deep knowledge, our role is to act as a translator between vendors and clients.

As a manager and leader in my role as Practice Lead for Networking, and Head of the Senior Architecture team (all regions outside of North America), I was directly responsible for recruiting both co-workers with specific skill sets or certifications, and  co-workers with limited experience and knowledge using my experience and expertise to enhance and develop their skills.   

I negotiated a challenging introduction into my first management role, in which the team had become under confident, lacking in cohesion and had been reduced (by departures) to 1/3 of the previous resource levels.  My first actions were to galvanise the team, to spearhead a culture change throughout the organisation using a inclusive and engaging approach.  It was important to negotiate investment in the team, not simply for the direct function but for the wider business.

I oversaw a transition from a single vendor approach to network vendor engagement, collaborating with other leading vendors to drive growth in sales and in pull-through business.  I was able to motivate and invigorate directly interfacing teams and practices which transformed this area of the organisation.

As Head of the Senior Architecture team my role was to pioneer a brand-new function within the pre-sale’s organisation, bringing together senior members of the pre-sales team and new members to augment the skill sets.  The role of the Senior Architecture team was broader in scope than the verticalised pre-sales and architecture teams, each member was required to be an SME in at least one area but was also required to have a more general industry related knowledge and experience. The main challenges and actions were to shape and manage the expectations of the business after taking senior members from other practices, creating new KPI’s which would keep the team members focussed and engaged (without a specified team goal), changing mindsets given the change of role both of individual contributors and wider organisational functions.