Start up organisation providing professional online hosted services to small
date and medium enterprises

• Designed and developed the Windows 2008 Virtualised Active Directory environment running Domain Controllers and Terminal Servers.
• Administration and maintenance of the systems and of customer accounts
• Provided strategic overview on how best to position the organisations core services in line with current and future technologies

Specialist timber merchant with 9 retail branches and a distribution date centre in southern UK.

Interim IT Manager reporting to the Managing Director. Managing all technical aspects of the IT Department and team during the company’s programme of change.

• Implementation of IT process controls and best practice techniques using ITIL
• Established relationships with department heads to ensure IT meets the needs and demands of the business.
• Overall leadership of the technical IT function including:
o Analysis of the IT Team to develop the training needs to ensure the right mix of skills and competencies.
o Management and relationships with vendors, suppliers and external consultants.
o Accountability for the continued improvement of the overall IT operation
o Accountability for the delivery of IT Services within the rollout of the new bisTrack ERP solution.
o Oversight and management of large scale change of the infrastructure to an MPLS WAN and from a UNIX to a Windows environment.
• Improved the credibility of the IT function with the senior management & executives.
• Provision of support to ensure maximum uptime of the Navision financial system.
• Creation of the test area to allow thorough testing of all service packs and software prior to implementation into the live environment.
• Managed the rollout of thin clients with applications using Terminal Server and Powerfuse across entire organisation.

Consultant providing services and support to SME hedge funds, currency transfer
and PR organisations

Multinational mining organisation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, with operations in UK, South Africa and The Democratic Republic of Congo. Following merger with Nikanor Mining, now largest copper producer in Africa and largest producer of cobalt Worldwide

Corporate IT Manager overseeing the IT infrastructure, systems, software and people globally.

• Designed the global systems, communications and WAN linking the international operations into a single unified IT domain and infrastructure.
• Delivered access to services for remote (offshore & out of country) staff with thin client, VPN technology and Blackberry services.
• Formulation and management of multimillion multisite OPEX/CAPEX budget
• Lead the IT aspect of the $2B merger with Nikanor Plc.
• Designed and implemented a SharePoint document management system providing the global business with a consistent and corporate feel intranet.
• Project managed the delivery of the global IT systems and infrastructure to reflect the implementation of the Mincom Ellipse ERP system.
• Development of the Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity strategy including delivery, management, operation capability and testing.
• Selection and management of multiple vendors to support the global business in simplex and complex remote challenging environments.

UK’s second largest provider of National electronic and manned security services

Group IT Manager responsible for all intraday IT operations for the business in 25 offices and 6000 employees across the UK.
• Increased the system availably and delivered on time all planned IT business projects and in scope.
• Managed the entire UK IT operation ensuring service availability and quality, running all business critical systems and resolving daily operations issues with the nationally based support team.
• Introduced a consolidated network and it infrastructure to ensure consistency within the group and reduce overheads through simplification of the structure.
• Oversaw the growth in IT investment as the business grew from £42m turnover to £130m
• Strategised the IT aspect of several mergers and acquisitions over a 36 month period to include due diligence, reviews, amalgamation, TUPE and redundancies.
• Full project and software lifecycle of in house developed CRM and ERP solutions
• Managed the consolidation of several keys business systems in to a single platform hosted out of the data centre in Milton Keynes with controls centres in the South East, Midlands and Scotland.
• Managed the development, implementation and rollout of Blackberry Server and devices.

Multinational financial organisation providing services to the B2B and B2C market through retail environments, internet and brokers. World’s second largest operator of Bureaux de Change

Group IT Manage responsible for management of in-house development, deployment of EPOS systems to 310 sites worldwide with 2000+ end users and migration from Novell to a Windows AD infrastructure.

• Created both formal and informal communications with stakeholders and peers for IT; and ensured a good understanding of IT by all lines of the business
• Developed the Group messaging strategy. Implemented Lotus Notes/Domino and e-mail for users based in UK National and International offices.
• Developed and implemented a business centric methodology for the support of mission critical servers and clients. This resulted in high availability of systems with large increases in support costs.
• Management of direct reports based in the UK, North America and Europe. Refocused the IT Team to better understand the business to enable successful development and delivery of the EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) Systems.
• Delivered numerous IT business projects that led to significant increases in revenue and streamlining