CP

My career

From frontline support to infrastructure and business leadership.

I’ve built my career through a variety of roles within the organisation, learning the business from the customer’s first phone call through to the infrastructure and teams behind it.

My career, from today back to the beginning

Today

CTO · Infrastructure Division · team.blue

I now work as CTO in the new Infrastructure Division at team.blue, following the move from a functional to a divisional organisation.

Before my current role

Head of Infrastructure and Operations

For four years, I was Head of Infrastructure and Operations, reporting to the Group CTO. The role built on my experience of leading technical teams, managing infrastructure and delivering integrations.

Bringing infrastructure together

Data centre development and consolidation

I was involved in building data centres and migrating four data centres into a single site in Reading, alongside the integration of systems and platforms following mergers.

Managing suppliers and procurement

Vendor management and supplier relationships

I’ve been involved in hardware requests for proposals, supplier selection and contract negotiations for compute, storage, networks, software and data centre space. My responsibilities have covered the UK & Ireland and work at group level, bringing technical requirements and commercial considerations together in supplier decisions.

Acquisitions and growth

M&A across the UK & Ireland

I’ve contributed to M&A across the UK & Ireland from the technical side, including technical due diligence and post-merger efficiency programmes. I’ve been involved in M&A deals with sizes ranging from 1 million to 10 million.

Leading the business

Country Manager · UK

As Country Manager, I oversaw the UK business, bringing together the commercial, operational and technical sides of the organisation.

Moving into management

Customer services, sales and support

I went on to manage customer services, sales and support desks. My responsibilities expanded across regional and international operations within Register Group.

Building my technical experience

Data centre engineering and systems administration

I moved into work as a data centre engineer and systems administrator, taking on infrastructure responsibilities and gaining hands-on experience of the systems behind the service.

Where I started

First-level technical support

I began in first-level technical support, talking customers through problems over the phone in the days of dial-up modems and free internet access discs bundled with PC magazines. Those discs installed an internet provider’s connection and sign-up software, which could also change browser settings. Some customers found their browser repeatedly opening the provider’s sign-up page and needed help removing the setup or putting their settings back. Helping people work through those problems taught me to listen carefully, explain things clearly and stay patient.

The companies I’ve worked for

My career has included roles at iDesk, Ision Internet, NetDirect Online, Energis and NDO, followed by Team Blue Internet Services UK Ltd within Register Group and team.blue. Across those businesses, I’ve developed my experience in customer support, engineering, operations and leadership.

Acquisitions and integration

My involvement in M&A has been on the technical side: carrying out technical due diligence and developing post-merger efficiency programmes. The businesses involved have included:

My post-merger work has included consolidating systems and platforms, closing acquired data centres and migrating their services into our UK & Ireland data centre infrastructure. For me, this is about turning the technical assessment into a practical integration programme: bringing services together and making more effective use of infrastructure.