Manchester, England, United Kingdom
I am a strategic technology leader with over 20 years of experience delivering enterprise-scale IT transformation, robust infrastructure operations, and cloud-first overhauls for multi-site and international organisations. I specialise in bridging the gap between deep technical execution and board-level business strategy—translating complex regulatory and growth requirements into pragmatic, scalable technical roadmaps. Throughout my career, I have focused on driving operational efficiency and commercial value. Whether spearheading multi-million-pound brownfield renewals, migrating legacy environments to Microsoft Azure landing zones, or executing seamless M&A tenant integrations, my objective is always to build dependable, high-availability platforms that support aggressive corporate growth. Core Areas of Expertise: 📊 Strategic Leadership: Board-level reporting, private equity stakeholder alignment, and long-term IT roadmap planning. ☁️ Cloud & Architecture: Enterprise Microsoft Azure (IaaS/PaaS), M365/Entra ID integration, and modern FinOps cost-optimisation practices. 🛡️ Risk & Resilience: Infrastructure hardening, disaster recovery assurance, and aligning estates to strict ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus (CE+) frameworks. ⚙️ Operations & Governance: Building accountable, multi-region teams, embedding ITIL framework best practices with a zero-ticket mindset, and strictly governing third-party MSP relationships against strict SLAs/OLAs. I thrive on developing high-performing internal capabilities, reducing reliance on third parties, and leading with a balance of technical authority and genuine partnership. Let’s connect to discuss enterprise transformation, cloud strategy, or modern infrastructure operations.
As Head of IT, I lead firm-wide technology modernisation, transforming legacy infrastructure into a secure, scalable, cloud-first environment aligned with corporate growth and regulatory standards. Partnering closely with the executive board and private equity stakeholders, I translate complex business objectives into pragmatic technical roadmaps and structured risk reporting. Key Achievements & Initiatives: • Digital Infrastructure Transformation: Led full-estate migration from end-of-life hardware to a cloud-managed network architecture, yielding a 12% uptime improvement alongside enhanced visibility and performance. • Cloud Architecture & Strategy: Spearheaded a cloud-first strategy, successfully migrating legacy on-premises workloads to Microsoft Azure landing zones to lower operational overhead and increase resilience. • FinOps & Financial Efficiency: Consolidated siloed IT budgets into a single strategic portfolio, embedding FinOps cost-optimisation disciplines that reduced IT operating costs by over 15%. • Cybersecurity & Identity Hardening: Deployed advanced email security, proxies, and modern endpoint protection. Engineered secure M365 tenant migrations and centralized identity frameworks (Entra ID) for seamless, zero-disruption M&A integrations. • Resilience & Disaster Recovery: Modernised IT disaster recovery and business continuity planning via Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery to eliminate single points of failure. • Leadership & ITIL Service Operations: Built a high-performing, multi-region infrastructure team. Deployed an ITIL-aligned service desk with structured incident and problem workflows, driving the function toward a zero-ticket mindset.
Led a comprehensive multi-million-pound brownfield IT transformation programme, modernising the organisation’s entire infrastructure estate to support scalability, resilience, and strategic growth. Collaborated closely with investors, C-suite executives, and cross-functional leadership teams to define long-term IT vision, translate business requirements into pragmatic technical roadmaps, and support M&A integration activities. Key Achievements & Initiatives: • Strategic Cloud Overhaul: Architected and delivered a hybrid-cloud environment, successfully migrating mission-critical applications and data silos to Microsoft Azure and leading SaaS platforms (including Oracle NetSuite ERP) to optimize long-term cost efficiency. • Infrastructure & Platform Governance: Spearheaded a full enterprise networking overhaul utilizing cloud-managed Meraki infrastructure, alongside modern workstation lifecycle management to maintain strict technical currency across the estate. • Identity-Centred Security: Deployed advanced security technologies including SIEM, RMM, EDR/XDR, and MDM, ensuring full alignment with NCSC and CIS compliance standards to drastically reduce organizational risk exposure. • Resilience & DR Assurance: Designed and executed robust business continuity and disaster recovery strategies across all core systems, eliminating single points of failure to guarantee high availability and dependable operations. • Operational Excellence: Champion of IT governance, driving the development and implementation of critical policies and frameworks, including Change Management and Cyber Incident Response Plans (CIRP), while managing external MSP deliverables.
Directed the digital strategy, vendor contracts, and IT budget for a multi-site operation, ensuring technology investments directly aligned with long-term business growth and operational scaling. Partnered with executive leadership to define IT roadmaps and establish robust technical baselines across the organization. Key Achievements & Initiatives: • Cloud-First Transformation: Conceptualized and executed a cloud-first infrastructure transformation, systematically decommissioning legacy physical hardware and replacing it with highly available, modern cloud alternatives. • Multi-Site Rationalisation: Successfully led the consolidation and rationalisation of multi-site IT infrastructure, optimizing shared services, eliminating operational redundancies, and heavily reducing overhead costs. • Commercial & Vendor Governance: Managed full-lifecycle vendor contract negotiations and service delivery, ensuring third-party providers met rigorous performance and commercial commitments. • Team Leadership & Development: Mentored and upskilled the internal IT team, introducing structured roadmap planning and continuous professional development to support enterprise scaling.