Meet the Team
SVGC Digital Directors:
Dr Andrew Dixon
Focussed on continuously transforming the business to respond to the market, driving and delivering great outcomes to our clients, benefit to employees, value to shareholders and opportunities to partners and associates.
Passionate about working collaboratively between small businesses, small with large and collaborative technology pull-through from academia into delivery.
CEO
Dr Andrew Dixon
SVGC Staff Profiles
At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating on a national platform. Our team collectively has vast knowledge of strategic planning, public sector decisions, innovative technologies, data science and agile working methodologies.
Get to know Dr Andrew Dixon, our Managing Director, who is passionate about working collaboratively between small and large businesses and utilising technology pull-through from academia into delivery. Our “national platform” includes Andrew’s roles chairing the Small Business Forum for the Institute for Collaborative Working and vice-chair of the TechUK Defence & Security SME forum. Andrew is also an external examiner for the Cranfield University Battlespace Technology course.
Andrew’s focus is on continuously transforming the business to respond to the market, driving and delivering great outcomes for our clients, partners and associates.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
My day always starts with a few cups of tea and breakfast is definitely my most important meal of the day. Before the day gets going, I usually catch up with the latest events with Starship development in Boca Chica, Texas via the YouTube daily update. It's amazing to watch the evolution of the largest launch vehicle and orbital rocket ever made … and Elon Musk’s approach to keeping it simple; learn by doing is something I really relate to.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
That’s a tough one. I’m fortunate to have had a few. Helping to fundamentally shift the land platforms market through some policy changes whilst working in the MOD to create a more level playing field; delivering market engagement to improve procurement success through Niteworks across a range of projects; management of chunks of Skynet – future military satellite programmes both 20 years ago and now; working on the Nuclear Deterrent; and working with the Institute for Collaborative Working to promote small business collaborative engagements.
But I think my proudest work achievement is happening now with FCDO Services at Hanslope Park, where we are working in an innovation collaboration to enable the transfer of large volumes of digital public records to the National Archives – supporting democracy through transparency. Amazing!
What do you love most about what you do?
People have said to me in the past, that as a small consultancy we surely can’t make much difference. That couldn’t be more wrong. I love that we help the public sector to make the best decisions with the limited funds that it has available. They get better capability, and achieve more because of our intervention and support. The public sector making better decisions, more effectively and more efficiently leads to lives saved, taxpayer money protected and better services to the public. It’s a huge privilege to be providing the service that makes such a difference.
What does your typical working day look like?
Blimey. They can be long days. Running a small business like SVGC can be challenging, with many balls to juggle and such rapid turnaround on bids and proposals. I am fortunate to have an amazing team around me who make it happen.
I still deliver some of the fee-paying work myself, which is important to me to stay in touch with the ground truth of delivery, and maintain close working relationships with key clients.
My working days usually start quite early with a mixture of company business, client work, lots and lots of calls. We talk a lot with partner companies and clients to ensure we keep in touch with both delivery and opportunities.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
Change the subject and do something else for a while. If that doesn’t work, and it's late, I will often go to sleep and somehow have the answer in the morning. The odd round of golf helps too. I’m also a keen sailor and time-permitting, it's surprising how problems seem to get resolved when you’re sailing past the Needles!
Julia Campbell
Julia has 20 years of experience of commercial and managerial roles across the defence and security sector. Her role within SVGC is wide ranging involving: contract management; personnel development; recruitment; insurance and financial governance. She has previously held senior commercial roles in both Thales and QinetiQ.
Chief of Staff
Julia Campbell
SVGC Staff Profiles
At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating on a national platform.
Our team collectively has vast knowledge of strategic planning, public sector decisions, innovative technologies, data science and agile working methodologies. Get to know Julia, our Chief of Staff and Head of Commercial.
Julia has 20 years of experience of commercial and managerial roles across the defence and security sector including senior commercial roles in both Thales and QinetiQ. Her role within SVGC is wide ranging and here she describes more about her day-to-day with SVGC.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Earl Grey Tea. If there is no EG tea the day is doomed! I’ve recently started doing Wordle – which is now right up there with the Earl Grey. And, although I have yet to completely fail to get the daily Wordle, it’s a great example of a there always being a new learning experience just waiting for you!
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
Being part of the development and evolution of the business is a real privilege, to share in the SVGC success story so far – especially as we are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. Within this, a common challenge for some evolving businesses can be the introduction of huge amounts of process – and we’ve managed to retain our efficient and pragmatic use of them, and not ‘process ourselves out of business’. It’s also really wonderful to see the current recruitment drive that reflects how hard the team have worked to deliver on current projects whilst also being named on a number of significant new frameworks in the last two years.
Oh, and of course, another source of pride is retaining my very serious job title of ‘Director of Fun’!
What do you love most about what you do?
That every day really is different – I’m not ‘just’ a project manager, or responsible for business development, there is so much that my role entails – as described below.
What does your typical working day look like?
My role is so large and varied that ‘typical’ isn’t the best word. I am one of the directors of the company and the commercial manager for the business; and, I also look after HR, training, recruitment and insurance. Sometimes I’ll be working on contract management and negotiation, another hour and I’ll be considering personnel development and recruitment, and then perhaps grappling with some insurance issue or dealing with financial governance.
In a nutshell, I ensure all the bills are paid, the staff are happy, our customers are delighted and the chickens are fed.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
I go and make tea (can you see a theme here?!) If it is really bad, I might go for a little shuffle - my code for going for a run - around the village that I live in, as that can help enormously.
Tony Klein
Tony’s career has covered many aspects of delivering solutions and consulting services into defence, security and intelligence. His highlights include establishing Quintec which became a leading supplier of systems engineering and integration skills to MoD and leading defence contractors. After its acquisition, he was appointed VP for Consulting and Engineering within Thales. He lead Detica (BAeSystems Digital Intelligence) defence business and expanded its propositions into Defence Intelligence, CIO and Special Forces communities. He has also worked in leadership roles in QinetiQ and Olive Group in Dubai; and has a PhD from Bristol; an MBA from London Business School; is a Chartered Engineer; a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Chair of Trustees at Rodborough Academy Trust.
Non-Executive Director
Tony Klein
SVGC Staff Profiles
At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating on a national platform. Our team collectively has vast knowledge of strategic planning, public sector decisions, innovative technologies, data science and agile working methodologies.
Get to know Tony Klein, our SVGC Digital Non-Executive Director. Tony’s career has covered many aspects of delivering solutions and consulting services into defence, security and intelligence. After a short spell developing simulation software, he established Quintec which became a leading supplier of systems engineering and integration skills to MoD and leading defence contractors. After its acquisition, he was appointed VP for Consulting and Engineering within Thales. In 2006, he joined Detica (now BAeSystems Digital Intelligence) to lead its defence business and expanded its propositions into Defence Intelligence, CIO and Special Forces communities. A spell leading QinetiQ’s technology solutions BD and sales preceded a move to lead the solutions delivery business of the Olive Group in Dubai where he oversaw the delivery of major safety and security solutions to protect critical national and industrial infrastructures for clients across EMEA. Tony has a PhD from Bristol and MBA from London Business School, is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and Chair of Trustees at Rodborough Academy Trust.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Coffee and completing the Times crosswords!
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
With my wife, Sally creating two wonderful children (now adults) who are achieving things way beyond whatever I could dream of doing.
What do you love most about what you do?
Variety, and working with amazing people in delivering effective, robust solutions to demanding customers.
What does your typical working day look like?
Oh boy, how about: fixing some fencing that has blown down after a storm; chain sawing a tree that’s fallen down over the lane; meeting with the Headteacher of the school where I am Chair of Governors to allow him to test ideas (which he already knows the answers to) and being a sounding board for him; leading a project assurance review of a major government project on behalf of the Cabinet Office; having a chat with Julia Campbell or colleague at ISS Aerospace; taking a walk on the South Downs; planning a long walk to follow in the footsteps of my Father.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
Step back; write an email - but don’t send it for 24 hours; phone a friend!
SVGC Digital Core Team:
Paige Bunker
As our Data Scientist, Paige is passionate about data science and how powerfully it can be used to solved intricate problems. She also has a real love for coding; “I could create new scripts and debug them all day!”
Data Scientist
Paige Bunker
SVGC Staff Profiles
At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating on a national platform.
Our team collectively has vast knowledge of strategic planning, public sector decisions, innovative technologies, data science and agile working methodologies. Get to know our newest recruit Paige Bunker, Junior Data Scientist.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Definitely a cup of tea and something toasted with marmite & butter. I also like to read the news & twitter to wake myself up and catch up with the world.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
A data science algorithm I built for my previous employer was officially published internally. The algorithm was used to determine representative customer use types for more realistic product analytics and testing. It had a big impact and was used for multiple programmes, saving millions of $ in testing.
I also presented at the SWE Europe International Conference. This required me to really push myself out of my comfort zone and present to a large audience from multiple companies.
What do you love most about what you do?
I love seeing the effect data science has on real world problems and how powerful and useful it can be in so many applications.
I also found a love for coding over the last few years, I could create new scripts and debug them all day. The combination of continually learning new functions & libraries and trying to make them work with the data science algorithms and analysis is a great challenge.
Overall I love problem solving, data science provides the method but coding is also part of creating the solution.
What does your typical working day look like?
I start the day by going through any unread emails, then I’ll either go straight into picking up a critical task I was working on the previous day or I’ll check my ‘to do’ list. I generally like to pick tasks depending on how many continuous hours of free time I have (without meetings/calls) as once I get stuck into a more complicated task I like to keep focus on it until I complete it or reach a good stopping point.
When you hit a wall, what do you do to help overcome it?
It always depends on the type of problem. If it’s a code that I can’t debug, sometimes it’s best to leave it and come back with fresh eyes the next day. When it’s a problem that is project direction specific I’ll always reach out to others for their thoughts. Sometimes the issue can be solved through research, so I’ll spend some time scouring the internet for alternative options and people with similar problems to my own.
Ian Stephenson
Ian is a highly experienced software and solutions architect with over 20 years working in the defence industry He has a diverse set of skills and experience taken from commercial product development and military research. Ian is leading our technical approach to developing and delivering digital transformation solutions.
Software and Solution Architect
Ian McLellan
With over 23 years of experience in software development, Ian brings with him a breadth of knowledge in architecting and implementing proprietary software products and solutions. As well as experience in Java and Spring Boot, cloud platforms and the latest Open Source technologies.
Full Stack Software Engineer
Ian McLellan
SVGC Staff Profiles
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
I like to keep it pretty simple. Coffee from a De’Longhi coffee machine, view of the Thames from my kitchen window.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
Proudest, I’m not sure. It’s always a great feeling when you know your work has made a difference. I was gratified that when I left my last role, and the team members were very appreciative of the help and guidance I’d given them over the years.
What do you love most about what you do?
Learning new things and finding elegant solutions to difficult problems. Things develop so fast in the tech industry that there is always something new to learn, it keeps the brain active.
What does your typical working day look like?
Pre-pandemic, I don’t think there was a typical working day. Now, there’s a lot more structure. I’m a firm believer that you should start every day with a problem that you want to solve, or a task that you want to finish, and make that your goal for the day.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
Go for a run along the Thames, Taplow to Cookham and back. Idyllic, with Cliveden on the other bank.
Navrose Singh
As a Junior Project Manager, Navrose is passionate about solving different challenges and getting things done! She is a recent Economics Graduate, pursuing a MSc in Project Management to gain fundamental knowledge of PM practices.
Junior Project Manager
Navrose Singh
SVGC Staff Profiles
At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating on a national platform. Our team collectively has vast knowledge of strategic planning, public sector decisions, innovative technologies, data science and agile working methodologies.
Get to know our Junior Project Manager, Navrose Singh.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
My day starts with coming downstairs to see my dog wagging his tail so fast that he might fly off! Then I make myself a coffee or traditional Indian tea called ‘Chaa’ with either a slice of toast or a few biscuits and then I am all set.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
As I am at the very beginning of my career, I would say there is a lot of learning and accomplishments that I can do along the way. For the present, my proudest moment would be to secure a graduate role before graduating. I have also started my MSc in Project Management while working and gaining valuable experience.
What do you love most about what you do?
Project management requires a lot of coordination between teams to ensure the projects move along as they should. I love being the ‘Captain of the Boat’ as it gives a feeling of satisfaction and achievement, especially when you see all the project planning come to life during the execution phase.
In addition, I love that my role requires skills and capabilities which are similar to my values and my personality allowing me to be my true self and helping clients achieve their goals and objectives through delivery of projects.
What does your typical working day look like?
So far, I have not experienced a typical day, every day is different with a challenge/reward and a new lesson to learn. It is very exciting to come to work and learn different things every day.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
I work with great people who support me and my learning, which is always motivating to overcome challenges and barriers. When I feel stuck, I seek help from my highly experienced colleagues who always help me to understand different perspectives on overcoming difficult situations.
Becky Davies
Technology Project Manager Becky loves organisation and working across the whole company to meet the needs of clients. Never one to shy away from extra-curricular studies, Becky will dig deep to make sure she has the very best solutions at hand.
Technology Project Manager
Becky Davies
SVGC Staff Profiles
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Although not a ‘must have’, more of a ‘must do’, most of my days start with feeding the array of animals we have, including walking the dog before the workday starts.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
When looking at the big picture, it would be my progression from a Psychology background and moving into a career in cyber and technology. I sometimes take for granted the amount of effort and dedication that was required from me to do this. Not knowing the difference between IT & cyber at the time meant so many evenings were filled with homework and CPD.
On a project level, developing a MDR’s onboarding process from scratch with no prior knowledge of EDR & SIEM technologies or engineering whilst ensuring clients were onboarded in a professional and timely manner was one of my proudest achievements. Being able to handover a step-by-step process after 10 months of hard graft was incredibly satisfying.
What do you love most about what you do?
I always say that I think Project Management found me, rather than me finding it. Being a slightly self-confessed control freak, Project Management was a good fit for my natural talents of organisation, planning and time management.
I really enjoy being able to work autonomously with some aspects of projects, but also within a team to deliver client’s requirements. Being a Project Manager in a small business means you interact with different departments such as sales, commercial, operations, finance, customer satisfaction (the list goes on). This results in an appreciation of all areas of business which in turn has made me a well-rounded Project Manager.
What does your typical working day look like?
I’m a big believer in planning in advance with the help of daily to-do lists, so I really try to plan my day, however sometimes that list gets thrown aside when a priority piece of work has been tasked.
Managing multiple projects of different sizes, complexities and deliverables mean that I could start my morning scoping out a new requirement, lunchtime could be a check in with internal teams (ops, finance etc) and the afternoon could be planning for next year’s continuation of the programme.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
If it’s a specific work problem then I’d typically lean on my colleagues for suggestions of resolution, they may have a different way of viewing the same problem. Its sometimes difficult to see the wood through the trees within Project Management, so getting a more high-level, big picture view can be helpful.
Palminder Sembhi
Palminder has been in the software testing world for over 20 years, and progressed his career to test manager. Having worked with household clients such as NHS, O2, MoJ, TfL, G4S and Network Rail Palminder brings a wealth of knowledge to the SVGC testing team.
Test Manager
Palminder Sembhi
Test Manager
SVGC Staff Profiles
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Black coffee! I skip breakfast and coffee blunts my appetite until lunch. Also, phones play such an integral part of our lives, I like to catch up with the news before the day begins. With these intact I am ready for the day ahead.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
When I worked for a major consultancy, I led a team of testers for a major project for our client DEFRA. We worked weekends and late nights to ensure testing was achieved at a high standard. Upon recognition of our hard work the company gave us all red-letter day packages.
What do you love most about what you do?
I started as a software tester, and I still love the buzz I get when an issue with software is found. Usually this makes the developers question their code. In my career I have come across many developers who always think their code is flawless.
Having an application go live with minimum issues, really makes me happy. You can never have software, which is all bug free, but testing ensures any major issues are found before the application goes live.
What does your typical working day look like?
Currently I always start the day with a meeting with my team ask how they are, what they are working on and what their plan is for the day. Then it is back-to-back meetings discussing the various projects I oversee, make sure everything is on track testing wise.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
I find things are not as bad, when you sleep on it. If it is still an issue in the morning, I will take a step back to assess the situation, see where the problem occurred.
Also having clear communication lines resolves a lot of issues. If I cannot resolve it myself, I will always arrange a meeting to get to the bottom of the issue, with the relevant people.
Jim Kennedy
Project Manager Jim, brings a wealth of knowledge working within the Public Sector having delivered many key Public Sector projects. He loves nothing more than witnesses how the work he does makes a real impact on people’s everyday lives.
Technical Project Manager
Jim Kennedy
Project Manager
SVGC Staff Profiles
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day? (tea, coffee, your dog, background music, podcast, favourite pen/notebook etc etc)
Every day starts by grabbing some fresh air with my wife when we take our dog (Bella, a red fox Labrador) for a walk around the local fields. Then, once back at home, it’s time to put the kettle on for the first cup of Twinings STRONG English Breakfast tea.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
It would be hard to pick just one work achievement, but for several years now I’ve been lucky enough to work on many key Public Sector project deliveries. In my own opinion, I don’t think there are many areas you can work in where you see the results, and feel the impact, more than those which are public facing services.
What do you love most about what you do?
Working in a collaborative and supportive team structure, attacking tasks while troubleshooting any problems that come up along the way, with focus on delivering transformative digital/technological changes and solutions for the customer.
What does your typical working day look like?
For SVGC specifically this is a hard question to answer so early on. Generally, though - as a Project Manager – it’s usually a healthy mix of progress meetings, stakeholder management, spreadsheets/trackers, change management/scheduling, document creation & review, finance management and many slide decks, alongside the overarching governance and reporting.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
The answer to this would usually be based on two criteria: “how urgent is it?” and “how big is the task?”. Depending on those two criteria, the solution could be anything from “think-dreaming” (daydreaming with a purpose!) out of the office window, making a cup of tea and taking five minutes to think it through, taking the dog for a 10 minute walk to clear the mind, asking a colleague their thoughts on the matter, creating a RACI or, where priorities/deadlines allow, leaving it until the next day to attack it with fresh eyes.
Anthony Wynne
Senior Data Scientist
Anthony Wynne
SVGC Staff Profiles
At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating on a national platform. Our team collectively has vast knowledge of strategic planning, public sector decisions, innovative technologies, data science and agile working methodologies.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Coffee, bacon, and eggs. Either walking the dog or reading some technical books/ papers before work in the morning.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
My Patents that made it into production, it’s wonderful to see an idea come to life. My contributions to scientific publications and knowledge. Commercial systems that I have built, I recently found out that the last automated Business Intelligence/ Machine Learning system I helped create was named ANT after I left, which makes me smile to think of them still working with ANT and maybe blaming ANT when things are not working!
On a personal level, persisting for many years to overcome a career gap and gain funding to return to a STEM career after a period of childcare and running small businesses. It took many years of persistence to get the funding, I was lucky enough to discover the Daphne Jackson Trust and I met some incredible scientific mentors.
What do you love most about what you do?
Creating new systems, or making discoveries. Many of my previous inventions came from observing anomalies in the data and pursuing them, so I enjoy coming across these edge cases and asking why? I enjoy the process of turning ideas into new products or systems. Participating in the evolution of technology and working in high-performance teams.
What does your typical working day look like?
Right now, due to the stage of my main project, there are often back-to-back meetings. I enjoy leading a team to build something new. But, I look forward to getting back into blocks of focused coding that will distil into a new system or product. I enjoy in-person events and conferences and I am looking forward to more of these in the future. I normally do some work on my own data science projects from around 10 pm to Midnight which are my most productive/ creative hours when the house is quiet and there are no interruptions. I would happily work until the early hours if I didn’t have to go to work the next day.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
Go for a walk and remember the advice from a good book I read several years ago called ‘The obstacle is the way’. The book points out that most obstacles are in fact opportunities for a discovery that most other people have been avoiding.
Mahin Ali
As an applied maths graduate, Mahin enjoys translating real world problems into mathematics, statistics and machine learning problems. He also loves how data science can help businesses to better understand their needs and steer the direction of better decision making.
Mahin Ali
Data Scientist
SVGC Staff Profiles
At SVGC we’re proud to be a small business formed of experienced, highly qualified people operating
on a national platform. Our team collectively has vast knowledge of strategic planning, public sector
decisions, innovative technologies, data science and agile working methodologies.
Get to know our Data Scientist, Mahin Ali.
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Nothing gets me in the right mindset to start the day like a 10-minute meditation session followed by a bowl of oats with peanut butter, a kiwi and a cup of coffee! I also have a work/focus playlist on Spotify that I use to help me build momentum for productivity in the morning.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
A couple months after university I was hired by a large waste management company, as their first data scientist as somewhat of a “data science guinea pig”. I pitched a predictive modelling solution to my boss and the CTO which was approved and made into a top objective regarding digital transformation for the business. It took hours of research and I developed a war chest of proof-of-concept machine learning models. I like to think that whilst they have changed how I think about waste and sustainability, I have changed how they think about data.
What do you love most about what you do?
The thing that draws me to data science is the complexity behind developing predictive modelling solutions.
The technical side appeals to me primarily since I am an applied mathematics graduate and I enjoy translating real world problems into mathematics, statistics and machine learning problems. As for the non-technical side, I enjoy the challenge that comes with communicating with a less-technical audience to better understand business needs and letting it steer the direction of my predictive modelling, piecing together the final solution over time.
What does your typical working day look like?
What I like about being a data scientist is that my day can vary depending on where I am with a project. I’ve found that some days I will be very social and find myself talking with stakeholders to figure out how I should approach a problem, whereas other days I will need to block out my schedule to hyperfocus on getting that technical work done.
When you hit a wall workwise, what do you do to help overcome the hurdle?
When it feels like my progress has been hampered, I see it as a sign to reframe my way of thinking and approach the task from a different angle.
For me this usually means taking a short walk followed by a journaling session regarding the work at hand and a common outcome of this is that I tend to define the task slightly differently after a break which opens up a new avenue for me to investigate and ultimately overcome any obstacles that are acting as a barrier to my productivity.
Ryan Cronk
Ryan has vast experience of IT systems and loves to improve processes, solve lingering problems and implement workflows that improve the day-to-day life of single users or a whole user group.
IT Service Manager
Ryan Cronk
IT Service Manager
SVGC Staff Profiles
What are your ‘must haves’ to start the working day?
Coffee and a decent breakfast are a must. Then chasing the kids around for an hour before my eldest starts school.
The walk to my son’s school and back is a couple of miles. The journey there is filled with questions about Sonic the hedgehog, if he is faster than superman, or would he beat the Teenage mutant ninja turtles in a fight?
The way home is quiet, I tend to use this time to enjoy some fresh air and get my mind right for the working day.
What’s your proudest work achievement to date?
While I worked for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), I was extremely fortunate to be part of the team that rolled out and managed an upgraded call out service. This service linked into HM Coast guard and enables the public to get help along the coast or out at sea.
The RNLI is a charity that receives no government funding and is the primary lifesaving capability along the whole of the British Isles, so every penny must be accounted for. Seeing the difference the upgrade made to the efficiency of the service, and how it enabled volunteers to go out in the middle of the night in storms to save people's lives was fantastic, even if I was only a relatively small part of the huge upgrade.
What do you love most about what you do?
I have an extremely busy brain, so I need variety in my day-to-day work.Thankfully IT Service Management is such a varied world that what I do professionally allows me to channel this busy brain into something productive.
ITSM is primarily concerned with ensuring users are receiving the maximum value from their services and there are so many ways to approach this within that framework.
Ultimately when I know I have made improvements to a process, solved a lingering problem or implemented a workflow that improves the day to day for someone else or a whole user group, I can log off for the day knowing I’ve made someone’s work life a little easier.
What does your typical working day look like?
I tend to start the day with a coffee, and then hit shuffle on my Spotify library. I’ll take some time to look at yesterday’s to-do list and see what is left on the list from the previous day.
Then I look at my calendar and work out what calls I have and work out what is best to focus on as a priority for the day.
Obviously, no two days are the same and so that can go out the window after the first call of the day, but I like to approach everyday with the best intentions!
When something grabs me though I am relentless I will hammer away at something until it is finished.
When you hit a wall, what do you do to help overcome it?
When I’ve exhausted all options, I will usually put it to one side and ignore it until the following day. In my experience coming back to a problem with some time to reflect on it will usually enable me to come at the issue from another perspective or be a bit more creative.
I train, teach and compete in a martial art called Brazilian Jiujitsu. While training it is impossible to think about anything else. This is perfect for completely clearing my mind, I can then approach a problem the following day as if it is brand new.
Occasionally I will take a break and play guitar for 20-30 minutes and let my subconscious beaver away in the background while I run through a couple of songs I’m writing or learning. I’ve found this can help to reset my mind and I can attack the problem again.