Profile
Areas of responsibility within Forfusion
As Head of Customer Success, I’m currently responsible for Customer Experience (CX) as well as Service Delivery Management (SDM) functions. Both are equally focussed on ensuring our customers realise value but at different points of the lifecycle, essentially from either products or services we sell, or a Forfusion service they consume. Recently I have also assumed an advocate role for Environmental Sustainability as part of our commitment to align to Vendor and Global targets towards Net-Zero.
Industry experience
After leaving the RAF in 1999, I quickly transitioned into a role that put the IT and communications skills I had learned over the previous years to good use. Initially, with a local IT reseller in the North East, which allowed me to appreciate the commercial world outside of the armed forces to then step into the world of a tier-1 carrier in Manchester. On returning to the North East, I again settled into roles within several value-added resellers but focused much more on networking and security. As time moved on, my career also moved into management, where you quickly learn new skills and get to hone other core skills, which in my case was around mentoring and career development paths of other engineers.
Background
IT was something I’d always been interested in, from a college course on leaving school to the trade I joined on entering the RAF. Looking back on the systems we used in the mid 80’s, you appreciate how quickly IT and technology, in general, has evolved in 30+ years. The comms links between the UK and our NATO partners ran at 1200 baud (1.2k) at the time, so we’ve certainly come a long way since then. Getting to operate the technology in some of the most inhospitable places on the planet was a bonus of the job in the RAF (Shetland and Falkland Islands), but it also underlines how important technology was back then and is now to ensure the safety of our country.
Favourite quote
“If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”
- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield to his son in 1746
Nothing pains me more than someone starting a job and giving up or leaving it half-finished. If you start something, see it through and complete the task, preferably well.
Other interests
Having three children, with only one of them currently at home, does allow for more time to do other things than it used to. Walking during and post-covid has become the norm, and I recently signed up to complete a charity walk of 1000 miles over a year in aid of a Cancer Charity and the RL Foundation. Whilst you were given 12 months to complete it, I decided to expedite and do it in under six months; tough on occasion, but mental and health-wise very rewarding. Keeping up on technology and current affairs is always good to broaden your horizons and as a family, we have taken to watching football at a local non-league club since the start of the year.
