Profile

Senior technical sales-focused professional with over twenty years’ experience in the IT industry. Excellent written and presentation skills.  Treated as the trusted advisor and very highly respected by customers, colleagues, and channel partners. Having worked at resellers and vendors in sales, pre-sales and channel sales roles, I have an extensive knowledge in working with customers at various levels, from end users to executives.

Principal Achievements

• Microsoft MVP awarded in October 2020
• Awarded Most Valued Person in 2017 by CEO
• Award for leading the Solution Architecture for the largest deal in 2016 – HPE
• Worldwide Social Media Champion at Pexip and Polycom
• Polycom Top Achievers Club 2012 – 141% of Target
• Involved with closing the 4 out of the top 5 deals in Polycom EMEA in 2012 – $5.5m+ in value

Experience

Microsoft Most Valued Professional | October 2020 – Present

Crestron | Enterprise UC Technical Director, EMEA | August 2019 – Present

Joined Creston to work with the Enterprise UC Product stack consisting of certified Microsoft Teams devices along with Zoom devices. Role is to drive the Microsoft relationship and go to market around EMEA bringing strategy and vision to our clients.

Pexip | Director, Solutions Architecture, UKI, MEA | December 2015 – August 2019

Solution architecture lead for UK, Ireland, Middle East & Africa. Also, cover the rest of EMEA when needed.  Focus on meeting customers/partners to understand their requirements and then develop a high/low-level technical overview of the Pexip platform around their needs, and integrating with existing or planned customer infrastructure

• Provide technical training to the partners and end users
• Respond to RFI/RFP either directly to customers or via channel partners
• Deep insight and experience with leading cloud IaaS platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google
• Advise customers in selecting the most suitable deployment of on-premises, hybrid or cloud or even a SaaS model from a partner
• An expert on the Pexip platform and its interoperability technologies for the Microsoft communications stack and Google Hangouts Meet
• Integral to the strategic develop the Pexip/Microsoft partnership – educating sales and technical on the solution for Skype for Business and Teams
• Product management – working with engineering to provide feedback on feature requests and test out new builds
• Carried out the migration from G Suite to Office 365, including a Lync 2013 to Skype for Business migration
• Present seminars at major industry events worldwide, including Gartner Symposium/ITXPO
• Take part in Global Marketing activities, and have ownership of multiple related critical activities
• Plan and run various exhibitions such as Microsoft Inspire, MS Ignite, Gartner Symposium, Integrated Systems Europe, and others
• Lead the global competitive analysis of competing vendors and keep the whole company updated

Dimension Data UK | Sales Specialist | September 2014 – December 2015

Sales Specialist working initially in the Media and Service Provider sector focusing on collaborative technologies based on Polycom, Microsoft Cisco, Avaya, Acano (now Cisco) and Citrix. Responding to RFI/RFP with direct clients and via the channel (Service Providers).
• Developing Service Providers to use Dimension Data as their route to market for voice and video technologies
• Working with other third parties to bring together a total solution for the client
• Host clients at vendor Executive Briefings and deliver presentations on workspace technologies
• Keep up to date with all vendor’s technologies
• Forecasting and keeping Salesforce up to date.

OpenText | Regional Manager | Information Exchange November 2013 – August 2014

• Working on building a new channel within the security arena for the Secure Mail and Secure MFT applications.
• Working with existing legacy partners to understand, train and develop on the new secure messaging applications.
• Keep Salesforce up to date with opportunities and forecasts

Polycom | Channel Business Manager January 2010 – November 2013

Responsible for developing and growing the Polycom business within HP, Computacenter, SCC, AVM Impact and Electrosonic. Working with direct and indirect partners in addition to working with the channel and customers directly.
Overall Performance since January 2011 – Generated $10.1m in hardware & services revenue
• FY12 – Achieved 141% YTD of my $7.6m target
• FY11 – Achieved 126% YTD of my $4.1m personal target
• FY10 – Achieved 91% of UK&I Team Target

Polycom | Senior Systems Engineer January 2007 – January 2010

Key Achievements
• Successfully rolled out a SE Portal Globally and championed the use of social media internally
• Project managed and deployed the BT/Polycom demo facility in London and assisted with New York
• Subject Matter Expert for leading products and assisted with beta test plans – feeding back to R&D

Telinet (now nui) | Pre-Sales Consultant/IT Manager June 1999 – December 2006

Key Achievements
• Successfully managed the deployment of an Avaya PBX and Nortel Networks ISDN WAN for a major UK retailer (Faith Shoes). The project then expanded to all over UK and Ireland – over 300 sites. Evaluated, tested and learned Cisco routers (36xx and 8xx series). Designed global template for all sites and installed Head Office routers
• Tested, installed and configured a Telco billing platform which is now the UK’s leading billing platform. Involved traveling across the UK to install and train up resellers on how to use the product
• With the recent merger of our company and another, responsible for their IT infrastructure

Education

University of Wolverhampton September 1995 – June 1999
• BA (Hons) Business Studies | Grade 2:1