BEng (hons) in Electronic Engineering
A-levels in Physics, Chemistry and Biology
AO-level in Mathematics
12 GCSEs including Mathematics, English and French

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• 13 years experience in the telecommunications market.

• Successful and proven track record in delivering major projects and network launches.

• Product management and product development experience for both the business and the mass-market consumer sectors.

• Detailed technical knowledge of GSM, GPRS and 3G networks

• Excellent understanding of the mobile music business

• Experience in managing major global projects across multiple markets and involving simultaneous deployment.

• Extensive experience in managing global project teams, budgets and products.

• Direct line management experience.

• 5 years experience in the production of RFI, RFP and RFQs and associated processes including: due diligence, vendor selection and commercial negotiation.

• Product management and product development experience for both the business sector and the mass-market consumer.

• Experience in dealing with major infrastructure suppliers such as LogicaCMG, Siemens, Nokia and NEC.

Responsible for all aspects of marketing Livewire mobile’s portfolio of products and managed services which include full track download, ring tones, videos, and ringbacks. My teams activities include product roadmap, market messaging, strategic partnerships, product propositions, market analysis, bid & proposal production, financial modelling, pricing and world wide sales support.

Responsible for the team dedicated to promoting NECs Value Added Services (VAS) product portfolio towards the European operator and ISP market. This portfolio currently includes Mobile Advertising, i-mode and associated services, DRM, streaming, A-GPS, IP messaging and transcoding. Day to day activities and responsibilities include: new product development process and concept development, customer trials, roadmap management, market intelligence, European marketing and sales support, demand requirements and management, strategic partnerships and business development, RFI/RFP/RFQ preparation.

Responsible for the entire Ring Back Tones (RBT) commercial and marketing proposition at Vodafone Global. Management of the commercial team, made up from the product managers of 15 Operations Companies (OpCos). Responsible for the product roadmap, the commercial and brand proposition, the global project budget, supplier relationships and definition of service and audacious goal testing. Management of the interfaces to other Vodafone departments and external organisations such as: User Experience, Supply Chain and our content partners. The RBT service is seen as a high profile and significant project within Vodafone Global for 2005/06. The service is already live in 18 countries and is enjoying rapid growth and customer acceptance, with penetration figures matching the forecasts.

September 2003 – June 2004
Vodafone Global, Germany                                            RBT Technical Project Manager

Responsible for delivering a global technical solution for the Ring Back Tones (RBT) service to the Vodafone group. I manage a technical team of 15 people and am responsible for all technical aspects of the project. These include the high level design and overall project management. The RFI, RFP process, vendor trials and selection. Solution roll-out across the Vodafone group of companies as well as support for supply chain management. The new service which has shown unprecedented popularity and usage in Asia is likely to overtake the ring tone market within the first few months of service.

August 2001 – September 2003
Vodafone Global, Germany                                GPRS & 3G Network Design Specialist

Responsible for the strategy and implementation of content and IP optimisation for the Vodafone Office and Vodafone Live suite of products. Through this program Vodafone has been able to halve the download times for general internet web access and accelerate corporate e-mail access over GPRS by a factor of six. Vodafone is now rolling out this technology in 16 of its OpCo’s. In addition to this I am responsible for QoS aspects of the GPRS and UMTS core network, which includes heading the 3G QoS working group at Vodafone Global. I provide expert input to the Vodafone global network evolution roadmap and was the original architect of the Vodafone Global IP backbone network (GIN).

Nov 2000 – July 2001
Vodafone, Malta                                                                      Switching Network Manager

Seconded to Vodafone - Malta to head the Core Switching Network. Responsible for the IN platform team, Switching team and BSS team. My duties include architecture and topology design, MSC/BSC configuration management, IN platform and IN services. In addition to this I am also responsible for the MSC/BSC software upgrade specification, the evaluation of new features and services, and the testing, verification, and integration of new network elements. I also oversee the capacity planning and forecasting, numbering plan, and MSC/BSC dimensioning. I am the engineering representative for the new products and services steering & study groups, and ultimately responsible for the technical implementation of Vodafone’s portfolio of services. Being the line manager for 9 staff, my responsibilities include performance appraisal, training and coaching, as well as additional recruitment. Responsible for the budget of the group, which includes the cap-ex, op-ex and training budgets.

Sept 1999 – Oct 2000
Vodafone Airtouch, Budapest, Hungary            Signalling, Interconnect & Numbering

Seconded by Vodafone Airtouch to establish and head the Signalling, Interconnect and Numbering section of the Engineering department of the third GSM operator in Hungary.

Responsibilities include the initial design of the signalling and interconnect network with the local PSTN (MATAV) and other mobile operators (Pannon and Westel 900). As the third operator in an already competitive market the establishment of national roaming for both Pre and Post Pay subscribers was seen as critical since it would in effect allow our network to provide national coverage from launch. In preparation for this I was responsible for the technical side of the interconnect agreements as well as the development of the network numbering plan. Responsible for the network interconnect accounting definition and implementation on the Nokia switches as well as the dimensioning and planning of the additional MSCs in the network. 

July 1998 – August 1999     Click GSM, Cairo, Egypt           Switching & Interconnect

Seconded by Vodafone PLC in the UK to develop the Signalling and Interconnect group for Click GSM – a Vodafone/Airtouch joint venture.

Responsible for the establishment of the primary test ISUP interconnects with the PSTN International, Transit and Tandem exchanges. This involved the physical transmission paths over microwave and HDSL modem links, the definition of the related Data Transcript (DT) and numbering formats and the specific call testing. This resulted in the production of a full testing report highlighting the signalling faults and observations.

Based on the interconnect findings I developed the Click GSM interconnect test manual and initiated the process of signalling standardisation within the Click GSM/Telecom Egypt working group.

Responsible for the establishment of the roaming testing team, which enabled Click GSM to go live with 8 roaming partners at launch of commercial service. Responsible for the training and management of the roaming team which produces a significant network throughput more than doubling the initial business plan.

With the implementation of the third and fourth GSM switches I have developed the MAP interconnect signalling strategy which provides the network with significant redundancy and signalling overflow capabilities.

In order to allow the roaming team to function effectively well into the future I produced a complete and comprehensive process manual detailing every aspect of the roaming process from SIM card distribution to DT definition.

As a member of the Telecoms department I was involved with the acceptance testing of all the GSM MSCs both in terms of hardware and software. As well as the scripting of the switch data transcript.

As the network grew I moved into a role of performance management, using the various statistics gathered from the network to optimise its future operation.

Oct. 1995 – June 1998        Vodafone, Newbury, England        Engineering Telecoms

I joined Vodafone as a graduate engineer and was involved with the software and acceptance testing of the various network nodes used throughout the Vodafone GSM and TACs networks, both switching and IN service related. I gained an extensive knowledge of BTNUP, ISUP, MAP, TCAP and SCCP signalling as well as the Vodafone specific signalling protocols such as PAP and VAP used for the Pre-Pay and Voice Mail systems.

The IN nodes tested included the Pre-Payment System, Group Services Platform, Smart Message Relay, Message Location Register, and the Ericsson voice messenger. This work has included:

• Writing the test specification for the C7 network interfaces of the new IN nodes and for the new software releases for nodes already operational within the network.

• Building the test scripts for the above platforms using protocol analysers and generators using specific programming languages as well as C code in some cases.

• Interfacing network devices with the test switch and other platforms, including the physical link set-up and configuration.

• Performing the tests to ensure that the new products not only function correctly in terms of service but also have no detrimental effect on the rest of the network in failure cases.

• Final technical reports were then produced detailing any failures and variations found and the final recommendation for the suitability of the product.

I gained experience with an extensive range of test equipment, in particular the INET Turbo 7 and Spectra, the BT Martinet, the Telenex Interview and ELMI ETP71. I was responsible for the IR24 and IR26 call feature and data testing required for a bilateral roaming agreement. I was personally involved with the connection of over 50 roaming partners to the Vodafone Network, an activity which accounts for more than 25% of Vodafone’s annual profit. In November 1995 I was seconded to work for Libertel in Holland for three months to aid with the testing and connection of roaming partners as well as to train the Dutch test engineers.

I wrote the Vodafone interconnect testing manual for use with the connection of other fixed line operators to the Vodafone network. Other licensed operators which I have tested include Global One and Metropolitan Fibre Systems.

Jan 1991 – Aug 1991  
Hitachi Semiconductors, Tokyo - Japan Product Development

Electronic engineer for Hitachi Semiconductors. A part of the development team, I was involved in the production and testing of demonstration models to illustrate the features and functions of the Hitachi Semiconductor device range. These projects included a DAT machine and cordless telephone.

Activities and Interests:

I have travelled extensively throughout South East Asia and greatly enjoy the diverse range of foods and cultures to be found there. As a keen photographer the colours and variety of foreign countries give me an excellent visual opportunity. As a result of my secondment to Egypt, and therefore close proximity to the Red Sea, I am now qualified as an advanced open water diver and this has given me the opportunity to experiment with underwater photography, an area full of new visual experiences. I have also travelled throughout Europe and South America.