CV of Leighton James; TOGAF, ILM, PRINCE2, ITIL, VCP, MCSE, CCDA, CCA, BSc
Personal Details
Name:
Leighton James (+44 (0)7958 725 447)
D.O.B.:
21 September 1976
Address:
Ruislip, Middlesex (mail@leightonjames.net)
Marital
Status: Married with young family
Other
Information: UK Nationality, Full & Clean Driving
License, CRB & BPSS Checked, SC Pending
Skills Summary
I am a successful, versatile and well
regarded CTO/Principal Architect, specialising in Microsoft platforms, VMware
and data centre technologies. I have over 15 years experience working with various
IT Consultancy and Managed Services organisations. In this time I have been
responsible for comprehensive design and architecture services, performing
migrations, technical delivery and 3rd/4th line remedial
work. I have worked with clients in Financial Services, Public Relations,
Insurance, Public Sector and many other industries (most recently Cloud Service
Providers and System Integrators). My current role involves me providing
thought leadership, strategic direction and proposition development for EMC’s premier
partners in the UK – in addition to more usual Solution Development activity.
I have extensive experience interacting with
C-level representatives – understanding their challenges and pitching
compelling solutions. I specialise in
Service-centric solutions, based on my previous experience of various platforms
and technologies designed and implemented at a variety of organisations. In
addition to first-rate pre-sales, design and documentation skills, I also have
much experience mentoring and managing other consultants and engineers, and currently
lead a high performance team of Pre-Sales Consultants.
Training & Qualifications
2012: EMC High Contributors’ Programme @
Cranfield Business School, TOGAF Certified Enterprise Architect (upgrade to
version 9)
2011: Institute of Leadership and Management
Training, EMC Consultative Selling Programme, EMC Cloud Architect
2010: PRINCE2 Practitioner (2009 edition), ISEB
Intermediate Certificate in Enterprise & Solutions Architecture
2009: PRINCE2 Foundation, ITIL v3 Foundation
Bridge Certificate, VCP (upgrade to vSphere 4)
2008: VMware Certified Professional (VCP),
VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP)
2004-2007: TOGAF Certified Enterprise
Architect, VMware Sales Professional (VSP), ITIL Foundation Certificate, Cisco
Security Solutions and Design Specialist, Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA),
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE2003)
1999-2003: Cisco Certified Firewall
Specialist (CFS), Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCNA), Cisco Certified
Network Associate (CCDA), Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE Windows NT
4.0 Server)
Formal Education
1999: BSc Business Computer Systems: First
Class Honours
1995: 3 A-Levels (Economics, Mathematics,
Computer Science): Grades A-C
1993: 9 GCSEs: 4 Grade A’s, 3 Grade B’s, 2
Grade C’s
Career History
April
2011 – date: EMC (UK) (Global Leader in Cloud, Trust & Big Data)
Advisory Technology Consultant (CTO / Lead Pre-Sales
Consultant / Principal Architect)
EMC is the Global leader in Cloud Solutions
and Information Infrastructure (storage, security, analytics, document
management, backup/recovery, etc). Through their ownership of VMware & RSA,
their joint venture with Cisco (VCE/vBlock) and the capabilities provided via
EMC Consulting - EMC is uniquely positioned to extend their leadership in
Cloud, Trust and Big Data.
I work within the National Service Provider business
area which is focussed on helping Service Providers of all shapes and sizes to
capitalise on the potential of IT-as-a-Service. To that end, I work with CxO's
to help them create service offerings which leverage EMC's broad portfolio of
solutions including; Virtualisation (VMware), Security &
Governance/Risk/Compliance (RSA), Data Centre Optimisation (IONIX, VCE/vBlock),
Archiving, Backup/Recovery, Storage, Data Warehousing & Analytics,
Enterprise Content Management (Documentum) and Consultancy & Advisory
Services (EMC Consulting)
My role is to help Service Providers and
System Integrators execute on their GTM strategy to differentiate within the
Cloud and to help end customers execute on their strategy to move towards
consuming IT-as-a-Service (e.g. Private Cloud, Public Cloud or Hybrid Cloud).
I was specifically deployed across a number
of ‘emerging’ Service Providers which included Verizon, NTT, Orange Business
Systems, ACS/Xerox, Rackspace, Attenda, SAVVIS, Claranet, Sungard and Skyscape
Cloud Services. In this role, I interface across the Service Provider
organisation including CEO/CTO, Sales Leadership, Product Management, Pre-Sales
and Architecture groups. In this way, I was able to help Service Providers on
both a Strategic basis (developing their Cloud Go-To-Market) and a Tactical
basis (assisting in specific sell-with opportunities). More recently, I’ve
extended my role across System Integrators such as ComputaCenter, Capita,
Serco, Steria, Getronics and Northgate.
My performance was rewarded by being invited
onto EMC’s High Contributor Programme for 2012. This programme is nomination
based and selects the top performers across EMC UK&I to experience an MBA
style programme at Cranfield Business School. I have also been selected to be
involved in the EMC CTO Programme and to serve as a District Leader within the
UK&I pre-sales community.
February
2006 – April 2011: Attenda Limited (MS Gold Partner, VMware Global Services
Partner Award 2010, Data Centre Europe Awards, Managed Services Provider 2007, 2008
& 2010)
Manager, Solution Architecture &
Consulting / Principal Solution Architect (Lead Consultant / Technical
Architect)
Attenda are recognised throughout the Managed
Services sector as a leader in the field – specifically targeted at Business
Critical solutions. Their propositions range from the management of key
Critical Applications (e.g. SAP, Exchange, Transactional websites) to entire
Server Room Outsource solutions – whilst having a further specialism in
Software as a Service and Cloud based solutions.
As a Principal Architect with Attenda I hold
overall responsibility for the pre-sales engagement with clients and the subsequent
design and architecture of an appropriate solution. I am frequently engaged in
a wide variety of solutions involving multiple technology platforms (Microsoft,
Sun, RedHat), datacentre network design (Content Switching, n-tier security,
PCI compliance) and varying server count (2 – 1000 servers).
I am often extensively involved throughout
the pre-sales process, especially responding to RFP’s, writing proposals, conducting
workshops, delivering presentations, producing diagrams and generating a
pricing model. I am a solution authority within Attenda for Microsoft, VMware
and Citrix technologies, and am highly regarded by everyone that I work with.
I am increasingly involved in Server
Consolidation projects, as well as Transition and Transformation programmes –
especially involving virtualisation technologies (e.g. VMware, 3Par, Cisco and
so on).
Within the first six months of employment
with Attenda I won a “Top Performer Award” and was recognised for a leading
contribution in winning the “Deal of the Year” for two years running. Within
just two years, I was promoted twice, the second time to Principal Architect
& Department manager, with operational responsibility for the performance
of the Solution Architecture and Consulting function. Within this current role,
my time is split such that one third of my time is spent on Management
responsibility and two-thirds is spent on typically complex and high value client-facing
assignments.
December
2004 – February 2006: Business Systems Group PLC (MS Gold Partner, Citrix
Silver Partner, HP Enterprise Partner)
Senior Technical Consultant (Lead Consultant
/ Technical Architect)
As a Senior Technical Consultant in the
Design/Deploy division, I have led and participated in a wide range of projects
for various enterprise clients (50 – 500 users). I have often been extensively
involved in the pre-sales process especially proposal writing. In addition to
project-based assignments, I have also assisted the Operations division, acting
as a subject-matter expert and final point of escalation. In this capacity, I
have assisted many clients in recovering their systems from various failures. I
have become a technical authority at BSG, and frequently receive commendations
from both internal and external clients.
Within months of employment with BSG, I won a
company award for positive customer commendations.
Some of the experiences gained at BSG
include:
· Exchange: Often as the Lead Consultant
or Technical Architect, I have helped clients of various sizes migrate away
from Exchange 5.5 Server and GroupWise systems to Exchange Server 2003
solutions. I have also been involved in consolidation projects and mobility
projects using Exchange ActiveSync.
· Citrix: Design and Implementation of
various sized Citrix installations – often as the Lead Consultant – including
one of the first Presentation Server 4.0 deployments in the UK. Executed
various proof-of-concept exercises to help clients determine the feasibility of
delivering their applications via Citrix. Design and implementation of Citrix
within a consolidation project – centralising Active Directory and Exchange
servers. Experience of Citrix Access Gateway (SSL VPN) and Password Manager
(Single Sign On).
· Active Directory: I have extensive
experience with the design, implementation and support of Active Directory. I
have designed and implemented multi-site, multi-domain Active Directory models,
and have experience of Group Policies, Delegation of Control, replication, DNS,
DHCP, and so on.
·
BSG operate their own Managed Data
Centre, and so I have had the opportunity of designing, deploying and supporting
hosted/managed services – especially management and monitoring solutions.
March
2003 – December 2004: Micropoint Systems (MS & Cisco Partner)
Senior Systems Consultant
As a Senior Systems Consultant, I was
responsible for most of the key clients and projects. In many cases, I actively
participated in pre-sales and design activities. Having won the project, I was
often the lead consultant, responsible for mentoring and supervising junior
consultants and engineers. At Micropoint, as well as Microsoft technologies, I
had opportunity to be involved in Cisco and Security technologies also.
March
1995 – March 2003: Whitehall Systems (Microsoft & Cisco Partner)
Various Roles: Systems Engineer to Managing
Consultant
I worked with Whitehall Systems for 8 years,
and was able to develop from a field engineer through to their most senior
Consultant. Given the various roles that I enjoyed with Whitehall, I have
gained a lot diverse skills and experience, including leading a team of 7
engineers. Being a small company, Whitehall required a very can-do and
all-hands-to-the-pump attitude. My experiences with Whitehall have contributed
in me becoming such a versatile and knowledgeable IT Professional.
On top of the skills and experiences which
were further developed in more recent roles, I gained experience of the
following technologies; Netware 3.12, GroupWise, Backup Exec,
ArcServe/BrightStor, Avaya IPOffice (Voice over IP), ASP Web Development, Access
Accounts, Symantec Firewall, Lotus Notes.ft Exchange SQL SharePoint LCS Live Communication Server
Cisco PIX ASA VPN IPSEC Windows 2003 XP IIS DNS AD Active Directory DNS DHCP IP
RIS Scripted Automated R2 SP1 SP2 Netbackup NetApp FAS EVA MSA HP Citrix Presentation
Server PS4 CAG Access Gateway Password Manager SG Secure Gatew
