Profile

I’ve moved around various parts of the UK, having first grown up at the seaside in Southport (near Liverpool), then lived in Leeds, Sheffield, Rochdale, Manchester, Sale in the north, and in the south Wimbledon, Beckenham, and now Ruislip just on the outer edges of London. So have a variety of experiences living in different areas.

I love lots of things outdoors, and have always enjoyed camping, campfires, hiking etc. since I was in the Scouts when younger. That’s now extended to enjoying Kayaking on the Thames River, and recently my wife and I got our licences to drive powerboats as well.

I’m also a keen fan of DIY building works, with a keen eye for details, and have refurbished from top to bottom many of the houses I’ve lived in. Currently refurbishing our house in Ruislip, where I live with my wife and our three cats.

My father was in Royal Logistics corps in the Army, and my Grandfather worked for the Post Office (now British Telecommunications) looking after Telephone exchanges in the 1960s. So I’ve combined these interests in the job I do – managing technical projects in the Telecommunications Industry.

I started out interested in all things building related, so that included Architecture and Civil Engineering (constructing large structures / bridges / buildings). But in University I switched my chosen course from Civil Engineering to instead study Information Systems (which is studies related to Computer Networks) back in 1998 to 2001.

After University I worked for various Internet Service Providers in the UK (Freeserve, Zen Internet, TalkTalk). Starting out providing technical support over the phone for “dial-up” Internet access (in the days before broadband existed). But then covering the early days when “broadband” Internet access was first being used in the UK.

I moved on to providing advice and consultancy to customers regarding Network security, to help prevent hackers gaining access to their Networks. Then I project managed large capacity backbone fiber optic circuit upgrades to networks stretching the length of the UK.

I eventually moved into designing and building Network Points Of Presence (PoPs), and building larger Data Centres with lots of large Electrical equipment housing critical Computer and Network equipment.

My current job combines a lot of my previous job roles. I’m currently responsible for all global Cable Landing Station (CLS) build projects, where Google Subsea Fiber Optic cables land in various countries. These high capacity Fiber Optic cables run under the ocean, coming ashore at a beach into a physical facility/building (a CLS) housing our Network Equipment connected to the end of those cables. This helps connect our global Network together in multiple countries, and helps people connect to computers in our Data Centres, to use everyday services such as Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, etc.

Up early just before 7am, to get ready and have some breakfast.

If I’m in the office in central london I need to get a train early. If I’m not in the office then I have a small home office at the bottom of the Garden to work from. In pre-COVID times, I often would be travelling abroad all over the world for work, so I might be headed for the Airport early.

I often have many video calls through the day with teams, colleagues, and vendors (companies providing services to us). Taking calls with people in APAC (Asia Pacific) region early in the morning from 8am, then calls with people in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) during the day, and calls later in the evening with NASA (North America, South America) sometimes but not always up to 6:30pm.

In between those calls discussing projects, and reviewing designs, I might be drawing technical designs and plans for new building works, or planing future projects (because Subsea projects are very long, lasting multiple years duration).

If I’m in the office then I will grab lunch with friends and catch up on what they’re working on, or what they’ve been doing outside work recently.

I will donate to one of the various STEM causes Google supports (e.g. Engineering Development Trust, or STEM Inclusion foundation, or Girls into Coding). Most likely I may split the donation across all of those organisations.

Google as an employer will fund match donations from employees every year, so the £500 money would become a £1000 donation, once Google also provides £500 to match the £500 prize money.