Nuts And May Ltd

Born in Bristol in 1968, my first "proper" job lasted 3 months. After being £1.5 mill out on a balance sheet, I quickly realised that I was not cut out to be an accountant! Returning back to retail where I had worked as a Saturday lad, I quickly worked up through the management ranks to take on my first "Iceland" store at the age of 21. Five stores later (and a period of freelancing in my spare time as an NVQ assessor to develop my training skills) led to an opportunity to join a project team rolling out a new computerised Sales Based Ordering system and became part of a team that both developed and delivered the training to all of the key operational staff in 760 stores.

This led to my first office based role, where I was responsible for the replenishment of both stores and depots for a number of categories using the system that I had just rolled out to stores. My enjoyment in training resulted in me becoming a lead user and the range of systems that I trained expanded as I was moved into the IT department as a head office system trainer.

At this point in time, Iceland were considering introducing IT Service Management and the concept of a "Service Delivery Manager" came about. The conversation went along the lines of "We need a Service Delivery Manager, it involves service to the customer. You use to work in stores and know a bit about that sort of thing. Would you be interested?" So that was my introduction to Service Management! I quickly developed a interested in the Problem Management aspect and enjoyed the "thrill" of dealing with major system failures, seeing the challenge of a service restoration before the users felt the impact a major buzz. SInce being involved in Service Management I have also had the opportunity to be involved in a wide range of the ITIL disciplines including Service Desk/Incident, Change, Config and Service Level Management.

I have continued to freelance as a trainer incorporating both NVQ assessment and formal course development and delivery as part of my offering (including regular work delivering "The Skills To Foster" 3 day training course). A short period working with the Institute of Logistics and Transport as a distance learning tutor has also added to my experience.

Professional Qualifications (include) :

NVQ: D32/D33, Lvl 3 Health and Social Care, Lvl 4 Management

ITIL: Version 3 "Expert", Version 2 Managers, Version 2 Foundation

Prince 2: Foundation & Practitioner

Employment History:

Dec 2004 to present – IS Service Support Manager. Responsible for an outsourced Service Desk, Problem and Change Management functions. Also management of IS Security and PCI compliance program. Recent projects have also included the delivery of a full head office manage print solution.

Dec 2001 to present – Freelance training consultant (evenings / weekends). A range of contracts including NVQ assessment, distance learning tutoring and course delivery and development.

August 2004 to Dec 2004 - ITIL Problem Manager. Short period secondment focusing on the development of the problem management function.

June 2002 to August 2004 – ITIL Service Delivery Manager. Management of a Service Delivery team responsible for all head office systems.

June 2000 to June 2002– IS Trainer /Project Manager. Initially focusing on central supply chain systems, the role expanded to incorporated other central systems as well as standard desktop applications such as Lotus Notes (email) and MS Project.

January 1999 – June 2000 – Supply Planner. Utilising JDA's ES Slim and Trim supply chain systems. Responsible for both Frozen and short life products from RDC through to store.

April 1997 – January 1999 – SBO (Sales based ordering) coordinator. Development and delivery of a full suite of training resources to ensure the successful rollout of a new SBO system. Also validation and hand-holding of stores through their first months orders.

April 1996 – January 1998 – Freelance training consultant (days off and weekends). A range of NVQ assessment services.

April 1990 - April 1997 – Iceland Group, Store Manager. Five high street retail outlets.