John Foster Email & Phone Number

Houston, Tx, Us

London, England, Gb

Manage the operation of Digital Workplace platforms, including M365, end-user computing, and video conference rooms, while providing comprehensive support across all customer regions. Serve as the liaison between business and IT for core services, overseeing an annual technology budget of over $50 million and leading a team of more than 1,400 IT staff and contractors.• Providing Desktop Support, Service Desk, and IT walkup support for 84,000 users across 53 countries and 230 sites in regulated industries like oil, gas, and power trading, achieving a 97% customer satisfaction rate and top quartile performance in industry benchmarking.• Serving as an executive sponsor for the implementation of Microsoft M365 Copilot for 20,000 users and Microsoft Copilot for 84,000 users, collaborating with Legal, HR, Cyber Security, and all business units to ensure effective data handling and user training.• Serving as an executive sponsor for Information Management of Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint, overseeing 1.8 billion files and 4.4 petabytes of storage while implementing data retention policies and educating users to reduce duplication and purge unnecessary data.• Involved in Merger and Acquisition activities for TravelCenters of America and Thorntons, Assessed IT systems, identified cybersecurity concerns, and facilitated company integration. Ensured a smooth onboarding process for IT staff into bp, promoting operational continuity and team cohesion.• Spearheaded the Early Careers program for the digital discipline by collaborating with HR to assess demand, developing onboarding and mentorship initiatives, and coordinating activities across the UK, US, Kuala Lumpur, and Pune.

London, England, Gb

Responsible for the availability of Azure cloud services at bp by leading a matrix team across Houston, Chicago, London, Mumbai, and Pune, integrating Architecture, Security, Development, and Operations to automate service provisioning while maintaining compliance with cybersecurity requirements. Managed an annual technology budget exceeding $50 million and directed a team of over 50 IT staff and contractors, facilitating seamless consumption of Azure services with minimal platform support.• Directed the transition from a manual server patching process, which took up to two weeks, to a fully automated solution that patches over 11,000 Windows and Linux VMs in Azure within 48 hours, recognized by Microsoft as a top-in-class solution.• Championed Azure cloud education for bp staff by creating winter and summer training challenges with Microsoft, resulting in 159 fundamental and 113 advanced Azure certifications to encourage learning and adoption, in the first year of the program.• Transformed our team from vendor-based squads to Amazon’s 2-pizza team model to establish empowered DevOps squads, enhancing agile processes for earlier and more detailed work item refinement, which improved quality and velocity.• Led strategic discussions with platform owners (Windows Virtual Desktop, Cyber Security, and Data Platforms) on Azure to design the “Platforms on the Platform” concept, eliminating bottlenecks for guest platform development and enabling policy autonomy while ensuring bp’s security posture.

London, England, Gb

Managed the Azure platform, SharePoint, and Power Platforms, establishing foundational principles for no-code and low-code solutions tailored for both citizen and professional developers. Facilitated skill development initiatives to empower team members in leveraging cloud-based services, enhancing productivity and innovation across the organization.• Developed a strategic roadmap for service delivery in collaboration with both platform and business segment architecture, and Microsoft, to ensure that the business receives the necessary services to maximize value.• Engaged with external companies, including Morgan Stanley and NN Group, to share insights on how we successfully implemented the hub and spoke model at bp, showcasing our approach for Microsoft.• Designed the Azure Product Council, granting members voting rights on product backlog items to ensure their priorities are effectively addressed, serving as a model for other product councils at bp.• Developed and implemented the Citizen Developer process for Microsoft’s Power Platform tools, empowering users to create applications and automate workflows effectively.• Transformed the team developing combined cloud services for Azure and AWS into a motivated, high-performing unit, focused on Azure, that delivered the new Azure hub and spoke model in just 34 business days using agile practices.• Secured a $2 million investment from Microsoft to develop the Azure service line and support Upstream projects for migrating the geoscientist toolkit to the cloud and data lakes.• Developed and delivered cloud-related training on Azure Fundamentals, Cloud Cost Management, Hub and Spoke Architecture, and Microsoft’s Power Platforms for Citizen Developers across the globe, while also creating a process for provisioning Microsoft certification exam vouchers.

London, England, Gb

Led teams providing comprehensive support for Document Management systems (SharePoint and Documentum), managed DBA services for over 400 servers and 2,600 databases, and oversaw all Process Information Networks (PINs) delivering critical data from Process Control Networks (PCNs) to the Upstream business.• Pioneered the first global service to eliminate all servers from bp-operated data centers, successfully decommissioning 537 servers and achieving a net reduction of $13 million in OPEX costs.• Consolidated SharePoint support services from five service lines and four vendors to one, achieving a 62% cost reduction while maintaining SLAs and enhancing service quality.• Created the operational service line for all Process Information Networks (PIN) at Upstream assets globally, enabling the capture of data points from the Process Control Network (PCN).• Built strong relationships with Downstream refineries in Whiting and Cherry Point, ensuring their requirements were met by the OneRefining application while educating local teams on Microsoft tools like Power Platforms and Azure to enhance their applications.• Improved SharePoint services from frequent P1/P2 incidents in early 2016 to over three years without a P1 incident. For example, developed a cost-effective infrastructure plan for the HR application that hosts the bp bonus calculator, preventing annual outages for less than $500 per year.

London, England, Gb

London, England, Gb

London, England, Gb

London, England, Gb

London, England, Gb

Tulsa, Oklahoma, Us

Houston, Tx, Us

Gb

Houston, Texas, Us