Developing a new Financial Forecasting model & supporting the production of a new Business Plan.

I began a training course for Business Advisors with a Business-to-Business company called ‘Connectd’ and set up a new company in preparation for new contracts.

I spent this period supporting my mother in caring for my father who had progressive dementia and needed support in the family home. Sadly, he passed away recently. During this time, I undertook several projects and maintained my Microsoft Office skills and experience.

Joined O2's outsourced Network PM team as part of the Huawei Programme. Took over "in-flight" and received feedback in the first two weeks that I was already having a very positive impact.The Project's objective was to catch up with EE by securing a launch with a leading VoWiFi handset manufacturer.On joining, I made every effort to get into the Project as quickly as possible, and met key contacts as quickly as possible, and wherever possible, in person.Within those first two weeks, the scope changed to include a new node required to manage Supplementary Services over WiFi. This added 4-6 weeks to the schedule and proved highly troublesome to integrate. However, in the middle of this delivery, yet another node was also brought into scope at the last minute, this one being required to manage the soft launch and "throttle" the early phases of the full commercial launch, and this extended the delivery by a further month.Although there was a history in the unit of projects not always being delivered on time, I and my fellow O2 PM not only pulled our own Project (VoWiFi) over the finishing line, but also helped significantly with a number of deliveries for a related Project (VoLTE), since it turned out we were completely reliant on a number of those components to also be delivered for our own service to work end to end.As part of the "Tactical" method of delivery, it turned out that we also needed a tool to transform encryption keys from "3DES" to "AES" encryption. After running out of time (despite escalations), I took the decision to learn Java and use the relevant Oracle Libraries to prepare a tool as a backup in case our main supplier failed to provide a solution to transform the encryption keys in time for our test schedule.After testing, the encryption keys were transformed correctly with my backup tool, and it was this which enabled us to demonstrate the VoWiFi running on the live O2 Network for the first time, on schedule.

Undertook independent consultancy assignments for clients in the mobile telecommunications sector, including:1. Prototype Dashboard Reporting using Microsoft Excel and the "Camera function" 2. Automated Excel Tool to support Portfolio Optimisation in cases where the full range of proposed Projects cannot all be committed - either due to Financial or other Resource constraints. Tool allows customised weighting to be applied to various measures of a Project's value e.g. NPV, P/E ratio etc.Tool automatically calculates the "overall value" of each of the 2^n possible combinations and allows the user to rank according to their preferred metric. For ease of comprehension on the methodology, calculations are all shown "on the sheet" and not hidden in VB code. This also allows the users to easily modify the formulae or add their own, custom, metrics3. Developed a tool to aid prospective job-seekers assess the degree to which their CV matches a given job description, and how to improve the degree of "fit"

Designed and executed a highly structured plan to safely remove surplus cell sites inherited from Orange and T-Mobile while managing the customer experience during this transformation• Led the design, build and operation of new customer management processes handling customer complaints involving loss of radio coverage• Led a dedicated team of four, including two SAS database experts• Presented progress at CxO level on a bi-weekly basis • Successfully avoided any significant negative press/media attention (e.g. BBC Watchdog). Most importantly, satisfied the Regulator (OFCOM) who cited the project as an example of industry “best practice”• Over two years successfully removed 4,500 cell sites, saving the business c£45 million a year

Development of Consultancy tools and Business Development, while also researching opportunities for Not For Profit companies related to the use of SCUBA diving instruction to motivate kids from under-privileged areas.Attained my First Aid at Work Qualification with "Fathom 'n' Blues" Dive Centre in Portland, Dorset, UK.Took my Royal Yacht Association Level 2 Power Boat Licence and bought a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), based on Portland.

Managed the technical launch of the VF 360 Products and Services into the UK market, including handset testing, Revenue Assurance, Legal, Service Management and Transfer to Operations.Undertook key stakeholder Management to Director level within UK & VF Group.Successfully completed this project with an overall value of approximately £10M+ initial investment, including handsets.

Invested in this UK Diving Business as a Partner.Qualified as PADI Scuba Divemaster after a five week course in Dahab (Egypt).

Managed the technical delivery and acceptance of a £1.5M Cisco Data Traffic Management System that was designed to enforce Data tariff Fair Use Policies. Oversaw the full life cycle of this high profile project, which delivered on time and within budget.

Led a team of five Orange Group Messaging Product Managers during the transition to France Telecom. Managed Product Acceptance testing for a £20M Email Platform delivered into multiple European countries.

Led delivery of the Unified Messaging Programme, which was one of only three “Spearhead” Programmes defined as high risk and critical for launch. Reported to UK and Italian Boards for H3G on a monthly basis. Delivered on time & on budget. Matrix-managed seven in-country Delivery Managers.Took personal charge of the post-launch test strategy to recover several failed software deliveries and to achieve a stable set of functionality on which to base future growth in capacity.

I was hired to develop (in MS Excel), the Technical Module of a 3-part tool which could be used by BT International to determine the value of various 3G Licence bids outside of the UK.After delivering and using the tool in continental Europe, along with consultants from ProData/Colneago, we travelled out to Rogers AT&T Wireless in Toronto and adapted the tool to also work with the North American cellular standards (AMPS, IS136, WCDMA).

After leaving INMARSAT I joined the newly-formed ICO Satellite Company, based in Hammersmith.I led the planning and dimensioning of the ground network and took a special responsibility for the WAN comms links, as well as a special unit, which NEC Australia proposed to interwork effectively in place of the BSC to accommodate the fact that our system looked a lot like GSM, but a GSM network where the base stations were constantly moving around the earth, and the mobile phones were relatively stationary.

Started out as a Ground Segment Engineer, organising radio propagation measurement campaigns including the use of helicopters, aircraft ranging from light aircraft to medium sized jets, plus live commercial satellites in both the US (COMSAT) and Japan (KDD International). Worked with colleagues in the European Space Agency (ESA), DFVLR (the German Aerospace Research Establishment) as well as Telecom Research Labs in Melbourne, Australia.Moved on to Signalling System design for "Project 21" including signalling system simulation work with Trondheim University in Norway, Stuggart University in German, as well as Sydney University in Australia.After completing the initial system design (including making recommendations on orbit selection and constellation options (numbers of planes of satellites, satellites per plane, orbit height and inclination angle), I moved on to dimensioning the global ground segment including twelve "Satellite Access Nodes" i.e. twelve ground stations, each with 5 x tracking antennas, local equipment including MSC/VLRs, HLRs, Messaging, BTS/BSC equivalents and the WAN links.Once the design was completed, the design was costed at approx $1.5bn and INMARSAT set up a sister company (ICO) to implement the system, while minimising any risk to INMARSAT's core business.

After graduating from the Cable & Wireless thin-sandwich sponsorship, I saw that the HR Director that had first interviewed me for the C&W Sponsorship had just joined a new C&W group company in Docklands:- Mercury PCN. This kicked off my career in mobile communications and GSM. (Groupe Speciale Mobile).As well as running radio propagation measurement campaigns for my line manager, I also attended the ETSI-GSM3, standards group on behalf of Mercury PCN.

One of 7 students selected from over 700 applicants for the Cable & Wireless "Thin Sandwich" sponsorship.A highlight was being flown out to St.Lucia in the Caribbean for 4.5 months as part of the course.