Ron Argent is a seasoned IT professional and business owner. With over 40 years in the IT industry, covering sales, design and engineering he has worked with many of the largest companies in the world. Recently he has focussed his attention on helping start-ups take an enterprise view of application design early in their program cycle enabling their applications to be scalable and highly secure. Passionate about innovation and talent he founded Cognition Foundry in 2015, a company designed to provide easy and affordable access to an enterprise scale computing platform along with mentoring, design and architectural expertise. Working with incredibly talented individuals Ron enjoys an interesting and (very) busy life.Ron is also Founder and CEO of TES Enterprise Solutions an IBM Gold Business Partner. Our core focus to add value through the provision of technology and services through both long established and new, innovative technologies. TES's speciality lies in the IBM System z and LinuxONE platforms where we provide hardware, software and services.

Providing Consultancy on IT and energy solutions

Consultative Sales in Enterprise Systems (mainframe, zSeries)I was responsible for identifying, building and leading the sales of large scale mainframe computer infrastructure solutions across multiple sectors - including Government (MOD and DWP), Finance, Engineering and Retail. Each sale was typically multi-million dollar and involved leading a team of between 20 and 40 people to construct and then progress a sale to it's conclusion.

Embedded in Large Government Account (DWP) on the infrastructure design of large scale mainframe systems.I led the IBM technical infrastrure design and also provided infratructure design consultancy, to the System's Integrator, for the build of new large scale transactional IT systems.

Embedded in Large Financial Account accounts (Natwest) implementing large scale mainframe systems.A major project during this time was to re-architect the systems infrastructure to enable the transition to new mainframe technology (zSeries parallel sysplex). I worked very closely with the IBM development labs (over a very intense two year period) to ensure that the customer, who had one of the largest mainframe implementations in the world - could migrate from large single engine systems (fast ECL technology) to smaller multiple engine systems (much slower) CMOS technology).It was the first large implementation in the world, replacing eleven system footprints in only twelve weeks - with no service disruption.

Embedded in Large Banking Customers (First Data Resources) working with the customer teams to design and implement large scale mainframe system solutions.Notable events: My part in a two man technical sales and marketing team drove the IBM share of market from 12% to 95% over this period.I led an initiative, involving the IBM Mainframe development team and UK engineering support, to develop and establish concurrent ("live") upgrades on mainframe computers.I designed a MANUAL tape library system - to replace a multiple robotic tape library system - which reduced the customer's (heavily tape orientated) overnight batch cycle by three hours.

Negotiated and agreed Service Level Agreements between regional Customer Engineering locations and the centralised Call Management Center. Established procedures and gained certification to meet BS5750 requirements for the IBM Call Management Centre.

Providing UK and European level support on IBM Mainframe and peripherals. Regional Specialist on 3033, 308x, 3090, 433x, tape systems 2401s thru 3480), disk systems (2311 thru 3380) and large printers (1403 thru 3800).

Embedded in large mainframe accounts (Natwest, Esso Petroleum, London Elecricity) responsible for the technical health of the IBM Mainframe systems.

I was the final level of support for the resolution of control system problems on Lift and Elevator systems. This covered electro-mechanical and the early computerised systems.

Good old fashioned apprenticeship covering domestic and industrial installations (including TV studios), control systems design and installation, lighting design and installation, manufacturing, electronic design, mechanical design and installation. Intense, wide and enjoyable