Winston Ritson Email & Phone Number

Building a boutique artificial intelligence consultancy firm focused on the growing needs of businesses. The goal is to help businesses find their feet in these rapidly changing times.I am currently consulting for MTN, helping to build and accelerate their Microsoft practise across all their markets.

Ebene, Mu

Driving operational excellence in the Cloud & Cyber Security business, catapulting Liquid C2 and Cloudmania to exceed ambitious revenue targets by >35% CAGR. Built a high-performance culture that skyrocketed employee engagement, driving successful business transformations. Exploded Revenue: Surpassed aggressive goals through strategic planning, achieving a stunning >35% CAGR over the past 5 years. Grew the business from inception to almost US$100M.Empowered Teams: Cultivated a thriving environment, growing from a team of less than 5 to over 200 with 5 years. Won Microsoft Partner of the Year (2021 & 2022) and Cloudflare New Partner of the Year (2022).Mastered Operations: Implemented efficiency-boosting processes, slashing inefficiencies and propelling employee productivity. Secured a strategic M.O.U with Google Cloud (first for an African MSP).My Passions:• Building champion teams that dominate the market.• Fuelling growth through strategic innovation and operational excellence.• Fostering ownership and a culture of continuous improvement.

Ebene, Mu

Responsible for the expansion of our C2 (Cloud & Cyber Security) business, I spearhead strategic initiatives that propel us to the forefront of the industry. I craft and execute game-changing business development plans, driving:Targeted Expansion: Identify and cultivate high-value customers and partners, forging alliances that unlock exponential growth.Precision Pricing: Establish winning pricing strategies that maximize earned revenue while delivering exceptional value to customers.Sales Execution: Orchestrate the flawless execution of sales strategies, ensuring we capture market share.Strategic Investments: Champion bold initiatives and investments that unlock new opportunities and solidify our industry leadership.Refined Revenue Model: Continuously optimise our earned revenue model, extracting maximum value from every engagement.Here's what drives me:The thrill of the hunt: Unearthing hidden opportunities and forging strategic partnerships that catapult us forward.Building winning teams: Cultivating a high-performance sales engine that smashes targets and exceeds expectations.Thinking outside the box: Crafting innovative solutions that disrupt the market and redefine the game.

Ebene, Mu

Responsibility for the Cloud business across the Liquid Intelligent Technologies group. The unit is accountable for the end-to-end productisation including the go-to-market of cloud solutions; for example, Microsoft 365, Azure, AWS, GCP, and ISVs.Strategic objectives:• Cloud P&L• Partner enablement• Robust, measurable, and exceptional cloud buyer journey• Create Africa's largest digital services provider by revenue• Build organisation excellence using focused training and incentives• Provide thought leadership within the organisation, our customers, and future customersOperational objectives• Create and actualise a profitable business • Onboard and help commercialise under-exposed, exposed African ISVs• Responsible for the cloud portfolio across all Africa• Deliver cloud revenue growth ahead of shareholder expectations• Onboard and manage large software vendors, for example, MicrosoftAchievements• Doubling YoY revenue for the last 3 years

Ebene, Mu

Part of the new product team driving new product initiatives and framework across the organisation (12 operating companies). Ensure that new products are adopted in a structured manner with profitable outcomes across the business.Strategic objectives:- A positive driver of organisational change through the introduction of new products and services- Establish and maintain a new product pipeline and introduction cadence- Focus on retail (consumer) and digital products to create stickiness or new revenue- Mentor new members within the product team and ensure product management framework adoption Operational objectives:- Achievement of organisational growth objectives including market share, revenue, profit and return on investment for all the channels/categories of business and/or key customers- Managing a product from concept, product design, testing to launch. Create and own the business case, create the go-to-market strategy and the customer lifecycle managementAccomplishments:- Established new vendor relationships that helped refocus the business- Launched a new connectivity product focused on the mid-market segment across 6 countries- Helped set the department's 3-year vision to ensure long-term viability

Lusaka, Lusaka, Zm

Provide leadership, technology insight and articles to Techtrends. TechTrends is the leading Zambian online technology publication at the cutting edge of local industry reporting. We cover Telecommunications, Media and Technology, from the major brands, inventors and start-ups who are driving innovation, opinion pieces. From industry thought leaders and up to the minute coverage of technology events we have it covered. At the core of what we do is covering new tech startups enabled by these technologies. Our vision is to enable the Zambian tech sector to believe in itself and acknowledge it existence whilst publishing its growth and success to the world.

Lusaka, Lusaka, Zm

Establish the technical team looking after a new business unit focused on the enterprise business customer. Create new technical standards including technology adoption, vendor qualification and network architecture.Strategic objectives:- Oversee the planning function in the managed services environment (CAPEX)- Adopt relevant standards for network performance and quality- Create the technologic strategic direction for IP and MPLS for the enterprise and access networks- Vendor qualification by drafting and scoring based on the internal RFP and RFQ processOperational objectives:- Adopt newer technologies (RAN and IP) and manage customer migrations- Maintain internal SLAs (managed services provider) and external SLAs (customer)- Participate in creating the MTN Zambia’s business plan for the Networks department- Focus on staff to create a new centre of excellence based on measurable metrics and goals Accomplishments:- New nationwide IP/MPLS backbone implementation within budget and technical objective- New RAN vendor for enterprise customers focusing on an OPEX model- Achieved internal and customer SLAs- Managed the growth of the network through team training and knowledge transfer whilst adding 50% more customers

Ebene, Mu

A new role within the organisation to target aggressive revenue and growth targets set by shareholders. The role is focused on managing the teams delivering on the technical objectives, customer support and financial goals. Ensure that Africonnect continues to be a leading innovator in the Zambian Telecommunications sector.Strategic objectives:- Provide the business linkage between the technical and commercial sections of the business- Provide the platform to ensure the business met growth targets of 20% revenue- Entice and hire the best of breed local engineers- Develop annual and three-year business plans Operational objectives:- Ensure that capital commitment and capitalisation is on schedule- Responsible for CAPEX budget and spend on technical projects within the ISP- Exploring, finding and negotiating partnerships that would result in either additional revenue or customer stickinessAccomplishments:- Launched Zambia's first 4G network across 6 cities- Doubled the customer base to over 8,000 subscribers- Part of the team that led to the business being elected Zambia's number 1 ISP by the regulator- Part of the strategic and implementation team for the new business rebrand driving a new consumer focus with retail outlets and digital-first customer touchpoints

Ebene, Mu

Lead and manage the technology department.Accomplishments:- Migrate the entire network to IPv6 from IPv4 (over 20 cities and hundreds of routers)- Migrate the entire network to MPLS (over 20 cities and hundred of routers)- Met budgetary objectives and targets to grow the business by 20% YoY

Ebene, Mu

Build organisational capability to grow a new revenue segment. The business traditionally focused on consumer and SME, the new focus was to extend into the corporate and enterprise segments.Accomplishments:- Established a new network deployment based on a build, operate and transfer of assets- Grew the new segment exceeding expectations and as a result was promoted within the business

Work on maintaining customer excellence and technical standards for the business. The business focus was on fibre connectivity for enterprise customers.

Looked after the organisations network in the north of the country where the highest value customers where. The high value customers were the mines and their supporting businesses.

Lead the team that provided IT support for customers in Lusaka. The support provided was in addition to traditional ISP services, we helped customers with their LAN, servers and firewalls billed on a time and material basis.

Master Of Business Administration - Mba, Mba Candidate 2026

Diploma, Hotel/Motel Administration/Management

City & Guilds Microcomputer Technology Diploma, Microcomputer Technology