Mark Dixon

Experience

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  Creese Builders

  Jan 1986 - Jan 1988

  Carpenter

  Did my City & Guilds in carpentry. Worked for a company that converted houses into flats. My primary role was carpentry but had to be involved in all areas of the building trade; from fitting kitchens, decorating, bricklaying, plastering, etc...

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  Reed Elsevier

  Jan 1989 - Jan 1997

  Senior Production Controller

  RCB was a global book publisher which own labels like Hamlyn, Octopus, Michelin, Methuen and Heinemann. Working on the Children’s side I was able to meet author’s like Rev Awdry (Thomas the Tank Engine) and A.Milne (Winnie The Pooh) and be involved in the technical role of project managing a number of titles throughout the year.

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  PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) / Perseus

  Jun 1997 - Jul 1999

  IT Consultant

  I was contracted to PriceWaterhouseCoopers (then Coopers & Lybrand) via a Midlands company called Perseus. PWC are 1 of the top 100 worldwide businesses and the largest auditing service in the UK. It has offices nationwide with at least 1 office in every large town and up to 4 in the larger cities. Working at PWC was very high profile and ambitious company to work for with many staff jostling for position and status. Having an IT team of 400 I saw a high staff turnover in the 2 years I was there. I was part of the Backup Team and then the Server Management; partners lose @£10k plus per hour when a server is down so there was pressure to ensure they never went wrong and to correct them in the fasted time possible. I was responsible for leading a team around the country to upgrade hardware and implement new procedures.My greatest acheiveiement was that I created a backup strategy that boosted success rates from 67% to 97% (over 300 servers), the same strategy went worldwide. Show less

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  Eidos

  Jul 1999 - Dec 2001

  IT Manager / 3rd Line Support

  Eidos PLC is a games software company made famous by the creation of Lara Croft (Tomb Raider). I worked at the head office in Wimbledon which stationed all the Directors as well as 90 staff. The head office dictated the IT structure for the 15 global offices. In a highly competitive market Eidos were 2nd to Microsoft by selling famous games like Tomb Raider, Football Manager, Commandos – to name a few. A very different company as it housed laid back testers to the high profile millionaires like Sir Ian Livingstone (famous inventor of Dungeons & Dragons). I Looked after a team of 4 helpdesk staff, being involved in management and 3rd line support. I project managed number of different projects that fall outside the normal realms of IT which included a few conferences which included press and International CEOs; showing off new games on all platforms of game consoles. Show less

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  Proactive Systems Ltd

  Dec 2001 - now

  Managing Director / IT Consultant

  Proactive Systems are an IT Solutions company supplying advice and support to businesses within all areas of IT; from repairing/building PC's, designing websites, cloud solutions, backup solutions, email solutions, networking, PC and server installations to fixing a general problem.http://www.proactive-systems.co.uk

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  Guidance Marine

  Oct 2008 - May 2016

  Group IT Manager

  Group IT Manager for a user base of 100+ employees over 4 sites. Guidance Marine designs and manufactures sophisticated real-time, rugged laser and radar based position and navigation systems for industrial automation and marine/offshore applications. I worked for a technology driven company so the IT had to be in keeping with the innovation of the business. We used most of the technologies of Microsoft (and some Linux) on a Hyper-V platform. Given the bright sparks I worked for their IT needs were varied and sometimes challenging but that's what made my job so exciting.The company has since been acquired by a global engineering company (Wartsila) and they have retained my services for looking after the Leicester engineering network. Show less