DREW TIBBLE
About Me
My name is Drew Tibble and I live in Teddington, West London.
I am passionate about technology and how it can help us in so many areas to be more efficient and save time.
I recently received some professional guidance that a CV should only be two sides of A4 and should only cover the last decade. I felt that I was unable to compress all of my life experience and skills into just two sides of A4 so thought that I would elaborate here on my website to give you the full story...
2023 - Present day 2024
Freelance Technical Support Consultant
Currently pursuing a career as a freelance Independent Technical Consultant helping local companies who do not possess their own IT Department. This bespoke technical support offering has been warmly welcomed in the current climate. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me to discuss how technology can help your company.
Skills
Time Management.
Discipline.
Customer facing.
Summer 2023
Evolve Computers Managed Service Provider (MSP) - Helpdesk Manager
In mid 2023 I was invited to join Evolve Computers in the role of Helpdesk manager, leading a team of highly talented service desk engineers to help to resolve a wide array of problems for nearly 40 different small and medium sized companies. It was an interesting experience but I soon realised that I much preferred working proactively rather than reactively.
Skills
Team management.
Working under pressure.
AutoTask service desk.
2019 - 2022
MSI Reproductive Choices - Senior Systems Engineer
In November 2019 I was invited to join MSI Reproductive Choices in the role of Senior System Engineer looking after technical operations at the Central London Headquarters in Fitzrovia. I joined and lead the existing, highly talented, multi-disciplined team of support engineers and began looking at ways to enhance technology with a particular focus on sustainability. I immediately began work on developing and implementing a business improvement program to identify and to propose solutions to address any shortcomings. I was also supporting colleagues in 37 different country programs providing centralised and standardised advice to many troubled countries such as Yemen and Afghanistan. As we entered 2020 a new word entered our vocabulary - Covid-19. In accordance with Government guidance our Central London HQ closed and all staff began working from home. The technology we had in place supported home working very well and productivity actually improved. I adjusted my working patterns in accordance with lockdown and embraced many different global projects including helping to set up what we called our Global Tech Hub where I shared knowledge and best practice with colleagues in many different countries to help promote self sufficiency and to lighten the load on our busy helpdesk. Sadly late in 2022, myself and many others, were informed of impending redundancy.
Skills
Team Management.
Continual Service Improvement.
Out of hours Incident Management.
ITIL.
ITSM.
Move to Cloud.
Working at a Global level.
Azure.
PBX Telephony.
Change Management.
Change Advisory Board.
Remote Management Tools.
Project Management.
Succession Planning.
Process development and compliance.
Starters, movers and leavers process management.
2008 - 2019
The London Grid for Learning - Senior Technical Consultant
In 2008 I was invited to join a small but extremely influential consortium of the 33 London Local Authorities called The London Grid for Learning, which had been created by the truly extraordinary blue sky thinker, Brian Durrant (CEO), to initially procure affordable and safe broadband for all London Schools. LGfL was a great success and soon began to expand our support for schools by using any additional funds, in terms of economies of scale, to reinvest in other essential technology services for schools such as:
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Centralised, fully managed Microsoft 365 hosted email system.
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Secure web hosting.
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Curriculum mapped resources.
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Safeguarding and security guidance.
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A professional service desk.
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Professionally and securely configured firewalls and routers.
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Free dedicated broadband connections just for video conferencing.
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Specialist exemplary ICT Teachers who would visit schools to provide information, advice and guidance.
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Centrally procured enterprise strength Anti-virus, Anti-Malware and Anti-Ransomware software.
At LGfL we assisted our board, our Local Authorities, when red tape was an inhibitor to effective provision of resources. Accordingly, I was delighted to represent LGfL whilst on an extensive secondment for Southwark Local Authority providing myself as a flexible educational IT subject expert particularly supporting the 14-19 Team under the auspices of the inspiring and creative leader of the team, Darren Coghlan. Whilst working with Darren we developed a well structured IT support network for our Southwark schools. My work was particularly focussed around working with The London Managed Learning Environment (LMLE) and in providing many hundreds of exemplary training sessions, whilst based full time, at Southwark City Learning Centre (CLC), the Mermaid Conference Centre, many other London CLCs, many public facing LGfL events and even the Emirates and Twickenham Stadia. Following the retirement of Southwark CLC's most excellent manager, Dr Graham Meers, I took over management of Southwark CLC to continue to provide resources to local schools and to facilitate communications between the very many LA colleagues that I had had the pleasure of working with over the years.
I had initially been engaged on a two year contract to support Southwark LA which actually turned into 5 and a half years following repeated resubscription for my flexible and bespoke services. Towards the end of my most enlightening time with Southwark LA I was appointed the manager of an old school , that was awaiting refurbishment, in Peckham where we provided a school place for young learners who were new to Southwark and usually new to the UK. It was an exciting and inspirational time where we took delivery of students who had not yet had an offer of a mainstream secondary school place so myself and a small selection of extremely talented teachers catered for the educational and welfare needs of all of our students who had joined us from Africa, Asia, Central and South America. As well as the serious courses such as the courses that I would personally deliver in Project Management, 3D Gaming design and App Development we would also deliver inspiring, educational and most importantly fun days out and comedy workshops for our young learners.
Our work in Southwark was recognised with an award for our innovative work with Southwark LA:
During my 11 very happy years with LGfL (2008-2019) I was personally line managed by our CEO and I would like to add great friend to this day and inspirational influence, Brian Durrant (On the right in the picture above).
Skills
Developing great working relationships with key stakeholders and providers.
The London Managed Learning Environment.
MS Office 365 Administration.
Google G-Suite/Workspace Administration.
Communication Skills.
Staff Training.
App Development.
Video Conferencing.
Security.
Hyper-V.
VMWare.
Working at Enterprise level.
Service Desk.
Nutanix.
Veeam.
Procurement.
Cisco.
Meraki MDM.
InTune.
Asset Management and Auditing.
GDPR.
2003-2005
Orleans Park School - Network Manager
In 2003 I was invited to join a local secondary school near to where I live in Richmond called Orleans Park School as the Network Manager where they had a requirement for someone who had all of the same skills as those that I had acquired in my previous role at Mellow Lane. Orleans Park was an outstanding school and I was delighted to be able to bring them up to the technological next level. When I first began at Orleans Park it had less than 100 rather old desktop PCs and only 2 interactive whiteboards. We successfully achieved ICT and Mathematics Specialist College status and benefited from the associated funding to give the school a major technological upgrade. I nurtured a great working relationship with Alan Sugar's educational company, Viglen, and managed to achieve some fantastic cost saving deals which helped to grow the educational network to in excess of 500 desktop PCs and over 70 interactive whiteboards which enhanced teaching and learning. During my 5 extremely pleasant years at Orleans Park I built a team of expert educationally experienced engineers to support our own school as well as many local primary schools. I engaged with Richmond College to set up a new apprenticeship scheme which saw our team strengthened by the addition of a young man called Dominic who, I am proud to report, became the Skills Council's IT Higher Apprentice of the Year. I also introduced a fully automated Managed Learning Environment which delivered online resources and a wealth of collaborative learning tools to staff, students, parents and governors.
Skills
Network Management.
Team building.
Apprentice Master.
Learning Platforms.
Supporting local schools.
Budget Management.
Systems Administration.
People Management.
2001-2003
Mellow Lane School - Network manager
In 2001, following a sensible realisation that the way forward to present educational resources to students would be via networks, I was invited to join Mellow Lane School (now Hewen's College) in Hillingdon where I began work as an IT Technician. I settled in well and soon became the Network Manager performing duties such as rapidly learning about the intricacies of Network Management, personally installing structured network cabling, repairing computers, installing software, remotely imaging computers, hardware maintenance, providing training and making sure that the network was fit for purpose to support the 1,200 students.
Skills
Network Management.
Technical Support.
Troubleshooting.
Active Directory.
Group Policy Objects.
Computer Imaging.
Hardware repairs and upgrades.
Software installation and deployment.
Teamwork.
Windows servers.
SIMS.
1997 - 2001
Self Employed - Graphic and Web Designer
In 1997 I used my artistic skills to become a Graphic Designer, which in turn, lead to me becoming a Web Designer. I setup my own Graphic and Web Design studio which evolved into an artistic collective of like-minded, multi-disciplined souls. We created many different websites for local businesses, artisans, comedians and fellow artists.
Skills
HTML, DHTML and Javascript coding.
Macromedia, now Adobe, Creative Suite.
Customer liaison.
Digital Photography.
File Transfer Protocol.
1989 - 1997
Self Employed - Military Figurine Hand-painter
Whilst still working for Chas C Stadden Studios I had already forged a great working relationship with Tradition of London and Maggie and I began painting 90mm military figurines for Tradition who, at the time, had three shops in Shephard's Market in Mayfair. We also painted figurines for Hussar Military Miniatures as well as becoming the preferred artists for 3 royal dynasties - The British, Jordanian and Saudi Arabian royal families. To keep standards high, we employed a rigorous checking procedure which gave us a great level of attention to detail.
Skills
Quality Assurance.
Working at pace under pressure.
Accuracy.
1984 - 1989
Chas C Stadden Studios - Military Figurine Hand-painter
I chose to follow my hobby of painting military figurines and began working for the legendary sculptor, Chas C Stadden at his studio in Twickenham. My work was recognised by the industry and I was lucky enough to win a number of high profile awards. Whilst working at Chas Stadden studios I made many great, lifelong friends and even my beautiful wife, Maggie. The quality of my work was recognised by the studio and I was made the lead production painter tasked with painting many "Specials" which were painted to museum quality. Those were really superb times. Sadly, the studio was taken over, relocated and eventually "mothballed" by the new owners.
Skills
Attention to detail.
Mass production.
Artistry.
1983 - 1984
Carpenter and Joiner
My first job out of school was working as a Carpenter & Joiner with my uncle and master craftsmen, Michael Tibble. Working alongside a true master craftsmen nurtured in me a desire to achieve perfection and gave me a great sense of achievement in seeing a beautiful, functional finished product.
Skills
Accuracy.
Teamwork.
Ingenuity.
