Past projects and experience
A selection of projects from more than 20 years in trading firms, fund houses, listed financial groups and robotic warehouses. Client names are kept confidential; I am happy to talk through any of these in more detail on a call.
Independent infrastructure assessment for a global investment bank (UK)
The need: the bank’s technology leaders wanted an objective view of risk in their UK office’s network and physical infrastructure.
What I did: assessed the network, security, wireless and power estate for single points of failure, resilience weaknesses, control gaps and non-compliance with standards.
Result: a formal report with a risk-rated findings register, a verified asset inventory and prioritised remediation recommendations the client uses to plan fixes.
Network for a goods-to-person warehouse robotics system (UK)
The need: a new Geek+ robotics system had to run reliably across high-bay, low-bay, inbound and outbound operations, integrated with the WMS.
What I did: deployed and supported the infrastructure, designed a low latency wireless architecture for fast-moving robot traffic, and implemented network segmentation, NAC and security monitoring across the robot (OT) and office networks.
Result: a robot network built for the way robots actually move, with the operational network separated from office risks.
Low latency trading infrastructure for a securities firm
The need: faster, more consistent market data and order flow for an active trading business.
What I did: introduced Arista 7050X and 7280R switching, optimised routing and tuned multicast for market data distribution.
Result: a purpose-built low latency trading network in place of general-purpose office switching.
Trading floor relocation with zero disruption
The need: move a listed securities firm’s trading floor without affecting trading.
What I did: planned and led the network, systems and connectivity move as Head of IT.
Result: relocation completed with zero disruption to trading operations.
Global futures trading platform
What I did: built and launched a futures trading platform connecting to international exchanges including CME, and designed FIX connectivity for securities and futures.
Head of IT for a multinational financial group
Scope: technology across Hong Kong, Europe and the US for brokerage, asset management, wealth management and private banking businesses, reporting to the CEO.
What I did: ran Cisco Nexus 7000/9000 data centre networks, low latency market data and FIX connectivity under a follow-the-sun support model, set up the technology governance framework, and directed BCP, DR and cybersecurity programmes with external auditors.
Head of IT across 20+ branches
Scope: 800+ users, 100+ production servers and multiple regulated business units at a securities firm, including trading platform implementations and migrations, BCP and DR.
Network automation for regulated clients
What I do: write Ansible playbooks and build CI/CD pipelines (GitHub/GitLab) so network changes are repeatable, version-controlled and reviewable, with security architecture on Palo Alto, Fortinet and Cisco across Azure and AWS.
Qualifications
CCNP Security, ITIL Foundation, Executive MBA, BSc (Hons) Network Computing (UK).
Have a similar problem?
Tell me what is going on with your network. I reply within one business day and can usually start within a month.