About

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    Australia
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About me

Experience

  • 2023 - Present
    Gridmark Survey

    Geospatial Surveyor

  • 2020 - 2023
    Gridmark Survey

    Survey Technician

    Survey Technician specialising in Geospatial Mapping using Trimble field and office systems to carry out Land, Building, Bathymetric & Utility Surveys, alongside Laser Scanning, and Aerial Survey data capture. Using a combination of LSS, Autocad, Trimble Business Centre and Trimble Realworks to deliver client drawings and 3D data.

  • 2006 - Present
    Christopher Best Photography

    Owner - Photographer

    Freelance self employed Photographer. I currently specialise in two main areas of photography; commercial photography including, products and places and public relations; social photography including wedding and lifestyle portraits. I have taken photographs through out my life and as such have over thirty years experience.

    The commercial work I undertake covers everything from news / press release stories to product photography for use in brochures, websites, and calendars.

    I also teach an introduction to Photography within the Lifelong Learning sector and have my Level 3 award in “Preparing to teach within the Lifelong Learning Sector”.

  • 2005 - 2006
    Silentnight Furniture

    Operational Improvements Manager

    A twelve month secondment to the Manufacturing team, as Operational Improvements Manager, where I was required to initiate productivity improvements across all areas of the manufacturing process. To work alongside NEPA and OneNorthEast as part of a best practice dissemination team. I spent my time identifying areas of improvement within the various manufacturing elements of the business and then running small and medium improvement activities within those areas.

  • 2004 - 2005
    Silentnight Furniture

    Business Process Re-engineer

    A six month secondment to a Business Process Re-engineering team; required to map out and redesign current business practice and processes with the aim of reducing or removing unnecessary costs. This involved the appropriate re-allocation of manpower, machines and materials, as well as the inevitable reduction in these areas. The project covered all aspects of the business from Finance to Customer Service, Manufacturing to Raw Material Purchasing and Distribution. The project had an initial saving of £900K and a further £1.5m in year two.

  • 2003 - 2004
    Silentnight Furniture

    Logistics Manager

    Logistics Manager working alongside the Transport Manager for a ten month secondment helping to run a busy transport department of some 120 drivers, second men and office staff; along with a fleet of 50+ HGV vehicles. I was required to complete the Certificate of Professional Competence from the National Road Haulage Association.

  • 2002 - 2003
    Silentnight Furniture

    IT Infrastructure Manager

    I was employed as IT Infrastructure Manager, with a staff of three and a user base in excess of 300 covering two sites one in Sunderland and the other in Keighley West Yorkshire. The department ran a mixture of VAX/VMS based business systems along side more conventional Microsoft Back Office products, including Exchange, SQL and IIS servers. The network was based around a collapsed Gigabit fibre backbone running Cisco switches, with satellite departmental switches each having a redundant connection in case of failure. User applications are delivered either via a Citrix thin client desktop for standard users or a standard PC for “power” users. The Citrix desktop is delivered via a server farm of three load balanced servers.

  • 2001 - 2002
    The WebWorks

    IT Infrastructure Manager

    A short term contract as Infrastructure Manager, where I was to assist in the design and setting up of new Internet Hosting facility; in the centre of Newcastle. The facility was based around a redundant fibre optic connection between Newcastle and London, allowing clients a high speed and reliable hosting solution.

  • 2000 - 2001
    Just2Clicks.com PLC

    IT Infrastructure Manager

    The role as Infrastructure Manager covered all aspects technology provision, from telephony to web server and Internet connectivity. This included the services J2C provided to its internal, and more importantly its external customers. I had a team of six people, including myself, where all aspects of investigation and implementation of new technologies fall within my remit. I also maintained and managed support and project budgets.

  • 1997 - 2000
    Nissan Motor Manufacturing Ltd.

    Controller within the IT Department

    Initially as one of three Controllers working for the Office Systems team within the Information Systems Department of NMUK. The team consisted of twelve members of staff who are responsible for all aspects of desktop and server computer systems, as well as the LAN, WAN and remote networking for all NMUK based staff. A total of some 1500 Compaq PCs and 30+ Proliant servers were running on site. With a mixture of Token Ring and Ethernet switched networking, all running TCP/IP on 3Com or Cisco switching equipment.

    My role was one of New Project Development and specialist systems support. The project team consisted of five members of staff, four juniors and me. All new company and major user requirements were either conceived by or passed to the team for evaluation. Once a project is accepted the team would take it through all the various processes of costing, purchasing, implementation, documentation and user acceptance.

  • 1989 - 1997
    Courtaulds Coatings Ltd

    Technical Analyst

    As a Technical Analyst, working as part of a four man team responsible for all aspects of PC (LAN and WAN) end user computing support and implementation. This covered all UK and European sites as well as a number of sites worldwide.
    The team was responsible for all aspects of stand-alone and networked PC related systems. This included over 20 Novell Netware 3.12 LANs in the UK and a further 15 throughout Europe. A semi-technical Help Desk manned by Support and Senior Support Analysts provided support for the user base. A Technical Analyst, who is assigned on a rota basis, providing technical backup and ongoing training for the support team, backs up the support team.

    The team provided onsite and telephone support for in excess of 700 users worldwide. This included travelling to each remote site on a regular basis to update documentation and provide a regular site ‘health check’. Travelling was also required during times of upgrade and troubleshooting.

    Out of hours the team is available to be called out, on a rota basis, to support the shift Support Analysts provided cover.

    Liaison with business users, both in the UK and Europe, to help provide IT solutions for any given business requirement was a major part of the teams work. Although no control over the business project budgets, the team did have full control over technical budgets. The largest individual spend was in excess of £100K.

    The team also had to co-ordinate with various suppliers for equipment acquisition and service provision.

Skills