IT Director at AEG Europe
London, United Kingdom
- Current
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- IT Director at AEG Europe
- Past
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- Head of Technology Services at Virgin Radio
- Head of IT - South at SMG plc
- Chair at British Youth Council
- Head of IT at Ginger Media Group
- Freelance IT Consultant at European Movement
- Business Director at Oxygen 107.9fm
- Education
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- University of Oxford
- Recommended
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5 people have recommended David - Connections
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- Industry
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- Websites
David Jones’s Summary
I have been a senior IT manager in the broadcast and entertainment industries for over ten years. I enjoy working for fast-moving, innovative, brand-led, highly customer-focused organisations.
My teams have always worked to bring the value of technology to the businesses they work with. I believe IT can be more than a back office service: it can drive a company's relationship with customers, support business profitability, and has the potential to be a revenue generator in its own right.
David Jones’s Specialties:
Management of technology staff, technical infrastucture architecture design and implementation, project management, service delivery (including ITIL principles), contract negotiation and supplier relationship supervision.
Development of commercial IT services, including hosting and outsourced support.
David Jones’s Experience
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IT Director
AEG Europe
(Privately Held; Entertainment industry)
January 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)
Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is one of the leading providers of live entertainment and sports in the world. AEG owns and operates some of the world's best arenas and theatres and a collection of companies dedicated to producing, promoting and presenting world-class live entertainment.
I manage the 16-strong IT department, who are based at the group's flagship London venue, The O2. I direct the IT strategy and budget, and work closely with our technology partners at The O2: NEC and Philips.
The team provides IT services for staff, tenants and events at The O2. In addition we provide support to other businesses in the AEG family in the UK and Sweden, including the Stockholm Globe Arenas, AEG Live and Kilimanjaro (music promoters), Thames Clippers (a commuter boat service) and the David Beckham Academy.
Since I joined AEG, significant achievements include: a restructuring of the department into technology operations and business systems teams including the recruitment of two new managers; the integration of the Stockholm Globe Arenas into AEG's gobal network; the launch of a new UK intranet; the migration of AEG's core infrastructure to a new datacentre; and the opening of the British Music Experience (a highly interactive exhibition which is based at The O2, dedicated to the history of pop music in the UK, including ground-breaking RFID Smarticket technology). -
Head of Technology Services
Virgin Radio
(Public Company; Broadcast Media industry)
January 2006 — December 2007 (2 years )
SMG, Virgin Radio's parent company, underwent an internal restructuring which took out a lot of the groupwide structures. I was invited to join the Executive Management team and to head up a new Technology Services department at Virgin Radio, which was a merger of IT and Broadcast Engineering. Broadcast technology is moving away from traditional analogue infrastructure towards computerised integrated digital platforms, and the overlap between the two teams had been growing. A merger allowed us to provide consistent skills across all areas of Virgin Radio's technology infrastructure.
The Technology Services team was responsible for delivery of IT and broadcast engineering services for 100 staff, four radio services and a dozen studios.
I also directed the technical strategy for Virgin Radio New Media, including managing an international hosting network which encompassed the UK, US, mainland Europe and Asia, to deliver the website and streaming audio services for virginradio.co.uk, the world’s most listened to internet radio station. The Technology Services team took on a dedicated sales person to develop a 'Golden Square Networks' business, and we commenced the provision of web and audio hosting services to other radio groups. -
Head of IT - South
SMG plc
(Privately Held; Marketing and Advertising industry)
May 2000 — December 2005 (5 years 8 months)
Ginger Media Group was acquired by the Scottish Media Group in May 2000. Renamed as SMG, the group owned the Herald and Evening Times newspapers in Glasgow and the STV and Grampian ITV television franchies in Scotland. In addition to Virgin Radio and Ginger Television, SMG also owned the London-based Pearl and Dean (cinema advertising) and Primesight (outdoor advertising) businesses.
My role therefore expanded to include responsibility for the IT teams and strategy at Pearl and Dean and Primesight, and I increasingly became involved in the development of IT services across the group.
In 2005, SMG invested over £2 million in a complete refresh of its core IT infrastructure, and I was seconded to this project as Technical Architect. We contracted HP to provide consultancy and implementation support in a project which saw us roll out Active Directory, Exchange 2003, Novell ZENworks, Windows XP, a new QoS-enabled WAN and Cisco VoIP across the organisation. -
Chair
British Youth Council
(Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
August 1999 — August 2000 (1 year 1 month)
[This was a voluntary un-paid position, which I occupied in addition to my employment at the Ginger Media Group.]
The British Youth Council (BYC) is an organisation led by young people for young people, aged 25 and under, which exists to empower all young people to have a say and be heard. It is an umbrella organisation of youth organisations and local youth councils, and it is frequently called upon by the government and other organisations to provide youth representation.
I was elected to the Steering Committee in 1997, to its Management Committee in 1998, to the position of Vice-Chair Finance in 1999, and finally Chair in 2000. As Chair, I led the Management Committee, which was also the board of trustees for the charity which underpinned the organisation, managed the Chief Executive who ran a team of half a dozen permanent staff, and represented the organisation to government.
Highlights included representing the UK at Commonwealth Youth Forums in Durban, Kuala Lumpur and the Solomon Islands; joining the board of the National Youth Agency; and meeting ministers and MPs to lobby for increased rights for young people. -
Head of IT
Ginger Media Group
(Broadcast Media industry)
February 1998 — May 2000 (2 years 4 months)
I joined Ginger Media Group shortly after Chris Evans had bought Virgin Radio from Richard Branson's Virgin Group and merged it with his Ginger Television production company.
Initially, my role was to provide IT support to the Virgin Radio Sales team, but a few months after joining I was asked to become the group's first Head of IT. I went on to spend ten amazing years working for Ginger, Virgin Radio and its parent companies as a senior IT manager. -
Freelance IT Consultant
European Movement
(Non-Profit; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
January 1995 — December 1998 (4 years )
While at University, and for a short period afterwards, I provided freelance IT services to the European Movement, an international pro-European lobbying organisation.
At the time, the organisation was significantly ramping up its number of staff in anticipation of a referendum for the single currency which, alas, was never to materialise. -
Business Director
Oxygen 107.9fm
(Broadcast Media industry)
February 1997 — September 1997 (8 months)
While studying for a chemistry degree at Oxford University, I joined the team that was working to bring a permanent student radio station to Oxford. We ran a successful month-long trial broadcast in September 1995, from which we lobbied the then Radio Authority to advertise a radio licence for Oxford city centre.
Oxford Student Radio went on to win that licence, and Oxygen 107.9fm became the first student radio station with a full commercial FM licence when it launched on 14 February 1997. After I completed my degree, I joined the management team of the radio station on a full time basis for a few months, with responsibility for sales and business development.
David Jones’s Education
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University of Oxford
BA Hons , Chemistry , 1993 — 1997
Additional Information
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Christ Church, Oxford
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