Gavin Sweet

Current

CTO at theNetStart
Consultant at Sweet Consulting Services Ltd (Sole Proprietorship)

Past

Network & Implementation Consultant at Phorm Inc.
Enterprise Architect at Which?
Technical Consultant / Enterprise Architect at Mosaic Island / Which? Online

Director Portal Systems at Orange UK
Director Systems Design & Development at Wanadoo UK plc
Director Systems Architecture at Wanadoo UK
Director of Infrastructure at Wanadoo UK / Freeserve.com plc
Head of Infrastructure at Freeserve.com plc
Head of Technical Production at Freeserve.com plc
Technical Producer at Freeserve Ltd.
Technical Consultant (vISP platform) at Planet Online Ltd
Product Development Engineer at Planet Online Ltd
Science & IT Officer at Harewood House Estate & Zoological collection
Researcher & Editor at Reed International

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11 more...

Education

University of Oxford
Manchester Metropolitan University

Recommended

16 people have recommended Gavin

Connections

203 connections

Industry

Internet

Gavin Sweet’s Summary

Technical Director, Architect, Consultant.

Technical Director with substantial experience driving technical, architectural and organisational transformation. A senior leader equally adept at dealing with Executives and Engineers. Ten years experience delivering software solutions in technically and commercially challenging telecoms & e-commerce environments.
• Charismatic and energetic manager, technologist, architect, consultant and leader.
• Founding employee at Freeserve, central to its dynamic growth, and integration with Orange.
• Record in building both development and support teams, methodologies and processes.
• Strong enterprise architecture and programme management skills.
• Technically strong ISP, IT and IS systems experience broadband, web, portal and converged services.
• Supplier selection and management skills; tender diligence and M&A.
• Board level reporting, experienced across technical management spectrum.

Gavin Sweet’s Specialties:

• TOGAF Certified Enterprise Architect.
• Prince2 Certified Practitioner.
• Enterprise and Solutions Architecture.
• Software development and Programme Delivery.
• Methodology and management.
• Web, IS systems, IP networks.
• Broadband and Converged services, VOIP, IPTV.
• Technical/Programme Governance and Corporate Technology Diligence.

Gavin Sweet’s Experience

CTO

theNetStart

(Internet industry)

December 2007 — Present (1 year 1 month)

TheNetStart Platform is a start-up, developing a proposition to provide a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform of telco, ISP and converged service management tools.
Consultant
Sweet Consulting Services Ltd (Sole Proprietorship)

(Sole Proprietorship; Myself Only; Internet industry)

February 2007 — Present (1 year 11 months)

Technology, Architecture & Management consulting services.
Internet, IT, Telco, Portals, Digital & Convergent Services.
Network & Implementation Consultant

Phorm Inc.

(Internet industry)

January 2008 — May 2008 (5 months)

Technical consultant supporting technical discussions with service providers, identifying solutions, and evangelising the platform, with a view to integration of the Phorm solution in UK ISP's. Also provided organisational consultancy to the CTO, delivering an improved approach to Release Management.
Enterprise Architect

Which?

(Non-Profit; 201-500 employees; Publishing industry)

January 2007 — September 2007 (9 months)
Technical Consultant / Enterprise Architect

Mosaic Island / Which? Online

(Partnership; 1-10 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)

December 2006 — September 2007 (10 months)

Technical consultancy engagements at strategic, tactical and operational levels.

Which? Online Transformation Programme:
Lead consultant delivering a Healthcheck analysis to Which? management board. Designed an Online Transformation programme covering organisation, methodology, process, and technology in order to improve business value and responsiveness of the Online IT teams. Strong communication skills were a crucial complement to traditional technical and consulting skills.
• Devised management framework for online activities covering strategy, governance, delivery and support.
• Initiated structured planning for a pragmatic migration to ITIL led service management.
• Stabilised software development teams and provided change management & delivery processes to unify and focus effort.
• Led feasibility studies for new strategic e-commerce services. Supported business case development, designed high level architecture, & led supplier selection, to support 2008 go live.
Director Portal Systems

Orange UK

(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Telecommunications industry)

March 2006 — September 2006 (7 months)

Responsible for portal solutions, supporting revenue targets of tens of millions of pounds. Five teams providing solution architecture, design, software development, infrastructure & environments, supplier management, 3rd/4th level support.
· Delivered migration of Portal & content management systems, Orange portal rebrand and redesign, supporting daily page impressions in excess of 100 million.
· Delivered traffic & sales optimisation solution based on segmentation that protected multi-million pound revenues across Orange & Wanadoo.
· Technical senior stream lead for IPTV & VOD/DSL and European level representative, ensuring initialisation and coordination of UK programme.
· Integration and localisation of group Digital Identity management platform that supported 3 million UK ISP and portal service subscribers.
· Delivered Search services across Orange & European entities within the FT group from UK “centre of excellence”, yielding multi-million pound annual revenues.
Director Systems Design & Development

Wanadoo UK plc

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; LSE:WAN; Internet industry)

July 2004 — February 2006 (1 year 8 months)

Responsible for design and architecture of Wanadoo systems, managing seven teams of architects, solution designers and developers. Software development of all in-house built software – registration, provisioning, middleware, B2B interfaces, Portal tools, client software, self-care etc. Local accountability for pan-European projects and initiatives.
- Delivered major re-factoring of legacy code base to J2EE/WLS middleware allowing growth of broadband acquisition to 10,000 per day.
- Launched local VOIP telephony service IS integration & systems development (middleware, self-care & integration to softswitch) in under 6 months.
- Delivered technical diligence and IS systems development/governance for LLU (local loop unbundling) as part of £100M+ programme.
- Matured local SCM, build and release procedures; led migration to Clearcase.
- Delivered architecture governance processes, assisting group/European IT policy, and consolidation of architectural roadmap.
Director Systems Architecture

Wanadoo UK

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)

February 2003 — June 2004 (1 year 5 months)

Developed a new department to deliver technology strategy & single design authority. Methodology, architecture strategy and governance process. Provided key technical authority to work on European level group platform/product integration and unification. Led a group tasked with stabilising end-to-end delivery and change management processes to complement corporate governance.
· Delivered architecture and design that enabled ISP expansion into broadband.
· Initiated push towards consolidated middleware, ultimately targeting SOA, for IS integration in order to reduce costs and improve business agility in launching new consumer services.
· Led UK RFP processes for middleware, subscriber management and CRM components, though these programmes were eventually integrated into group corporate strategy.
· Designed architecture and UK localisation of group European Identity management service and SSO, based on Liberty/SAML, allowing later integrated delivery of this platform in the UK.
Director of Infrastructure

Wanadoo UK / Freeserve.com plc

(Public Company; 501-1000 employees; Internet industry)

January 2002 — February 2003 (1 year 2 months)

Responsible for ISP, portal and IS infrastructure. Built up engineering and service management teams. Technology and supplier accountabilities for major programmes supporting broadband growth.
- Initiated 24/7 Service Desk and Service management (ITIL) with tools for monitoring & basic asset/configuration management
- Matured & migrated infrastructure platforms and skills, allowing consolidation and insourcing. Contract restructuring improved cost base by c. £7M p.a
- Migrated Amdocs to Portal (plus Sun/Oracle platform) platform in £5M+ programme, to move to unified group platform.
- Re-location of key infrastructure components to Madeiran site, allowing £tens of millions tax advantage.
- Acted as technical lead and evangelist for major RFP programme for entire ISP platform (access & backhaul networks, IP termination, transit/peering, DNS/mail/news/proxy etc) & diligence for ISP acquisitions.
Head of Infrastructure

Freeserve.com plc

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)

July 2000 — January 2002 (1 year 7 months)

Responsible for platform delivery & service integration, support and supplier management for hosted, ASP & vISP services – focussed on outsourced infrastructure & inhouse portal development.

- Delivered portal applications for one of UK's first online IPO's.
Head of Technical Production

Freeserve.com plc

(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)

June 1999 — July 2000 (1 year 2 months)

Responsible for technical design, delivery and integration activities, leading technical and supplier management functions. Managed local IT team providing LAN/WAN and desktop services.
Technical Producer

Freeserve Ltd.

(Public Company; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

January 1999 — June 1999 (6 months)

Set up preliminary in-house technical functions for Freeserve start-up. Managed two development teams and had responsibility for all client (CD) software and portal development.
Technical Consultant (vISP platform)

Planet Online Ltd

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

March 1998 — December 1998 (10 months)

Virtual ISP (vISP) platform development – presales, technical delivery, support, product development. Managed a small team to support other vISP/network solutions (e.g. streaming).
Product Development Engineer

Planet Online Ltd

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

June 1997 — March 1998 (10 months)

Narrowband systems and service development, support & end to end testing.
Science & IT Officer

Harewood House Estate & Zoological collection

(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Leisure, Travel & Tourism industry)

January 1995 — January 1996 (1 year 1 month)
Researcher & Editor

Reed International

(Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Publishing industry)

November 1990 — May 1992 (1 year 7 months)