Mark L.

Background

About Mark L.

All my connections are genuine so I WILL NOT CONNECT on LinkedIn if I do not know you. I’ve had a strong interest in things that whirred and clunked from a very early age leading to a degree in mechanical engineering and to my employment at Ford Motor Co as a graduate trainee. After 5 years I was seduced by the computer industry with its mesmerising red and green flashing lights. This included Poqet Computer Corp, a hi-tech startup born in Palo Alto and raised in Sunnyvale, California. I spent 4 years at Symbol Technologies (now Motorola) as UK project lead for cellular mobile data. My salesman and I grew revenue from negligible to £13m in 2 years. I joined TPS Call Sciences as Customer Product Manager to deliver a mature £m product to international customers. The system had been released prematurely without proper project management. I addressed the product failings, imposed project disciplines, and managed every stakeholder that showed their face. I later repeated the magic for Dolphin Telecom by recovering their Voicemail service which was delaying the European launch of its TETRA network. By now I had turned to the dark side working as a consultant on assignments of 3 months to 2 years. These were a mixture of project recoveries, standard ‘no drama’ project deliveries and new product developments. For the recoveries, I resolved inherited mistakes and, like the UN, separated the warring factions and built lasting peace. Routine project deliveries allowed me to recuperate between stressful recoveries. My personal success rests upon getting the best possible performance from my team. Work should be fun and, if it isn’t, I try to make it so as I’ve learned that the bulk of an employee’s stress comes not from their work but from their relationship with their boss. I co-ordinate and marshal the skill of others toward a common goal by micro-supervising, but not micro-managing. I’m still excited by whirry clunky things found on the shopfloor, innovative new product development, strong project management and managing opinionated stakeholders. I have a sense of humour which escapes occasionally to motivate my team. Locations considered: Onsite - within 30 miles / 1 hour Hybrid - within 60 miles / 2 hours Fully remote - within 100 miles / 3 hours