Ready for New Opportunities

Highly Accomplished IT Leader and Infrastructure Transformation Expert. 

Charismatic and influential leader with over two decades of diverse leadership experience, driving innovation and delivering results.

Bringing extensive expertise in enhancing internal IT operations and engineering across diverse industries. Known for visionary, strategic leadership with a strong track record in technology implementation, budget management, cost savings, and strategic planning.

Committed to aligning strategies for business objectives, nurturing self-sufficient, dynamic teams for seamless operations, and fostering growth and success across domains. 

Open to leadership roles in various fields

In Career Transition 

ExpressVPN

Stepping into the realm of ExpressVPN, a global leader in digital privacy, I took the helm as the Head of Information Technology during some transformative times. My tenure was marked by orchestrating intricate system environments, driving forward-thinking IT strategies, and ensuring our technology infrastructure supported the robust needs of millions of users worldwide.

After the acquisition by Kape Technologies, I was promoted to the head of IT for the group of companies. This journey started with a huge project of merging the IT systems across the board.

Under my leadership, the IT department flourished as we embarked on ambitious projects, from streamlining legacy systems to pioneering next-gen IT solutions. My approach consistently bridged the gap between business and IT, ensuring our technological advances directly supported ExpressVPN's overarching mission and business goals.

Head Of Information Technology

Nutanix

At Nutanix, a powerhouse in hyper-converged infrastructure solutions, I took on the pivotal role of IT Operations Director for the APAC region. Overseeing a landscape as diverse and dynamic as APAC presented both challenges and exhilarating opportunities, a tapestry I thoroughly relished weaving.

My primary responsibilities encompassed driving the strategic IT vision across APAC, ensuring seamless system integrations, and providing unwavering support to our business units in the region. With a focus on blending technical expertise with a business-centric approach, I successfully led numerous initiatives that streamlined operations, reduced costs, and enhanced productivity.

IT Operations Director - APAC

VPK Packaging Group

At VPK Packaging Group's Coreboard Division, a leader in sustainable packaging solutions, my tenure as the Director of IS and Technology was both intense and rewarding. With the industry in the throes of digital transformation, my role was instrumental in aligning the division's technological framework with its ambitious growth goals.

In those seven months, I delved deep into refining the division's information systems, optimising operations, and spearheading technology-driven strategies that added tangible value to our processes. By combining my extensive IT insights with VPK's sustainability vision, we embarked on initiatives that fostered innovation and improved efficiency.

Director of IS and Technology at VPK Coreboard Division

NPAC Holdings Ltd

At NPAC Holdings, I steered the IT and Infrastructure direction, aligning tech solutions with business needs. My role was pivotal in streamlining operations, harnessing innovation, and ensuring a robust technological foundation for the company's ambitious growth trajectory.

Director of IT and Infrastructure

Powerflute

In my consultancy role at Powerflute, I was engaged on a short term to define and deliver a full stack of IT services when powerflute bought corenso from StoraEnso. This short term role then turned in to the full time role at NPAC.

IT Consultant

Volex PLC

I have been productively involved in the transformation of the global IT infrastructure of the UK listed Volex Group PLC with offices in Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe and the Americas and took responsibility for the operational IT management of the company’s facilities for more than 2 000 users in three regions globally, and for more than 30 local and remote staff.
This was one of the largest IT projects in the company’s history, costing $4 million to transform its IT platforms over a period of two years to a modern, centralised system.

Key achievements included, inter alia:
Extension of two regional data centres using IBM hardware and VMWare virtualisation software.
Migrating Email to MS Exchange and migrating global desktop and server to a single manufacturer and image.
Perimeter security, remote access and penetration testing, as well as MS Lync for global VoIP calling and voice/video conferencing.
Globalising and legalising all software licensing.
Managing vendor relationships with suppliers such as AT&T, Singtel and Microsoft.

As Infrastructure Manager of Volex, I also ensured efficient use of global resources by centralising the IT department, reducing staff by 40% and implementing service level agreements (SLA’s) and a service desk system to track the department’s performance and enable continued service improvement. I furthermore helped to safeguard the ability of the business to meet its goals by implementing process improvements and more functional systems.
I was involved in numerous green field site builds, including the provision of building work, cabling, desktops, a local data centre, a Cisco Call Manager and WAN/WWW connectivity for a 200-user factory in Batam, Indonesia – a $300 k project completed on time and within budget.

Global IT Infrastructure Manager

API Group PLC

In this role I was accountable for the global IT infrastructure of this UK-listed manufacturing company with operations in Europe and the Americas and took responsibility of an IT budget of $0.75 million US dollars, as well as regional IT support teams of eight staff in four regional locations.
During my tenure, I migrated the legacy distributed IT infrastructure into centralised, standardised systems for group-wide operations to simplify support and maintenance.
I furthermore consolidated the global IT budget at less than two percent of the group’s turnover by a reduction of 60%. At the same time, I consolidated numerous data centres into two global data centres to reduce the group infrastructure in the region.
My key achievements included:
 Implementing a global VoIP unified communications system for 1000 users and guiding, mentoring and supporting the team of eight staff at four different sites
 Introducing outsourced IT solutions for operations such as Mimecast Email security and daily management of the Oracle EBS outsourcing delivery, as well as continuous improvement programmes for IT infrastructure
 Utilising shop floor data capture hardware and networking to bolster infrastructure implementation supporting Oracle ERP systems and segmented IT services for operations sold during disposal of non-core activities
 Ensuring legislative compliance and audit standards in all systems

Group IT Infrastructure Manager

In this role I provided daily technical support for all the Group’s European operations. I was accountable for Project Management of all IT Infrastructure projects including:
 Global Cisco VoIP rollout
 Annual Desktop refreshes
 Building out two global data centres
 Migrating WAN infrastructure
 Supporting Oracle ERP rollout
 Implementing Hyper-V Globally, and
 Many others

Senior IT Systems Administrator

AstraZeneca

Working for this world leader in pharmaceutical development and manufacturing, I served on a team providing IT security and Email access to 70,000 customers world-wide. I was also responsible for the migration of NT4.0 architecture to Windows 2000, management of response and SLA’s to user support requests and the provision of technical support to other internal functions.

Email & IT Security Specialist

Shell

Working for ExPro - a function within the Shell Oil Group’s IT division that supported the exploration and deep sea oil rig staff - I was part of the Helpdesk team that provided first line IT support to more than 13,000 staff worldwide. This support also included management of the implementation and integration to legacy systems of Windows 2000 and providing liaison with 2nd line support teams to ensure that SLA’s, response and fix times were met.

IT Helpdesk Analyst

Hi! I'm Patrick, an IT Strategist and Leader with over 20 years of expertise across diverse industries in the UK, Europe, US and extensive parts of APAC.

My journey in IT is awash with a rich tapestry of experiences. Beginning in Cheshire's restaurant kitchens, I've since swapped aprons for algorithms and infrastructure, leading technical transformations at several  MNCs. My 2009 move to Singapore wasn’t just a new pin on the map; it represented a myriad of transformative challenges and growth opportunities.

Beyond technology, my ethos revolves around a marriage of technicality with genuine business impact. Every strategy I implement is meticulously crafted to not only elevate user satisfaction but also support the delivery of organisational aspirations and goals. My succinct communication style, devoid of unnecessary embellishments, ensures that messages are impactful and direct, and builds trust at all levels.

One passion sits fervently at the heart of my professional pursuits: sustainability. Living by the beach, I often find solace in its tranquillity. Yet, it perturbs me to witness the remnants of human indifference littering our shores. With my children as my motivation, I’ve been an active advocate for environmental responsibility, often taking the initiative to clear plastics from our local beachfront. Ensuring a sustainable future isn’t just a wish, it’s a commitment; one I wish to intertwine with my career objectives. Whether it's volunteering in sustainability ventures or teaching my children about the environment, I aspire for a world where technology and eco-consciousness converge harmoniously.

I've also embraced a continuous learning philosophy, from dabbling in new programming languages to graphic design, proving that every day presents a unique opportunity. I also take great satisfaction in learning from my team and peers as experts in their respective fields.

I am a visionary, strategic, and results-driven leader looking for a new opportunity to express my passion and build new leaders. Let's connect and collaborate to make our world a bit better.

Patrick Kittle

Engaged Intelligence Ltd

It's been a fun first year at building up Engaged Intelligence.

In that time I've been involved in legal discussions, financial and business planning, product design and validation, I.T. systems and information security.  In an early-stage startup, it might be quicker to list the things I haven't done.

Oh, and I may have written quite a lot of code too (AWS / React / Typescript etc)

Now I'm in the process of taking our product to the wider world.  And presumably writing more code to address the new challenges we discover in the process

Founder & Director

The Geek Whisperer®

Software Engineering & Organisational Consultant

ExpressVPN #Hiring

Founded in 2009, ExpressVPN enables millions in over 180 countries to access the free and open internet—and to do so privately and securely. We work every day to ensure that taking control of your privacy and security online is easy and accessible, no matter your level of technical expertise. As every aspect of our lives becomes increasingly digital, we believe that protecting online rights and freedoms for all has never been more essential.

Chair of the Development Platforms Tribe, overseeing teams developing ExpressVPN Client applications and the supporting build and test infrastructure.
Set and tracked team and tribe OKRs and metrics for measuring success, in alignment with company OKRs.
Hiring Manager for Engineers and Managers, developing hiring plans and appropriate interview loops
Refactored internal hiring procedures across the engineering organisation, and supported introduction of changes to reduce hiring cycle times by 30% in less than 6 months and increase number of engineering hires by 66% over the same time period
Restored relationships with external recruitment agencies

Acting Director of Client Applications

People manager of seven engineers and one manager
Hiring manager for Windows developers
Team lead of Windows client development team - drove team through agile improvements, leading to the delivery of a substantial code refactoring, improving customer experience, and security.

Windows Client Manager

Citrix

Manager of cross functional engineering team developing the Xen hypervisor
Overseeing quick (including day zero) response to substantial security issues
People manger to twelve engineers, handling difficult conversations and driving career growth through 1:1s, 
Hiring manager for multiple roles, contractors and full time employees
Delivering agile training internationally across the company from executives to individual contributors (Scaled Agile Framework SAFe SPC)
Member of the Citrix Lean/Agile Centre of Excellence
Trainer and UK Champion for Lean Innovation Challenge, running 'lean innovation' bootcamps internationally, and supporting teams through to delivery of commercial projects

Software Development Manager

Drove introduction of agile processes within Citrix
Became of of Citrix's first SAFe SPCs, helping drive the introduction of SAFe within the company
Technical lead on two releases of Citrix Hypervisor / XenServer
Windows Team Lead for Citrix Hypervisor / XenServer

Staff Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer II: Windows Development Team Lead

Progress Software

Developed the Apama command line debugger, made substantial changes to their integrated adapter framwork, designed the new market data api.  All on the Apama CEP platform, in a combination of Monitorscript (Apama EPL) and C++

Senior Software Engineer

Solarflare Communications

Speciality:

Windows network device drivers (WDM, WDF, NDIS 5, NDIS 6)

Other areas:
Automated test frameworks, TCP/IP stack,  linux->windows device driver porting.

Senior Engineer

Neurodynamics

Developed windows device drivers (for NT4 and 2k3) for video capture card.  Contributed to numberplate recognition algorithm, rewrote much of a high availability data storage system for CCTV video.  Developed audio subsystem with lip synching capability for said storage system.  Wrote a communications tool to allow different modules to communicate together, increasing the company's feature set substantially.

Senior software engineer

FutureTV

Developed device driver for a PCB Printer, then moved on to work on the in house Conix OS, writing the computer audio and multicast network stack code. Also wrote IR receiver code using an Atmel AVR, and contributed to video server code (transmitting MPEG over the proprietary ASH network) and ASH->IP bridge hardware.

Software Engineer

Discovering new ways to live & work - Technology & Management Consultant. Book a free 90 minutes session to discuss any problem I can help you with via calendly (see my contact info for link)

Trust is Strategic!  As a Founder & CTO of Engaged Intelligence I'm working on solving the Crisis of Trust within businesses, and making the world of work better for everyone.

Software Development and Technology Management Consultant.  Available to perform team, process and codebase reviews for software development organisations.

Open to explore roles as fractional technical co-founder with new startups.

Formerly a director of engineering at ExpressVPN and manager at Citrix.  

Available for technology reviews, consulting and coaching.  Free 30 minute discovery & problem solving sessions available.

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The Battle

Patrick Kittle

Ben Chalmers

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