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Orb Data Directors

Nigel Brown, CEO

Since co-founding Orb Data in 1998, Nigel is responsible for Business Administration and Finance. Prior to this, Nigel was Technical Director for IT Masters, an IBM Business Partner headquartered in Belgium. Before becoming involved in supplying solutions to customers, he was the manager of the UNIX Operations Team at BTCellnet (now O₂) with the responsibility for ensuring the availability of business critical applications. Nigel has a BSc (Hons.) degree in Electronic Engineering, and also spent a number of years involved in research in Artificial Intelligence.

''I enjoy the challenge of growing a business that tries to maintain a culture of professional excellence for the benefit of its customers and a stimulating and enjoyable working environment for its employees.''

Simon Barnes, Director, Managed Services

Simon, one of the three co-founders of Orb Data, is responsible for the Managed Services portfolio.  In addition, with 10 years’ experience in delivering Enterprise Systems Management (ESM) he continues to pursue his technical role helping customers meet their challenges.

Before forming Orb Data, Simon provided consultation services for ESM solutions. Prior to this, Simon worked in the UNIX Operations Team at BTCellnet, where amongst other things he implemented an ESM solution based on the IBM Tivoli software suite.

''My father always ran his own company and so the decision to start Orb Data was something that was completely natural to me. The great thing about Orb Data is that without the rigid structures of a larger company we can react quickly to new ideas, which in turn makes the company dynamic and exciting. We then take this dynamism to our customers.''

Giles McGarry, CTO

As co-founder and CTO, Giles is responsible for ensuring Orb Data continues to respond to a rapidly changing market, keeping one eye on the future and one eye on current customer needs.

Previously, Giles worked for IT Masters as an ESM solutions consultant, and before that he worked for BTCellnet as a Unix Systems Administrator where he successfully implemented and ran their ESM Solution, using the Tivoli, BMC and SecureMax software. Giles began his working life at House of Fraser Information Systems as a Unix Systems Administrator on Point of Sale (PoS) and Receipt, but also developed software for, amongst other things, a distributed management system to manage the PoS equipment.

Giles has always been interested in ESM, and while completing a Computer Science Degree (BSc Hons.) at Greenwich University he wrote a distributed management system for his final year project.

"I've always been interested in enterprise management. I guess this stems from my first job at HoF where I had to visit every one of the company's systems over X25 daily to make sure the systems were up and running. To say this was tedious was an understatement. My predecessor was happy to do this - I wasn't. I was frustrated by this approach, so I wrote something to do it for me. Since then I've strived to remove the mundane from the daily life of the systems administrator."

Ben Fawcett, Director, Product Development

Ben joined Orb Data in 1999 as a Principal Consultant during which time he quickly began to realise there were gaps in the toolsets deployed by customers, so he began to write and develop software products for Orb Data. He became the Director of Product Development in April 2002. Since then he has lead the Development Team and delivered Odyssey and various bespoke customer applications.

Ben studied Physics at Oxford University and graduated in 1995. He promptly cast aside Heisenberg and ShrÖdinger and became a Software Development Analyst for Cosmic Solutions, a Software Consultancy specialising in business planning applications for retail markets. In 1997 he joined Diagonal PLC, a SAP/R3 implementation partner, here he worked as a Consultant focusing on ESM for large-scale ERP environments.

"It is a pleasure to bring the development and consultancy teams so closely together. We are in a unique position to channel a vast wealth of services experience into the creation of highly practical software applications that are truly relevant for meeting real world challenges."

Jason Forsyth, Director, Software Sales

Jason joined Orb Data in 1999 as a Principal Consultant. He has nearly 20 years of consulting experience covering many large blue chip customers in the United Kingdom and Europe.  In April 2002, he became Director of Professional Services. In December 2010 Jason took on the role of Director, Software Sales to grow the revenue stream of all third party software Orb Data resells.

Prior to Orb Data, Jason worked for IBM as an ESM consultant. During this time he engaged with a large number of customers in Europe and became a well respected, and very technical consultant. He is also a registered IBM Training Instructor capable of delivering in depth technical training material based on IBM software products. Jason has a BSc (Hons.) degree in Computing Science and Knowledge Based Systems from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh.

"I enjoy working for a small, dynamic company that shares my sense of ambition. It is also nice to work for a company where everyone's opinion is taken into consideration no matter what their position is in the hierarchy. I have been given the opportunity to move from providing consultancy and training to being an active member of the board and part owner of the company to now being responsible for all software sales revenue.  Ultimately, I enjoy the type of customers Orb Data engages with - these are major blue chip companies from the financial, manufacturing, retail and information sectors. These companies face serious challenges, and I enjoy working with our customers to overcome these challenges."

Steve Lawrence, Director, Professional Services

Steve joined Orb Data as Business Development Manager in November 2004, working with the Board to define and deliver a strategy for continued growth and technical leadership. His success in meeting this objectives was recognised with promotion to the Board in November 2006, where he continues to help drive the business forward.

Before joining Orb Data Steve spent a number of years as a Senior Business Consultant with IBM Tivoli's Pan-EMEA team, working with customers to deliver successful projects and maximise the benefit of their investment in Tivoli software. Prior to this, he held a number of different positions in IT Operations and Development, ranging from hands-on technical roles to Data Centre management. His wealth of practical experience, combined with relevant professional qualifications (such as Prince2 and ITIL IT Service Management), makes him well equipped to understand the challenges facing Orb Data's clients, and how best to resolve them.

"We have some very talented people within our team who are able to make a real difference to our customers through their professionalism and technical expertise. This is reflected in the feedback I receive from both our customers and our partners, and gives us an unsurpassed reputation in the industry."