Les Davidson's Email Addresses & Phone Numbers

📖 Summary

A senior IT Manager, with extensive experience gained over 25 years working with major multinational organisations in both the Retail and Oil Industry sectors. Les has a proven track record in delivering high quality, companywide IT solutions and services in complex, global corporate environments. Played a key role in delivering the infrastructure and systems required to support global implementations of SAP during his time with The Body Shop International and formerly with the Hess Corporation and during the past four years, has transformed IT services within The Body Shop International, expanding the systems and service catalogue whilst ensuring sustainability, improving service stability and availability and at the same time ensuring operating costs are closely managed and optimised where possible. More recently Les has expanded his role with The Body Shop International to include all change and support activity of the company’s SAP solutions, delivering business process and systems change in partnership with the Finance, Operations and Commercial areas of the business. An excellent communicator, with keen analytical and problem solving skills, aiding project completion and troubleshooting operational issues. Quick and willing to adapt with a real enthusiasm to learn new skills, enhance acquired abilities and undertake new challenges.International IT Director @ From July 2014 to Present (1 year 6 months) International IT Infrastructure and Core Business Systems Manager @ • Expanded role with management of Core Systems area, currently overseeing delivery of all SAP project and operational activity for The Body Shop globally in support of key business initiatives, increasing overall team to 50. • Continued successful delivery of Infrastructure Programme including new North America datacentre commissioning, Windows 7 deployment and a number of complex regional office moves in Hong Kong, France, Germany and Spain • Mentored infrastructure team manager in successful delivery of complex integration of stand alone Sweden Market office and stores into corporate network and solutions • Developed RFP to supply SAP BI Support & BI Project Services to The Body Shop, shortlisting proposals and selecting preferred supplier for service implementation in July • Key member of L’Oreal virtual team defining future network strategy for group as part of global RFP for network services From February 2012 to July 2014 (2 years 6 months) International IT Infrastructure Manager (and EMEA IT Manager Interim) @ • Developed business case, planned and project managed the successful delivery of an Enterprise SAP hardware refresh within 3rd party dual datacentre facility, migrating multiple SAP systems (ECC6, BI7 and 4 x PosDM) and implemented an outsourced HP Managed Service in support of The Body Shop’s global SAP solutions as part of £6million initiative • Successfully fulfilled EMEA IT manager role in addition to existing global infrastructure responsibilities, working with regional Finance Director to define candidate project budget submissions for 2012 and deliver key business projects and initiatives in 2011. • Partnered with external consultancy team to design and deploy a global SCCM implementation, automating deployment of Wintel based solutions and system maintenance activities, reducing manual effort and significantly improving time to delivery • Introduced a secure mobile access solution for Exec and Senior level management enabling the ability to utilise the latest smartphone and tablet technologies. Also enabled pilot rollout of ‘bring your own device’. From June 2011 to January 2012 (8 months) International IT Infrastructure Manager @ Led the technical teams in the deployment and support of global infrastructure services covering networking, telecoms, server hardware, SAN storage, messaging, operations, SAP Basis, database administration, datacentre management, IS Security and desktop support. • Delivered consolidation project, implementing hardware environment and migration of 150 physical Windows servers onto resilient, multi node Hyper-V based virtual clusters • Co-ordinated multiple internal and external teams to successfully migrate Siebel CRM environment consisting of 23 server and a SAN environment from L’Oreal datacentre to new, outsourced location in UK within 2 months of project initiation • Defined and agreed WAN/LAN design for new Canadian Office with US business and delivered implementation ahead of scheduled opening • Managed and supported 400 desktop moves between multiple office as part of company wide restructuring • Responsibilities included delivery across 3 international zones of global WAN environment, 10 office/warehouse based LAN facilities, SAN storage, 16 enterprise class SAP Unix servers, 300+ Windows servers, global Exchange messaging solutions, Operations Support, global database administration and European desktop and frontline support From June 2009 to June 2011 (2 years 1 month) Global SAP Basis & Integration Manager @ • Expanded second tier of company SAN, implementing enterprise class SAN switch technology and multiple EVA disk arrays to support business data storage requirements • Managed delivery of improvements to US head office and warehouse LAN environments and store network to 400 locations across North America • Delivered SAP Basis requirements for final components of global SAP rollout • Assumed responsibility for team and managed delivery of middleware solutions linking complex network of globally deployed systems From July 2007 to June 2009 (2 years) SAP Basis, Security, Database & Unix Systems Manager @ • Promoted from Basis team leader to Basis, Security and Database manager within 6 months of joining the company managed and directly involved in delivery of technical Basis implementation and support for global SAP implementation, involving installation, configuration and support of multiple R/3, BW and POSDM environments in complex, integrated landscape • Accepted opportunity to widen remit over coming months, absorbing teams delivering Database Administration, Unix Administration and SAN storage expertise into area of responsibility From April 2004 to July 2007 (3 years 4 months) Infrastructure Project Technical Lead @ • Planned, investigated, tested and implemented end to end technical infrastructure requirements to support 200 concurrent SAP R/3 and EBP users in US and North West Europe, including oil and gas installations in North Sea, as part of a £13 million rollout. • Selected hardware platform, performed server and network capacity planning, co-ordinated server installations, carried out SAP system installations, devised and conducted performance and load test scenarios, documented point of failure analysis, formulated and co-ordinated desktop rollout strategy and reviewed and implemented printing, imaging, e-mail and faxing requirements. From June 2001 to 2004 (3 years) DBA Team Leader @ Managed a small team of specialists responsible for the implementation, support and maintenance of company’s database solutions worldwide, rapidly achieving standardisation and an increased reliability of information services. From May 1995 to June 2001 (6 years 2 months) Oracle Database Administrator @ Organised and carried out transition of BP’s outsourced Oracle database administration services back in-house, allowing for tighter control of Oracle environment, providing a more stable and reliable service. From October 1993 to May 1995 (1 year 8 months) Analyst Programmer @ Member of team tasked with implementation of multiple instances of an Oracle based maintenance management system for onshore and offshore installations across North West Europe. From March 1992 to October 1993 (1 year 8 months) Programmer Operator @ From March 1989 to March 1992 (3 years 1 month) Robert Gordon University From 1986 to 1988 Les Davidson is skilled in: Team Management / Leadership, Staff Training / Development, Project Management, Vendor / Supplier Management, Contract Negotiation, Technical Architecture, Budget Preparation and Control, IT Strategy, Business Relationship Management, Service Provision & Enhancement, Identification of Efficiencies & Cost Savings, RFP Management, Team Management, Leadership, Supply Management