After Cirrus I took a job as IT Manager (equivalent to an IT Director in the US) at the Medical Research Council of South Africa, and later a position as a System Development Manager at Plessey South Africa (now Tellumat). After working at Plessey for almost 2 years opportunity knocked in the form of a "green card" - the right to work in the US for any employer. Being the adventurous sort (I was a hang glider pilot for 10 years) and having always wanted to "see how the other half lives" my wife and I decided to emigrate. We felt that if we didn't like it, we could always return. But we have enjoyed living in the US immensely since 1995.
Emigrating was quite a change. While the lifestyle in California was very similar to Cape Town, the culture was surprisingly different. On arriving in the US I started job hunting over the internet, and four weeks to the day later I started at Seagate Technology in Scotts Valley, California. Early in 98 the CIO at Seagate, Tom Dillon, left and joined Candescent Technology. A few weeks later Tom approached me and asked me to set up the Lotus Notes environment at Candescent from scratch. I jumped at the opportunity, and stayed with Candescent for 4 years until they ran out of money - a Silicon Valley startup that didn't quite make it. I then joined Idec Pharmaceuticals at a Senior IT Manager. That was my dream job, perched on the cliffs at Torrey Pines, in San Diego. Two years later Idec merged with Biognen (now BiogenIdec), which prompted a change in direction to that of an independent consultant. A few years of that and it was back to the corporate world managing the email team at Discovery Communications in Maryland. Unfortunately with the property crash of late 2006 we could not sell our house, which caused me to find a new position in San Diego with Cadence Pharmaceuticals. I stayed with them as Senior IT Manger for 3 years, until the FDA didn't approve their drug.
My primary interest is the intersection between the business and IT, or applying IT to solving business problems, and empowering people. Over time my interest and skills have developed, constantly improving ways to efficiently manage IT teams to delivering value to satisfy customers.
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| Hard at work... |
