IT strategy & operating model
Team design, governance, service delivery, vendor strategy and turning IT into a dependable business partner.
Independent IT consultant · strategy · infrastructure · operations
Hello. I’m Stuart.
I’m an independent IT consultant with more than 30 years of experience in technology — from hands-on engineering to senior IT leadership, infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud transformation, retail systems and observability. I like practical technology, useful data and making complicated things easier to understand.
30+Years in technology
GlobalIT operations
CloudAzure · AWS · GCP
RetailStores · ERP · ecommerce
What I do
Making technology useful.
The recurring theme throughout my career has been connecting technology operations with business performance: reorganising teams, simplifying platforms, improving service, making pragmatic cloud decisions and using observability to understand what customers and the business actually experience.
Cloud & infrastructure
Hybrid infrastructure, cloud migrations, platform selection and practical modernisation across Azure, AWS and GCP.
Observability & business services
Monitoring customer journeys, ERP, ecommerce, warehouse flows, revenue and operational KPIs — not just servers.
Retail technology
Global stores, ecommerce, ERP, WMS, networks and the operational systems behind omnichannel retail.
Transformation leadership
Reshaping teams, introducing repeatable process and leading cross-functional change.
Communication
Translating complex technical work into language executives and business teams can use.
Experience
Some of the journey.
I’ve worked across infrastructure, retail technology, cloud, service delivery and transformation, from hands-on engineering through to global IT leadership.
Current
Independent IT Consultant
Providing independent advice and leadership across IT strategy, infrastructure, cybersecurity, architecture, service delivery and technology transformation.
August 2024 to February 2026
IT Director
Multiple Retailers
Enhanced all IT platforms and integrations (ERP, WMS, OMS, CRM, PIM & wholesale partners), built high-performing global IT teams and maintained reliable services. Implemented IT and business-process monitoring to ensure customer orders reached their destinations successfully and within SLA, including last-mile delivery, delivering lasting operational improvements. Rapidly deployed enhanced network connectivity across a large store network to support peak trading with minimal ongoing cost increases, improving the experience for store teams and customers.
2020–2024
Technical specialist / sales engineering
LogicMonitor
Worked with customers on observability, business-service monitoring and cloud transformation, with a particular focus on retail and hybrid environments across Azure, AWS and GCP.
2016–2020
Head of IT
Ted Baker
Led technology across a global retail estate, including the move from fragmented monitoring and manual spreadsheets to a single worldwide platform connecting infrastructure health with ecommerce, warehouse and business operations.
Earlier career
Infrastructure, operations and transformation leadership
Multiple organisations
My earlier career spanned hands-on engineering, infrastructure management, compliance, service delivery and IT transformation.
Selected impact
Beyond green lights.
I’ve consistently pushed monitoring beyond infrastructure health and into the services, orders, warehouses and customer journeys the business actually depends on.
Global
One monitoring view
Built a single worldwide monitoring view designed around follow-the-sun operations.
360
Stores & concessions
Worked across a global retail estate of around 360 stores and concessions during the programme.
24/7
Operational accountability
Designed support and operational ownership around regions rather than depending on one team overnight.
1
Business + IT view
Monitoring was extended into order fulfilment, warehouse backlog, sales and other business processes rather than staying confined to technical health.
Public speaking
Things I’ve talked about.
I’ve spoken publicly about enterprise monitoring, retail operations and business-level observability.
LogicMonitor Level Up · 2019
Keynote — Ted Baker
Keynote on how Ted Baker extended monitoring into broader business use cases.
Customer fireside chat · 2019Monitoring and customer order fulfilment
Fireside discussion on using monitoring to improve visibility around customer order fulfilment.
NRF Retail’s Big Show · 2024Retail observability
Retail technology and observability at NRF Retail’s Big Show.
Business-level KPIsBeyond infrastructure monitoring
Using monitoring to show the business how the business itself is performing.
The useful question is not simply whether the infrastructure is green. It is whether the customer journey, order flow or service the business depends on is actually working.
Elsewhere
A few links.
A small selection of places where my work, talks and projects have appeared.
Say hello
Technology, transformation and the odd side project.
If you need independent advice or experienced technology leadership for a project or transformation, connect with me on LinkedIn.