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15 years Post-Sales
25 years Pre-Sales
I have spent the last 25+ years
working in PreSales roles, including recently helping VAR
activereach to expand their portfolio into Cyber-Security, with
products from vendors such as Netskope, Crowdstrike, Swimlane,
eSentire and Attivo and Data Centre products from Mellanox and
Cumulus. I spent many years working for leading networking
vendors, including Brocade, Foundry Networks, Nortel Networks
and Bay Networks in Pre-Sales/Technical Account Management roles
and in all cases I have acted as the trusted adviser and key
technical point of contact for many major clients in areas such
as finance, media and service provider. I
prided myself in being part of very successful sales teams with
a number of account managers over this period, where my
technical and commercial skills led to key customer/project
wins, with successful deployments and fruitful on-going
relationships
Prior to that, I worked for 15 years
in Post Sales engineering, on Mini Computers and the emerging
Micro Computer arena, including all early Apple computers and
the first IBM PC. I spent almost 10 years of this time as a
senior engineer and then in house tech support for Unix systems
from Convergent Technologies, Altos, MIPS Computer Systems and I
specialised in Ethernet networking and TCP/IP systems for large
customers like the Stock Exchange, Bupa Hospitals, 3i, Mathew
Hall, Prudential, British Diabetic Association
Name: John A. Clark
Nationality: British
Status: Divorced
Email: John.A.Clark@ukgo.com
LinkedIn: john-a-clark
Isleworth Grammar School
GCE O Levels
A: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Geography
B: English language, Biology, French
C : English Literature, Art
GCE A Levels
A: Biology
B: Physics
C: Chemistry 
Open University 3rd Level
Physics
Pass grade 2: S354 Understanding Space & Time
Pass grade 4: SM352 Electromagnetism
Network
Industry Training
Vendor: Gandalf,
Retix, Xylan, Bay Networks, IBM SNA, Nortel Networks,
Foundry Networks, Brocade, Ruckus
Flowmon, Netskope, Esentire
Soft Skills: Holden Sales
Training, CEB Challenger Sales training, Walter Blackburn &
Mensch Kommunication Presentation Training
Network Industry
Awards
Achievement of Excellence FY1996, Exceptional Sales Contribution
2003, Exceptional Sales Contribution 2006, SE Of The Year 2012,
Microsoft/Brocade Button Award 2012, 10 Year Long Service
Award 2013, Sales Challenger Champion Award 2015, Contribution
Award 2016
2019 to 2020: activereach
I returned to the VAR community with reseller activereach in
2019 with a brief to head up PreSales and to help bring in new
revenue streams in cyber-security, as well as Data Centre and
networking.
Having seen the evolution of both the cyber attack surface and the
sophistication of attacks during my networking career, I wanted to
expand my knowledge of contemporary endpoint and cloud computing
security stacks. This role provided the perfect opportunity to do
this and engaging with specialist vendors in this market, such as
Netskope, Crowdstrike, Swimlane, eSentire, Attivo and Cisco
Umbrella allowed me to both expand my expertise and to win new
deals. I also continued my involvement with data centre
architectures, open systems network operating systems and
automation working in conjunction with Mellanox and Cumulus.
During my tenure, I also presented at a n
umber of
marketing events, including a very successful and well attended Supercharge event at
Mercedes world covering EDR, CASB and SOAR, a Cumulus open
networking test drive at The Gherkin and an office based Lunch
& Learn session where I covered attack evolution and a
deconstruction of the recent Travelex ransomware attack. I also
wrote technical logs on Cyber
Security Threats in a Digitally Transformed World and
Why Enterprises
Should Consider Moving To Open Source Networking
In a growing company where the divide between the sales and
technical departments was still in evidence, I was able to bring
my experience in translating the demands of the sales cycle and
technical demands of new product training to bear, to help smooth
the process of qualification, proposal, implementation and
support. I also passed accreditation
exams for Netskope, eSentire, Cisco and Flowmon.
2008 to 2018: Brocade
Joined Brocade through the acquisition of Foundry
in late December 2008. Completed basic Fibre Channel training and
8 Gbps FC/basic
DCX training in Jan 2009. Won
a new project for City based finance client's network, Insight
Investment, just prior to the Brocade acquisition of Foundry,
which included Foundry Brocade BigIron RX core LAN switches and
Brocade DCX SAN directors (product ranges of both the acquiring
and acquired companies). Initially won the contract to replace the
existing core but went on to replace the entire network edge and
therefore displacing Cisco completely from the network
Took a lead roll in promoting and winning Brocade Ethernet Fabric
customers in 2010, including a major Data Centre with Linklaters
and deployments with several media companies in Soho, London (e.g.
Moving Picture Company, Rushes, Deluxe etc.). My association with
MPC h
as been a long one, since first working on the
project for their core BigIron RX router in 2006 and going on to
provide them with VDX switches, including the VDX 8770 chassis to
replace the BigIron RX in 2014.
Ran Networking Academy session for Brocade IP/Ethernet
Partners/VARs, presenting on MLX Technical
Deep Dive.
Won a Sales/Pre-Sales
Incentive Prize in 2011 for the highest revenue for
Ethernet Fabric in the UK (an engraved high end watch)
Personally managed, organised, configured and installed the network for the first major hosted Microsoft services (Lync, Exchange, SharePoint) deployment in the UK in 2011 for Sipcom, with VDX Ethernet Fabric switches and ADX Application Delivery Controllers. Won a Brocade Button Award with a citation from Microsoft for this work.
Won
a major new Data Centre deal for Friends Life in 2012 with TCS
(Tata Consultancy Services) in a very competitive environment with
extremely tight timescales. The design used used an innovative 2
tier architecture with an Ethernet Fabric based on Brocade VDX
switches and a routing core based on MLXe-16 switches running VRFs
for security isolation. The Cisco design and BOM for this project
was completed before our first meeting and there were only 5
months left until the DC would go live and provide data and
services. Nevertheless, this became another new business win for
Brocade.
Ran an online webinar for Brocade IP/Ethernet Partners/VARs on NAS, iSCSI and VDX Integration.
Won SE Of The Year Award in 2012. Given 10 Year Long Service Award in 2013.
Underwent full CEB Challenger Sales training, in four stages and, using the 4K UHD movie post production campaign as a real customer example, awarded Challenger Champion status at the Sales Kick Off conference in San Jose 2014.
Following the take-over of Insight Investment by
BNY Mellon, with a Cisco corporate standard, continued and
expanded the trusted-advise relationship to win a project to
replace the existing network with VDX 8770 chassis switches.
Won a Contribution Award in
2016 for handling the IP and Ethernet Fabric
elements of the ESMCP (Emergency Services Mobile Communications
Program) project, involving an order for over 100 VDX
switches, with Motorola Computacentre and EMC
2003 to 2008:
Foundry NetworksJoined Foundry Networks as
Pre-Sales System Engineer as part of the small, focussed UK
team.Worked in the Enterprise vertical sector. Completed a number
of major installations using FastIron Core Switches and FastIron
Edge 
Switches
(FES). Carried out design and implementation of IP telephony VoIP
networks using a QoS enabled, resilient BigIron Switch core
supporting IEEE 802.3af POE (Power Over Ethernet) FES switches for
London based clients such as CEB (Corporate Executive
Board) in Holborn.
Acted
as Foundry design lead and technical point of contact for major
clients in the rapidly expanding online betting sector. Carried
out design and implementation work for Betfair on
their London Data Centre and resilient MAN, using Foundry MRP
(Metro Ring Protocol).Carried out lab testing and approval for
Foundry ServerIron L4/7 load balancers and support for GSLB and
SSL for British Telecom Retail.Won
Exceptional Contribution Sales award at 2004 Annual Foundry
conference in Santa Clara Ca.
Became SE for Foundry UK's largest account, BBC, in 2005. Carried out
QoS testing at their White City labs for approval and deployment
of Siemens HiPath VoIP/IPT. Acted as Technical Account Manager for
BBC Broadcast's transition to RedBee Media.
Took lead ro
le
in testing and deployment of ServerIrons for L4/7 SLB projects at
BBC, including installation of complex active/active HA Pair SLB
configuration and subsequent detailed L7 healthcheck development
for Livelink server application.
Moved to form new account team in 2006 focused on accounts in
the Finance sector, primarily in the City of London.Won a major
project for a rapidly growing FX trading company, ODL Securities.
Carried out full testing and implementation of ODLs multicast 
trading platforms
over a state of the art 10 GbE backbone network, using a dual
BigIron RX-16 core switches and multiple FastIron GS edge switches
with dual-homed 10 GbE uplinks, running 802.1w RSTP, VRRPe and
UDLD resilience. Implemented 10 GbE Server load balancers for
ODL's web based applications, including integrated SSL
termination/acceleration and certificate handling. Won Exceptional
Contribution Sales award at 2006
1999 to 2002: Nortel Networks
Joined Nortel Networks,
the amalgamated company of Northern Telecom (Nortel) and Bay
Networks, as a Pre-Sales System Engineer in 1999. Worked as
the technical point of contact for several of the largest
corporate accounts as part of the "direct touch" London City Sales
Team. Completed numerous training courses on all of the Nortel
Networks' Enterprise Solutions product and technology portfolio,
including next generation routing-switches, advanced IP routing,
secure VPNs, policy based networking, IP telephony, Optical DWDM
etc.
Went on to perform the Technical
Account Management role for Nortel network's largest City account,
HSBC, with one of the largest deployments of Accelar 1200 routing
switches. Acted as the London technical design authority on Nortel
Networks Enterprise Solutions' largest switched MAN project,
encompassing Passport 15000/ Passport 6000 multi-service/ATM core
switches, Centillion 1000 ATM switches, Accelar 1200 Gigabit
Ethernet switches and BayStack 450 workgroup switches.
Took the technical lead on Nortel's largest LAN project to date in EMEA, the HSBC new HQ, a 44 storey headquarters building in Docklands, London: a flagship converged network supporting data, voice, video and wireless technologies for over 8000 users, with Passport 8600 switches, OPTera DWDM, Alteon Web switches and Option 81c PBXs. Developed a series of technical presentations on key subjects, such as IP Quality of Service, IP multicast etc.
Moved internally in 2000 to the IP Services Business Group with Nortel's Service Provider & Carrier Group, supporting the Shasta 5000 BSN (Broadband Service Node): an "Intelligent Subscriber Edge" Broadband IP Gateway, delivering 32,000 wire-rate instances of stateful firewall, Anti-spoofing, Diffserv QoS, IPsec VPNs, web-steering, policy-forwarding, accounting and Personal Portals.
Worked on projects for major Telcos, Service Providers, ISPs and Wholesalers including early roll-outs of UK DSL services, broadband satellite streaming video delivery and residential Internet connectivity over cable TV infrastructures. Also developed the inclusion of the Shasta BSN and Alteon 780 Web switches in Nortel Networks reference architecture for IDCs (Internet Data Centres) and ASPs (Application Service Providers). Wrote White paper on VoIP/IPTelphony technology.
Worked on a number of Wireless Internet access projects, in the
2.5G (GPRS) environment and early 3G (UMTS) roll-out, with the
Shasta BSN acting as an IP service node and as a GGSN (Gateway
GPRS Serving Node). Acted as the Shasta technical point of contact
for one of the UK's first WASP (Wireless ASP) solutions.
1997 to 1999: ACI (Anixter Communication & Integration)
Joined as Senior Pre-Sales SE in 1997, primarily responsible for Bay Networks Products and ATM backbone switching designs for ACI customers in the Finance/Consultancy and High Street retail brand market spaces. Acted as technical point of contact for the OSPF migration for the largest Bay Networks router WAN in the UK. Developed and oversaw an acceptance testing regime for a 12 month migration strategy from an ATM PVC based core implementation to LANE and PNNI for a market leading retail organisation. Extended product knowledge to include the Xylan Omniswitch ATM range, via training at the Amsterdam HQ. Attended the Bay Networks Barracuda Sales/Pre-Sales training conference in Vilamoura, Portugal. Participated in regular non-disclosure meetings at Bay Networks EMEA HQ in Valbonne, Cote D'Azur, as the UK representative. Gave a series of customer presentations at the ACI "Breakfast Club" seminars on implementing ATM switching.
Took on new role in 1998, as
Bay Networks Technical Account Manager: a dual role with both
technical and commercial responsibility. Responsible for all Bay
Networks products and designs, organisation of regular technical
forums and distribution of all technical information internally to
ACI. Re-launched the Bay/ACI relationship with a series of
multi-media presentations, under the name "Synergy" (click for movie).
Targeted on ACI's Bay Networks sales revenue and responsible
for commercial liaison, tele-marketing plans, incentive schemes,
partner business plans etc.Attended Bay Networks Barracuda IV
Sales/Pre-Sales training in Hamburg and the Strategic Product
Rountable, a by-invitation feedback session for Bay Networks' key
partners, in Valbonne, Cote D'Azur. Wrote press-release articles
for Bay Networks "Switched On" magazine,
detailing ACI case histories on large projects and new
technologies.
Championed the technical and commercial aspects of Bay Networks
Accelar layer 3 routing switches within ACI, including technical
design surgeries, customer evaluation programs and mailshots.
Presented on Gigabit Ethernet Vs ATM technology,
at the ACI "Breakfast Club"
seminars. Attended Connect 99, the first Bay Networks Annual
Technical Conference, in Monte Carlo, Monaco.
1995 to 1997: Logical Networks
Joined as Senior Network Consultant in 1995 and rapidly took on internal product responsibility for the newly amalgamated Bay Networks range, in addition to tender responses, network design and presentation with 3Com, Sonix, Centillion, Agile, Controlware etc. Typically involved with highly resilient LAN/WAN designs for major Corporate clients, often in business critical applications. Attended NAPS95 (Network Architects Summit) at Bay Networks Corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Furthered ATM knowledge to become in-house specialist. Carried out design and critical acceptance testing for Bay Networks 1st generation EtherCell/LattisCell ATM technology, running ATM Forum LANE version 1.0. Majoring with the city sales team, gained detailed experience of IDP market data services, such as Reuters Triarch. Designed Logical Network's first cell switching design, for a large dealing room environment in the city.
Attended the 1996 NEDC (Network Engineering Design Conference), in Malaga, Spain. Furthered Bay Networks ATM design experience with the acquired Centillion TokenSpeed and EtherSpeed products. Acted as single technical point of contact for Logical Network�s largest account: including Wellfleet router upgrades for the OSPF/Frame Relay based WAN and migration from the city based FDDI campus to an ATM MAN, supporting multiple VLANs and virtual routing. Expanded ATM knowledge to include multi-media products from Bay Networks/FVC. Designed pilot project for international video-conferencing, based on H.320 and 25 Mbps to the desk ATM technology for city trading environment.
Extended 3Com product expertise to include Cellplex ATM products: designed a complex, resilient LAN for large pharmaceutical concern using this technology. Designed and oversaw the first Bay Networks Model 5000BH ATM network in the UK, for a mission critical city dealing organisation. Pioneered the implementation of Centillion GIGArray designs within Logical Networks, including redundant, load-sharing PVC/PVP configurations, interacting with Ethernet based dual-homing resolved by Spanning Tree.
1986-1995: MIS
Seconded to Misys Communications in 1994, the group's structured cabling and network hardware/services supplier, to fill in responsibility for the vacant Technical Managers position. Working in a pre-sales role, designed and presented solutions to customers based on 3Com (Superstack, MSH, Lanplex) and Chipcom (Online, Oncore) hubs utilising 10BaseT, 10base5/2, FDDI. WAN solutions based on 3Com (Netbuilder), Spider (Integrator) etc. WAN bridge/ routers, utilising ISDN, Kilostream, Megastream etc.
Designed and oversaw technical aspects of MiSYS Divisional subnetted IP WAN during1995, including connection to The Internet, using Cisco 2500 routers via ISDN.
1986-1995: MiSYS Computer Maintenance
Promoted to Technical Consultant in 1992, responsible for
providing support to large customers and working in close
liaison with manufacturers (e.g. Mips, Spider, Retix etc.) Under
the banner of "MISYS TOTAL SUPPORT", provided environmental,
network and systems performance analysis on a consultancy basis,
with the department operating as a profit centre.
Ran
in-house training
courses on Computer Technology/Ethernet/Token Ring
etc. for employees and customers. Carried out TDR (Time Domain
Reflectometry) of network cable installations and analysis of
TCP/IP, IPX trace dumps from network "sniffer" equipment and LAN
accreditation to IEEE802.3/802.5 standards. Liased with MiSYS
sales companies (Misys Communications, TIS Ltd) on LAN/WAN
topologies. Acted in project lead role for new products. e.g.
Gandalf Premiere Bridge range.
Wrote the UPSmon autoshutdown software
package in C language (V1.0,V2.0, TCP/IP
remote version). Managed marketing, mailshots, pricing strategy,
VAR network, internal stock (wrote SQL database to generate
licence agreement numbers). Personally ported to most of the major
Unix platforms. Produced various Technical Articles on
environmental, physical, procedural issues which were used as the
MISYS official stance on these matters.
Developed
a company business plan in 1993 to
move into the Network Computing arena and presented to MD
at board level.This plan contributed to the restructuring of the
MiSYS Computer Services Division (MCM, MiSYS Communications, TIS
& Zygal). Relocated to the Bicester offices to develop the
Network Computing initiative. Received further training and
evaluated Netware 3/4, Banyan Vines, MSWindows for workgroups etc.
Letters
1986-1995: TIS Computer Maintenance
Followed the Management team to TIS in 1986. Maintained Unix systems from Convergent Technologies
and MIPS RISComputer Systems
and Fortune 32:16
Developed and ran an extensive training course on Digital Electronics and Computer Technology
Specialised in Ethernet networking and
TCP/IP systems for large customers like the Stock Exchange,
Bupa Hospitals, 3i, Mathew Hall, Prudential, British Diabetic
Association.
Promoted to Technical Support Specialist in 1988, following
software training (C programming, Informix SQL,TCP/IP).
Responsible for System tuning, kernel re-compilation, panic
debugging, equipment evaluation, training course development,
large data centre installations, including 3 phase phase mains
supply, UPS, air conditioning, systems resource tuning etc.
Promoted to Technical Support Specialist, responsible for
customer and engineer support, Sysgen of System II OS for
tuning/hardware additions. Wrote various Assembler diagnostic aids
and debugged customer SBASIC code.
Took on support of Altos range
(8600,68000,586,986), following Xenix training. Worked
on early network technologies such as Altos worknet (RS422) and PC
CSMA/CD coax LAN's.
Promoted to Technical Services Manager in 1985, responsible for Altos/Xenix/Unix upgrades, system site surveys, system moves, kernel recompilation, data transfer from System II hash files to C-ISAM using in-house conversion software.
Letter
1980-1982: MH Computer Engineering
Joined this small hard-working company as a Systems Customer Engineer, servicing Jacquard J100 minicomputer (a bit-slice memory mapped CRT system based on the Data General backplane). Repaired Systems, Pertec 24 Meg fixed/removable platter hard disk drives and peripherals down to component level on site, including oscilloscope set-up of Pertec servo electronics and R/W head C.E. alignment.
Advert and Letters
1979-1980: CFM (Computer Field Maintenance)
Joined the West London Service Centre as a Junior Customer Engineer. After Extensive basic computer training (binary numbering systems, Boolean algebra, logic truth tables, CPU architecture etc.), carried out field repairs of 6800/8080/8085/Z80 based systems running C/PM. Promoted to Systems Customer Engineer following further training and work experience, maintaining minicomputers (e.g. DEC PDP 8e, BCL Molecular 18), comms equipment and peripherals down to PCB level on site.
Remuneration: Basic + OTE + Stock Options
Benefits: Company car allowance and fuel, mobile phone,
Private health plan, Company contributory pension scheme
Current Car: Lotus
Exige V6 Cup & Noble M12
GTO (privately owned)
Club Lotus - Guigario
Turbo Esprit V8 Project
Motorsport - Brands
Hatch School graduation class B
Open University - Physics associate
undergraduate
Running - completed 1993 London
Marathon and 2016
Run2London 10 Miler
