From support analyst to IT Director in 20 years at a regulated wealth manager, now based in Dubai.

I spent 20 years at Killik & Co, an FCA-regulated wealth management firm operating across 11 UK locations. I joined as a support analyst and progressed through infrastructure and service delivery roles to IT Director, formerly Head of IT, with board accountability for technology strategy, cybersecurity, and operational resilience.

That progression matters more than the title. I've worked at infrastructure level, overseen a managed SOC, negotiated major supplier contracts, and sat in the boardroom explaining technology and cyber risk under regulatory scrutiny. It's the specific experience of running IT inside a regulated firm, under scrutiny, where getting it wrong has consequences - and it's what now lets me take on defined technology work across IT projects, cybersecurity, AI adoption and supplier management for businesses more broadly, not only regulated ones.

Across those roles, I led an infrastructure and SD-WAN overhaul that reduced critical downtime by 70 percent, oversaw a managed SOC and a multi-factor authentication rollout, and co-authored the firm's first AI acceptable use policy and governance framework.

I relocated permanently to Dubai in 2026 and hold an IFZA consultancy licence. Regulated finance remains a credible part of my history - it's the background behind this practice, not the only kind of client I work with.