I am the architect of my career

I believe having the mobility to assume different roles and access to the leadership career path (including constructive mentorship and essential networking) along with my belief in developing strong interpersonal skills and an effective communication framework have helped me be successful at Logicalis.

Your career path so far at Logicalis 27+ years of professional career in Technology. Started from Sales Engineer to leading International Business in Asia, serving in Vice President roles. Growing and thriving through two key strategic acquisitions, Netstar (2000) and Logicalis (2009) to expand new capabilities and technologies, accelerate delivery and global market accessibility.Since 2019, I have been Vice President International Sales, Asia. I am responsible for leading the international inbound and outbound businesses and managing the Asia virtual Dealdesk Recently I have been given the new opportunity to grow the Microsoft Business in Asia as the Regional Vice President Microsoft and International Business, Asia. The new role involves working with Microsoft and Logicalis alliance leads to grow the Microsoft business especially in Managed Services. As I believe never too late to start the Cloud business.

How has Logicalis enabled your success? Logicalis supports key tenets that embrace the empowerment of employees’ success both professionally and personally. It promotes healthy work/life balance, provides opportunities for progressive leadership roles, invests in professional development training programs for key talents, enforces the importance of client partnerships in work culture and fosters a flexible working environment, including both remote working arrangements and flexible hours. As a result, my team and I can grow and thrive successfully in the dynamics of a challenging business landscape as we develop a strong sense of meaning from our work and inherit great pride in our achievements.I learnt the value of building strong client partnership, exceeding expectations and becoming a trusted partner of the customer. As a result, I witnessed enormous impacts delivered from strong interpersonal and communication skills.

I believe success means going above and beyond to meet benchmarks and goals while maintaining a strong focus on people investment. This driving force has given me the opportunity to challenge myself to continuously advocate good management practice in an effort to balance meeting organizational goals and people development (short-term vs. long-term).

What would you advise others on their career path? Richard Branson, once said, “if somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes - then learn how to do it later!” This mentality has inspired many aspects of the decision-making process throughout my career and served as a mantra that has guided me whenever I faced difficult challenges.

What is your passion outside of Logicalis? I am very passionate about cooking, photography and cycling and spend most of my free time enjoying these activities.

Which Logicalis competency has most helped you in your career trajectory and why? Cross-business engagement. Aligning teams from multiple business segments across multiple regions/countries (occasionally inclusive of clients) with different skillsets to work towards a common goal in identifying opportunities that will grow and expand the current sales foothold. Effective communication. Developing strong communication and listening skills become top priorities in building a successful career. It is an essential quality that ultimately makes a key difference in public performance. Establishing solid communications can lead to a significant increase in employees’ productivity, help to reduce conflicts, accelerate problem solving and decision making, achieve better responses from all stakeholders, and above all, the advancement of a professional image as it minimizes disruptions of trust.

Which Logicalis value can you most relate to and why? I grow and thrive in an environment that aligns with my personal leadership values which are centered on people development, winning with integrity, empowering creativity, innovations, critical thinking and problem solving. These core values became my guiding principles when I served as the Ambassador for Logicalis Innovation Challenge for Asia. These strengths enabled me to lead eight Asia teams to compete globally and win second place in the race.

What training, development or educational commitments have Logicalis supported you with? I was among the few selected to attend the executive leadership training program in London. The modules covered a range of leadership-imperative topics, including situational-based role plays that emphasized the importance of effective teamwork/collaborations in driving for results. This training equipped me with the professional tools and mindset to become resilient and resourceful amidst a dynamic and complex business landscape.

I am the architect of my career

I understand that no matter what role I am being asked to perform, in the end it must contribute to the creation of client value that ultimately leads to monetization for Logicalis. It’s also critical that you have a “shot clock” and a level of urgency that is aligned with the cadence of your customers business and in turn Logicalis.

Your career path so far at Logicalis

I joined Logicalis by way of an acquisition where I was a partner at firm called Computech Resources, Inc (CRI). Logicalis acquired CRI in Sept, 2006. My first year at Logicalis was spent integrating CRI and helping our clients understand the expanded service offerings and portfolio of Logicalis. After this I moved into a regional sales leadership role managing US Sales for the Upper Midwest. In 2012 I moved from the Sales & Marketing area of our business into the Strategy & Delivery side of the organization. In this capacity, I led a spirited team driving our Cloud Practice which meant we were responsible for offerings management, sales enablement and leading the related presales function.

During this time we developed a sales engagement model focusing on how to drive “Business Outcomes” related to cloud and recurring services (managed services, teams and service desk). In addition to my current responsibilities, In 2017 I was asked to develop a consulting services group focused on advisory services spanning our core offerings.

The idea was to leverage advisory IT consulting to create opportunity for other parts of our business. Shortly after this time we invested in building dedicated practices spanning all of our core offerings. Since this overlapped with some of my core responsibilities I was asked to pivot. So in 2018 my focus was entirely directed to guiding our US Presales Function covering the complete portfolio in alignment with our geographic sales coverage model. Effective September, 2020 I moved into an executive leadership role where my team is responsible to manage our portfolio of offerings, maintain our strategic partner alliances and lead the US Presales team.

What would you advise others on their career path?
First, you must take responsibility for your own career development and invest in your skills and cultivate your positive characteristics. The days of handholding are over and you must take charge by investing in your skills and experience to succeed. The number one common denominator that I see in those I view as most successful in our company is hard work. No matter the role this is NOT a 40 hour a week job. You must be willing to put the effort in, sweat the details and go the extra mile no matter the task at hand. Integrity is critical, if our internal and external clients question your motivation or honesty you are sunk as trust, based relationships are the foundation of our business. Harness the power of team, empower those around you to rally around a greater cause and I promise you will find greater success. And lastly be kind and respectful to everyone on the team and do your job with a cheerful disposition. Combine all of this with some patience and you will be greatly rewarded with bigger and more exciting opportunities.

What training, development or educational commitments have Logicalis supported you with?
Numerous training and development opportunities including an International Leadership session that was fantastically valuable in terms of strategic thinking, becoming more self-aware and presented a networking opportunity with other Logicalis leaders around the planet. Of course formal training is critical but the OTJ training and experience I have gained through trial and error has been invaluable. No better learning motivator than trial by fire!

Which Logicalis competency has most helped you in your career trajectory and why?
Our business has become so complex that no one individual can possess all of the knowledge or have all of the answers. So being able to tap into the experience and creativity of the broader Logicalis team and enlist others for help is crucial to performing at a high level. EMPOWERMENT means that you work in way where others desire to help you achieve a greater cause, and do so willingly. I have learned that if you take the time to help folks understand the big picture and why what you are asking them to do is important to the clients success, those individuals appreciate the insight, find purpose in their work and produce a superior outcome.

Which Logicalis value can you most relate to and why?
Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. The older I get the more important this critical value is to me. And while at times you can be tempted with the promise of short term gain, to take the short cut, or turn your head on a decision that you know in your heart is not right, don’t do it. Over the course of my life I have seen these decisions always resurface and come back to you in some negative way. Doing the right thing is hard, and always doing the right thing even when others are not watching is the test of true integrity and leadership.

What was the most helpful career experience at Logicalis?
The acquisition of CRI by Logicalis was enormously impactful on my career. Of course the financial sales created monetary reward for me personally, but beyond this the due diligence process helped me truly understand the financial underpinnings of our business and where the market placed value on technology and services companies. These lessons have stuck with me and there isn’t a single day that goes by where I am not using or referencing knowledge gained through the successful sale of a business where I was a principle stakeholder.

This is me

I became mentally stronger through my work. Leading a team, looking for ways to overcome challenges, failing, and trying again made me develop focus, strategy and improved my ability to make decisions. Studying jazz guitar and practicing triathlon are two of the most demanding activities that I already did. Mentally and physically.

Your career path so far at Logicalis
I started my history at Logicalis as a Pre-Sales Architect for two years. Then, I became a Pre-Sales Leader, where I restructured the team, looked for new partners, and changed our go-to-market.

What do you believe has made you successful at Logicalis?
The most significant thing for me was a career development program for news leaderships at Logicalis. I also had career mentoring. It was essential for me to be able to define my career goals.

What would you advise others on their career path?
1 - Understand the company you work for and what it needed to advance your career. Validate your understanding with your manager if possible, and find an C-level who could mentor you (even informally) and create a plan.
2 - Your career is not your life. Have a life outside the company and take care of it as well you take care of your career.
3 - Do not compare your career development with the other people. Be patient, follow your plan, be aware, make any adjustments you deem necessary, and evaluate yourself (always).

What is your hobby/passion outside of Logicalis commitments?
I have two great passions since I was a child. Play guitar and running. Through running, I started practicing triathlon three years ago.

Which Logicalis competency has most helped you in your career trajectory and why?
Positive Resilience e Accountable Execution. I am an optimist by nature, and I always believe that there is a way to solve all problems if we have serenity and patience. To innovate is to be willing to make mistakes. Failure is part of the game, but we need to ensure that we are in a safe environment, where people respect each other, ask for help when needed, and have the confidence to take risks. This is the environment that we are building.

Which Logicalis value can you most relate to and why?
Empowerment. Logicalis allowed me to find the best way to do my job to achieve the results. They gave me autonomy and responsibility and helped me when needed.

This is me

Logicalis has always given me the support and the freedom to grow. As I am a quite intrinsic person, trust and belief in me gives me the confidence to unlock all my capabilities. It motivates me to strive for the best possible results. Logicalis always valued my passion and work ethic and overtime gave more and more responsibility.

Your career path so far at Logicalis
Started December 2011 as Project Manager for Logicalis. In April 2012 I was appointed to take over a Service Manager role for a newly won major Managed Service contract in Germany for one of Logicalis biggest enterprise customers. 2015 I developed to Director Infrastructure Services keeping my existing role as Service Manager + taking over the Manager role for approx. 30 employees. Due to the Merger of Inforsacom Informationssysteme GmbH and Logicalis and the established new organisation my responsibilities grew by taking over the internal IT in addition to my previous role. In July 2019 I was appointed to Director Service Excellence & Delivery (formerly COO) being responsible for Service/ Project Management, Service Design and Service Delivery in Germany.

How has Logicalis enabled your success?
Logicalis has always given me the support and the freedom to grow. As I am a quite intrinsic person, trust and belief in me gives me the confidence to unlock all my capabilities. It motivates me to strive for the best possible results. Logicalis always valued my passion and work ethic and overtime gave more and more responsibility. This step by step development gave me the time to grow my personality to become ready for more demanding roles.

What would you advise others on their career path?
The most important advice I can give is that you always should believe in yourself. Define your personal NorthStar, and work towards it. Even though there might be no direct way to achieve it. There will be obstacles and deviations, but keep focusing and grinding to get where you want to be. Reflect yourself, work on your weaknesses and promote your strengths. Be patient, as AC/DC once sang sometimes “It´s a long way to the Top”.

What do you believe has made you successful at Logicalis?
I strongly believe that you need to love what you do. If you love your work and be willing to put everything in what you got, the success will come. My credo is to always be the hardest worker in the room. Nothing comes for free. Logicalis gives me the perfect environment to create and execute change and be part to make this company better every day.

What is your passion outside of Logicalis?
Clearly my family is number one. My wife, kids and I do a lot of outdoor activities, exploring countryside, biking, skiing and playing tennis. I also engage in local politics. Besides my family my passion is sport. I actively play football, do calisthenics and ski. I also like to cook, barbecue with friends and travel. I enjoy reading a lot, even still the daily newspaper.

Which Logicalis competency has most helped you in your career trajectory and why?
I think it is a mix of the “how we adapt” agile transformation and positive resilience and “how we deliver” accountable execution competencies. There is constant need to broaden your knowledge and adapt to new market and customer needs. Especially in IT there is always change and you need to be open for new things. Keeping a positive mind set allows you to cope with high pressure and the optimism to achieve what is expected from you. If you don´t believe you can succeed, you already failed. Feeling personally responsible and making yourself or the team truly accountable creates an emotional connection to the particular topic. By this, it becomes “your baby”, giving you pride and great motivation.

Which Logicalis value can you most relate to and why?
Definitely the value Excellence – Why? Because this value reflects my own personality the most. I am a sportsman. I always want to do as best as I can and get the best possible result at work or in private.

What training, development or educational commitments have Logicalis supported you with?
Logicalis Germany always gave me support to facilitate my personal growth and leadership capabilities. Either by allowing training for day to day business like ITIL, Scrum or Risk management or by doing internal management trainings or giving me the chance to attend the European High Potential Program.