My name is Chris Rickard, and I am an IT Manager who is currently working for the Isles of Scilly Steamship Group (based in Penzance, Cornwall) as their IT Systems Manager. Our company provides travel and freight services to the Isles of Scilly, we fly small planes from several mainland airports (Lands End, Newquay, Exeter, Bristol, Southampton) into St Marys and operate the world-famous Scillonian III from Penzance. Our company also runs the Penzance Dry Dock, one of the few remaining Dry Docks operating in the UK.

I have been working in IT Management for several years now, but this role represents my first department management role since I acquired my DMS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Graduate_Diploma_in_Management_Studies) in 2008, my previous experience and qualifications include with with ITIL (mostly Incident/Problem and Change/Release management), and with project management (Prince2) and I am enjoying the challenge of managing a small IT Department on a budget with the occasional unusual requirement.

My commercial experience includes; managing a team of technical support specialists, varied project management work, service delivery, financial planning and control as well as providing some complex solutions to unique problems.

The technologies I currently support/manage include; Windows server (to 2008), Exchange Server (to 2007), Windows (all versions), Office (to 2010), Virtual Server technologies (VMWare), VoIP systems (Mitel), Sharepoint, Cloud/Internally hosted applications (some bespoke), Web (ASP to development level) including extensive design and development.

My strengths lie in my organisational skill and my ability to keep my eye on the details. I also have an extremely high level of determination and skin a foot thick!