Neil Bant, Product Manager, Hosted Services. At work I love having ideas and working with others to develop new possibilities and opportunities. I am a keen long distance runner and have to be, to burn off all the Chinese food that I adore… In my youth, I nearly made the national team for cross country, but I stopped growing and have reluctantly realised that I will not be appearing in London for 2012 – probably due to my last Chinese meal.

My unfulfilled ambition is to travel to Giza, Egypt to explore like Indiana Jones…

Steve Bell, I am the Director of Consultancy and Design in our newly formed Business Transformation and Technology Service Unit (the department formerly known as Group IT). I have been with the KCOM Group for 5 years and seen the IT unit change massively in that time; the new “name” reflects much of that. Prior to this, my career spans roles running IT departments in IT services companies, and consultancy roles (From Accenture to small “boutique” consultancies). I am not a techie, rather someone who is driven by what a  business can really acheive by changing, growing and implementing innovative solutions – I guess my blogs will reflect this.

Away from work I have a growing family who fill my hours. My sporting passion is skiing which is something I have been very fortunate to do from a young age and had the chance to partake in at competition levels and as an instructor (not as glamourous as it sounds!). My ambition is to still be doing the crazy off-piste slopes well into my 70s.

Nicola Clare,  Channel Manager which means I look after Affiliate, Referrer and Retention channels plus PPC for the Eclipse brand.

I’ve worked for KCOM now for 3 years having started my career working for the Consumer Marketing team up in my home city of Hull then made the long move down to Devon in January 2007 to work for Eclipse.

Out of work my passion is theatre having started my working career working as a singer in various hotels around Europe and also a short stint on a cruise ship – Jane McDonald eat your heart out!

Favourite tipple – Am quite partial to a Gin and Tonic (lots of ice and lemon) but in my Sex in the City moments Mojitos are a firm favourite.
Unfulfilled ambition – To be a Blue Peter presenter though think I might be getting too old!

Mark Conway,  Director of Propositions, Products and Services for Kingston Communications and Eclipse.

It’s my job to ensure that we launch business internet and hosting propositions that our customers want, to make it as easy as possible for them to get up and running and to make sure that we’re easy to do business with..

I’ve worked in the Telecoms, Internet and IT services sectors for 14 years in various customer service, marketing, online and product roles..

Out of work, I love to spend time with my two sons and like nothing more than packing my rucksack and heading up into the mountains. I enjoy fine food, a good Italian red wine and the occasional Scottish Malt..

Unfulfilled ambition:  I’m fairly well through my 100 things to do before I die, but have promised my sons I’ll walk the Pennine Way with them when they’re old enough. Have done it once (but was a little younger and fitter at the time!)

Julie Dixon – being a Digital Marketing Executive in the online marketing team for Eclipse has kept me more than busy over the last year.  My main responsibilities are brand and product campaigns, promoting our products and services online using everything from display banners to emails.

Outside of work I spend as much time as I can outdoors, and have recently climbed my first mountain!  Hard work but worth it for the view from the top and something else I’m able to cross off my ‘things to do before I’m 30’ list!

My favourite tipple is limited to vodka as I appear to be allergic to most other alcohol (sad but true).  Unfulfilled ambition is rather dangerous, but would love to watch a volcano erupt.

Richard Griffiths a Senior Marketing Manager for Kingston Communications I have worked for the KCOM Group for 8 years as a business to business PR and marketing specialist.
This marketing activity covers the entire promotional mix including digital marketing, PR, direct mail, advertising, events, hospitality, and customer communications, with the aim of building long and prosperous relationships with current and potential customers.

In my spare time, I play the guitar and gig regularly with my band in pubs across the North of England. In fact, guitars could even be blamed for my love of marketing through exposure to iconic brands such as Fender, Gibson and Marshall, which have lasted decades and are still market leaders today.
I have many unfulfilled ambitions. The top of the list is to run a marathon. Having completed four half marathons, it should be possible, but am not getting any younger! After that I would like to do a skydive, play tennis at Wimbledon and perform alongside Foo Fighters/Kings of Leon/Bon Jovi/Eric Clapton. If you can help with any of these, then please do get in touch….

Rebecca Heard, Digital Marketing Assistant.

I am new to the Marketing team at Eclipse, having just graduated from Bournemouth University. My main role is to assist in the delivery of online marketing campaigns.

I love to keep fit. If I’m not in the gym after work I will be running, cycling, circuit training or at a yoga class. I have just started up playing golf – a lot harder than it looks and actually quite tiring.

I enjoy travelling and seeing new places. Before starting work at Eclipse I went on a road trip thought the USA and loved every minute of it. Hoping to get back there next year and travel down the west coast – San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas and Yosemite National Park.

I also enjoy shopping, partying, sleeping, working, chatting, reading, tanning. I don’t think I could live without cider, cheesecake, coffee and makeup. I have a strong dislike for spiders and moths. My unfulfilled ambitions are to skydive in New Zealand and dive in the Great Barrier Reef.

Peter Hough is the Product Manager for Hosting and Backup services.

I have many years of experience with online services involving the manipulation of large amounts of information. After graduating in Computer Science I progressed through systems programming and database design with British Airways and BOC. In the mid 1980s I switched to text databases and developed the FT Profile online text retrieval service for Financial Times Information Services.  I then set up one of the first online backup companies in the 1990s and subsequently developed the TeleVault backup service for disaster recovery specialist SunGard.

I am a keen sailor and when the chance arises plan to sail around Great Britain.

Nick Humphreys – Nick is Head of Business Development for Kingston Communications B2B, he runs a team that takes propostions to market to enagage and inform the marketplace.

Outside of work likes to live a James Bond lifestyle, but doesn’t quite manage to do so. Very happy with the family life in Bristol.

Unfulfilled ambition: to live the simple life in 100 acres of Devonshire countryside rolling down to the sea.

Zoe Keeping – I joined Kingston Communications as a Business Marketing Executive in September 2008 and am involved in all areas of marketing activity undertaken for Regions to help build relationships with existing and potential customers. Prior to joining KC I worked for 6 years at a company in Exeter specialising in Business Process Outsourcing Services from Management System Design and Build, Competition and Promotion Administration, Direct Mail and much more.

I spent 6 months backpacking around Canada, USA and New Zealand which has given me a taste for travel, also enjoy walking, photography, trying and failing miserably to surf (look at it more as an entertainment tool than anything serious…probably best!), trying to keep my ’66 beetle alive and spending time with friends on random adventures!

My unfulfilled ambition is to be a travel photographer!

Luke Lang – As Marketing Manager for Eclipse Internet since 2003 I am lucky enough to have witnessed many exciting changes and come out the other end with only a few grey hairs!

I have travelled the world extensively and worked in China for 18 months teaching aircraft pilots, air traffic controllers, engineers, brain surgeons, doctors and most rewarding of all – 80 young flight attendants!

I am a passionate fan of real ale, red wine and crisps and keep relatively fit by mountain biking and playing football regularly.

My unfulfilled ambition is to have one of my photography published.

Jerry Leach Business Development Manger – HMC, Entrepreneur, Businessman, Engineer.

I started life as an electronic engineer with GEC Marconi (who?). Worked on studying Nuclear explosions and what effect they had on your bits (electronic!). Moved into the oil industry and worked on a seismic ship charting for oil. Left after spending time in Angola in 1978 and being shot at in their civil war. Have watched and participated in the birth and growth of the PC industry in all its forms. Spent a few years in the City of London during the mid 80’s – most of it in wine bars!

Have started and successfully built a number of small companies. Server World provided Managed server hosting and hosted products (Exchange and SharePoint). I sold this to Mistral hence my connection to KCOM. Previous to that was STRS an equipment rental business providing short term hire of PC’s, displays etc for exhibitions, courses et.al.

I have an MBA and am finishing my Chartered Director course with the IOD.

I have a house in Ireland which I built as well as an apartment in England. I enjoy music and spend time building HiFi (valve and solid state). I am currently restoring a ‘player piano’ (Weber, Duo Art Grand for those of you who know about these things). I ride a motor bike for pleasure, play golf badly and occasionally do some clay shooting. Oh and I have 5 children.

I like Margaux (at least 10 year old) wine and fine malt whisky. I prefer classic English cooking (the French don’t have a clue how to cook in my humble opinion). My ultimate restaurant is in Castle Leslie in Ireland (where Paul McCartney got married last time) not far from where I live. The food is exquisite.

Clodagh Murphy – Service Delivery Director

A customer-focused individual with a broad skill base, including extensive experience of managing multi-site, mission critical IT and ISP operational environments.

My proven track record is in developing and implementing organisational change to deliver significant measurable improvement in both customer and staff satisfaction.  Outside of work I enjoy socialising and sport.

My unfulfilled ambition is to take a year out and travel the world.

Paul Nickerson

Paul is the Web Analytics and Usability Manager for KCOM, I analyse activity on the website, emerging eCommerce thought and customer feedback. Using this information I provide an agenda for constantly improving our online sales and service performance.

I have used the Internet since the Early 90s, am fascinated in people interactions with increasingly complex and impressive websites and their use for business.

Out of work, I love cooking, and good wine, travelling when I can and would one day  love to write a book.

Anita Pace, next July marks a milestone for me as I will have been with KCOM for 20 years!  Unbelievable I know (not that I’ve been here so long – as this is a great company – but that I’m that old!).  I joined as a graduate management trainee and have worked in various roles including setting up and running our internet business, Kingston Internet, in the nineties.  As Director of Marketing & Corporate Communications, I’m now responsible for our Eclipse, Karoo and KC Talk brands as well as the Group’s communications, both internal and external.

Away from the office my passion is sport, especially track and field athletics.  I used to race 400m until a few years ago until achilles tendonitis prematurely curtailed my training.  Having said that, I still train regularly and I’m considering coming out of ‘retirement’ and joining the Vets circuit next season. (The ‘Vets’ is the 35+ age group and nothing to do with animal care!).  Hopefully the achilles will hold out during the winter so I can complete my winter training.

Unfulfilled ambition – to meet Jon Bon Jovi!

Mike Pearson, An engineering scientist by training, I now head up the IT design solution team within the KCOM group. Having started my working career with an Engineering Consultancy, designing beams for a power station in Venezuela from an office in Manchester, I moved into IT with an American Oil company. A spell with a Computer Consultancy firm in the City was followed by a varied career with the Insurance group General Accident. Subsequent mergers and acquisitions saw Me as head of strategy and development with CGU Life and director of IT programmes for Norwich Union Life before joining the KCOM group about 5 years ago.

Areas that have kept me busy, and hopefully my brain active, over the last few years include:- Unified Communications, Business Intelligence and Knowledge Management; Service Orientated Architecture and the use of workflow systems which appeals to the engineer in me; and how virtualisation of servers and storage can improve his slightly jaded green credentials.

Outside work I enjoy early morning walks with Jazz, a golden labrador, easier on a bright summer morning than at 6.00 am on a cold dark winter day.

Favourites sport – Snow skiing, films  Stand by Me or for action – The Bourne Trilogy, music track – ‘Dazed and Confused’ by Led Zeppelin (though this changes weekly).
Unfulfilled ambition:  Knock down his house and rebuild it.

Russell Plummer is responsible for IT strategic thinking supporting the businesses of the KCOM group. Originally I was a student of Computer Science before Commodore 64 & BBC computers were seen as “pretty cool”, I have grown up watching the continual development of technologies whilst trying to get people to get the full benefits that are offered. This has included working for a number of well known IT names including ICL, Intel and IBM as well as some smaller software businesses and computer distribution.

Somewhere along that path one of my bosses thought it would be a good idea to send me to business school at Leeds University, and I have also been invited to work with one of the major computer companies on joint working teams in competitive marketing and reviewing new computer systems at the prototype stage. Currently I am trying to map out how KCOM can maximise the business benefits of the “service oriented” computing systems that are emerging.

When I’m not working or blogging, I am either working hard to complete my microlight flying licence in order to fly the airplane I half own & keep up next to the North Yorkshire Police HQ or cursing the weather.

Unfulfilled Ambition: To build and fly a Jodel 1950’s design airplane from the original plan drawings.

Mary de Sausmarez – Sales and Business Development Director. I joined the Kingston Communications Executive Team in February 2008, prior to this was the Sales Director for the Southern Regional Sales Team, having joined the organisation in January 2004. I look after the Sales and Marketing for our mid market business customer base.

A graduate from Loughborough University in Psychology and History, I have had a long career in Sales and Marketing, initially starting in the publishing industry selling media into technology magazines, before moving into IT and Telecommunications. A specialist in the SME market place, I have led teams selling to business, both directly and through Channel Partners. My most recent role prior to joining KC was as Sales Director for European Internet company Netscalibur.

When not at work I enjoy Amateur Dramatics and walking my dog. My unfulfilled amition is to play Beatrice in Much Ado about nothing.

Neil Strenge - As Head of IT, I’m responsible for ensuring that the business unit strategies and the technology programmes are aiming in the same direction. This means that I need to operate in what at times, seems like two different worlds, a challenge that will be all too familiar to many people

both within and outside of IT departments. I’ve spent the last 15 years trying to deal with this same challenge across a range of companies in the IT and communications industry, including, like many, a brief flirt with the dot com industry in the late 90’s.

Outside of work, I seem to be somewhat addicted to water, having been briefly in the UK windsurfing squad in the mid 80’s. If only windsurfing had been an Olympic sport during the years of Barcelona and Seoul, then maybe I could have been the Ben Ainslie of the Duran Duran era!. These days, I still devote a substantial part of my spare time to the water (and a larger percentage of my spare cash!), owning and sailing a boat out of Harwich on the East coast, and can be often found at weekends and during the summer, cruising around the Dutch, Belgian and Northern French coastlines.

My unfulfilled ambition is to sail around the world – very slowly!

Katie Thomas works in the Online Marketing team based down in not so sunny Devon. I started with Eclipse nearly 3 years ago, my main responsibilities now are SEO, Social Media and Web 3.0. Every day is different and there is always something new and fascinating to learn about and consider for best business practice within Eclipse Internet. Having started my career in offline marketing, there has been many lessons to learn about marketing and communicating online, but there is never a dull moment!!

Out of work I am a busy mummy to a 2 year old daughter, who again is ever changing and provides daily entertainment and hilarity – much needed in this ever evolving busy world we live in.

• Favourite tipple – a good old fashioned Gin and Tonic.
• Unfulfilled ambition: to swim with and study wild dolphins.
• Three things I would take to a desert island: Radio, Sun Cream, My family!

Darren Westlake – I am the Product Manager for ISP Services within Kingston Communications covering our Eclipse, Mistral and KC brands. Basically I develop and manage broadband and leased line/bandwidth products.

My blog postings are going to look at trends and technologies within the broadband and wider Internet industries and in particular how demand and supply of high bandwidth services are developing.

Out side of work I enjoy sports – both watching and taking part. I surf and play 5-a-side football and since moving down to Exeter a year or so ago I’ve started going to watch the grecians (Exeter City FC).

My unfulfilled ambition is to drive a formula 1 car – I’ve a feeling thats going to remain unfulfilled though…..

Duncan Woodward – Working from that well known UK ‘Sun-trap’ Manchester, I’m the Group Online Services Manager at KCOM Group, a fairly difficult job title to explain and one which I usually describe to friends as ‘Web stuff’. It’s a pretty diverse role spanning our group Intranet, various brand websites and online comms.

I’ve actually spent my full working life in the online industry starting at BT some 12 years ago as a ‘New Media Specialist’. The online landscape has changed a lot during this time, and I’ve been lucky to experience most areas of web design and development and picked up some knowledge and a few skills along the way.

I’d say I’m totally passionate about the web, if I’m not on it, I’m reading about it, although with my iPhone I don’t have much reason to be off it.

My main areas of interest are interface/interaction design, standards compliance/browser compatibility, accessibility and social media.

Favourite sites:

• Google (My homepage)
• Delicious (A great alternative to search for info and also for browsing)
• Twitter (What I’d describe as a common interest news site)
• Last.fm (I love this site and their mobile version isn’t bad either)
• YouTube (As I’d rather watch pictures than read text)
• BBC (Undisputed)
• iPlayer (Beautiful)
• Wordia (A fun and interesting take on the rather dull old dictionary)

Outside of work I love music, football, lacrosse, cooking, red wine, films and for some reason – tending my lawn.

Most embarrasing quote: “I used to be a hardcore Netscape user”

Unfulfilled ambition: To play for England in a Lacrosse World Cup Final