Tag: meet our team

  • A chat with Dean, our Sales and Finance Director

    Dean, our Sales & Finance director.

    Following on in our meet the team series, we introduce you to Dean. Dean is one of our Sales and Finance Directors here at The Unite Group. He mostly focuses on the finance side of the business.

    We recently had a chat with him to find out a bit more about him and his role…

    Growing up, what did you want to be?

    When I was young, my dream job was to join the Royal Airforce and become a Royal Airforce Pilot. Pilots need to be able to make quick decisions based on reasoning. A skill which I suppose is serving me well in my current role.

    What is your role at The Unite Group and how did you end up where you are now?

    I am one of the directors within the Unite Group I deal with IT, sales and Finances.  From previous roles, I have gained experience both in sales roles and technical roles. So, technical sales just make sense.  I love working with numbers and data and so taking on the role of managing the group’s finances is purely because I enjoy it. My role means I work closely with Lorraine on a lot of projects.

    What does a typical day look like at The Unite Group? 

    There is no typical day for me. There are so many things that I deal with on a day-to-day basis. Some days I can be working on sales quotes and completing the onboarding of a new client. On other days I can be right in the middle of a technical job. There are days when I just deal with the data and numbers.  There are days when I can be doing all of these jobs within one day. I just do whatever needs to be done at any given time.

    What is your most and least favourite part of the Sales & Finance directors job?

    Currently, the least favourite part of my job is dealing with supply chain issues. Due to various issues over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a global shortage of materials needed to manufacture devices we typically supply to our customers.

    What is your greatest achievement?

    Aside from being a part of building a business group to be proud of, my 3 children are my greatest achievement in life.

    What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

    Don’t be the cheapest, be the best instead. To me, this is ensuring that customers get value for the money they pay. It’s about being customer focused and realizing that there is no point in being the most expensive or the cheapest in the business if what you are providing isn’t worth it.

    Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?

    Doing what I’m doing now, hopefully in a larger capacity as the group grows.

    How do you unwind outside of work?

    I have 3 kids, varied in ages and interests. I enjoy spending time with them but there is no unwinding.  I’m not even sure what that word means. However, on extremely rare occasions when I am not working or running around after kids, I do enjoy gaming.

    To arrange a chat with Dean, or if you want to see how The Unite Group can help you with your business technology needs, contact us on 0191 466 1050.

  • A chat with Rob, one of our Senior Service Engineers

    A chat with Rob, one of our Senior Service Engineers

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    Rob, one of our Senior Service Engineers

    Continuing on with introducing you to the team that make up The Unite Group. Next up we introduce Rob. We recently had a chat with Rob about his role…

    Growing up, what did you want to be?

    I always knew I would work in something Technology related, my family on my fathers side have been engineers or similar going back at least five generations. For about a decade I thought I would likely work in the AV field, and did a fair amount of work doing lighting or sound, starting at a youth theatre, and continuing into working in bars and clubs.

    What is your role at The Unite Group and how did you end up where you are now?

    At The Unite Group I am a Senior Service Engineer. In my role, I mostly work on projects. I started with Unite as an Apprentice, shadowing another engineer for a bit, and then working on the Helpdesk. Since then as the company has grown I have completed various qualifications to get to my role within the company.

    What does a typical day look like at The Unite Group?

    Most days start with checking the health of a few services that I manage. I’ll run though any alerts that have been generated overnight, I’ll then create support tickets for anything that requires further looking into. I also run a few health tests on demo networks that we have at the office.

    From there I then move onto emails. After which it really changes on a day to day basis. I mostly work on projects and installs now. So off to client sites for installs, or planning work.

    What is your most and least favourite part of the job?

    My favourite part of the job has got to be the process of taking apart and re-building a system to trace down a particular fault. I’ll normally do this when there is an actual ongoing issue that needs resolved, but this can also be done when we’re onboarding a new client with limited documentation, to make sure that we can fully understand any issues that might come up.

    My least favourite part of my job would be all the paperwork around the jobs. When I worked at the NHS many years ago, one of the medical leads often said “midwife means with wife, not with computer” and I can now relate.

    What is your greatest achievement?

    I’m very happy how I left a small theatre I volunteered at. When I started, the entire society had a budget of around £300, and about 5 working lights. It was always a fun challenge to get a production on with what we had available.

    Over the next 4 years myself, and a new committee managed to improve the situation somewhat. I took over as head of the technical side of the theatre, and managed to build up that side of things, training up new technicians, and managing shows on a weekly basis.

    By the time I left the society had working lights, sound system, and a budget plan for fixes and replacement going out for a decade.

    What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

    If you can’t explain it you don’t understand it. I always try to understand something well enough to be able to explain it simply to someone else. Often this is reduced to explain to a five year old, which while entertaining may take quite a long time.

    Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?

    In 10 years time, I can see my role getting a bit more specialised within The Unite Group. I’ve already started working on some more niche things and I hope to grow into more of these. One of the areas I am currently expanding my knowledge into is Cyber Essentials. I am looking forward to seeing where this takes my role within The Unite Group. As well as what opportunities it will offer to our customers to protect their organisations further against possible cyber attacks.

    How do you unwind outside of work?

    When left to my own devices there is nothing nicer than a glass of whisky and a good book.

    Want to learn more about how Rob and The Unite Group can help you with your business technology needs, contact us on, 0191 466 1050.