Martin Boakes - System Z Technical Team Manager

Contact Martin

How did you get where you are today?

My career in IT began over 15 years ago, when I joined the John Lewis Partnership as a mainframe operator. By the late 1990s, I had advanced into a technical support role, where I was exposed to a vast range of products and varied technical environments. My last role, before moving on to Logicalis, was to manage the entire mainframe and Unix environments for John Lewis. This challenge required me to develop strong commercial acuity, which I continue to employ today for customer benefit.

What are you working on right now?

I currently lead the Enterprise Presales team at Logicalis. This team performs a wide variety of pre-sale and technical consultancy, spread over the complete range of IBM and HP platforms. In particular, we're working on server consolidation exercises, which aim to help customers maximise the benefit of their existing mainframes. There's two ways we do this: either consolidation of existing workloads onto a mainframe platform to become more efficient and more cost effective; or by consolidating their existing mainframe software stacks to be more efficient.

Who or what has been the greatest influence on your career to date?

My choice is not strictly linked with work, but someone I admire and have a great deal of respect for is Lance Armstrong. What he achieved after suffering cancer was nothing short of outstanding. His ability to believe in himself, when all others (including doctors) failed to, should serve as a good reminder that we should all believe in our own ability.

Who in business do you most admire ‑ and why?

Unfortunately, he's no longer with us, but John Spedan Lewis. Thanks to the foresight of its first Chairman, the John Lewis Partnership is now one of the world's largest employee cooperatives. The company is owned in trust for the benefit of those who work in it.

What aspect of your job do you find most satisfying?

Winning the trust of a customers and work colleagues.

What has been your most valuable lesson learnt?

Never to volunteer for anything ‑ see question 10!

Which are you favourite websites and blogs?

The IT Sanctuary of course! Plus The Register, but I seem to spend more time on the National Rail website at the moment!

How do you spend your downtime? Where? With who?

I have a racing car so I'm usually at a racetrack somewhere trying not to crash! It's funny, because I spend most of my week informing customers of efficient IT and yet my car does just 8 miles per gallon! If I'm not at the racetrack, then I'm out with my local running club, climbing up mountains or off scuba diving somewhere. I like to stay active!

What lifetime ambition have you yet to achieve?

Far too many to mention... Climbing Everest, diving with Manta rays and driving at 200mph are all high on the list!

Tell us one thing that most people don't know about you...

I was the first Territorial Army soldier ever to be awarded the QCB (Queens Commendation for Bravery) after an incident in Iraqi in 2003.