Hi, my name is…
Meet Alex Harris.
The Head of Hybrid Cloud, Hosting & Connectivity at SysGroup! He first joined in 2021 and has built out a team of dedicated experts who help our customers every day across the board.
Learn more about him in this Q&A:
What was your very first job?
Roller Skating Ring Host! I had a job working at a company who ran national roller-skating evenings across the UK. I would travel up and down the UK every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, putting on skates, teaching people how to stake, and running night-time UK roller skating discos!
If you could swap jobs with anyone for a day, who would it be?
Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft). He’s calm, strategic, deeply technical but very people focussed. I feel like that aligns with me nicely.
If you had to give a TED Talk on something random, what would it be?
I’d call it “Rolling the Dice: How games teach us to embrace chaos and still win”. I’m a massive fan of Dungeons & Dragons (DnD) and over the years, playing that game has helped me blend strategy, chance and teamwork together both at home in life and in business.
What’s one thing you’re looking forward to learning here?
How to host a “data centre tour speed run”. Seeing how fast I can walk a visitor through our data centre racks, servers, networking, backups, redundancy etc. while still (trying, really really trying) to make it sound impressive.
If you could invent one office perk, what would it be?
Dice-roll leave request – Inspired by DnD again, if you roll a natural 20, you get the afternoon off.
What’s the most exciting part of your role at SysGroup?
Working with some truly tremendously talented team members, across all of our towers (not just my own) to learn, understand and build unique solutions for our customers.
When you’re not working, how do you like to spend your time?
I’ve got a few hobbies – mainly it was working on cars, whether that was modifying them, showing them off at car meets, or racing them – couldn’t get enough of them. I’ve had the joy of driving some wonderful cars over the years, but my favourites are the Ford Focus MK3 RS and the Ford Escort Cosworth RS. Aside from that I enjoy gaming – both board games and video games. I’m a fan of Monopoly, Risk, Ticket to Ride or Dungeons & Dragons.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received (work or life)?
Always carry a spare cable – metaphorically and literally. Whether it’s in IT or in life, having a backup saves the day more often than you’d think.
Quick Fire
Beverage of choice: Apple Juice
Favourite Holiday Destination? Greece
Dog or Cat? Dog
One word that describes you best? Connector (link people, systems, and ideas together
Fun Fact (added it because it’s fun): I fell in a volcano! When I was 9/10 years old, I was walking across the top of an inactive / dormant volcano, wasn’t paying attention, and my right leg stepped directly onto a thin piece of ground and fell straight into the top of the volcano. Luckily, there were dozens of Mums and Dads on the same trip as us, yanked me out of the volcano and wiped me off with Kleenex and Baby Wipes – while I stood there oblivious to it all!
Want to hear more?
Connect with Alex on LinkedIn
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