Meet Interim Director of IT, Mark Smith

7th May 2024

This week’s spotlight is on Mark Smith, Assent’s Interim IT Director:

What is your role at Assent and what are your Accountabilities?

I’m Group IT Director, and I deal with the strategy and delivery of all our systems across the whole group – from the DCC to the email to the network and connectivity and so on.  I’m also chair of the IT Steering Group.

What is your background prior to Assent?

I’ve got a background in Professional Services (Law and Finance), Manufacturing, Retail, and Distribution – in the technology sphere for all of them.  A good chunk of my career was spent in software development then business analysis – although I stopped writing code for a living around twenty years ago.

Who do you Line Manage?

My team is in flux at the moment, as we’re recruiting for an Infrastructure Technician and we should soon be publishing an announcement about some other good news!  Alongside the Infrastructure side, I have a dotted line to Debby and Olivia, the Data Analysts who report directly to Ben (as our areas overlap significantly).  I also manage the relationships with external suppliers, such as OneWizard who develop the DCC system on our behalf.

What do you enjoy doing when not working?

Outside of work, as Dad to an 8-year-old, I don’t really have time for any of my own hobbies – although I used to scuba dive regularly and now that my son is 8 (it’s his birthday as I’m writing this) I’ll hopefully be scuba diving again, this time with a trainee!