Fairhall Adam
BSC(Hons) Computer Studies 1990
After graduating I worked for the Japanese economic newspaper, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun in London and learnt some basic Japanese. I was helping with the sales and electronic delivery of stock information. I taught myself some basic Tandem computer coding, writing some reports and also expanded my network and telecommunications knowledge. I moved to NatWest Bank in London to its Communications and Tandem Systems Software (CaTTS) department where I was very fortunate to receive Tandem training in several areas of the Guardian Operating System. My next position was with Global Payment Systems as a contract Tandem programmer and later as a PC programmer. I later joined as a full-time employee and was gradually promoted to various roles, achieving the position of systems and development manager. The position was interesting and allowed me to travel extensively in Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, Saudi Arabia and America. The software allowed the user to perform payment initiation and balance and transaction reporting and was sold to banks who rebranded and customised the product, marketing it as their own service. I later started working with a Dutch company, Cored, who wanted to expand in Europe. This position required me to initially work in Amsterdam which I did for about a year for one of its major clients, ING Bank. Unfortunately work in the UK never really materialised and I moved on to ACI who make a bulk payments solution for banks. Again travel was involved in Europe but also in America. I was able to convince my UK manager that he needed a man to 'walk the halls' for him in the US and help coordinate large international projects and so I was transferred to the US. Having spent so much of my time in the banking industry and luckily only seeing the affects of a shrinking market and rationalisation of work forces, I decided I had better find something a little more stable. I found a position at Harvard University as the senior project manager for the replacement and development of the next generation of identity management solutions. This was a term position and after the two years and project was ended I was fortunate enough to find my current position in the Harvard Business School as a technology adviser. This role is a combination of project management, business analysis and partner relationship management. Currently my partners include financial services, external relations (those that ensure relations with alumni) and human resources, providing technical IT solutions for the business needs. I have always enjoyed learning and the positions in Harvard allow me to study at the Department Of Continuing Education for my masters degree.
