San Thaker
Summary
Accomplished professional with extensive expertise in leadership and team development, employee experience management, and ITSM with ServiceNow. Demonstrates a strong foundation in ITIL principles, crisis and incident management, and business continuity planning. Proven track record in cyber and audit compliance, budget management, strategic planning with agile delivery, and vendor and stakeholder management. Adept at overseeing global operations, developing technology roadmaps, and ensuring service delivery excellence through continual service improvement initiatives. Committed to driving organisational success through innovative strategies and effective resource management.
Overview
25
25
years of professional experience
Work history
Director, End User Computing
News Corp
2019.10 - 2025.06
- Lead and manage cross-regional End User Computing teams supporting over 30,000 employees across North America, EMEA, and APAC, with a strong focus on service excellence, user satisfaction, and secure, scalable IT solutions.
- Oversee daily collaboration with key business stakeholders and operational teams, including Service Desk, Executive Support, Cyber Security, Desktop Support, and Service Assurance functions, ensuring alignment on service delivery and operational priorities.
- Champion Agile and Scrum methodologies to successfully deliver high impact global IT projects within SLA commitments, while acting as Scrum Master for multiple international initiatives. Facilitate daily stand-ups and manage sprint planning and tracking through Jira.
- Lead vulnerability exposure management initiatives in partnership with Cyber Security teams, ensuring secure, compliant, and resilient end-user environments across the organisation.
- Serve as a key contributor for company audit and compliance activities, supporting frameworks and regulatory requirements including NIST, SOX, and PCI across all End User Computing support stacks.
- Produce and deliver cyber compliance and patch management reporting for both Windows and Apple environments, ensuring adherence to security and compliance standards.
- Manage critical vendor and supplier relationships to maintain service quality, operational performance, and cost efficiency across enterprise IT services and technology platforms.
- Deliver real-time operational and strategic reporting on performance metrics, CSTAT, SLA adherence, incident trends, and continuous improvement opportunities using ServiceNow.
- Drive innovation, adaptability, and continuous improvement initiatives by aligning IT services with evolving business requirements and emerging technologies.
- Provide mentorship, leadership, and professional development support to diverse technical teams, fostering accountability, collaboration, and a high-performance culture.
- Conducted strategic planning sessions to drive corporate objectives.
- Instituted cost control measures, mitigated financial risk.
- Enhanced productivity through innovative management techniques.
- Supervised staff training programmes with focus on skill enhancement.
- Managed negotiations with clients to secure profitable contracts.
- Enforced compliance measures for adherence to industry standards.
- Optimised resource allocation to maximise productivity.
- Fostered a positive work environment, increased employee morale.
- Led team to streamline operations by implementing new strategies.
- Directed team to deliver high-quality customer service.
- Coordinated large scale projects with successful outcomes.
- Led negotiations with vendors and suppliers, securing favourable terms.
EUC Global Director
News Corp
2009.06 - 2019.10
- Supported End User Computing operations by managing a distributed support team across EMEA offices, ensuring consistent service delivery and operational efficiency.
- Assisted with Identity and Access Management, enabling secure and effective use of collaboration platforms, virtualisation technologies, and enterprise access solutions.
- Coordinated and facilitated the timely renewal and maintenance of enterprise services across platforms including Okta, Google, Jamf, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Citrix.
- Designed and implemented a cost-effective operational support model in India, including training and onboarding of support staff and ensuring successful knowledge transfer from onsite teams.
- Supported the recruitment and onboarding of 18 team members in India to strengthen global support operations.
- Contributed to building cross functional support teams with expertise across multiple EUC technology stacks and enterprise support functions.
- Collaborated with business stakeholders to define and implement Service Level Agreements (SLAs), maintenance windows, and operational service delivery standards.
- Led business continuity and digital workplace transformation initiatives by migrating workflows for over 3,000 employees to secure cloud based access solutions, enabling “work from anywhere, on any device” capabilities.
- Chaired weekly EUC and Cyber Security governance meetings focused on compliance, audit readiness, risk management, and operational initiatives.
- Led weekly operational review meetings with EU and India-based teams to ensure alignment on service delivery, incident management, and project progress.
- Conducted monthly stakeholder review meetings covering EUC projects, customer satisfaction metrics (CSAT), and service performance reporting using ITSM platforms.
Independent Newspapers
2000.04 - 2009.05
- Provided technical support for daily operations of national newspaper.
- Assisted over 2000 employees across various departments with IT needs.
- Collaborated with a team to deliver timely technical assistance to headquarters, regional offices, and remote workers.
- Responded to incidents and escalated production issues as needed.
- Documented systems and processes while managing updates and hardware refresh projects.
- Oversaw software licensing and asset management tasks.
- Compiled daily IT performance and incident reports for management review.
- Monthly reviews with business stakeholders on customer feedback and Continual Service Improvements utalising ITSM reporting.
Skills
- Leadership and team development
- Employee experience management
- ITSM expertise with ServiceNow
- ITIL foundation knowledge
- Crisis and incident management
- Business continuity planning
- Cyber and Audit Compliance
- Budget management and forecasting
- Strategic planning with agile delivery
- Vendor and stakeholder management
- Global operations oversight
- Technology roadmaps development
- Service delivery excellence
- Continual service improvement initiatives
Timeline
Director, End User Computing
News Corp
2019.10 - 2025.06
EUC Global Director
News Corp
2009.06 - 2019.10
Independent Newspapers
2000.04 - 2009.05