Welcome to Senior Spotlight, where Crimson’s Head of Customer Engagement, Chris O’Brien, interviews senior technologists across the UK. Discover what drives these individuals as we delve into their careers, their most exciting projects, and their tech predictions for the future. Join us as we explore these IT thought leaders’ inspirational stories and interesting lives.
Today’s conversation is with Dean Checkley who has a lifelong career in telecommunications service delivery, most recently culminating in his appointment as CEO at Teleste Network Services. Here, Dean chats about his own career history; the trials and tribulations of the telecoms space; and his thoughts for the future of the sector.
Dean Checkley | Chief Executive Officer | Teleste Network Services
Chris: Hi Dean, welcome to Senior Spotlight! Please tell us a little about yourself and what you do at Teleste.
Dean: Hello! I’m Dean, I’m CEO of Teleste Network Services. I actually joined the company in January 2021 as the Chief Delivery Officer following some time at a community internet provider, as well as numerous operational and service leadership roles. When I joined, the CEO position was vacant, but in April I was appointed into that role. And that’s an enormous privilege in a tough sector and a tough market!
Our focus at Teleste Network Services is to support the broadband sector through design, planning, surveying, and engineering services. We collaborate with our customers who are building the new broadband fibre network that’s part of the BDUK project for Project Gigabit.
Outside of that we’re able to support providers’ fibre and HFC (High Frequency Cable) networks and can support providers’ site and equipment decommission efforts too, with a view to helping them increase sustainability.
Chris: The telecoms sector has seen its fair share of volatility in the past few years, so could you tell me a little about how that has affected you and your organisation?
Dean: Well, our sector is very peak-y and trough-y anyway. Unfortunately, the sector as a whole suffered a bit of a downturn in 2023 - not just in the UK, but Europe as well. The high interest rates and high inflation had a big impact on the investment that could be put towards the altnet sector.
For example, the UK government is investing about £5 billion into the BDUK project, but the rest of the money is coming from private equity. There’s an estimate that the total investment for the Project Gigabit buildout is somewhere in the region of £100 billion. So when some of that equity dried up, our clients had to slow their builds down and change tack.
That impacted our organisation too and we had to go through a lot of change to ride out that storm. We’re fortunate to have seen that through now and colleagues in the organisation have remained loyal to us despite the, sometimes quite painful, changes that we had to make.
Resilience-wise, we are looking to potentially provide our core design and architectural expertise to a broader set of sectors, but that takes time. It can’t happen overnight.
Looking at some of Teleste’s key values - customer centricity, loyalty, honesty & respect, positivity - they are all clearly evident throughout the organisation day-in, day-out. We’ve got such an amazing bunch of people who are so committed to what they do for the clients. It’s a real honour to be leading this incredible organisation.
Chris: So now you’re out the other side of that challenging time, what does the future hold?
Dean: The work we do is always going to be project-based, so there’s always going to be a start and there will always be a stop. So, the focus becomes “how do you create longevity?”
The wider Teleste group has a network operations centre in Finland which I am looking to expand to support a broader set of altnet customers - both in the UK and Europe. We recognise that high-frequency coaxial cable (HFC) still has a part to play in this transition for the next 10+ years too. So I’d like to grow our capability to help clients with legacy/hybrid infrastructure to make that slow migration into fibre.
I do have other, wider reaching ideas too. As an EV driver, I can see a lot of overlapping demand between the public EV charging network and high speed internet supply. You’re already laying cables to supply the charging ports themselves, so I can see opportunities to lay fibre cable too; or provide 5G capabilities, as we know the 5G network is going to need more infrastructure.
Chris: We’ve seen a lot of changes to tech - and to the world - since you started in your role in 2021. How has that affected how Teleste do what they do?
Dean: One thing that has come somewhat out of left-field is that we’re now offering cybersecurity consultancy capabilities - especially for our altnet clients. By their very nature, altnets are smaller and more agile and they’ve had to navigate substantial, rapid transition throughout their lifespan.
Yet within agility and change, there is sadly the risk of cyber exposure. However, altnets depend on their agility and nimbleness to serve their customers. We help them maintain that essential agility, but to do so safely.
Chris: Cybersecurity is such a hot button topic at the moment, and rightly so. Aside from your service offering, how does the current security landscape affect you?
Dean: Well, telecoms (and the broader IT sector) seems to be a significant target for cybercriminals at the moment.
There may be some risk from the nascence of altnets at play in the UK. But I think ultimately criminals really want their hands on people’s data, and ISPs have shedloads of incredibly rich data.
So our aim is to help our clients - and their customers - to safeguard against attack. My approach is to sit down with them and understand their business, their goals, their clients, and then work to identify any potential areas of exposure.
Chris: Really valuable stuff! But let’s bring it back to basics - how did you get to where you are today?
Dean: Well, I actually started as an apprentice at a telecommunications company, so I’ve always been in telco - apart from one refreshing stint in IT! But even as an apprentice, I knew that one day I wanted to be a director. Maybe a Director of Operations, or of Service, but that’s what I wanted to do.
I think that vision has been instrumental, but I think I’ve also been incredibly lucky. I’ve been incredibly fortunate in some of the opportunities that have come my way - especially in my various roles at Energis, Airwave, and National Grid Wireless. I’ve had a real variety of roles that have given me a real depth and breadth of knowledge. But I never once thought I’d be a CEO!
When I landed the Chief Delivery Officer role here at Teleste, that was where I’d wanted to be for so long. So I was surprised when I was invited to apply for the role of CEO. It’s not an offer you get every day, and I didn’t think I was going to get it, so I went in aiming to learn from and enjoy the experience. And the rest is history!
I’ve also been really inquisitive too, which has served me well. For example, when fixing a network fault - how has that fault come about? How has it affected the client? Who ultimately pays for this fault? I developed a habit of thinking a few steps ahead of myself in the chain, because that’s where I aspired to be anyway!
Chris: What is/are your proudest moment(s) of your career?
Dean: One of my proudest moments was leading the joint action group at Airwave for the Olympic Games. Basically, we were providing critical connectivity to the emergency services and Olympic volunteers. It really honed my focus because it was such a critical service, but we also had some amazing camaraderie too. It made me so proud to see that service run like clockwork with everyone so galvanised behind that one common goal. It was the best feeling ever.
Chris: So, talk to me about the ups and downs of being a CEO - especially becoming one so unexpectedly?
Dean: It’s an honour to be CEO but it’s also very humbling. The decisions you make have a direct impact on individuals and their livelihoods. That also makes it really lonely, because the buck stops with you. And when you have to make tough decisions, you do lie awake at night feeling guilty because you’ve had to let good, committed colleagues go.
That guilt can be immense but also you simply can’t dwell on it because other people elsewhere in the organisation are still dependent on you. I know it's my role to shoulder that responsibility and I will never shirk that responsibility. Understandably, having a good support network is essential. My wife, Clare, is my rock - she absolutely keeps me grounded.
My support network has also been instrumental in getting me where I am. There have been lots of opportunities, variation, late nights, hard days, but it has ultimately come down to having good people around me that keep me sane!
Chris: What was the most interesting project you’ve worked on throughout your career?
Dean: One of my most interesting projects was with the Law Society as part of a major transformation programme. As transformation projects sometimes do, this involved the wind-down of an existing team, so everyone on that team was understandably glum.
After a few weeks with the team, we held an event to build them up and remind them of their achievements, and I shared a bit of a reality check with them. Yes, their existing role was coming to an end. But that team’s function was being absorbed by two new functions at the Law Society and the SRA. That’s two lines of opportunity for everyone on that team who can make a personal appeal to either organisation to prove their worth.
Their perception did change - they started to feel more empowered to network and build connections with those entities to further their career. It was a real joy to see. And I still keep in touch with some of the folks who worked on that transformation project to this day!
Chris: Speaking of transformation, do Teleste have any plans to use AI, ML, and/or automation at all?
Dean: We’re currently trying to establish how and where it can add value to what we do. Our cybersecurity capability is still quite embryonic, but I suspect there may be something there down the line. But my approach to cyber is that it has to be a personal interaction. We need to understand a client’s aspirations and establish what they are trying to achieve, and I don’t think you can do that through AI. Humans have to do that relationship building work.
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