printable route

# Ian Barrs

IT, security, compliance, operations, training and useful systems.

## Ian Barrs

Ian Barrs is an IT, security, compliance, operations and training specialist with more than two decades around technical and operational environments.

He works across the messy join between systems, people, risk, governance, cost and communication. The useful pattern is not one neat title. It is spotting where different teams are describing the same broken system from different angles.

> My path has not been clean or tidy. ADHD and bipolar are part of the context, but they are not the point of the story. The point is what I learned: I am strongest with good people around me, clear constraints, honest challenge and a mission worth caring about.

### Systems connector

Joins up technology, process, evidence, cost, risk and the humans who have to live with the result.

### Force multiplier

At his best with good people around him, turning messy intent into usable systems and practical next steps.

### Creative operator

Training, broadcasting, writing, ventures and brand work are not side quests. They are communication infrastructure.

The public story should feel candid, not confessional: lived consequences of messy systems turned into a stubborn interest in making better ones.

## CV Core

A selected public CV, built around capability rather than pretending a varied career was secretly one straight corridor.

### IT and infrastructure

Technical operations, support models, infrastructure thinking, supplier reality and practical service improvement.

### Security and risk

Security awareness, control thinking, audit readiness, proportionate governance and evidence that survives contact with real work.

### Operations and delivery

Process design, documentation, cost control, stakeholder translation and making work less dependent on luck or heroics.

### Training and communication

Learning design, public communication, scripts, broadcasting instincts and explaining dry topics without embalming the audience.

The career thread is practical systems thinking: find the hidden dependency, clarify the evidence, reduce unnecessary complexity, and make the work easier for the next person.

- IT, support and operational environments
- Security awareness and risk communication
- Compliance, quality and audit-readiness thinking
- Training, documentation and stakeholder communication
- Supplier, cost and process sanity checks
- Small-business and venture building through everwished and related projects

Contact Ian

## Professional Workbench

Useful support for organisations that need practical help rather than corporate theatre.

### IT and operations

Untangle support, process, ownership, documentation and the unhelpful phrase "just ask Dave".

### Security and risk

Make controls understandable, proportionate and less likely to collapse on a tired Tuesday.

### Compliance and assurance

Separate evidence from decoration. Build audit readiness that also improves the work.

### Training and learning

Design awareness, scripts and learning that people can remember after the certificate appears.

### Supplier sanity checks

Test what is really happening, what it costs, who owns it, and where the fog begins.

### Digital build and prototyping

Shape useful tools, content, workflows and prototypes without turning every idea into a platform.

> Strategy without fog. Delivery without theatre. Humour where it helps the medicine go down.

## Evidence Log

### Early operations

Undocumented process is not harmless. It is a delayed consequence with a calendar invite.

### Enterprise IT and suppliers

The useful skill is testing what is actually happening, where accountability sits and whether process reflects reality.

### Compliance and audit readiness

The best compliance makes an organisation easier to understand and safer to operate.

### Training and awareness

Good training respects the audience. Bad training says "be vigilant" and prints a certificate.

### Public communication

Radio, streaming and live work transfer directly into leadership, training and stakeholder clarity.

### Venture building

Say what is real, cost things honestly, admit constraints and ask what problem this actually solves.

> Trust comes from what can be checked. Proof beats promises. Everything else fades.

## Contact Ian

The simple route: helloianbarrs@gmail.com

- IT, security, compliance or operations work
- training, awareness or learning design
- charity or community digital support
- everwished or charIT enquiries
- River & Bean collaboration or venue-use conversations
- media, broadcasting, scripting or commentary
- practical problem-solving where the current answer appears to be "nobody knows, but everyone is worried"

### Helpful things to include

Who you are, what you are trying to do, what is in the way, urgency, constraints and what a useful first outcome would look like.

### Probably not a fit

Buzzwords instead of delivery, rubber-stamping nonsense, silent nodding, miracle requests by Friday with no information, or a 90-page strategy deck nobody will use.

Email Ian