Sam Defriez

Sam Defriez has a diverse work experience spanning over 16 years. Sam is currently serving as the Director of Networks at YouFibre since March 2021. Prior to this, they worked at Community Fibre Limited, where they held the position of Head of Technology from November 2020 to March 2021. Sam also served as the Head of Networks at Community Fibre Limited, where they were responsible for the design, engineering, and operation of the active network. During their tenure, they successfully deployed the XGS-PON access network, making Community Fibre one of the first UK companies to do so.

Before their role at Community Fibre Limited, Sam worked at Thomson Reuters as a Technical Design Authority. In this role, they were responsible for internet, cloud, and WAN security. Sam was also involved in the DDOS prevention project and collaborated with proposition and architecture teams to develop a yearly development roadmap. Prior to this, they served as a Senior Network Designer at Thomson Reuters, where they worked on projects such as DDOS defense, Cisco IOS-XE and IOS-XR regression testing, and redesigning the internet controller platform.

Sam's earlier work experience includes roles at Liquid Telecom and Viatel. At Liquid Telecom, they served as the Group Data Network Manager and was responsible for managing the Network Engineering team and leading IP engineers for projects across the Liquid network. Sam also played a pivotal role in designing and implementing the Liquid Telecom CDN network and delivering IPv6 throughout the core network. Prior to this, they were a Senior Network Engineer and Network Engineer at Liquid Telecom, where they were involved in pre-sales consulting support, complex circuit design, service provisioning, and network maintenance and configuration.

Sam also gained experience at Viatel as part of the Network Operations Centre and at Sitel as a BT Technical Support.

Overall, Sam Defriez's work experience showcases their expertise in network management, design, engineering, and security.

Sam Defriez attended the University of Southampton from 2002 to 2005 where they obtained a 2:1 degree in History. In terms of additional certifications, they obtained the following:

- In January 2019, they received the "3667-102 fibre optic" certification from City & Guilds.

- In August 2018, they obtained the "AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner" certification from Amazon Web Services.

- In September 2015, they received the "Carrier Ethernet Certified Professional" certification from the Ethernet Academy.

- In May 2014, they obtained the "CCIE SP" certification from Cisco.

- Sam also has the following certifications from Cisco: "Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP)", "Cisco Certified Network Professional Routing and Switching (CCNP-RS)", and "Cisco Certified Internetwork Professional (CCIP)", although the dates of obtaining these certifications are not specified.

- In September 2016, they obtained the "JNCIA" certification from Juniper Networks.

- In January 2016, they obtained the "CCIE R&S Written" certification from Cisco.

- Sam also has the "CCNA" certification from Cisco, although the date of obtaining it is not specified.